Cottage Grove Oregon - 1939 Hot Dog Stand
Posted by: 
TheBeanTeam
N 43° 47.153 W 123° 04.036
10T E 494587 N 4848093
Hot dog, "Hot Dog Stand" Missing from Cottage Grove since the 1940's
If you have additional information about this location the Cottage Grove Historical Society would like you to contact them.
Waymark Code: WM6J89
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 06/09/2009
Views: 20
The Library of Congress online exhibit "America from the Great Depression to World War II features the work of preeminent photographer
Dorothea Lange,
"an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA)".(Wikipedia)
Photos Circa 1935-39
Included in that collection are these photos that according to the archives were created in October of 1939, other internet sources give the date as 1935.
In 1930 a unique vending stand was created in Cottage Grove Oregon for Charles S, Hall, A. C. Bagley and
H. W. Lombard principal stockholders in the Hot Dog Vending
Booth company. At the time of its creation it drew significant attention and was the subject of a local newspaper article
describing an event where a member of the dog control board was demanding (as a joke) "that the regular dog license fee be
paid or the dog would be arrested and destroyed". Information from a June 19th, 1930 article from the Cottage Grove Sentinel, (view complete text here).
Another Sentinel article from June 26th, 1930 (view complete text here) shares some particulars regarding the dog.
"It weighs approximately two ton
and rests on a 6 foot by 13 foot
platform. It is 11 feet high and the
body of the dog is 18 feet long. It
is designed to be equipped with
electric refrigeration and electric
stove".
The article also credited the men who created the stand,
"George Ballew had charge of the
construction work, it was wired by
the Nelson Electric Shop, was
Painted by Ren Sanford and has
been photographed by the Shields
studio".
The Dog stand spent a short amount of time in Eugene before it was shipped back to Cottage Grove according to a note in the October 10th, 1930 edition of the local paper. (view complete text here)
The booth was eventually placed on Highway 99 just south of what was then the edge of town.
Cottage Grove Historian Marcia Allen (a founding member of the Cottage Grove Historical Society) remembers seeing the dog one time. Marcia indicated that she was "impressed at the way the side
opened up to make a window, with a counter for sales, and we could see the men working inside the
body of the dog".
Location in 2009
By 1939 the dog was sitting on the side of Highway 99 and looking a bit weather worn. The depression era photographer Dorathea Lange
saw and photographed the dog during her journey around the West. The Hot Dog Booth is forever
immortalized in the National Archives as a result of this short visit. The dog also traveled a bit in the form of a photo post card.
The dog made another appearance in pop culture when it was featured in a Zippy the Pinhead comic strip titled "Foreign Tongue" in 2005. The creator of Zippy most likley used a post card image of the dog or possibly Dorothea Lange's images to create
the strip which details the likeness of the dog in amazing detail.
September 7th, 2005
Portions of the location information, historical documents, photo scans and articles including portions of this text were provided by and are used with the
permission of the Cottage Grove Historical Society (CGHS). Courtesy of Marcia Allen.
Photo 1 courtesy of: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, LC-USF34-021137-E DLC
Photo 2 courtesy of: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, LC-USF34-021135-E DLC
Photo 3: TheBeanTeam
Zippy the Pinhead Strip: copyright Bill Griffith 2005 (used for educational purposes)