Talk:Dogpatch USA

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Dogpatch USA is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do.

Dogpatch USA appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on November 10, 2005.

Dogpatch USA has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

We visited there in the late seventies or early eighties. As a theme park, it was pretty much do-it-yourself. One ride was a little railroad handcart for children to pump in order to make them go around a track. There was a fish farm on the premises. You could buy food to feed the fish, pay to use a pole to catch the fish, then buy a fish dinner which included the same fish you had caught! For energetic children of an earlier era, it might have served as a diversion. But, as a teenager who worked there told me, "The good thing about working here is that we get free admission to other theme parks." alcook54@yahoo.com

[edit] So many speeling errors

And yes, that was on purpose. --Lord Voldemort 30 June 2005 20:51 (UTC)

• • Sorry, I'm a poor speller, thanks for helping me out. --The_stuart 30 June 2005 21:00 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

My ex's sister in Arkansas said that for a time she worked at the park as "Daisy Mae" costumed as that comic character. If people were hired to dress up as L'il Abner characters in the park regularly, perhaps this should be mentioned. -- Infrogmation 5 July 2005 17:59 (UTC)

• • There is a mention of costumed characters in the listed proposed attractions, but I'm not sure if there is anything else that can be said about them. I know for a little while they had a Daisy Mae beuty pagent that gave away cash prizes and scholarships, and I have found pictures of people in Lil' Abner costumes, but thats all I know of when it comes to the costumed characters. I guess I didn't put anything about them in before because I figured it was a pretty typical amusment park thing. --The_stuart 5 July 2005 20:50 (UTC)

[edit] Inconsistencies

There are many deviations (under the heading "Dogpatch USA closes") from the source material listed in "Reference". Events that occurred while Ozark Entertainment Inc. (OEI, not mentioned in the article) owned the park (1981-1986) are attributed to the Telcor period of ownership (1987-1993). Other discrepancies, such as incorrect dates, also exist on this page. It should be rewritten for accuracy. RogerK 01:10, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Go for it--The_stuart 13:56, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

Went for it. RogerK 02:51, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Thats great! Awesome job! --The_stuart 19:16, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

try another FAC? RogerK 03:42, August 7, 2005 (UTC)

There are still some copy right issues with the first image and the one I made of for the general cornpone statue (even though I got permission to use them). Other than that I think it might be ready. --The_stuart 04:02, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

I think the article is well presented now, and the changes in headers sets off the information in a time line that should help readers follow the article more easily. Some info hasn't been referenced; I assume you had other source material for "Trout pond" and the new cave information. If you can add these sources to "Reference" it would help :)) RogerK 23:43, August 8, 2005 (UTC)

I think that information came from the Mystic Caverns website. I will add it to reference. --The_stuart 14:28, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

I just noticed that you have moved several peices of info out of the dialouge of the main article and into the trivia list. Lists like this tend to do poorly in FA reviews, most wikipedians tend to hate lists. I would suggest trying to incorporate that information back into the article and using this section only for the several intresting little facts that wouldn't fit anywhere else in the article. And, if there is some way to fit any of the stuff in the trivia section in to the article that should be done as well. --The_stuart 14:40, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Moved some info back. Sorry, my inexperience with FA reviews. But I sincerely thought these items of information WERE trivial, in view of what I saw as the theme of the article: the ups and downs of the park in its pursuit of success under various owners over the years. Perhaps my viewpoint is too narrow. Also thought that length of the article was an issue in the last FA review. At any rate, hope this is satisfactory :)) RogerK 02:17, August 10, 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, its my exsperience that featured articles should contain all their info in actual text rather than lists. I sat here a while after I saw that you moved that stuff, trying to figure out where we could put the three remaining peices of trivia, but didn't see any where in the main body they would fit. Now that we have the history section well put together, I was thinking we should try and Exspand the trout farm section to incluid the other rides that were at the park. Incidently, I'm going to Dogpatch this weekend to do a little exsploration. I will see if I can get any info that could be added. --The_stuart 15:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] lead image

Hooray! I have successfully contancted the creator of this image and gotten his permission to place it in the public domain!

[edit] Italics

Dogpatch USA is sometimes italized, is there a reason? I do not think theme park names are put in italics. MechBrowman 01:13, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• It's now been fixed. Ground Zero | t 18:31, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] original research

this article contains much original research and POV analysis.

[edit] "Quiet and dignified......"

There is a bit of an inconsistency in that the Conception section states that:

"Snow also assured Capp that the park would be quiet and dignified, and would not include roller coasters or thrill rides that would conflict with the rustic Li'l Abner theme. Capp, who had turned down other offers, accepted this one and became a partner, claiming he had once driven through the Ozarks and had pictured just such an area for the setting of his fictional Dogpatch town. Capp was apparently happy with Snow's concept and confident that his Li'l Abner creation would not be tainted."

And yet, under attractions we read:

"Frustratin' Flyer - a steel 'Monster Mouse' coaster created by Herschell. Installed in 1968 for the park's debut, its fate after that year is uncertain."

Why is it that Capp allowed a coaster to be built for the opening when the first quote leads one to believe that this is exactly what he and the park owners were trying to avoid? Just curious.........DonaNobisPacem 08:53, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• We were aware of that inconsitancy when we created the article. The problem is that there is little to know official documentation availabel about the park, only what can be gleamed from newspaper articles and brochures. We know that that is what Capp and Snow agreed upon from newspaper articles, yet we also know that that ride was there from the brochure. The best we can do is make a note about the ride it. --The_stuart 15:42, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• • Ah - that makes sense.DonaNobisPacem 16:24, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• I personally just assumed that the line meant that that they didn't want roller coasters which would conflict with the rest of the park, but weren't necessarily against rollercoasters in general.

Anyway, I loved reading this article :) I'd never heard of Lil Abner before (I'm in England, and born after the strip was retired) but it's a really interesting story. -- Dandelions 20:13, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• The park (or whats left of it) is about an hour and a half away from here (Fayettville, Arkansas) and is a really bizarre part of our history here in Arkansas and is surrounded in urban legends. People of my state have a kind of love hate realtionship with it. I've snuck in to the property twice to exsplore it (I took that picture of the water towards the bottom). I can't even begin to describe how cool it is inside. I think it's mostly gone now though. Last time I was there they were clearing it out. It really sad cause it was so neat to exsplore. Rome has the forum and the colleseum, Athens has the Pantheon, Arkansas has Dogpatch and Monte Ne (which is still there thankfully). --The_stuart 03:11, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] FAC Status

Congratulations on being a featured article on the Main page. The main page description includes the line "...the following years would see a combination of characters and unforeseen events transform the high hopes of investors into a financial roller coaster ride which eventually ended in the park's demise." This is some of the most inspired writing I've seen on Wikipedia. It's unfortunate that this line is not included in the article itself! --malber 18:04, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• It was probably edited out by somebody who recognized that this kind of flowery language isn't really appropriate for an encyclopaedia, and is, in fact, contrary to the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. Ground Zero | t 18:33, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Someone went through and removed what they considered "weasel words" and "peacock terms", and I think those lines got changed. This isn't too uncommon on Wikipedia; one person's "inspired writing" is another's "non-encyclopedic tone". —BrianSmithson 18:35, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

It's a shame. I felt the phrase met the criteria of "be bold" and even "the perfect article." But I didn't write the line; it's not for me to put it back in. --malber 19:12, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks to all of you who support my writing style in this article (the bulk of the article was researched and written by my friend, Stuart Feild, and I, in collaboration with him, edited and rephrased the bulk of the article). I spent a lot of time on the intro to this article, trying to find the right words to summarize the park's financial ups and downs throughout its years, and was eventually very satisfied with the sentence Malber refers to above. I was very dismayed to find it rephrased by some of my peers on November 10th, the day it was featured on the front page. Nevertheless, I'm relatively new here and I've accepted their decisions, though I disagree; I think a measure of creativity of expression is appropriate and desirable and stimulates the reader, and I've found that some of you, my peers, feel the same way. Perhaps some day our view will be accepted in Wikipedia. --RogerK 02:31, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New Edits 6/1/06

There has been alot of work done on the park recently. I am trying to contact someone who can give me more details about it. All the edits I have made don't need citations (other than the bit about the train and the mill which is info I got from Here). Here are a few forum post from Ozarks Underground from a person who is involved with the project: http://www.undergroundozarks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=31762&highlight=#31762 http://www.undergroundozarks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13003&highlight=#13003 Hope this dosn't result in the article getting unfeatured... --The_stuart 18:40, 1 June 2006 (UTC)