The zoo was a motley menagerie until 1906, when Mayor Robert W. Speer declared that the zoo's "[p]rison bars can be done away with" in favor of "concrete rocks, waterfalls, trees, etc."[4]
Speer hired the city's landscape architect, Saco R. DeBoer, to draw up the plans for his renovation and appointed Victor H. Borcherdt as zoo director.
Borcherdt's most notable claim to fame was the construction of the Bear Mountain exhibit, which he designed, from 1917 to 1918. This structure, 43 ft. (13 m) tall by 185 ft (56 m) long and costing $50,000 to build, was built of dyed and textured concrete forms cast from Dinosaur Mountain in Morrison, Colorado. Hidden moats replaced cage bars, and native plants and an artificial stream enhanced the natural look. The south tip of the exhibit was designed to resemble Mesa Verde National Park. Originally it housed monkeys, but due to escape problems, sea lions were housed there instead. Today coati reside in the southern section and grizzly bears and Asiatic black bears inhabit the other two sections. Bear Mountain established Denver as the foremost among American zoos, and the Saint Louis Zoo hired Borcherdt after seeing the exhibit.
This historic exhibit is considered the first natural-style zoo exhibit in North America. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and underwent a $250,000 restoration.It is home to Grizzly Bears, Asiatic Black Bears, and coatiAs animal welfare/radicalism is supposedly a relatively recent phenomena/movement was Mayor Robert Speer either welfarist or radical when he initiated the building of Bear mountain below in 1906, or was he "caving into pressure."
Posts
2 comments:
Wade, I believe that Mayor Robert Speer was a visionary who saw the future of what zoos should be, and in that sense he was a welfarist when he initiated the building of Bear mountain in 1906. I am unaware of any pressure at that time that he could have been caving into, however I could be wrong. I was also unaware that this historic exhibit is considered the first natural-style zoo exhibit in North America. I always thought that Carl Hagenbeck was the first, with exhibits in Detroit and Cincinnati, among others.
Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
As with all old history, we must look at all(see self serving/who is your Champion). The Hagenbeck people would probably say, but not the first to exhibit many species in panorama views. LOL
Wade
Post a Comment