Arkansas' Once-Thriving Amusement Park Is Now Transforming Into A Scenic Nature Park In The Ozark Mountains

What happens to a theme park when what it's themed after becomes almost completely forgotten? You wind up with Dogpatch USA, a once-thriving amusement park in the Ozark Mountains that has sat empty longer than it was open. Based on Al Capp's comic strip "Li'l Abner," the Arkansas attraction closed in 1993 after 25 years of operation, but is currently undergoing a transformation under the ownership of Bass Pro Shops founder and billionaire Johnny Morris. When it's done, the former theme park will reopen as Marble Falls Nature Park, a 400-acre nature preserve, making this land available to the public again after decades of disuse.

When Dogpatch USA opened in 1968, "Li'l Abner" had been a major part of American pop culture for over three decades. At its peak in the '40s and '50s, Capp's comic was a cultural phenomenon whose popularity rivaled Superman's, drawing tens of millions of daily readers in over 900 newspapers throughout the country, and inspiring movies, radio shows, cartoons, and a Broadway musical. Did your high school have a Sadie Hawkins Dance? That's named after a "Li'l Abner" character. Capp used the fictional mountain town of Dogpatch and the hillbillies who lived there to satirize American culture, and his work was so popular for so long that a group of businessmen decided to build a Disneyland-style park based on it.

With a working 19th-century watermill, a train, authentic 1800s log cabins, and actors playing its characters wandering the park, Dogpatch USA aimed to bring the comic strip to life and immerse guests in Capp's cartoon hillbilly town. After initial success — it turned a profit in its first season — Dogpatch USA started to struggle, especially after Capp retired and ended the "Li'l Abner" strip in 1977; the strip and its characters were forgotten after they left the papers. The park suffered a long decline, eventually closing permanently in 1993.

The ruins of Dogpatch USA changed ownership multiple times over the following decades — including once being forfeited to a teenager who was nearly decapitated while driving his ATV through the abandoned park — and Only in Your State reports it developed a reputation as "one of the eeriest places in America." In 2020, Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, bought the land for $1.2 million, with plans to redevelop it. Morris envisions a drastic overhaul into the new Marble Falls Nature Park, which will prioritize the natural beauty of the region with nature trails in the Ozarks and a trout hatchery.

According to local reports shared on Facebook, Morris's team has been actively developing Marble Falls Nature Park since 2021, with old remnants of Dogpatch cleared away to highlight the canyon and waterfall that's part of the land. Specifics are still largely under wraps, though, and there's no announced target date for the nature preserve's opening. Morris also owns Dogwood Canyon Nature Park, an "unspoiled Ozark paradise," in Lampe, Missouri, roughly 50 miles away from Marble Falls, and the newer park will reportedly resemble that one in terms of its amenities. Beyond natural landscapes, Dogwood's attractions include a restaurant, trails for hiking and biking, horseback riding, trout fishing, and abundant wildlife, and it's likely the new Marble Falls park will feature a similar lineup of nature-focused activities in the Ozarks wilderness. For more of Arkansas' Ozarks landscapes, check out the cascading waterfalls and world-class trout fishing of Collins Creek, or the camping, hiking, and floating adventures at Withrow Springs State Park.