Seventy-five years ago Gilmour Haynie and a group of business leaders started Mesker Park Zoo. According to an article written in 1930 by Mr. Haynie these business leaders felt that,"Evansville was not getting the recognition, the trade, the good will, or the travel we should reasonably expect from the people living in the contiguous territory of a hundred miles about us, for we had lost sight of the greatest civic fundamental - we had failed to make Evansville attractive to the people in the trade territory rightfully ours, and consequently they looked elsewhere for their entertainment." They felt that a zoo would provide a valuable source of entertainment for the community and bring people to Evansville again.
With the help of a cartoonist who worked for the Evansville Courier, Karl Kae Knecht, the word got out about the zoo and animals that were to come. The public support was tremendous, from businesses that wanted to sponsor exhibits to schoolchildren collecting pennies to buy an elephant. Practically everyone wanted to see a zoo in Evansville.
In 1928 Mr. Knecht received a gift of two circus lions for the zoo. In 1929 Kay the elephant came to Evansville with a parade of schoolchildren lining the streets to welcome her. The exhibit building for these animals wasn't complete yet, so Mr. Clem Kevekordes, superintendent of animals for the zoo, kept Kay, the lion cubs, and some antelope in his barn at his home on Washington Avenue until it was completed. Shortly after, alligators and other animals were added, and Evansville now had a zoo.
Mr. Haynie knew, that in order to keep people coming back, he had to keep adding exhibits to the zoo. During this time the popular exhibits for monkeys were islands. Mr. Haynie wanted something different and his vision for this monkey exhibit was a ship. He had a replica at 1/3 scale of the Santa Maria drawn up and with the help of the Rotary Club and W.P.A. workers, the Monkey Ship was built to exhibit monkeys. There are many people in Evansville who remember coming to the zoo and seeing the monkeys on the ship. It was a source of many cartoons in the paper by Karl Knecht and became an historic landmark. Years later, it was determined the Monkey Ship was not a fit environment for the monkeys, and in 2002 it was restored and turned into a bumper boat ride for children.
Mesker Park Zoo was considered to be on the leading edge of animal exhibits in the 30's and 40's. In Germany it was becoming popular to build exhibits without bars. Mesker Park Zoo used this design technique that included a moat system to build the lion exhibit and bear exhibit becoming one of the first zoos in the United States to have "barless" exhibits.
During the next ten years visitors by the thousands visited Mesker Park Zoo. Some of the favorite exhibits were the monkey ship and Kay the elephant. Kay even gave rides to children from time to time.
In 1954 Kay fatally injured the Zoo Director, Bob Mcgraw. She was sent to a circus facility and months later a new 3 year old elephant "Bunny" arrived at the zoo. Bunny lived at Mesker Park Zoo for over 40 years and became a favorite of many people who visited the zoo. In 1999 Bunny retired to a 900-acre elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. Today you can visit her on the web at www.elephants.com. There is an elephant cam where you can see her playing with the other elephants at the sanctuary.
Mesker Park Zoo continued to grow and add exhibits for the next 40 years. Dams were built and lakes were added. The Knecht building that was built in the 1930's was closed to the public in 1983 and torn down shortly after. In 1992 the Discovery Center opened in the same location.
The first children's zoo was opened in 1975. Marlin Perkins, from 'Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom' television show, was on hand for the grand opening. The Children's zoo of 1975 is currently going through a major renovation and will open in the spring as the new Children's Enchanted Forest. This will be an interactive area where children can see the animals that live in the forest, climb next to them, play for hours, all while learning about the forest. There will also be a petting zoo for children to interact with the animals.
Mesker Park Zoo is largest zoo in Indiana with 70 acres of trees, plants and animals. We are also the oldest Zoo in Indiana. We currently have the oldest living hippo in captivity, "Donna", who is 52 years old this year. But mostly we have a history we can be proud of and learn from. We hope you visit the zoo this year to make memories of your own for the next 75 years.
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