By 1916 the zoo entered the big time with a purchase from a travelling circus of Princess Alice (named after Teddy Roosevelt's daughter), a 31- or 32-year-old Asian elephant. The $3250 cost was mostly raised from small donations by schoolchildren. By now there were more than 275 animals, mostly from North America, 26 of which were donated. Princess Alice may have been pregnant when she arrived because gestation in elephants is almost two years and she gave birth in 1918 to a son later named Prince Utah. He was almost a year old when Princess Alice rolled over on top of him and killed him. The newspapers reported that she mourned his loss with tears and trumpeting. Periodically in the next twelve years she would make a break for it and amble through back yards in the neighborhood breaking fences and clotheslines. Mr. and Mrs. James Hogle in response to the outpouring of community concern donated the parcel of land where Hogle Zoo is presently located in 1931 largely so Princess Alice would have a more secure cage. In August of that year Hogle Zoo reportedly opened its doors to a crowd of 14,000 (I think it more likely that 14,000 was the number of people that visited it in a year). For a while Alice was secure.
People are nothing if not fickle and by 1934 the water supply was cut off to the zoo due to nonpayment of their $195 bill. The zoo director threatened to turn all of the animals loose if the water wasn't turned back on, which it was. By 1941 the zoo was in terrible shape. One article in the Salt Lake newspaper published June 19, 1941 was headlined "Bad Odor, Old Cages, Garbage - That's Salt Lake City's Zoo". Mr. and Mrs. Hogle requested the return of their land. It must have improved because the next year the newspaper reported that the zoo's oldest lion had died "due to the shock of living in new, clean, comfortable quarters."
Some visitors to the park looked upon the animals as fair game. A boy killed one of the zoo's deer with an arrow in 1943 and a polar bear received a non-fatal gunshot to the head in 1946. Thereafter the director said guns on the grounds would be confiscated and people harassing the animals would be punished.
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| Left entrance sculpture |
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| Right entrance sculpture |
In 1947 the two beautiful sculptures of mountain lions by Dr. Avard Fairbanks that adorned the entrance when we visited the zoo (now no longer there) were erected. That was also the year Princess Alice forced open the doors of her building and charged through the neighborhood, uprooting a tree and destroying a drinking fountain. After her romp (rather impressive for a 62-year-old!) she calmly returned to her quarters. Six years later she became ill and was put to sleep.
A new mountain lion exhibit was constructed in 1960 and by the time we visited in 1975 they had nine mountain lions, an overpopulation in my opinion. Now they don't have any. An underpopulation I would say!
In 1969 the 37-year-old zoo director was fatally bitten by an African puff adder. Antivenom serum was flown in from San Diego and given as soon as possible but it didn't save him. He was replaced by the director we met at the time we visited Hogle.
When we visited Hogle Zoo in 1975 we had several zookeepers helping us so everything moved rather quickly. It was sort of like an assembly line. We were stationed in an area behind the exhibit and the comatose lions were brought to us one by one. Or sometimes two at a time. The first three females then a couple males passed through our hands complete with recorded measurements and blood samples. As soon as all the lions were out of the big cage they started putting the recovering ones back in. It all went smoothly until the last male was put back in before he was fully recovered. He must have fallen or one of the other males must have decided to take advantage of the state he was in and knocked him off the rocks, killing him. I was numb with shock when I heard about it. That wasn't supposed to happen! I was reminded that haste indeed makes waste because this tragedy could have been prevented. It was with heavy hearts as we packed up and left the zoo.
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| Weighing an Albuquerque lion |
We drove directly to Albuquerque and worked with their mountain lions two days later. Although there were only six lions there were fewer zoo keepers as well and the scene was much calmer. We had more time to contemplate each animal!
With a sigh of relief we returned to Fort Collins so I could analyze all of the data we'd gathered. We'd made it through the first year!
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