Remember when Iowa City had a zoo? Earlis Stockman does

IOWA CITY - One of the city's longest-serving employees retired this week after a 46-year career spanning the transformation of the Iowa City park system from one focused on caretaking a zoo with bears and buffalo to one of trails and playgrounds.

Earlis Stockman, 66, who retired Thursday as a senior maintenance worker, had applied with a recommendation from a friend after leaving the U.S. Army in 1969. After talking with the park's superintendent, 'he just hired me on,” he said.

It was a simpler time then - one that didn't require background checks, screenings and paperwork, he said.

The park system was also much different compared with the one today, which features 42 parks and natural areas.

'Back then we didn't have as many parks,” he said. 'City Park was the focus.”

When he was hired, the city had just gotten rid of two black bears at the City Park Zoo 'because they were getting mean.” He used the old cages in the banks behind the Shakespeare Theater for storage. The zoo lived on for another decade or so with prairie dogs, deer, fox, donkeys, goats, monkeys and iguanas, he said.

Stockman recalled that once after a severe thunderstorm, buffalo got loose on the baseball diamonds.

'I had to go out and herd buffalo in the fields,” he said. 'How many people can say they did that?”

While parents and children enjoyed the zoo, it became too expensive to maintain, he said. The park system transitioned and so did Stockman's job.

'It is more for exercise and recreation now,” he said of the city parks.

Stockman's work varied by day - a quality he enjoyed - from pruning branches in the spring to mowing grass in the summer to raking leaves in the fall to clearing sidewalks in the winter. He helped construct playground equipment, erect picnic shelters, and set benches along trails, and he specialized in concrete work.

Natural disasters also fell into the job description. After a 2006 tornado, Stockman manned an end-loader to clear logs. Managing flooding of the Iowa River has become a near-annual ritual for his team.

Park expansion continued through his tenure with the addition of natural areas, dog parks, splash pads and community gardens, many of which Stockman helped build. New green spaces have popped up in neighborhoods, and now nearly all residents have a park within a short walk.

'It's just nice to see how happy they are,” he said of park users. 'We keep up on the parks, and it's nice to see people enjoying it.”