Trish Long
Tales From The Morgue
There are many accounts of how alligators came to El Paso's San Jacinto
Plaza, also known to generations of El Pasoans as Plaza de los Lagartos.
One tale credits J. Fisher Satterthwaite with bringing them from New
Orleans in 1883. Another story says A. Munsenberger, El Paso mining man,
received some alligators in a cigar box as a gag from a friend in the
summer of 1888. According to another, Ferdinand Gemoets, who opened the
Belgian Bakery in 1885, went to New Orleans on vacation and sent some
alligators back to his daughter.
All the stories have one thing in common - the alligators were donated to the city for San Jacinto Plaza pool.
The plaza pool was completed in 1887 so the story that seemed most plausible to me was that A. Musenberger donated them to the city in the summer of 1888.
According to the Times archives, there was a lot of activity in the
plaza during the summer of 1888. Sam Ecker was named Park Commissioner, a
lawnmower and benches were purchased, street lights and a fountain were
added and Bermuda grass was planted. There was no mention of
alligators.
The March 9, 1889, edition reported Ecker's progress in preparing the
plaza for the spring: "The fountain reservoir is filled with clear,
limpid water, into which Mr. Ecker is intending to place a quantity of
young fish; also to give further appearance of the tropics, a friend
expects to send him a young live alligator to slash around and
occasionally take in a bad boy." ) 'Folks now object to snakes being given live prey such as rats and rabbits. Times sure change.' )
Then four months later,
July 31, 1889, there was this mention of Thomas Ennis, superintendent of
the Street Car Company: "Quite a crowd gathered around the plaza pool
yesterday to watch Superintendent Ennis' young alligator disport himself
in foreign waters."
After the arrival of that first alligator, the city was the recipient of
other donations throughout the years to include Jack and Jill, a pair
of alligators who did arrive in a cigar box, according to a
Sept. 1, 1953, article: "Mrs.
Myrtle Price, who bought the alligators a few days after they were
hatched seven year ago, finally admitted that her pets were more than
she could handle.
"When her four alligators were sent from Louisiana by mail, in 1946,
they arrived in a cigar box. Two died before Mrs. Price could learn that
you had to force-feed them until they learned how to help themselves -
jam food in their mouths and then hold them under water until they
swallow.
A Sept. 24, 1965, Times article told of some of the mistreatment of the
gators: "Many passerby have halted to look at a lounging alligator.
Seeing it so peaceful, these citizens have thrown small rocks, mud
clumps, coins and even lighted cigarettes to get a reaction from the
animal."
There was also a 1953 incident in which pranksters took an alligator
named Oscar out of the plaza pool and put him in a professor's office at
Texas Western College. Four months later, Oscar was again snatched from
the pool, but he was thrown back in before police arrived. Oscar was
found dead in the pool soon after.
In 1965, two soldiers were arrested for throwing rocks at the alligators.
An alligator named Chama died immediately, and another, Zal, died a short time later.
The alligators were moved to Washington Park Zoo in late 1965.
They were brought back to the plaza in 1972 and were surrounded by clear
plastic shielding. They went back to the zoo in 1974. Humpy, the last
of the plaza alligators, died at the zoo in the mid-1990s.
"Los Lagartos," a fiberglass sculpture by artist Luis Jimenez, was
installed in the plaza in 1995 to commemorate the alligators that once
lived there.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Ghost Zoo--Eastman Park Zoo, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
“Eastman Park was originally Harvey Eastman’s estate. He had a skating rink and a zoo on the property,” said Harvey Flad, author of “Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie.”
Ghost Zoo--Fort Weare Game Park, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Fort Wear Game Park, a zoo with wild animals, was in the heart of Pigeon Forge. Occasionally, the elephant would escape and go directly to the river. Pigeon Forge Elementary School by this time had been moved to a site near the zoo, and students watched the escape excitedly from their schoolhouse windows.
Billboard - 5 Sep 1953 - Google Books Result
Ghost Zoo--Lords Park, Elgin, Illinois
Chicago Tribune
Feb. 1, 2012
Supporters
hope construction of a new fence for the lone bison that roams the
Lords Park Zoo is the start of restoring the Elgin park to what it once
was.
Last week the City Council agreed to pay $52,048 to replace a rusted chain-link and barbed-wire fence at the park — home to Po-Key, the 20-year-old bison. The Friends of the Lords Park Zoo group also has raised $17,000 in donations and more than $8,000 in volunteer work to put toward the project.
Last week the City Council agreed to pay $52,048 to replace a rusted chain-link and barbed-wire fence at the park — home to Po-Key, the 20-year-old bison. The Friends of the Lords Park Zoo group also has raised $17,000 in donations and more than $8,000 in volunteer work to put toward the project.
The
new fence will be safer, meet zoological standards and look better,
officials said. And once the new bison fence is constructed, the
Brookfield Zoo has indicated it will donate a bison.
Members of the Friends of the Lords Park Zoo say it's the first step toward restoring the zoo, which is free and used to house many other animals. Today there are only Po-Key, four deer and three elk.
Members of the Friends of the Lords Park Zoo say it's the first step toward restoring the zoo, which is free and used to house many other animals. Today there are only Po-Key, four deer and three elk.
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