Illustration by Britt Spencer
The legend goes like this: For the 1904 World’s Fair, native peoples from around the world acted as living displays, including Igorots from the Philippines. While visiting, these primitive tribesmen feasted on dogs they butchered after kidnapping them from back yards near Forest Park. Thus the area became known as Dogtown.
The only problem with this tale (aside from its racist undertones) is that it’s “absolutely and totally false,” says Bob Corbett, founder of the Dogtown Historical Society.
Like all good lies, this one has some basis in truth. Igorot tradition did include canine consumption as part of religious ceremonies. But Corbett says that the fair’s host committee anticipated this need and contracted for dog meat to be provided.
A couple of years ago, Corbett found a newspaper article that he calls “crushing evidence against the silly Igorot argument.” The account, which appeared on August 14, 1889, tells of 5-year-old Arthur Rose, who reported to police that his mother had been murdered by his father, sending several officers on a wild goose chase that ended when they found Mom unharmed, doing laundry in her back yard. Notably, the article referenced “Dogtown”—many years before any Igorots set foot in Missouri.
For a while, Corbett subscribed to the “watchdog theory.” In 1876, when the city acquired the land for Forest Park, it displaced miners, who moved into a seedy area to the south, where they protected their shacks with monstrous mongrels.
In recent years, however, residents’ research has pointed to a more likely explanation. There are dozens of Dogtowns across the country. A few of them had an exceptionally large pet population, but the vast majority were once mining communities. In the 19th century, the mining industry was full of “dog” terms: doghole, doghouse, and, yes, Dogtown. And St. Louis’ Dogtown was home to countless clay and coal mines. The evidence is circumstantial, but, Corbett says, the mining hypothesis is the best we’ve got.
As for Arthur, he was sent home “with the understanding that his jacket would be well dusted if he ever told another cock-and-bull story to the police.” Let this be a similar warning to anyone spreading nasty rumors about the Igorots.
