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Nature & Trails

Granger and the Zoo

Section 82 of 89 in the Granger record · 13 entry pages

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The Zoo · No Zoo on This Ground, and the Zoo Granger Uses

The test, whole: no zoo has ever stood in Clay or Harris township

ROWS 1–4, 14 · THE GRANGER TEST · AS OF NOVEMBER 2026

The first question is tested, not assumed, and the record answers it plainly: no zoo, menagerie, sanctuary, zoological society or animal collection of record has ever stood inside the Granger census-designated place. The word…

The candidate grounds, and the pre-zoo years that are not here

ROWS 5–6 · THE GROUND TEST

A zoo needs ground, and this place's candidate grounds are known whole — which is what makes the negative worth printing: Harris Township Park on Brummitt Road (30 acres) and the Elm Road park are trustee-built recreation grounds…

The ground and the three foundings — Potawatomi Park, Leeper Park 1902, Potawatomi 1921

ROWS 2–5 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED · SOUTH BEND'S WHOLE

The zoo Granger uses stands at 500 South Greenlawn Avenue, South Bend, in Potawatomi Park, between the St. Joseph River and the Grand Trunk railroad. The Parks Department's chronology dates the park to 1905; on 3 April 1906 the…

The relief-era house and the 1947 inventory

ROW 6 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED

The pre-modern zoo was a small, hardy collection in one relief-built house: the Works Progress Administration built the Cat House, the zoo's first permanent structure — dated 1936 in the zoo's own timeline (“known as the WPA…

The society and the money — 1971, admission 1981, takeover 1 January 2014

ROW 7 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED

No zoological society touches Granger ground; the society that runs Granger's zoo is South Bend's: in 1971 the Friends of the Zoo organized — carried formally as the St. Joseph Zoological Society, Craig D. McCowan its first…

Accreditation — continuously since 1987, renewed 17 September 2025

ROW 8 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED

Granger holds no accreditation because it holds no zoo; the boundary course is this: first accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 1987, and continuously since — the AZA's inaugural Quarter Century Award roll…

The expansion eras, one by one — and a pattern corrected

ROW 9 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED · REBUILDS DISTINGUISHED FROM FIRST BUILDS

First, the correction: “Australian Adventure 1987” is not a Potawatomi era. Australian Adventure and African Journey are the Fort Wayne zoo's named realms, in that city's build. Potawatomi's Australian exhibit was the Australian…

Animals of record — and the devils placed where they belong

ROW 10 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED

The Tasmanian devils first, because the checklist names them and they are not this zoo's: the North American devil record — twelve devils housed 1987–2004, more than any other North American zoo, and Coolah, the last devil living…

Fire, escapes and loss the record gives them

ROW 11 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED · GRANGER HALF TESTED NEGATIVE

For Granger the row closes with the verdict: no collection stood here, so no fire, escape or animal loss on this ground stands in any record reached. For the boundary zoo the record reached is small and prints whole. Its one…

Attendance and honors, dated

ROW 12 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED

No Granger zoo drew a crowd or took an honor; the boundary zoo publishes its own count, printed dated, as the zoo gives it: 2010, 185,000; 2011, 198,000; 2012, 203,898; 2013, 205,758; 2014, 207,000 (the takeover year); 2015…

“Indiana's oldest zoo,” tested — and the name course, with the 2025 date corrected

ROWS 13–14 · BOUNDARY-PRINTED

Granger has no oldest-zoo claim — no zoo, no claim. The boundary claim is examined, not repeated: Potawatomi's director stated it in the 1902 form in January 2020 (“started in 1902 as a duck pond in Leeper Park and is the oldest…

The zoo in Granger's school life, and the zoo today

ROW 15 · VERIFIED TO NOVEMBER 2026

Granger's zoo life is a bus ride, printed at exactly that strength: the PHM schools seated in the CDP — Mary Frank, Prairie Vista, Horizon and Northpoint elementaries and Discovery Middle School, carried whole in the Schools…

Zoo: Not Found and Still Open

THE RECORD AS IT STANDS · NOVEMBER 2026

What this section could not settle is named, with the source that settles each item:

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Source: Granger and the Zoo, Moosed History by Project Moosed, https://history.projectmoosed.com/usa/midwest/indiana/granger/zoo/