Very sad to see what use to be a great family entertainment park. It would take $$$$ to bring it back to its glory.
Ain't no way it's ever going to see it's former glory. The current owner has visions of lollipops of it as something but not a full fledged theme park. It's too remote for the times, when it was developed, the Buffalo was up in the air on whether it was going to get dammed up by the COE. That ain't ever happening.
Now, I've thought it would be neat to see it reborn in a different location as a Super FEC/Resort
Here's my latest musings
Here's a strip for reference
The opening center would consist of this:
It would consist of three highly themed 18 hole mini golf courses, two outside, one themed as a backlit cave indoors that would be part of an indoor section of the development
Teetering Rock(see strip) is the focus of the whole outside area. Teetering Rock would be home to a great mine train coaster and either a log flume or a raft ride. The rides would interact with each other and the two outdoor mini golf courses.
The City of Dogpatch will consist of a mixture of themed to the strip buildings one being a hotel with an exclusive indoor waterpark(year round appeal) for guest, eateries and a few retail outlets. It would also be the entrance to the indoor section that would consist of rides and attractions designed for indoor use and the indoor mini golf course.(more year round appeal) There could also be a Dogpatch Review stage show as part of this section. There would be a bowling alley and indoor go cart track.
Skonkworks is an indoor spinner coaster with possibly a microcraft brew place producing Kickapoo Joy Juice sharing the footprint. Pincus 2 and 7 can be visited by a launch tower. There would be a couple of toddler flats, several family flats and a thrill flat based on stuff in the comic.
Areas of potential expansion include Skunk Hollow and Badlands. I envision a woodie in one area and a nice steel coaster of some sort in the other.
Why bother with Dogpatch? Uniqueness, there's nothing like it out there and it's rich in characters.
But folks don't know what it is anymore, hasn't time forgot it? So.....It's a social media marketing/guerrilla marketing campaign waiting to happen.
How much would it cost? I'd price it like Fun Spot in Orlando. a reloadable fun card with price per attraction or an unlimited wristband
This is more like something you see in the Dells, but this is the Ozarks, why here? Well, exactly, there's none of this around. You got your typical summer folks but there's lots of cabin fever cities around in a half days drive(STL, KC, Tulsa, OKC, NWA, LR, Memphis) Lot's of my idea comes from Timberfalls and Mt. Olympus and have you priced a night at the Dallas Great Wolf for a stay between Christmas and New Years? 400 bucks a night, Holy Cow!!!!!! It would be much better than anything in Branson currently. Ya, that's you Grand Country where have to walk outside in the cold to the waterpark and the rooms leave a lot to be desired, like a mattress that ain't a rock.
Anyway that's just spitballing. Any ideas from the board? Any venture capitalist? I didn't win the lottery this past weekend.
