1953: When a lion escaped Hogle Zoo -- And more Hisotry

                     One of the mountain lion sculptures near the entrance to Hogle Zoo.


"S.L. Lion recaptured: It fled Zoo" was an Oct. 14, 1953 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.
This Associated Press story explained how a lion of the mountain lion variety had to be hunted a day earlier, on Oct. 13, after the animal escaped its enclosure while its cage was being cleaned.
Fortunately, it took refuge in some thick underbrush by Hogle Zoo's main gate. Zoo employees and four police officers kept a watch on the animal while two professional hunters were called in. Brack Noble of Salt Lake and Gordon Pace of Bountiful arrived within hours, accompanied by their pack of dogs.
First, they flushed the lion into a nearby tree. Then, they climbed the tree, tossed a noose around the snarling animal's neck and were then able to tie it up and return it to its cage.
For Pace, this was his second time catching the animal. About a year earlier, he had tracked and captured the mountain lion in the Wasatch Mountains and had donated the animal to the zoo.
The employee who was responsible for the animal's escape was fired for negligence.
Thus, it is quite a coincidence, given the above escape tale, that some six years earlier, in 1947, Utah sculptor Dr. Avard Fairbanks had sculpted two mountain lions atop 18-foot granite columns at the Zoo’s old entrance.

-MORE HISTORY: The Hansel Valley Earthquake of March 12, 1934 measured 6.6 and is believed to have caused at least two deaths. It also caused some significant damage to structures in Snowville, Logan and Preston, Id. However, it did provide one key benefit. According to the Standard-Examiner of Feb. 4, 1940, that quake provided Box Elder County with a salt spring industry.
That quake created three springs on the northern tip of the Great Salt Lake and that led to a new industry, where evaporation in a ditch produced salt to harvest. 

-Taylor Canyon in Ogden is famous now for its hiking trail that leads to Malan's Peak and Malan's Basin. At one time in the 1890s, a wagon road in the canyon led to a mountain resort, run by the namesake Malan family. However, in the 1930s, Taylor Canyon also featured a ski hill in the decades before any ski resorts, like Snow Basin came along. "Bjorngaard Hill" is what a portion of the mouth of the canyon was renamed for an exhibition of professional skiing by four of the nation's elite in the sport, including Alf Engen (who would later start a ski school at Utah's Alta resort and also help develop some 30 other ski resorts in the west). That's according to the Standard-Examiner of Jan. 8, 1936. There were some 20 ski jumpers in all, including some local athletes. The story stated that in the 1920s, Becker Hill in Ogden Canyon had been used for similar event.

                                  The mouth of Taylor Canyon today.


The Salt Lake Tribune of Dec. 12, 1937 stated that Taylor Canyon was being used as a lighted public ski hill almost two years later. There was even a public skating rink in the area.

                     The mysterious cabin in Taylor Canyon, in about 1978.


-There's also a mysterious log cabin on the southern slopes of Taylor Canyon and no one today seems to know who built it, or when. The cabin is located in between switchbacks up the mountain toward Malan's Peak. However, since the 1980s, a shortcut trail that led past the cabin has been reforested, decreasing erosion, but increasing the cabin's isolation. A Feb. 5, 1910 story in the Standard Examiner chronicled the escapade of a violent, armed teenager in Ogden, who fled the City and took refuge in a cabin in Taylor Canyon. The young man, Vernon Hodge, spent a cold night in the cabin and tested his marksmanship with his rifle and nearby tree stumps and rocks. He was so cold, he returned to Ogden the next morning where he was arrested for threatening and holding a man hostage the day prior. But, could that cabin be today's mysterious structure in Taylor Canyon? Perhaps.

                    Another 1970s picture of the hard-to-find cabin in Taylor Canyon.

-It is no secret that Park City transformed itself from a mining town to a ski town in the 1960s and 1970s. And, a headline in the Idaho State Journal newspaper of Pocatello seemed to perfectly capture the essence of that redevelopment, The Dec. 20, 1963 newspaper carried the headline, "Utah city seeks to replace mined silver with tourist gold." The Associated Press story stated that on the next day, Park City would dedicate 10,000-acre ski area, featuring a gondola and chairlift. And, that was only the beginning of the town's transformation plans.

                  A section of Park City today, with ski hills in the background.

When elephants and buffalo roamed downtown Salt Lake City

                             Elephants at Hoge Zoo in 2008.

SALT Lake City had a number of large loose animal incidents in the early 20th Century and we’re not talking about cougar, deer or moose, but elephants and buffalo.
“Elephant flees from zoo; Captured after a long race; Princess Alice escapes from Park and enjoys brief jaunt in hills” was a Nov. 15, 1916 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune.
The elephant got as far as Parleys Canyon and was adorned with a necklace of barb wire and chicken fence. During her jaunt, she had waded through various fences as though they were weeds. She also overturned some outhouses in her path and went through a barn.
No one was hurt in what the newspaper termed “a lively escapade,” but the elephant was bleeding a few places from the wire fences.
The newspaper stated: “The path of the elephant's
night was lined with astonished gazers, who stood long and looked in the direction in which she had vanished. Small boys followed until they were winded. Automobiles took up the chase and were lost in the network of roads
to the eastward. A considerable crowd was in at the capture.”
This would not be the last time Princess Alice would escape. She broke loose and roamed 700 East Street periodically, putting the community in an uproar. A menagerie of clothing often adorned the pachyderm’s back after she ran through various backyard clothelines in the area. Her jaunts were the main reason Hogle Zoo is located where it is today – further away from downtown.
The elephant’s offspring, “Prince Utah,” also got loose from Liberty Park, as an Aug. 5, 1918 story in the Salt Lake Herald reported.
“Mother hard to comfort until her offspring is brought back,” was part of the Herald’s headline.
A Telegram story from Sept. 25, 1935 reported that Princess Alice didn’t leave the Zoo grounds, but that overnight she had broken her chain and smashed through a steel railing, enjoying “a night out” at Hogle Gardens Zoo.

                                   Buffalo on Antelope Island.

“Buffalo runs wild through S.L. streets; Women and children rush from path of crazed frontier beast” was a Salt Lake Telegram aheadline on July 23, 1931.
The 1,800-pound beast was in town for Pioneer Day, then called “Covered Wagon Days,” got loose after its rope broke at the State Fairgrounds and ended up being captured near the City dump, west of Redwood road. It had snorted furiously and send many people scurrying to safety. Forty cowboys and a squadron of police were involved in the chase. 
Salt Lake City was not the only Utah city with loose animal incidents -- “Gorilla at large” was headline in the Ogden Standard on Sept. 16, 1887. Somehow, a gorilla from a circus at Union Square had gotten loose just after dark and disappeared. Men were searching with torches trying to find the animal at a late hour.
Two days later, on Sept. 18, it was reported in the Standard that the gorilla had eventually been found, happily eating at a bakery on the lower side of town.

(-Note: This was originally published in the Deseret News.)

1936: When Hogle Zoo almost moved back to Liberty Park

                                                     The front to Hogle Zoo today.

SALT Lake City’s Hogle Zoo moved from its original Liberty Park Location to its current mountainside residence near the mouth of Emigration Canyon in 1931. However, less than five years later there was a seldom reported in history effort to move the Zoo back to Liberty Park.

“Plans to move Zoo to Liberty Park Indorsed (sic)” was an April 24, 1936 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.

The Zoo, then called “Hogle Gardens,” had originally moved because its elephant, Princess Alice, periodically broke free and roamed 700 East Street, putting the community in an uproar. A menagerie of clothing often adorned the pachyderm’s back after she ran through various backyard clothelines in the area.

A petition signed by a large group of S.L. citizens sparked the return to Liberty Park proposal. It not only believed the Park was a more central location for the zoo, but noted that some animals – especially Princess Alice – were homesick for their former home.

Indeed, an April 29, 1936 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram stated, “Princess Alice pining for Liberty Park, says ‘Dutch’ Shider, once her trainer.”

“She isn’t happy at the Gardens,” Shider said, “She pines for Liberty Park.”

                                             An elephant at Hogle Zoo in the late 1980s.

(On Nov. 15, 1931, the three-ton elephant had rebelled and injured a trainer and demolished a wooden trailer that was to move her to the new Zoo site.)

In 1936, there were 93 animals and 133 fowls housed at the zoo. (However, strangely the bears were not moved from Liberty Park and resided there alone for some years.)

Harold B. Lee, Salt Lake Commissioner of Streets and Public Improvements said he wanted to see the zoo in a place where the greatest majority of the people desire it.

The Zoo had resided at Liberty Park for nearly 25 years.

Not mentioned at the time were controversies that happened soon after the move to the mouth of Emigration Canyon. For example, the water supply to the Zoo was cut off in 1934 for failure to pay a $195 bill. The Zoo’s flamboyant superintendent threatened to turn all the animals loose if the water was not turned back on – and service was soon restored.

In addition, some of the original Zoo buildings at its mountainside location were not first class, or well kept.

Yet, the Zoo remained at the Mouth of Emigration Canyon, where it has expanded today to become one of the largest animal collections in the western states.

(Note: This was originally published in the Deseret News.)

Hogle Zoo Boasts Long, Colorful History

                                Entrance area to Hogle Zoo.
      
By Lynn Arave

Hogle Zoo technically hit the century mark in 2011 and with it, a legacy that goes back to its humble beginnings in Liberty Park, with just a single cage of monkeys.

During its 100-plus years, the zoo's progress toward becoming the Mountain West's largest collection of animals has been chronicled in the Deseret News.

In 1911, a deer was also put on display, and the state's first zoo looked like it would be a hit. By 1912, the Salt Lake City Parks Department officially started a zoo with a $153 investment, that included 16 animals — monkeys, pheasants, foxes, squirrels, ducks, cranes and peafowl.

A year later, in 1913, the zoo had its first building to house animals. It added another exhibit, 100 rabbits strong, and was open mid-May to mid-December that year. Admission was free.

Later that year, the zoo boasted 275 animals and an annual budget of $4,788.But it was 1916 when the zoo purchased its first elephant, the legendary Princess Alice from a traveling circus. Named for President Roosevelt's daughter Alice, area school children collected coins and raised $3,250 for the pachyderm's purchase price and travel expenses to Utah.

The next year, the zoo had a house erected for Princess Alice, and on April 29, 1918, she gave birth to Prince Utah. However, the baby elephant died on March 14, 1919, when his mother accidentally rolled over on him.

The Deseret News report claimed the mother elephant shed sad tears and exhibited mournful trumpeting after the death.

The community was in an uproar and everyone agreed that the zoo needed new quarters in a more isolated location.Still, Princess Alice remained the star of the zoo, at least until the early 1930s, when she began to run amok. In 1931, the elephant kept breaking loose and running down 700 East. Often, she would also run through Salt Lake City neighborhoods and have an odd collection of clothes stuck on her body, perhaps due to clotheslines strung throughout the yards at some homes at the height of the elephant.

Enter Mr. and Mrs. James Hogle, who donated land at the mouth of Emigration Canyon to the newly formed Salt Lake Zoological Society.

By July 31, 1931, a main building (today's old elephant building) was dedicated and 14,000 visitors swarmed the zoo the next day.

The zoo made the news again in 1934, when its water supply was cut off for failure to pay a $195 bill. The rather flamboyant zoo superintendent threatened to turn all the animals loose if the water was not restored. An agreement was reached, and the water was turned back on, without incident.Later that year, a monkey island exhibit was added to Hogle Zoo.

By the start of World War II, in the early 1940s, the zoo had fallen into a poor state of maintenance. But within a year, facilities were improved, and the zoo was even asking Salt Lake residents to donate their unwanted pets as exhibits.

The war meant supplies were meager, and local gardens were heavily relied upon to help feed many of the animals.

In 1947, Avard Fairbanks sculpted two mountain lions on top of the granite columns at the zoo's entrance. These lions still grace the zoo's entrance today. After the war, the zoo received some new improvements. However, in November of 1946, the zoo's polar bear Blizzard was shot, presumably by a visitor. It survived, but guns were then banned from the zoo.

Princess Alice went on another rampage in 1947, ripping up concrete, a steel fountain and a tree within the zoo boundaries, but no one was hurt.

In 1948, the famous Shasta the liger was born, sired by a father lion and mother tiger, and by 1953, Princess Alice had to be put to sleep, having lived to nearly age 69.

Admission costs to Hogle Zoo in 1963 were: adults, 25 cents; children, ages 5-14, 10 cents; and children under 5 were free.

The newspaper covered the zoo's alligator moving in 1967, to accommodate a repainting of their living quarters. In 1969, the Deseret News highlighted the zoo's Kodiak bears, and in 1971, the focus was on the zoo's bison herd.

There's a colorful history behind many of the individual features at the Hogle Zoo too.

This is a history visible before zoo guests even get inside the gates.

                     One of the bronze Hogle Zoo cougar sculptures.


Look closely at the two bronze sculptures of cougars by the waterfalls at the east side of the zoo's front gate. These same mountain lion models used to be perched atop the historic granite pillars entrance gate to Hogle Zoo, along Sunnyside Avenue, from 1947-2000. The felines, created by Avard Fairbanks, were refurbished and then incorporated into the zoo's new entryway, which opened in 2001.

Old-timers will also recall that Sunnyside Avenue was relocated in the 1960s and moved northward. It used to travel where the south side of today's parking lot is. That realignment allowed zoo parking to be contiguous to its entryway.

Hogle Zoo also has a Works Project Administration legacy. The main rock wall behind the zoo's new amphitheater is a product of the federal works project, which was built in the 1930s soon after the zoo relocated to 2600 E. Sunnyside Ave. from Liberty Park.

The wall is 12-15 feet thick, according to Hogle Zoo assistant director Doug Lund. He said the wall was reinforced with a lot of metal, which was likely salvaged during the Great Depression. Some old wagon wheels were even found in the wall's composition.

How about the Hogle Zoo miniature train?

It has been running around since 1969 and Lund estimates it has given joy to some 8 million riders during those four decades. Designed after an 1860 steam engine, the "C.P. Huntington," owned by the governor of California, its 24-inch tracks have been relocated three times over the years. The train can carry 76 passengers and now hauls a total of 400,000 riders each year.

Remember the lion head drinking fountains? The original lion fountain arrived at Hogle Zoo in the 1950s, has been refurbished a few times and is now found by the penguin pool. There are also two new versions of the fountain in use at the zoo.

Lund said he even has some old photos of himself as a youth with his head inside that lion's mouth.

Lund also said observant guests may spot some almost hidden features at the zoo. For example, there are six small dinosaurs hidden within the seven continents mural, above the zoo's carousel ride.

"It's kind of fun to spot them," he said, even though they are only a few inches tall.

There's also an elephant sculpture, only about 5 inches tall, carved into the main roof truss in the center of the Elephant Encounter Lodge.

(-Distilled from two stories in the Deseret News  by Lynn Arave and on Sept. 20, 2010 and Sept. 7, 2007).

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net