DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. The Fort Worth Zoological Park. Tarrant County.
And friend, this one goes back a ways. We're talking the oldest continuous zoo site in the entire state of Texas. That's not a small claim.
That's a title you hold with your chest out. The park has been drawing visitors — curious folks, schoolchildren, families with sticky-fingered kids — since nineteen-oh-nine. And that number, nineteen-oh-nine, is where the real story begins.
See, Fort Worth had itself a zoo before this one. A small menagerie, they called it, tucked into an old City Park, operated by the newly established Park Board. It wasn't grand.
But it was something. Then came the flood of nineteen-oh-nine. And a flood, as any Texan can tell you, does not negotiate.
That flood destroyed the animal collection. Just wiped it out. Now at a moment like that, a lesser city might've shrugged and moved on.
But Fort Worth had a man named George Vinnedge. He was the city's first Park Superintendent — first one ever — and when the floodwaters receded and the loss was plain to see, Vinnedge made a decision. He chose this site.
Right here. For a new zoo. And from that choice, something lasting grew.
Over the years, the zoo saw steady growth — in facilities, in the animals that called it home — and the marker is clear about who deserves the credit for that: the community. Their support, their concern, decade after decade, is what kept it growing. The oldest continuous zoo site in Texas.
Built on loss, chosen by one man's judgment, sustained by a whole city's care.
What the marker says
The oldest continuous Zoo site in Texas, the Fort Worth Zoological Park has provided its visitors with many recreational and educational opportunities since 1909. The first Zoo in Fort Worth was a small menagerie then located in an old City Park and operated by the newly established Park Board. After a 1909 flood destroyed the animal collection, George Vinnedge, the city's first Park Superintendent, chose this site for a new Zoo. Over the years, the Zoo has experience a steady growth in facilities and additions to its collection, largely due to community support and concern. (1983)