My novel, Dogland, is about a family that moves to Florida in 1959 to start a tourist attraction. It's based on a place that I knew well; my family moved to Florida in 1959 to start a tourist attraction called Dog Land. (I wish I could say I changed the spelling to make the fictional Dogland different from the real Dog Land. But the truth is I forgot how my family spelled it.) At Dog Land's height, we had over 100 breeds on display, plus a three-legged mutt named Pirate.
The following bit of map is from Traveling North in Florida On U.S. Highway 27 From Miami to Georgia Line. It's not very helpful if you want to find Dog Land, but I love the art.
Dog Land was built at Fannin Springs on "21 wooded acres near the Suwannee River" near the intersection of U.S. Highways 19, 98, 27, and 127. You can never know why a business fails, but when I-75 opened, many tourist attractions on the old roads went out of business.
This photo may be from 1959:
This one was probably taken a couple of years later:
And this is what Dog Land looked like around the time that my family sold it:
Ranger the Kuvasz and my sister, Liz, were on the cover of the 1962 Edition of the Florida Guide:
This is from Joginder Singh Rekhi's "A Sikh Discovers America" in the October, 1964 issue of National Geographic. I think the St. Bernard was named Pete. I was always impressed by how much he could slobber. And a little later, when my day began with cleaning dog pens, I was impressed by— Well. He was a great dog. They all were.
Ranger pulls a cart in a family snapshot. My brother Mike sits between Liz and me.
The next two are from the May 15, 1960 Gainesville Daily Sun. That's Don Gallite the Ibizan Hound washing my ear and Niki the Afghan Hound trotting after me.
We sold a lot of cr— um, merchandise to tourists. This aluminum trivet is the only example that I still have:
Every member of the family worked hard to keep Dog Land going. In the last couple of years, I had chores every day before school and after. Life became a little easier after we moved to Gainesville in 1966. But I'll always be grateful that I had the chance to live in a special place at a special time.
Possibly of interest: Bob Shetterly, the only liberal in Levy County.
2 comments:
These comments were left at this post's previous locations:
1.
September 6, 2005 at 7:29 pm1 Hannah Stewart
Several years ago, my parents told me about a trip to Florida they took back in 1969 and they told me about seeing signs for “Dogland”. They didn’t stop in because they were on the way home to Mississippi, I think they were trying to beat Hurricane Camille before she ripped across the coast.I never knew if they were serious or not, but now I know Dogland was REAL! This site just made my day!! I love dogs and to have a “zoo” of them is a crazy, great idea!
DOGLAND RULES!!!
Thanks for showing the photos!!
2.
February 6, 2006 at 1:28 am2 Becky G
Thanks for the memories. In 1970 my aunt deicided to take us cousins around to a lot of tourist sites in Florida(we lived in Winter Garden). Dogland was one of those places. We had a picnic on the banks of the Suwanne River and went home with Susie a pretty little tan Pekingnese who died of old age sometime in the 80s.I’ve always wondered whatever became of Dogland! I still remember all those Dogland signs and being so excited about finally going to the place they talked about!
3.
April 25, 2006 at 3:17 am3 Shannon
It’s wonderful that you were able to live, even if just for a time, at a place as wonderful as Dogland. At least you were able to form your memories in to a wonderful book.
Thanks for writing, and keep it up.
Shannon
p.s.
the photos are great thanks for sharing.
4.
June 26, 2006 at 10:03 pm4 Reese L.
I grew up in Lafayette County, Florida, along the Suwannee not too far north of Dog Land, and have some great home movies of our visit there in the early ’60s. I’ve often remembered going there and have had trouble convincing people that the place existed.
Thanks for the memories.
5.
June 26, 2006 at 10:56 pm5 Will Shetterly
Home movies of Dog Land! I’m sorry to say I don’t think we have any left, though I’m sure my grandfather shot many. If anyone posts Dog Land video anywhere, like on Google Video or YourTube, please feel free to put links here!
6.
August 1, 2006 at 11:09 am6 Dogex99
Excellent blog and thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts here. I also love dogs and I decided to put together a website dedicated to dog training. However, I am actually trying to offer both some general tips for training your dog and some breed-specific training techniques. I believe each dog breed is slightly different and thus requires an adaptation of the standard dog training methods, to suit the breed’s behavioral patterns and genetic predispositions. This is why I believe there is quite a bit of difference between affenpinscher training and bandog training. Or between dalmatian dog training and Afghan hound training. Each breed has its own distinct personality, and an independent breed like the dal will require stricter training than the disciplined bandog.
There are hundreds of dog breeds I wish to cover and I am only half way through, but I hope to turn my site in the best dog training resource on the Internet.
An excellent day to everyone reading this!
Michael R.
Webmaster – http://www.expert-dog-training.com
7.
September 15, 2006 at 2:10 am7 Mike Bales
I grew up in Maitland, Florida, a town like many now subsumed in the Orlando sprawl. We lived on a beautiful lake, in which my two brothers and I spent much of our young lives. Always with us in the water were our two Labrador retrievers.
More than 40 years ago on one of many family trips to Tallahassee, we stopped at Dogland. As my brothers and I wandered from pen to pen, we came upon a barkless dog, a basenji. He kept jumping up on the pen door and croaking out a whisper of a bark. There was something in his eyes that touched me. I lifted the clamp that kept the pen door closed and walked away. A few minutes later, I saw him leading Dogland personnel on a grand chase beneath the live oaks. I swear he was smiling.
8.
September 15, 2006 at 4:52 am8 Will Shetterly
Mike, that was probably Bambi, who was a great dog.
9.
July 17, 2007 at 12:23 am9 murray k
For several years on our summer vacation to Indian Rocks from Ky. my brother, sister & myself pestered my dad until he stopped one year & we toured dogland. That would have been in the early 60’s & to this day when we talk about past vacations, Dogland is always brought up. As “dogloving kids” we were in awe of dogland. That became the highlight of that vacation.
10.
July 21, 2007 at 5:00 pm10 Don
I’ve just stopped reading Dogland because I can’t bear to have it end. Thanks for such a wonderful book. I lived on a (non-working) farm near Archer FL while in high school between 1968 and 1971. I have family all over west central FL and I went to Gainesville High School so I’m guessing our paths crossed, probably more than once. I’m also guessing Gospel of the Knife will be very familiar.
I’m in the Twin Cities, MN now and have your book tour on my calendar. I hope the see you there.
11.
August 10, 2007 at 5:35 pm11 Anonymous
Will, thanks for making this page. I read the book and thought it was amazing, but now to see the real pictures of you all and the dogs and the place… well, it’s going to be with me for a long time. Cheers. - Rob
12.
October 26, 2007 at 7:33 am12 itobun
Thanks for the info.
i’ve been looking for blog like this… very useful. Thanks again
You’ve helped me to fill my blog at
Dog Training with another useful information. :)
13.
November 15, 2007 at 3:53 pm13 J.S. Clark
Will, I am reading your phenomenal book right now - someone left a copy at a beach house I share (on Dog Island, natch) and I was lucky enough to pick it up. You evoke a time period and a place with great artistry! The writing is just wonderful (I’m a student of Florida literature and this is a real standout)! We used to travel from Tallahassee to Tampa regularly back in the 60s to visit grandparents, and the road was littered with roadside attractions, Hornes and Stuckeys. The Dog Land photos on the website took my breath away. I recognized both Fannin and Manatee Springs in the book (and loved the visit from Norse gods!! you must’ve read Fritz Leiber? will they return?). I wish I could recall the other attractions on the route - Weeki Wachee, of course, and Homossassa, and there was a “Dodge City” kind of thing, and several others. Pre-Disney, pre-Interstate. Thank you!!!
14.
November 15, 2007 at 4:04 pm14 Will Shetterly
Murray and Don, thanks!
J.S., yep, I loved Leiber. The cowboy place you’re trying to remember was Six-Gun Territory. It was grand. (Also, if you like fantasy and the west, you’ve got to try Emma Bull’s Territory. She’s my wife, but I can safely promote her books, because she’s been getting great reviews.
April 13, 2008 4:00 PM
Will Shetterly said...
And these were left at another of its locations:
1. Lucy Kemnitzer wrote:
I adore Dogland. It’s one of my favorites in the whole world. The website is sweet. I hadn’t known that the one in the book had a counterpart in life, and I’m awed to know it. SOme how it reminds me of the Brookdale Lodge, which is a tourist trap in the Santa Cruz Mountains with a river running through the restaurant. — none of the details, but the old-time tourist trap aura.
2. jeffy wrote:
The pictures are a hoot. I’m startled that it looks exactly like I pictured it from reading the book!
3. Laurel wrote:
Thank you so much for posting this. Ever since I read (and greatly enjoyed) Dogland, I’d been wondering where exactly the real attraction had been, since I live in Gainesville. I’d asked a couple of people and googled it, but never gotten any closer than finding it listed as a former roadside attraction near Chiefland. Do you know what’s on the site today? Are there any remains of Dog Land? The pictures are wonderful. It’s certainly a place I would have loved to visit.
4. Will Shetterly wrote:
Lucy, you are a remarkably discerning reader. Tell anyone I said so.
If I find more pictures, I’ll post them. Dogland’s buildings were too low-budget for an interior river, but we had some great real trees with Spanish moss.
Jeffy, glad to hear it!
Laurel, I went back to visit twenty-five years ago and I couldn’t find it then. But I didn’t have the benefit of Google maps, and I was kind of shy about knocking on doors, and I was more interested in seeing the old school and the springs and a few friends from the time. To be honest, there wasn’t much in the way of cool stuff to preserve, no Great Dogs of History Walkway or a Fountain of Dachshunds or whatever Mom and Dad might’ve created if it’d been a success. We were always doing things on the cheap. I think of what Dog Land could’ve been with Disney money– No, I don’t think of that. But I do think it was a great idea for its time. We had a few breeds that are fairly common now and were unknown in the US then.
stephen mancil obadiah bell here, awesome ive got to get a copy and get it to dad
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