"There are two things a lively city needs -- a practiced zoo and a good baseball game team."

  • The World'south Fair of 1904 in St. Louis brought with it a walk-through flight cage commissioned past the Smithsonian Establishment. St. Louisans fought for it to remain in the urban center once the Off-white ended, and it would after become a cornerstone for the Zoo. The City of St. Louis chose to buy information technology for $three,500 (original cost to build was $17,500) rather than accept information technology dismantled and sent to Washington, D.C.

  • The popularity of the bird cage during the World'south Off-white inspired civic leaders to build a real zoological garden in St. Louis. In November 1910, the Zoological Guild of St. Louis was established. The founders formed the system with the hope that a zoo would make the urban center more appealing for visitors and residents alike.

  • The initial excitement that surrounded the formation of the Zoological Society of Saint Louis presently faded as it became clear that establishing a new zoo in St. Louis wasn't going to be as easy as the Society's founders imagined.

    The biggest obstacle? Agreeing where to put information technology.

    Promoters argued for Forest Park. The country was bachelor, the location was ideal, and the park already hosted a collection of animals. But non everyone was convinced. One of the biggest critics of the Forest Park location was the city's park commissioner who said a zoo -- specially its beast buildings -- could ruin the natural beauty of the park.

    Other locations considered included Carondelet Park, Creve Coeur Lake, and Fairground Park, which was the location of the metropolis's first zoo.

    It would take 3 years of arguments earlier the issue was resolved. On December 2, 1913, Mayor Henry Kiel signed legislation creating a Zoological Board of Command, and giving information technology authority over more than 70 acres of Wood Park.

  • Although much has inverse in the Zoo's 100-year history, its mission remains amazingly like to the ethics expressed by its founders. An early booklet from the Saint Louis Zoo lists the following objectives:

    • To establish and to co-operate with the City of St. Louis in maintaining a Zoological Park for the instruction and recreation of the people.
    • To exhibit wild animals under favorable conditions.
    • To encourage Zoological Research.
    • To increase public involvement in wild animals.
    • To secure better protection of wild animal life, past educational methods.

  • When the Zoo was looking to purchase its starting time elephant in 1916, it turned to St. Louis schoolchildren for help. More than 6,000 children took part in a penny campaign that resulted in the purchase of a 35-year-former Asian elephant who had once been a circus performer.

    Miss Jim would be her name, named after James Harper, president of the school board. To say the children were excited about the elephant's arrival would be an understatement. More than 17,000 onlookers watched as she was paraded through Forest Park. "Never was there a more enthusiastic gathering of schoolchildren," reported theSt. Louis Commonwealth. "They danced effectually the elephant all the fashion out calling her proper name and pointing out to each other which part of Jim they endemic."

    Miss Jim would remain popular throughout her seventy-year life. In that time she gave rides to thousands of visitors of all ages.

  • The Saint Louis Zoo earned attention from around the world when information technology opened its Deport Pits in 1921. The moated showroom became but the 2nd of its kind to be opened in the United States and was considered a model for zoos effectually the world.