My proudest accomplishment, probably not a given specific exhibit at the zoo, but my proudest accomplishment I would say is making or is helping the Topeka community to develop into a zoo-oriented community with a sense of zoo, so to speak. And having and developing pride among the people in… Read More
You mentioned other zoos. Read More
Are there some that you admire that you think highly of for some reason?… Read More
And maybe even charge as a little fundraiser. And then from the lion’s side, you have these knots in there and you put a little catnip or something in there, and then you have the people jerk on it and the lions respond. They come over and grab it and… Read More
And even, this was about the time technology was coming in in the late 80s. Then our thought was to have that parallel with a researcher in Africa who has lions radio collared or whatever they’re going to do and watching their movements and have the kids compare those movements… Read More
We had a telescope where kids would look up on the copy rocks and see a eagle’s nest and some high racks, which were little just fiberglass high racks up there. And things like that. And the city, the safety department came out one day and saw it and whack,… Read More
So what’s your proudest accomplishment?… Read More
Are there programs or exhibits that you would have liked to have implemented during your time, but just couldn’t?… Read More
Yes, first, it took, in my opinion, it took so long to get everything done. I mean, we opened the Animals had Man or Large Mammal Building in 1966. We didn’t get the rainforest open until 1974. My gosh, I would’ve liked it done maybe five years later. And then… Read More
For example, we proposed a large baobab tree, the big fat-trunked trees found in Africa, one that had fallen or been pushed over by an elephant so the trunk was at least five feet in diameter. And part of that was on the visitor pathway. Part of it was in… Read More
So I established the date, 1933. (chuckles) So then in 1983, when the zoo was 50 years old, that’s only because I said it was 1933 when we started, but who knows?… Read More
I think Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago may have had the same. A lot of zoos start out with people putting native animals in the local or the biggest city park. Then once that happened, then it was just a hodgepodge of miscellaneous things. The famous cowboy movie actor Tom Mix… Read More
So the monkeys from monkey island, instead of going in winter quarters where they couldn’t be seen, would go into the monkey house. And then they built a large pin for a bison, an elk. And then Preston Hale was the one who built the first units for carnivores, lions… Read More
Well, I went down to the state historical society, being the state capital, it’s right here in town. Went through all their material, including researching the newspapers. They had this great newspaper collection, went through all the newspapers. And Gage Park was established in 1901, I believe, Guilford Gage had… Read More
And that was a pair of swans. And there were a few other miscellaneous things. But it was not until 1933 that there was a specific facility built, especially for exotic animals, and they built a monkey island in 1933. So in my wisdom, I said, well, we may have… Read More
And what do we do with it?… Read More
Well, take it to Gage Park and they put a fence up. But I decided it wasn’t a zoo until somebody built a facility just for exotic animals. That happened in WPA in 1933. Read More
Oh, that’s, how did the Topeka Zoo develop?… Read More
It developed topsy turvy, like so many zoos, small municipal zoos. But here’s the funny thing. When I started in 1963 as zoo director, I wanted the zoo, not just community-wise, locally, we needed to so many things, we’ve talked about that, but I wanted the zoo to become part… Read More
And then AZA asked me, put me on a committee and that’s, you may recall the director, we used to have five regions and there were five regional con. There was one national and five, I’m the guy who came up with the regions. (Gary laughing) And we had the… Read More