Interview 1738 – Caption Index: 90
And how important was conservation at the time you started or your vision for it?… Read More
And how important was conservation at the time you started or your vision for it?… Read More
Well, I believed in it. I thought it was one of the important functions of the zoo. I wasn’t really sure how much we in Topeka could do. We were one of these zoos that would receive injured animals. So we were a rehab facility for local species. We did… Read More
And Philadelphia was right up about that time too. I wanted to do something with it, but quite honestly, there wasn’t a lot I could do at the time. The best thing we’d do with conservation, it was conservation education, was to get people aware of the importance of conservation… Read More
Did you think about science and research as part of what the zoo would make out or?… Read More
Did you have thoughts then about education in the zoo and how did you try and start to implement this?… Read More
Yes, first thing was there were virtually no labels. So the first thing was to do labels. And not just the typical English name or common name, scientific name, range, food, longevity. Read More
What’s a neat little behavior bit that maybe people could actually see this animal doing in this zoo?… Read More
So I try to come up with that kind of stuff. Park department made the labels, these old plastic labels for the router, (Gary mimics whining machine) type thing, you know, they were very good about letting me use some of that stuff. That was number one, but number two,… Read More
I said, “What we need before we need an elephant,” I said, “What I wanna do, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to do it, we need to form an organization to help the zoo in many ways.” So that’s what I thought maybe the 2030 Club would… Read More
So we did. Read More
So this was part of your vision for the zoo?… Read More
Yeah, it wasn’t specifically Friends of the Zoo or support organization. The vision was get the community involved. And that was a good way to do it. That was one way to do it and a good way to do it. Read More
And that all came, that’s something a small zoo can do. I mean, if you’ve got a resource in your community, join forces with that resource. So that was a good thing. And so I came in October ’63, and in April ’64 we formed the Topeka Friends of the… Read More
Was Friends of the Zoo your idea or did people come to you?… Read More
No, it was my idea, I actually had a fella come to me though and say he’s with a local club, it’s not the Jaycees. It’s called the 2030 Club. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with ’em, but you have to be between 21 and 39 and you have… Read More
He said, “We wanna buy an elephant for the zoo.” I said, “Whoa, the last thing we need now is an elephant.” That’s like giving a subway to the city of Topeka, nice but what we’re gonna do with it?… Read More
But what if somebody comes to Topeka and they walk, what’s it look like?… Read More
And they walked through and I said, “Yeah, we got some broken sidewalks. I’ll try to get those fixed, but what can we fix?” There’s mud on the sidewalks, the chainlink’s falling off the guardrail, branches fell down from the last windstorm are still there. When they would clean out… Read More
And then letting the people know, we have some fascinating animals here. We’ve got maybe not much, but a neat little zoo here. We need your support, come out and see us. And I started giving a lot of talks and so on. But this diet business, we had a… Read More
Get that established, clean up the commissaries. Stop the carcasses on the road. Start getting the meat from Hill’s packing plant, which slaughtered the horses right here in Topeka, down by the river. Clean that up. Clean the zoo up. Clean the keepers up. Get some khaki uniforms. They didn’t… Read More