(George chuckles) You bring up an interesting aspect of the institutional setting of Brookfield It is, in effect, a governmental institution, in that it is part of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County where the Forest Preserve District of Cook County is really an extraordinary development in terms of the interest of both the natural world and people in sharing the natural world. But Brookfield Zoo came to be because of a specific sort of challenge gift by Edith Rockefeller McCormick of land in Riverside and Brookfield to the Forest Preserve District on the provision that a major zoological park would be built on the site. So in essence, the institution is owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, which has supported its operations from the start, but in varying quantity, shall we say. But it made the initial investment in the facility and by bond issues that the first president of the society had to campaign for. And that happened to be McCutcheon, the cartoonist of the Chicago Tribune, but the first bond issue for the building of Brookfield Zoo was turned down. And it wasn’t until 1926, that the public vote was such to warrant proceeding with the bond issue, and so on. And then of course came the Great Crash, the Great Crash in ’29. And that halted construction for a year.
