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Dodge City has a storied past. The history here is thick.
Stories run from old gunfights to cattle drives to legendary sheriffs tracking down outlaws and, of course, the infamous Boot Hill. These are the things Dodge City's history is known for.
But there are other stories here, too. For instance, the Wright Park Zoo has quite a colorful past.
In 1922 the local Kiwanis Club suggested a bird refuge in Wright Park. Then in 1926, bears came to the park.
A July 4, 1957, Globe article by Lloyd Holbeck said the zoo started around 1931 with raccoons and a bear in "pens between the two entrances to the park on Second Avenue."
But it's hard to really pinpoint when the zoo got going. Because in refutation to this article, another Globe article said in 1928, Globe editor J.C. Denious bought two lion cubs for what would become the Wright Park Zoo.
The lion cubs came in on train number 9 from Hutchinson on March 27, 1928. The Globe's headline was, "Lions for City Park are now in Dodge."
"They have lost the kittenish look that young cubs are supposed to have, and as they growled at the crowd around their cage this afternoon, they showed nearly as much ferocity as would be expected in fully grown beasts of the jungle," the article said.
The lion cubs were brought directly to the Globe's office where they were displayed in wooden cages with iron bars to curious people. Their names were Leo, a male, and Tawny, a female.
Zoos, and the way they acquire animals, have certainly changed.
After many surgeries, Leo, who was now full-grown, had to be put down because of a tumor on his jaw.
And so, the zoo got another lion named Rolla.
In 1934, Rolla and Tawny lost a litter of five. But the zoo did not have a shortage of lions. In fact, in 1935 there were six lions, and it took 25 pounds of meat to feed them each day.
There was so much meat that the park superintendent, W.S. Ford, was having trouble feeding all the lions. So the city tried to sell some of the lions to the "Texas Snake King," but he wasn't very interested because he thought the city didn't understand the lion trade and wanted too much money.
"E.C. Hathaway, city clerk, has been in correspondence with the Texas "Snake King," who buys and sells critters of all kinds for circuses and zoos. Dodge City wanted to sell him some of its six lions," the Globe said on Marcy 1, 1935.
But the "Texas Snake King" didn't want them, and the commissioners "heard a joking suggestion that they kill three of the six to feed the other three."
Archives in the Kansas Heritage Museum make no more mention of this suggestion.
Eventually, the zoo grew and times must have gotten better.
By 1946, according to another Globe article, zoo had two buffalo, three bears, eight to 10 deer, six peafowls, six monkeys, a flock of ducks and geese, lions and an eagle.
Growing pains
And as the zoo grew, it had its share of mishaps. And those mishaps are unlike anything, for the most part, that happens in modern zoos.
An article from the Globe on Oct. 7, 1948, has a large headline that says, "50-Dollar Reward for Murderers of Bears."
A quote from the story reads, "A vapid pall hangs over the nearby cages and pens. The monkeys reflect the bereft atmosphere surrounding the zoo in their faces, which seemed to have a dulled and shocked appearance."
The bear's names were Yankee and Doodle. Someone poisoned them with arsenic.
And then there was the time the zoo's largest monkey in the park, Cappy, lost his arm.
This happened in 1933. According to an article in the Globe from Oct. 18, 1933, Cappy reached his arm into the lion's pen and one of the big cats chomped off his arm, and tried to go for his leg too.
At that time, the pens were one next to each other, and only iron bars separated them.
But Cappy survived despite the loss of his arm. His leg was OK.
In other monkey news from the 1930s, the Dodge City Commission considered building a monkey island in the Arkansas River. However, the plan was scratched because the town of Chanute in eastern Kansas had done just that.
Well, one cold winter day the river froze over and all the monkeys got loose in Chanute. That's why Dodge City scrapped that plan.
And then there is the story of Earthquake, the so-called longhorn that some said had a little too much Hereford to be pure. The Wright Park Zoo got Earthquake instead of Garden City's zoo, much to the dismay of Garden City residents.
Earthquake was a favorite attraction at the zoo. But one day, the steer wasn't there. Eventually, the Globe got interested and inquired about happened to Earthquake.
As it turns out, the steer was sold to a meatpacker for $84 and eaten, and the Garden City Telegram wrote a scathing editorial about the situation.
Roughly 85 years later, the Wright Park Zoo has approximately 60,000 visitors each year who enjoy 125 animals representing 40 species from five continents.
The zoo earned accreditation from the Zoological Association of America this month.
Dodge City has a storied past. The history here is thick.
Stories run from old gunfights to cattle drives to legendary sheriffs tracking down outlaws and, of course, the infamous Boot Hill. These are the things Dodge City's history is known for.
But there are other stories here, too. For instance, the Wright Park Zoo has quite a colorful past.
In 1922 the local Kiwanis Club suggested a bird refuge in Wright Park. Then in 1926, bears came to the park.
A July 4, 1957, Globe article by Lloyd Holbeck said the zoo started around 1931 with raccoons and a bear in "pens between the two entrances to the park on Second Avenue."
But it's hard to really pinpoint when the zoo got going. Because in refutation to this article, another Globe article said in 1928, Globe editor J.C. Denious bought two lion cubs for what would become the Wright Park Zoo.
The lion cubs came in on train number 9 from Hutchinson on March 27, 1928. The Globe's headline was, "Lions for City Park are now in Dodge."
"They have lost the kittenish look that young cubs are supposed to have, and as they growled at the crowd around their cage this afternoon, they showed nearly as much ferocity as would be expected in fully grown beasts of the jungle," the article said.
The lion cubs were brought directly to the Globe's office where they were displayed in wooden cages with iron bars to curious people. Their names were Leo, a male, and Tawny, a female.
Zoos, and the way they acquire animals, have certainly changed.
After many surgeries, Leo, who was now full-grown, had to be put down because of a tumor on his jaw.
And so, the zoo got another lion named Rolla.
In 1934, Rolla and Tawny lost a litter of five. But the zoo did not have a shortage of lions. In fact, in 1935 there were six lions, and it took 25 pounds of meat to feed them each day.
There was so much meat that the park superintendent, W.S. Ford, was having trouble feeding all the lions. So the city tried to sell some of the lions to the "Texas Snake King," but he wasn't very interested because he thought the city didn't understand the lion trade and wanted too much money.
"E.C. Hathaway, city clerk, has been in correspondence with the Texas "Snake King," who buys and sells critters of all kinds for circuses and zoos. Dodge City wanted to sell him some of its six lions," the Globe said on Marcy 1, 1935.
But the "Texas Snake King" didn't want them, and the commissioners "heard a joking suggestion that they kill three of the six to feed the other three."
Archives in the Kansas Heritage Museum make no more mention of this suggestion.
Eventually, the zoo grew and times must have gotten better.
By 1946, according to another Globe article, zoo had two buffalo, three bears, eight to 10 deer, six peafowls, six monkeys, a flock of ducks and geese, lions and an eagle.
Growing pains
And as the zoo grew, it had its share of mishaps. And those mishaps are unlike anything, for the most part, that happens in modern zoos.
An article from the Globe on Oct. 7, 1948, has a large headline that says, "50-Dollar Reward for Murderers of Bears."
A quote from the story reads, "A vapid pall hangs over the nearby cages and pens. The monkeys reflect the bereft atmosphere surrounding the zoo in their faces, which seemed to have a dulled and shocked appearance."
The bear's names were Yankee and Doodle. Someone poisoned them with arsenic.
And then there was the time the zoo's largest monkey in the park, Cappy, lost his arm.
This happened in 1933. According to an article in the Globe from Oct. 18, 1933, Cappy reached his arm into the lion's pen and one of the big cats chomped off his arm, and tried to go for his leg too.
At that time, the pens were one next to each other, and only iron bars separated them.
But Cappy survived despite the loss of his arm. His leg was OK.
In other monkey news from the 1930s, the Dodge City Commission considered building a monkey island in the Arkansas River. However, the plan was scratched because the town of Chanute in eastern Kansas had done just that.
Well, one cold winter day the river froze over and all the monkeys got loose in Chanute. That's why Dodge City scrapped that plan.
And then there is the story of Earthquake, the so-called longhorn that some said had a little too much Hereford to be pure. The Wright Park Zoo got Earthquake instead of Garden City's zoo, much to the dismay of Garden City residents.
Earthquake was a favorite attraction at the zoo. But one day, the steer wasn't there. Eventually, the Globe got interested and inquired about happened to Earthquake.
As it turns out, the steer was sold to a meatpacker for $84 and eaten, and the Garden City Telegram wrote a scathing editorial about the situation.
Roughly 85 years later, the Wright Park Zoo has approximately 60,000 visitors each year who enjoy 125 animals representing 40 species from five continents.
The zoo earned accreditation from the Zoological Association of America this month.
