What started with a retired animal trainer’s pet brown bear named Jake in the 1920s has become home to more than 200 animals in Michigan City nine decades later.
Washington Park Zoo hosts the Zoo’s 90th Birthday Celebration June 16.
“The old bear got retired from the circus and was brought to the park,” said Jamie Huss, director of Washington Park Zoo, about the retired animal trainer moving Jake to the Washington Park lakefront in 1925.
“He wanted the bear to have more company. He had fish at the time. People started adding animals to the collection. We just know a lot of animals were brought in — alligators, some deer, some pheasants.”
In 1928 the first official Washington Park Zoo board was appointed and the zoo was moved off the lakefront to its current location on a sand dune near the southern shore of Lake Michigan.
“It’s a big milestone,” said Huss about Washington Park Zoo’s 90th birthday.
“It’s amazing to be in the city that long and to know that the zoo started from the community to being built from a Works Progress Administration project and still being a city-owned zoo. That’s an amazing feat.
“We’ve brought in more interactive exhibits and experiences for the visitors as well as improved habitats for the animals. That’s been the two big things.”
Zoo’s 90th Birthday Celebration includes a chain saw demonstration and Four Winds New Buffalo bringing some games from the Michigan casino resort’s Kids Quest activity center.
The public debut of Sebastian, a paca or South American rodent, is part of the festivities as well.
“This is the first time he’ll be out on display,” said Huss, a second-generation zookeeper after her mother, Jan Weinig, was a zookeeper for approximately 25 years before retiring.
Zoo’s 90th Birthday Celebration also features the opportunity for guests to take in some animal talks, build birdhouses to bring home and see animals destroy some pinatas.
“It’s just a chance to get up close and talk to the keepers and see what we’ve got going on,” said Huss, of LaPorte.
“It’s a small zoo so young kids don’t get too tired. It’s up close and personal. At big zoos you can’t usually talk to keepers. The zookeepers here are very hands-on so it’s a very personal zoo. We also do a lot of rescue work.
“A lot of our animals are misplaced pets. Since we started that way, we decided to continue that mission. We make sure that all of our animals are well taken care of. A lot of the animals we have cannot live in the wild. Our goal in five years is to expand all of our habitats.”
With a focus on conservation, education and recreation, Washington Park Zoo exhibits more than 90 species originating from throughout the world. They are shown in natural settings and surrounded by botanical plantings.
Attractions include an interactive display in which guests can be inches away from an otter family swimming in their underwater home, a recently expanded fallow deer exhibit with a new habitat, and the Australian Adventure walk-through aviary featuring more than 250 free-flying parakeets.
“The 70-foot-tall observation tower’s always a big hit. It’s just a nice place to not only discover animals but discover history with old pathways, walkways and building we still have at the zoo,” Huss said.
Zoo’s 90th Birthday Celebration
When: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. June 16
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Where: Washington Park Zoo, 115 Lakeshore Drive, Michigan City
Admission: $7 ages 12-61; $6 ages 62 and older and 3-11; free ages 2 and younger
Information: 219-873-1510; www.washingtonparkzoo.com