The Bradshaw Trail, once known as the Gold Road, was a trail that gave gold prospectors and others a route to follow from San Bernardino, California to the gold deposits in the region of Ehrenberg, Arizona. It also connected Riverside County, California to a section of the Colorado River.

Stargazer lilies have a different meaning for different people and different cultures. They may be representative of a memory from ones' past or simply just someone's favorite flower. Most popularly, they represent prosperity, optimism, peace, and opportunity. They're also well-suited for adding a unique color and look amongst other flowers that you have outdoors. Besides making for great outdoors flowers, they're also good for Mother's Day gifts, baby showers, or even as gifts for many events.



One variety of the Stargazer Lily, the Pink Stargazer, has a noticeable fragrance and brilliant pink petals. Another noticeable aspect of the Stargazer lily is that its flower faces upwards. That's where it gets the name 'Stargazer'.


Stargazer lilies, like other lilies, can stand up to cooler temperatures, for a period, and are very hardy even in some poorer soils. When in full bloom, they'll have a noticeable fragrance to them and add great color to your flower garden. Being perennial, they'll come back year after year and better than the year before. They bloom in the middle to late summer and enjoy full sun. Though they can also be grown in partial shade. It's also best to keep the soil around these flowers moist, but not over-watered. Mulching can also help to hold in soil moisture for the flower. Which will also help keep the roots of the flower cool and healthy.

Looking for a thought-provoking drama with a touch of fantasy and folklore? Look no further than Lawn Dogs, the 1997 film starring Sam Rockwell and Mischa Barton. The movie follows the story of a blue-collar worker and offers insightful social and cultural commentary, particularly resonating with viewers who identify with the characters Trent and Devon. The film's soundtrack, featuring iconic tracks like Bruce Springsteen's, "Dancing in the Dark" and Bob Dylan's, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", seamlessly adds to the movie's commentary on society.

Lawn Dogs Source: The Rank Organization, Toledo Pictures

Devon heading into Camelot Gardens Source: The Rank Organization, Toledo Pictures

Analysis of Lawn Dogs

Lawn Dogs is about the day-in-and-day-out life of a seasonal worker and day laborer, Trent Burns, who works at the affluent gated community of Camelot Gardens. Within the confines of Camelot Gardens, he works odd jobs and seasonal work to get by. Some of the money that he makes working in the gated community goes to help his aging, retired parents who live in a trailer park.

Trent saves money by living as a land squatter in a beat-up trailer in the woods. A trailer that's located some miles from the gated community where he works. Though his squatter status is more related to his inability, as an odd-job worker, to afford actual rent near where he works. Trent, like others who do outdoor work within Camelot Gardens, is treated poorly by the community's residents. Their poor treatment is, of course, due to their 'outsider' status amongst the snobbish, self-centered and morally corrupted residents of Camelot Gardens.

Trent's trailer in the woods. Source: The Rank Organization, Toledo Pictures

Devon & Trent Meet

As the film progresses, Trent meets Devon Stockard (Mischa Barton), a girl who lives within the gated prison walls of Camelot Gardens, as she's out trying to sell cookies. Their first meeting is actually when Devon finds his trailer empty, aka Baba Yaga's house, and curiously begins to snoop around the place,.rent arrives back home and is a bit startled when he finds her in his trailer. He steps back off the trailer steps, closes the trailer's door, and sits outside, waiting for her to come out.

As the story deepens, we find out that Devon's father is one of the more well-liked residents of Camelot Gardens. He's a social-climber of sorts, influenced by his unfaithful wife, that even uses his daughter to try to gain influence in the community. But Devon, like Trent, feels like an outsider within the confines of Camelot Gardens. Yet her reasons are a little different from Trent's.

Trent and Devon dancing at the river Source: The Rank Organization, Toledo Pictures

Partially based in that she's an outsider in her family and a new arrival to the community, she doesn't get along with the other children in the neighborhood. Nor does she ever want to. As for the adults in Camelot Gardens, she doesn't care much for them either. Throughout the film, you'll see the similarities between Trent and Devon becoming more apparent. They both enjoy the freedom of the open and don't enjoy the stifling, inclusive atmosphere of the community within those gates. A place that produces the most upstanding citizens, in illusionary terms, who are little more than modernly liberal and cultureless. Liberal in that what's done within their class, no matter how deviant or disturbed, is perfectly acceptable. But the smallest things done by those outside their "class" is completely worthy of punishment from Camelot Garden's residents.

In that, is where Devon and Trent are completely separate from the classist community. They prefer the openness of the world versus the stagnation, isolation, arrogance, and "safety" of Camelot Gardens.

The Kinship Between Devon and Trent

Looking deeper into the story of Lawn Dogs, Devon begins to see Trent as a sort of father figure, in a way. She sees Trent as nowhere near as distant, 'normal' and cold as her robotic father. Unlike Devon's father, Trent doesn't see her as a way to get ahead in the community of Camelot Gardens. Nor does he treat her like she's a lesser person. Devon's mother, who is just as distant, treats Devon the same way her father does. Both of her parents see her as a burden but try to offset this by using her as just another way to get ahead. Not once truly caring about her hopes and needs.

"This is my river!" Source: The Rank Organization, Toledo Pictures

Furthermore, both of Devon's parents are a bit embarrassed by her. This is because of how she differs from the residents, the children, and the adults, of the community. Both of her parents have put her in a position where she's like an object to help them get to the top of the community's social circles. Due to this, Devon has a mutually distant feeling towards both of her parents and the people of the community that she's unable to relate to. She, like Trent, feels like an outcast of sorts, and in feeling alone, she wants someone to relate to. She is someone more 'free-spirited' and feels more at home in the open and unrestrained. Like Trent, she prefers the wide-open freedom to the stagnation and the false safety within the gates of Camelot Gardens.

As for Trent, it's evident that, given a few events in the film, he's looking for someone to show concern for him. That is, besides the care and concern he gets from his parents. Of course, that's now how it initially was since it was Devon who, in an unorthodox manner, introduced herself to him while she was out selling cookies.

Trent and His Seeking a Meaningful Direction in His Life

Trent, he also looks for someone to care about and relate to. A 'girlfriend', Pam, a friend with benefits form Camelot Gardens, brushes him off on numerous occasions in the film. The brush-off happens as Trent makes it clear that he wants to get to know Pam better and be introduced to her family.

In the storyline, the rejection he feels is where Devon comes in. Her character fills that void, being like a daughter to him, and makes him feel less alone in the world. When Trent brings Devon to his parents' house, it reveals a side that wants his parents to be proud of him. It's also about Trent trying to bring a little more joy and brightness into his parents' lives any way he can. Most everything he does is for his parents.


It is in these scenes where we find Trent becoming upset by the reality that his father isn't doing all that well, health-wise. Without spoilers, these scenes are definitely amongst the best of the film. After the visit to his parents, on the ride back towards Camelot Gardens, Trent begins to see Devon as someone he can open up to about things. Devon becomes someone to talk to about his father's disease and other problems. Which are the things that Trent usually keeps bottled up because he had no one to talk and had no one, other than his parents, that took him seriously.

In this, Devon becomes like a family member, the daughter figure, and he takes on a role of being a father figure of sorts. Devon, in turn, shows her appreciation as she doesn't get that from her social-climbing father. Later on, we see that in her defense of Trent over her father, and against the others of Camelot Gardens, proving that she sees Trent as more worth protecting. Even over her own father.


Add that to the fact that Devon doesn't identify with the kids her age in Camelot Gardens as she says, they "smell like television", only it brings out more of her dislike of the confinement in the gated community. Both Devon and Trent have a sort of resentment of how their lives are but don't let it make them bitter. In that, it is what makes their characters similar from the beginning. It's their natural need for freedom, a spirit alive in the both of them, which makes Devon and Trent very much alike.

Anyway, that's my take on the film Lawn Dogs. It's one of the rarer films that's worth seeing for those who have never seen it before. It's also likely that you'll end up wanting to watch the film more than once to take in the full story.

Lawn Dogs Soundtrack

Jubilee - Shake and Shiver
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Carol Douglas - Doctor's Orders
Dwight Yoakam - A Thousand Miles From Nowhere
Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat
J.J. Cale - Feeling In Love
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark
Bill Monroe - In The Pines
Bob Dylan - Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Composer: Trevor Jones - IMDB link Wikipedia link Official Website - Opening Titles and Home/End Scene Music

Trivia and External Links 

The fictional McCade County (spelling?) is where Camelot Gardens is located. Though, in some sources, the county is either McKay or Mackay. There are references to McKay near where Lawn Dogs was filmed in Kentucky. Though it sounds like "McCade" when Devon says the fictional county's name.

Sam Rockwell, Bruce McGill, and Beth Grant all starred together in the 2003 film, "Matchstick Men".

Sam Rockwell and Bruce McGill star together in the 2019 film, "The Best of Enemies".

Discussion/another take on Devon's character - "I think Devon was meant to be traumatised by her heart surgeries"

Lawn Dogs was filmed in Louisville, Prospect, and Danville, Kentucky 

Film Script: http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/LAWNDOGS.htm

The Movie DB:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/35796-lawn-dogs

Moviechat.org:
https://moviechat.org/tt0119506/Lawn-Dogs

Lawn Dogs Fan Videos

Lawn Dogs 1997 Trailer

Founding of Hopkinsville

Hopkinsville, located in Southwest Kentucky, is a city of over 32,000 residents. Settled in 1796, and officially founded in 1804, Hopkinsville offers a rich history and rich historical sites for visitors to experience. The city's first settlers were Bartholomew Wood and his wife Martha after they received 1,200 acres of land as 'reward' for his service during the Revolutionary War. Once Christian County was officially founded later that year, Bartholomew and Martha donated five acres to the newly-formed county government.

By Bedford at en.wikipedia ( Own work Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

From there, in 1798, development of the area was well under way, including a courthouse and jail. After a short 'fight' over what the town would be named, with one recommendation being the name of Woods' daughter Elizabeth, the town became officially known as Hopkinsville. The city was named after state representative and veteran, Samuel Hopkins.

Points of Interest in Hopkinsville

Though not exhaustive, here are some of the points of interests and places to see in and around Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Visit the official websites of each attraction for more information.

Charles Jackson Circus Museum

A collection of circus memorabilia, including items from Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey.

By Bedford at en.wikipedia (Own work Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Pennyroyal Area Museum

Learn about Edgar Cayce (born in Hopkinsville), military heroes and local African-American history.

Woody Winfree Fire-Transportation Museum

See a collection of classic cars, buggies, an antique fire truck and more.

Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum

As a part of Fort Campbell, this museum features the history of the 101st Airborne's "Screaming Eagles" and their missions during wartime, from World War II up to Operation Desert Storm. Also displayed are military equipment, aircraft, and monuments.

Bramble & Bee Farm

Bramble & Bee Farm offers raw honey, jams and jellies, canned goods, and organic produce for sale at local shops and the local farmer's market. They also offer many products produced from honey and beeswax.

Copper Canyon Ranch

Copper Canyon is an attraction designed to look like an Old West town. Open for picnics, field trips, public visits. Seasonal events, such as their "Haunted Ghost Town" around Halloween, are open for all.

MB Roland Distillery

A Small-scale distillery that offers free tours for visitors offering taste-testing and the purchasing of their products. They produce rums, whiskeys, "True Kentucky Shine", and other alcoholic beverages.

Tie Breaker Family Aquatic Center

The Tie Breaker Family Aquatic Center is a water park that features Ripple River, a slow-moving 'river' for visitors to float down, The Splash Zone (a playground with small water slides and other equipment), and larger slides, Riptide Express, and Hurricane Alley. Also available are poolside concession stands.

Pennyroyal Scuba Blue Springs Resort

An old quarry, turned into a dive site, with water depths ranging from 5 feet to 130 feet. Scuba diving experiences are available for the beginner to the experienced divers. There are over 40 'sunken treasure' locations for divers to explore. Also available are equipment rentals, tank refills, diving classes and a service department at the dive shop.

Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park

A state park with plentiful woods surrounding it, lodging and cabins for rent, camping sites, natural trails, fishing areas on Pennyrile Lake, swimming picnic shelters, nature trails and more.

By Bedford at en.wikipedia (Own workTransferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Historic Attractions in Hopkinsville

Gift Shops

Conesus Lake and Conesus Lake Public Boat Launch

Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0 us], via Wikimedia Commons

Darien Lakes State Park

Silver Lake State Park

Hamlin Beach State Park

Lakeside Beach State Park

By The original uploader was Decumanus at English Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons