Old MacDonald’s Farm sticks around

CEDAR RAPIDS — After 34 years at Old MacDonald's Farm in Cedar Rapids, Julie Myers, animal exhibit coordinator, will retire at the end of this season.

Though her retirement this September inevitably will bring changes to the southeast side's Bever Park attraction, the farm will not cease to exist as some rumors have suggested. It will instead continue to evolve as it has since its beginnings in the late 1890s.

When Sampson C. Bever died in 1893, he dedicated his family's land — known then as the Bever woods — to the city to be developed into a park.

As the park was established, so was the zoo — a unique attraction that brought exotic animals including monkeys, bears, lions, cougars, bobcats, peacocks, prairie dogs and more to the city.

'The zoo was tied to the philosophy of bringing nature to people who lived in urban centers — bringing the wildest of nature to the city,' said Mark Stoffer Hunter, historian with the History Center in Cedar Rapids. 'The idea was to get people connected with nature by seeing these animals.'

The zoo was a hit from the beginning, bringing people from outside the city to Cedar Rapids by train.

Having grown up just blocks from the zoo, Hunter said he vividly remembers hearing the lion's roar every morning.

'It used to wake up the entire southeast quadrant of Cedar Rapids,' he said with a laugh.

Old MacDonald's Farm was introduced in the 1950s as a supplement to the zoo. But the parks department decided raising farm animals was more cost-effective and more manageable than exotic animals.

With that and the inhumane conditions of the exotic animals' cages — cramped, old and dirty — in mind, the department began to transition the attraction away from a zoo to a farm, phasing out the exotic animals beginning in the 1970s.

'The public really misses' the exotic animals, Hunter said. 'But at the same time, people are understanding ...

We want to make sure we're treating animals correctly.'

The exotic animals were removed through attrition or sent to animal shelters or other zoos. The monkeys were the last to go, in 2003.

Today, Old MacDonald's Farm is host to ducks, geese, goats, pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, parrots and barn cats.

Daniel Gibbins, Cedar Rapids Parks Department superintendent, said many people still know the farm as the Bever Zoo, but 'it's not really a zoo anymore,' which is why the parks department is seeking to make changes to the attraction to clarify its brand.

'We are trying to shift it to make sure that it's completely relevant to what Cedar Rapids is today and how we can best complement that moving into the future,' he said, adding that the big-picture ideas being tossed around — such as a petting zoo element, a vegetable garden demonstrating local food production and a 'loop walk' around the farm — are being discussed with community partners including Iowa BIG and Matthew 25.

For now, they're focused on finding a replacement for Myers.

Myers 'is the best we've ever known with animals and it's going to be a very difficult position to fill,' Gibbins said, explaining that the position is not just 'typical park maintenance' — cleaning, mowing, sweeping and the like — but it's also caring for animals as well as leading educational programs for daily group tours and weekend birthday parties.

'It's not just a job for Julie, it's her life,' he added. That kind of dedication is 'absolutely critical to find for such a unique position.'

As conversations about the future of the farm progress, parks department officials hope to develop more partnerships with the community and find additional funding to support updates to the farm's infrastructure.

'Working with volunteers and partnerships is more beneficial to the city because the city takes ownership of it. They get to love and respect the places because their hands are in it, too,' Gibbins said.

He added that there's been 'nothing but support' for the facility over the years because people have 'grown up here.'

Dean Parr, who has lived across from Bever Park since 1982 and in Cedar Rapids since 1975, said he reared his children — and now grandchildren — at the park.

'It's one of those special things,' he said, commenting on the uniqueness of the park. 'I've never lived anywhere where there were animals at a park near where I live ...

I think it's a big thing for Cedar Rapids to have something like this.'

Gail Loskill, marketing and special projects manager for the parks department, said only 50 percent of parks throughout the nation have either a zoo or historical element. Bever Park has both.

'This is a zoo that's been loved for over 100 years,' Gibbins said. 'Bever Park wouldn't be Bever Park without this facility, and it's for that very reason that we really need to rethink the future so it doesn't just languish.

'It's got to continue to be special. We wouldn't be good stewards if we didn't look at how to make it have a vibrant and positive future and that just always involves change.'

Gibbins added, 'It will never be what it was before, but that's OK because we can still make it increasingly special and that's what we're going to do. We just don't know what that's going to look like.'