Old Zoo Near Lost Lake?!

[tailtwister]

unreal... this has been a cool thread.

There's still so much undeveloped land above the area that there must still be remnants somewhere of this... I wonder if that railing is perhaps part of that.

[riverrat]

The zoo was located in the area where Brookwood Drive and Fairbrook Crescent and Woodwinds Crescent are, just off Uplands and Rutherford Roads to the south-east. The entrance was at the bottom of the hill near Oliver Road. So yes, it is down the hill from from Kimberly's Fashions and the Quilted Duck (formerly known as McIntosh Farms). . . . ...

Hey so, does that mean it was right underneath Rutherford Ridge?

[Smokey©]

Hey so, does that mean it was right underneath Rutherford Ridge?

Yes, if Rutherford Ridge is between Uplands and Long Lake Road.

[tailtwister]

I'll post some photos over the next couple of days that will indicate some possible proof that it was on the ridge just above Fairbrook Crescent. There are a couple of foundations there with indications that it may be about 50 years old (including dump bottles and old china).

If you go in by GPS, you can find the site at roughly 49 deg 13' 26.74" N and 123 deg 01' 10.89" W

Along the top of that ridge are a few foundations that you can barely get to because of the blackberry bushes. Dig carefully for old bottles and cans.

[Persephone]

The other area questionable (by talking to more sources) is at the end of Brookswood Drive near the pond (which is pretty much underneath the ridge with all of the towers...........

The other thing I found very interesting is that there is a geocache located on that ridge near the towers that is called "critter cache near the old zoo".
Ryan and I found that cache in December 2005 (you can see our comments on geocache.com) and at that time I questioned what the "near the old zoo" meant, and now I know!

[fitz]

Hot damn! I know riverrat loves finding old treasures.. and I have a GPS... let's do it.

[tailtwister]

The other area questionable (by talking to more sources) is at the end of Brookswood Drive near the pond (which is pretty much underneath the ridge with all of the towers...........

I think this thing was so big it covers most of that area. 90 acres is nothing to sneeze at. However, if you look at the post card scan and figure the ridge in the background and the distance, then go to those foundations and look east (trying to ignore 50 years of tree growth), the ridge behind makes sense. Down on Brookwood, the lower ridge would be too close.

Riverrat, where was that animal enclosure railing you found that started this thread? Was it in this area?

There were a LOT of animals in this zoo so it took up a LOT of space. I'm sure there is a lot in the brush that hasn't been unearthed in decades up there.

[Persephone]

I totally agree with you in terms of the ridges............. and yes, you are right about the 90 acres, we figured that it would include that area too.

Fitz/Riverrat - I want to go with you guys! Our GPS went overboard on the kayak so we are due for a new one pretty quick.......

I am really curious too about that enclosure railing and if it really was a part of this whole thing.

[Smokey©]

The swamp area in the middle of the subdivision was a part of the zoo but the swamp area east of the end of Brookwood was not a part of the zoo although it could have been part of the Hertel's property. In conversation today with a resident that lived near DIX Rd and Hillside for over the last 60 years, they could hear the lions when they were about 10 or 12 years old and the zoo consisted of the area from the top of Hillside near Cottleview to the OLD Rutherford Road (it twisted and turned about 5 loops from Uplands to McIntosh Farms) and the other side went right to the top of the Ridge although there were no animals kept on the ridge.

Lindley Valley is 145 Acres so 2/3rds of Lindey Valley would be the size of Hertels Zoo (approx.)

[tailtwister]

so perhaps the buildings up on the ridge were the Hertel residence or other buildings. or, I suppose, they could be completely unrelated and from an entirely different era altogether. I haven't had a chance to try and date any of the bottles that I found but they SEEM older than 50 years.

when up on the ridge, I took some pictures of the bricks, concrete and other bits and pieces we found up there. the idea is that perhaps someone can date it based on what they see...

you can see the photos here

(the boot, btw, was made in Romania)