Vermont’s Dog Mountain Provides Comfort And Community For Pet Lovers

The chapel at Dog Mountain is covered in tributes to departed beloved dogs.
Photo via NPR.org

For many years, Stephen Huneck was one of America’s most beloved dog artists, creating carvings and paintings of man’s best friend. Sadly, after falling on hard times, Huneck took his own life in 2010. But he and his wife Gwen, who passed away in 2013, have left a lasting legacy in the form of Dog Mountain, the world’s first “dog chapel” in St. Johnsbury, Vermont:

The Hunecks made financial sacrifices and, over a period of three years, built their chapel on 150 mountaintop acres. They envisioned their Dog Mountain as a place where dog owners could come and enjoy time with their pets — and where those whose dogs had died could find comfort by leaving “notes, little pictures, photos, remembrances of pets that they had loved and lost,” Ide says.

You can take a wonderful online tour of Dog Mountain by clicking here. (There’s also a longer audio documentary on the Long Haul Production site.) It’s wonderfully touching to hear the stories in this report from National Public Radio.

Use the widget below to listen to the wonderful NPR story on Dog Chapel.

Click here for the full story.