Editing Dogpatch (section)

== ''Li'l Abner'' comic strip ==
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The inhabitants of Dogpatch were mostly lazy [[hillbillies]], who usually wanted nothing to do with progress.  ''Li'l Abner''{{'s}} backwater hometown chiefly consisted of dismal [[log cabin]] hovels, pine trees, "tarnip" fields and hog wallows—and was often referred to by its inhabitants and outsiders as being the most miserable and unnecessary place on earth.  The menfolk were too lazy to work, yet Dogpatch gals were desperate enough to chase them (see [[Sadie Hawkins Day]]). Those who farmed their turnip fields watched turnip termites swarm by the billions once a year, locust-like, to devour Dogpatch's only crop (along with their livestock and all their clothing).

Al Capp used to joke that Dogpatch was based on [[Seabrook, New Hampshire]], where he would vacation with his wife, Catherine.<ref>''[[Portsmouth Herald]]'': [http://www.seacoastonline.com/2004news/07042004/news/24976.htm "Last of the Yankees"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050926124300/http://www.seacoastonline.com/2004news/07042004/news/24976.htm |date=September 26, 2005 }}</ref> A map shown during the story arc of the [[Shmoo]] seems to place Dogpatch somewhere around [[Tennessee]] or [[Arkansas]]. However, one of the earliest (1934) ''Li'l Abner'' strips, re-posted on the web by [[Comics.com]] in March 2008, explicitly identifies Dogpatch as being in [[Kentucky]] and several 1936 strips also clearly place it in Kentucky. One 1936 strip furthermore mentions that [[Lee City, Kentucky|Lee City]] (a small town in eastern Kentucky) is just over {{convert|100|mi|abbr=on}} away.
  
The local geography was fluid and vividly complex; Capp continually changed it to suit either his whims or the current storyline.  It has been variously situated in a deep valley, at the base of a peak that's precariously balancing an enormous boulder (Teeterin' Rock), or atop Onnecessary Mountain overlooking an apparently infinite chasm, Bottomless Canyon.  It was usually described as situated between the equally fictitious towns of Skonk Hollow (inhabited by lethally dangerous, even more backward mountaineers) and Pineapple Junction. Like the [[Coconino County, Arizona|Coconino County]] depicted in [[George Herriman]]'s ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' and the [[Okefenokee Swamp]] of [[Walt Kelly]]'s ''[[Pogo (comic strip)|Pogo]]'', Dogpatch's (and [[Lower Slobbovia]]'s) distinctive cartoon landscape became as identified with the strip as any of its characters.

Local Dogpatch institutions included West Po'kchop Railroad, which ran perpendicularly up one side of Onnecessary Mountain and straight down the other. A stiffnecked industrialist named Stubborn J. Tolliver built its suicidal grade to satisfy a boyish dream of his son, Idiot J. Tolliver. To keep his boy happy, Tolliver starts one train a week up the tracks. Each train falls back with a crash, killing all its passengers.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,813720,00.html |title=The Press: Die Monstersinger  |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=November 6, 1950}}</ref>
Another daily hazard, the Skonk Works, was almost as lethal.  Scores have been done in by the fumes of the concentrated "skonk" oil which is brewed and barreled at the factory by its owner and "inside man", Big Barnsmell; and his cousin, "outside man" Barney Barnsmell (see also [[Skunk Works]]). 

Mail was very slow, with the ancient, white-bearded postmaster and his creaky [[Donkey|jackass]] mount (Young Eddie McSkonk and U.S. Mule) often feeling too stressed to deliver the cobweb-covered sacks of timeworn letters marked "Rush" at the Dogpatch Express post office.  Dogpatch's various feature attractions also included Kissin' Rock (handy to Suicide Cliff), the [[Jubilation T. Cornpone]] memorial statue, and Dogpatch Airlines, with decrepit [[World War I]] [[aviator]] Cap'n Eddie Ricketyback, proprietor (a pun on [[Eddie Rickenbacker]]).