Stephen Huneck

Despite his critical success, Huneck and Dog Mountain suffered financially during the Great Recession and after having to layoff a number of employees, Huneck, who suffered from depression, committed suicide on January 7, 2010, outside his psychiatrist's office in Littleton, New Hampshire.

In addition to carvings, Huneck wrote several children's books, the main character of which was Sally. Sally Goes to the Beach spent a week in The New York Times Review of Books children's best-sellers list in 2000, and Huneck earned a silver medal at the Society of Illustrators's The Original Art competition, which honors illustrations from children's books, in 2002 for Sally Goes to the Farm.

Huneck began building The Dog Chapel at Dog Mountain in 1997. Huneck described his coma as a "near death experience" during which a dog-headed figure visited him and sold him "a fantastic dog sculpture that seemed to contain the secrets of life itself," inspiring him to build the chapel. The chapel, a replica of a classic white New England country church from the 1820s, took three years to complete. It features carved wooden dogs lining the pews, and dog-themed stained glass windows in its 30-by-22-foot (9.1 m × 6.7 m) main room. In addition to standard human sized doors, the chapel has a dog door. Atop the chapel's steeple is the golden Angel Dog sculpture, a 7-by-4-foot (2.1 m × 1.2 m) winged Labrador retriever taking flight. It acts as a fully functional weathervane. Angel Dog fell from the steeple in 2010, but was restored in 2020. The walls of the chapel are covered with notes of remembrance and pictures of visitors' deceased pets. Outside the chapel is a sign reading "Welcome All Creeds All Breeds No Dogmas Allowed." Friends of Dog Mountain describes the chapel as Huneck's "greatest and most personal artistic contribution" as well as "a living piece of communal art and history, ever evolving with each new note and photo pinned to the memorial walls."

In 1996, for its salute to folk art at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, The Coca-Cola Co. commissioned a 10-foot (3.0 m) Coke bottle carving from Huneck, which he capped with a gold-winged cow.

After recovering from the accident, Huneck purchased the property in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, that would become Dog Mountain in 1995, turning an old barn on the site into his studio. Although it was their home, the Hunecks opened Dog Mountain to the public, inviting people to bring their dogs to two annual gatherings, the Dog Party and Dog Fest, where dogs could run off-leash.

In 1994, Hurnek fell down the stairs at his studio while carrying a large carving, breaking several ribs and suffering a head injury. While in hospital after the fall, he suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome and ended up in a coma for two months. During his recovery, Hurnek found his hands were too weak to carve in his traditional manner, so he began more "gentle" carving, using a mallet and chisel to make woodcuts. The prime subject for these artworks was Sally, Hurnek's black lab, who, along with his other dogs, helped encourage him in his recovery.

Huneck met fellow student Gwen Ide in Boston and the pair moved to Maine and then Vermont, settling at the Quarry Hill Creative Center in Rochester, Vermont, where he began to work in wood and continuing to sell antiques. He was discovered in 1984 when Jay Johnson noticed one of his carvings, an angel carved from pine, in Huneck's pick-up truck. Johnson asked Huneck how much he wanted for the angel. Not intending to sell it and believing that the man would not pay such a high price, Huneck told Johnson that he wanted $1,000. Johnson, a Manhattan-based art gallery owner focused on folk art, bought the angel on the spot and then continued to purchase carvings from Huneck.

Stephen Huneck (pronounced: /stˈiːvən hjˈuːnɛk/; October 8, 1948 – January 7, 2010) was an American wood carving folk artist, furniture maker, painter, and author. Much of his artwork focused on dogs, including The Dog Chapel at his Dog Mountain farmstead.