The photo above is from 1953, elephant unknown, at the Brookfield Childrens Zoo. It is incredible today to think that they used to keep and raise the young elephants in the Children's Zoo. Does anyone know if they actually kept the elephants at the Childrens Zoo, or did the bring them back and forth from the elephant house each morning and night. The sand/dirt walkway around the pen was most likely a path as the animals probably paced along the fence and it prevented the grass from tearing up, and becoming unsightly.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Vintage Brookfield Zoo Elephants
The photo above is from 1953, elephant unknown, at the Brookfield Childrens Zoo. It is incredible today to think that they used to keep and raise the young elephants in the Children's Zoo. Does anyone know if they actually kept the elephants at the Childrens Zoo, or did the bring them back and forth from the elephant house each morning and night. The sand/dirt walkway around the pen was most likely a path as the animals probably paced along the fence and it prevented the grass from tearing up, and becoming unsightly.
Based on records I'm guessing this is Melinda, wild born in 1951 and came to Brookfield from Seabury in 1952. She died in October of '53.
ReplyDeleteApparently from spring till fall we would keep young elephants at the Children's Zoo - they would return to the Pachyderm House during the winter months. Over the years we had several calves at the Children's Zoo - Winkie, Mame, Babe/Baby Brookfield, Cora/Noel (who lives at the CEC)... There are probably others but recordkeeping was practically nonexistent back then.
If you look on eBay there are usually postcards of elephants at the Children's Zoo. To the best of my knowledge we did this up until the '70s.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great insight and welcome. I hope you will come back often with insight. LPZ alumni Mark Rosenthal and Jim Alexander contribute some great stuff. I can relate to non existent record keeping. In the circus records were seldom kept, until the rabid enforcement of USDA starting in the mid 80's. The number of tigers with long coats and think tails listed as "Bengal" is a joke, but if they are stunted/dwarfy they are listed as "half Sumatran." LOL The vast numbers of "new white tiger bloodlines" that have sprung up through apparent immaculate conceptions is also a treat.
Wade
I skimmed through some photos and found I have several of elephants (and other surprising exotics) at our children's zoo. I will share when I can figure out a convenient method to do so.
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteWe would be most appreciative if you Gcould share your photo's and insight. My email is wburck3@aol.com if you wanted to scan them and send them, I would be glad to post them and any other old zoo history you may come across. Do you have access to any photos of the interior of the "Pachyderm House". Good shot's of that massive, totally inadequate facility are hard to come by. I have visited Brookfield about a dozen times over the years, the last time in 2004, and the "Pachyderm House" is the only zoo building that gave me the willy's.
Wade