Loving with Abandon
“Welcome All Creeds, All Breeds. No Dogmas Allowed,” announces the sign in front of artist Stephen Huneck’s Dog Chapel in St. Johns- bury, Vermont. The 1820s-style chapel is part of Dog Mountain, a 150-acre mountaintop farm. It is a place that invites the thousands of pilgrims who visit to sit, walk, or roll in the grass — to love simply, openly, joyfully, like the dogs who romp freely everywhere. How did this place come to be?
In 1994, after being felled by adult respiratory distress syndrome, Huneck awoke from months in a coma, during which he says he communed with his Blackfoot Indian ancestors. Shortly thereafter, he heard a voice that said, simply, “Build a dog chapel.” An ardent dog lover, Huneck had grieved inconsolably each time one of his canine friends passed away. “When a person dies, we have rituals,” he explains. “However, with a dog, you can grieve for years. I realized I could do myself and my fellow man a great favor by creating my own ritual. And it worked: People come here. They find peace.”

Dog Mountain Chapel Window
As you walk inside the chapel, you are bathed in light from stained-glass windows. You are surrounded by dog carvings. Native American flute music plays in the background, punctuated by bird calls from the surrounding lands — all reaffirming the connection of art, nature, and spirituality. Huneck calls the chapel “the largest, most personal artwork of my life.”

Dog Mountain Art Gallery: Huneck’s Desk
Huneck is the author of six children’s books and two adult books, including The Dog Chapel. His hand-carved furniture, sculpture, and woodcut prints are in private and museum collections, including the Smithsonian Institution and the American Folk Art Museum, New York.

Wood Carvings Everywhere!
A peaceful stillness pervades this place, where people from all over the world have given thanks for their dogs or mourned their loss. Thousands have sent photos and remembrances, which paper the walls of the chapel. Even if you can’t visit, Huneck invites you to send a paragraph about your dog (or any other companion animal) and a photo for the chapel wall.

ANNUAL DOG PARTY August 3, 2008, 1–4 p.m. Come to the Dog Mountain Gallery and Dog Chapel, 143 Parks Road, St. Johnsbury, Vermont 05819. For more information, see dogmt.com or call 800-449-2580.