116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Curious Iowa: What’s the story behind Bever Park Zoo in Cedar Rapids?
How did Bever Park Zoo get started? And when did all of the exotic animals leave?
Sep. 8, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Sep. 8, 2025 7:21 am
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In the early 1900s, Bever Park Zoo was a point of pride in Cedar Rapids. Over the years, it became home to beloved black bears, monkeys, alligators, elk and lions. Today, Bever Park is home to Old MacDonald’s Farm, a free petting zoo stocked with animals you’ll commonly find around Iowa.
One curious Iowan from Cedar Rapids wrote to Curious Iowa, a Gazette series that answers readers’ questions, wondering how the Bever Park Zoo got started and why the exotic animals were rehoused.
We spoke with local historians and dug through over a century’s worth of newspaper coverage of the Bever Park Zoo to find the answers.
When was Bever Park Zoo established? And what kinds of animals lived there?
Bever Park Zoo opened in 1901, although its first donation — a pair of eagles — was acquired in 1900. When the zoo was established, the Cedar Rapids parks committee’s attention was on beautifying Bever and Riverside parks. Bever Park Zoo was heralded locally as a source of family entertainment.
From newspaper archives, we can gather that a black bear named “Gussie,” deer, wolves, a fox, a pair of horned owls, and a mountain jay were among the first animals on display. Animal donations were encouraged without discrimination toward the species. The prevailing attitude was that the zoo would find a way to care for and exhibit the animals.
A March 31, 1902 article from The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette said, “The city will take care of any and all animals that the people may be willing to donate and it is already assured that the zoo is going to be one of the most pleasant attractions in the city.”
Another Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette article from Aug. 4, 1920 announced the arrival of 12 ring necked pheasants, six mallard ducks and two red foxes. In the article, then-Parks Commissioner Harry J. Whitfield said, “It costs little or nothing to feed such animals as we now have at the zoo and we are always glad to add to the collection. There is one merchant here in town, a fruit dealer, who lets us have all the fruit left on his hands and nearly all the animals are glad to get this fruit. The children who visit the zoo must feed a ton or so of peanuts to the animals, too, or they wouldn’t be happy.”
Some donated animals were trapped in the yards of residents. Others came from other countries. In 1927, Charles C. Hahn, secretary and general manager of the Cedar Rapids Engineering Company, and his wife Alice took a trip across the globe, returning with a lion cub from Africa. The cub was named Johanna.
“There just wasn’t that kind of code of ethics that we would hold today as governing zoological bodies and care for exotic animals, especially endangered species … it just didn’t exist in that time period,” Jessica Peel-Austin, curator of museum collections at Brucemore, said.
“It was very much a thing where people traveled and then they would see an animal … and people would just acquire those animals and then send them to zoos. So there wasn’t a lot of concern for can the zoo actually care for this particular type of animal? Is it ethical to take it out of its environment?”
By 1940, the zoo had amassed 91 animals and 40 birds. In 1942, the city reduced the animal population after the animal caretaker, Billy Volz Jr., enlisted in the army and meat rations went into effect. City officials noted then that the zoo had long been a drain on municipal finances, costing the parks department more than $10,000 annually. When The Gazette reported that some of the animals were to be disposed of, an outpouring of support — and buyers — came out of the woodwork from around the Midwest. The zoo was restocked after the war.
In 1957, the barnyard zoo was added “with the idea of buying typical farm animals each spring, selling them to farmers for raising or to the market for slaughter each fall.”
Did Howard Hall help Bever Park Zoo acquire lions?
Johanna’s arrival in Cedar Rapids came nine years before Howard Hall brought his first pet lion to Brucemore Mansion. Hall kept pet lions, all named Leo, until 1951 after the death of Leo III.
“People will say, ‘Oh when I was a kid and I was living nearby in the 1960s and ‘70s, I would hear a lion roaring at Brucemore,’” Peel-Austin said, “and unfortunately … there were no lions here after 1951, so what people were hearing were the lions at Bever Park Zoo.”
While the zoo had a number of lions over the years, Peel-Austin said there isn’t any concrete evidence that Hall was involved in their acquisition.
There is a possibility that Hall, who had a history of donating money anonymously, could have donated money to bring Lou, a lion from Busch Gardens, to the zoo in 1968. Peel-Austin said that the funding for Lou came from an anonymous donation to the Hawkeye Zoological Society.
“We have a note in one of our files that I have found that said that Howard’s vet, which was Doctor Anthony, who used to have the animal clinic on A Avenue back in the day, may have helped acquire that lion for the zoo, and the backing for that may have come from Howard,” Peel-Austin said, “but we have no documentation of this.”
When did sentiments around the zoo change?
In the 1960s, records show a shift in public perception of the Bever Park Zoo. Concerns arose about inadequate facilities for the animals, although funding for improvements was limited.
In 1964, then-Parks Commissioner Donald Gardner proposed a regional park plan for Squaw Creek Park — today known as Wanatee Park. The plan included a “zoological garden.”
This proposal became the catalyst for the formation of the Hawkeye Zoological Society in 1967. The group is best known for its efforts to replace the Bever Park Zoo with a larger zoo with natural, open-air enclosures. The society lobbied for 80 acres of land in the center of the Wanatee Park, but after years of effort, the Linn County Conservation Board blocked the attempt in 1972.
In 1974, the issue went to the voters. Cedar Rapidians considered a referendum asking for $3 million in general obligation bonds for a new zoo replacing the Bever Park Zoo and a 1-cent per $1,000 of valuation tax for operating expenses. Both the bond issue and tax levy were defeated.
In 1977, the Bever Park Zoo advisory committee was formed by then-Parks Commissioner Stan Reinis. The committee’s areas of concern included exhibit design, security, staff structure, ongoing operations, construction, and finances.
A questionnaire sent to Cedar Rapidians about the zoo found that a majority of respondents felt the zoo should be kept as-is, and the second largest group of respondents said that zoo should be shut down. This questionnaire would guide the city’s decision to keep the zoo open for decades.
The advisory committee succeeded in opening a new primate house for the zoo’s 19 monkeys and two baboons in 1980. This is when attendance started being tracked.
On Feb. 20, 1981, the advisory committee was dissolved by Reinis. The committee had submitted its master plan for the future development of the zoo to Reinis the past July.
But, as a letter sent to then-Mayor Don Canney by the committee days before it was dissolved said, “Six months later, all we have are promises, and no action. This committee has survived mostly on promises for three and a half years. The city fathers consider the zoo a back burner issue. However, the lives of many animals and the feelings of thousands of zoo patrons cannot be ignored. The master plan is an answer to poorly housed animals and inefficient city management and administration.”
The master plan called for a zoo commission to oversee zoo operations and a zoo director. Reinis said that city couldn’t fund it, citing that feeding and caring for the animals cost the city $40,000 annually.
When did the animals start leaving the zoo?
The year 1982 marked a chapter of change for the Bever Park Zoo with Elmer Delaney stepping into the role of Cedar Rapids parks commissioner. The parks department began formulating a new master plan for the zoo, with the goal of transitioning it to a children’s zoo.
That spring, a USDA inspector gave the city an ultimatum: update the bear pits, which were constructed when the zoo first opened more than 80 years ago, or get rid of the bears. Delaney opted to sell the two bears as well as pairs of lions and wolves. Feeding the lions cost the city $6,000 a year and $1,775 a year for the wolves.
“Ultimately, the efforts to improve the zoo were largely unsuccessful,” Tara Templeman, The History Center curator told The Gazette in an email.
In 1998, then-parks commissioner Dale Todd told The Gazette that for the previous 20 years, the zoo had “languished.”
“Today, you no longer put animals in a cage for display,” Todd said. But Bever Park didn’t have the space for larger, more natural exhibits, and even if it did, the city couldn’t fund it.
In 2003, the city evicted its 20-some monkeys in order to save the city more than $60,000. One of the residents was Bozo, a 38-year-old monkey who was born at the zoo. Monkeys had lived at Bever Park Zoo for more than 60 years, officials estimated. The monkeys were relocated to zoos or rescue centers across the country.
Closing the primate house divided the community, but ultimately then-parks commissioner Wade Wagner said that “it was a combination of money, aesthetics and zoo industry standards that led to the decision to close the facility.”
“What we have here is obsolete and inhumane,” Wagner said. “They live on a concrete slab.”
Julie Myers, an animal caretaker at the zoo for over 20 years, told The Gazette at the time that monkeys become excited when they recognize regular visitors, even recognizing the vehicles of caretakers.
While city officials and zoo staff applauded Myers’ dedication to the monkeys, Myers said it was no consolation for losing the animals she cared for as friends, “You can bust your butt around here, and look what happens.”
The monkey house received about 48,000 visits annually, about half the traffic it had several years prior. Plus, the primate house needed at least $40,000 in renovations.
In 2005, Old MacDonald’s Farm was reintroduced to the public after renovations funded by the Junior League of Cedar Rapids.
Today, Old MacDonald’s Farm in Bever Park remains operated and maintained by the Cedar Rapids Parks & Recreation Department. The free petting farm features barnyard animals and North American waterfowl. The farm’s 2025 season ends on Sept. 28.
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Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com
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