For the fair, there were 1,000 birds that belonged to the National Zoo that were in that cage. After the fair closed, they did ship those birds to National Zoo and St. Louis had to catch a whole new collection of birds. But at that time, the flight cage was the first largest walkthrough bird cage in the world. And that established a place for the zoo. But it wasn’t until 1931 that a mill tax was passed that created a free zoo to be forever free so long it is supported by a raw property tax. So every resident in the city of Saint Louis was charged 1/5 of a mill tax on their real estate to support a free zoo. And that was patterned after the art museum that was established the year before. The art museum also has chiseled in limestone over the front door, “To be forever free.” So that’s how St. Louis got to be one of the three free zoos of North America.
