Sunday, December 10, 2017

On This Date in Minnesota History: December 10

December 10, 1915 – This afternoon Lester Park was selected as the site for Duluth’s new zoological garden.

The selection was made by Mayor William Prince, Commissioner Farrell and a committee from the Elks’ lodge, after an inspection trip through the park at Lakeside and the Fairmont Park. The zoo will be situated directly above the ball park and playground at the park and but a few minutes’ walk from the park entrance.

Engineers from the works division will go out to the park tomorrow and after a survey of the site, lay out the five-acre enclosure that will be fenced in for the zoo.

Robert H. Hanna, department manager for the Pittsburgh Steel Company, which has donated the steel fence and Mr. Hanna’s services in directing its erection, accompanied the city officials and the Elks today.

Local officials of the Great Northern Express today wired the game warden at Seattle to send the two elk that have been offered to the city of Duluth, and it is expected that the animals will arrive within the next ten days.


“Unfortunately, the warden gave [the elk] to Sioux City, Iowa, before Duluth officials agreed to allow the zoo. With no animals, the zoo didn’t open until the following year, and its first residents consisted of “a couple of deer and two red foxes” which had been donated by a trapper. By mid-May, a goose and a porcupine were added. In June the Lester Park Improvement Club objected to the zoo, saying the animals might cause a nuisance. The zoo did not open in 1917. When Duluth finally did get a zoo, it was at Fairmount Park. Its first resident was a deer.”*

The Duluth Herald; “Select Lester Park As Zoo Site”; Dec. 11, 1915; p. 3.


*http://zenithcity.com/thisday/december-10-1915-city-officials-approve-zoo-in-lester-park/


http://www.lakesuperiorstreams.org/streams/images/historic/lester/58_lester_big.jpg

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