Cottonwood, Idaho — Wheat Fields and a Hotel Shaped Like a Beagle

Cottonwood sits on the Camas Prairie surrounded by grain fields, a practical agricultural town with one magnificently impractical landmark.

Wheat, barley and livestock built the local economy, while transportation connected farms with Lewiston and outside markets.

Then chainsaw artists Dennis Sullivan and Frances Conklin built the Dog Bark Park Inn.

The building is a giant beagle. Guests sleep inside it.

That would overwhelm the identity of a more self-conscious town, but Cottonwood seems perfectly capable of letting a twenty-foot dog coexist with grain elevators and farm equipment.

The contrast is part of the charm. Cottonwood did not reinvent itself as a novelty destination. It simply made room beside the wheat for a very large beagle.