Rural Missouri - May 2020 - 29

illustration by Dusty Weter

Jim the Wonder Dog
bow-wowed skeptics
with astounding intelligence

Editor's note: This story, one of the most popular with our readers, is reprinted from the May 2014 edition of Rural Missouri.
Sadly, Mary Burge passed away in 2017.
by Jim McCarty | jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop

Y

ou won't believe this story. There's no way a scruffy looking setter could be smart enough to read. How could a
dog know a foreign language, you will say, much less Morse code?
Yet once upon a time, there was such a dog. His name was Jim, but these days he's better known as Jim the
Wonder Dog.
So compelling is Jim's story that the town of Marshall - where Jim spent most of his 12 years - pays respect to him
in its slogan: "Smart dog, Nice folks." More than 2,000 people per year visit the garden devoted to the humble setter and
a Jim the Wonder Dog Museum welcomes visitors to Marshall. In 2017, Missouri's governor signed a bill that designated
Jim "Missouri's Wonder Dog." Marshall even hosts Wonder Dog Day annualy.
"I think it's such an amazing story," says Larry Arrowood, president of the Friends of Jim the Wonder Dog group. "People are amazed at how it could be possible. There's so many people who actually saw the dog and people who have followed the story for many years."
Larry, a relative newcomer to Marshall, admits being skeptical when he first heard the story of Jim. "But then I read
the book," he says, speaking of Clarence Dewey Mitchell's "dogography" written in 1942. "When you have read the book,
you are more likely to believe it because there is so much information in there about Jim and the things he did."
Mary Burge was no skeptic when it came to the Wonder Dog. She was one of the eyewitnesses to the psychic setter's
feats.
"I was just old enough to remember those things. I loved the dog so much," said the Co-Mo Electric Cooperative member. "There was something about Jim. When he put his paw on you and looked up at you, he had these eyes that were just
wonderful. It wasn't just dog eyes. They were eyes of wisdom. They made you realize there was something special about
him."
Mary grew up on a farm near Arrow Rock, just 20 miles from Marshall. Once a month, her family would head to Marshall to buy the few things they couldn't grow themselves.
MAY 2020 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP

29



http://www.RURALMISSOURI.COOP

Rural Missouri - May 2020

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