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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries - largest non-Facebook collection on the internet >> Miami Area Tourist and Local ATTRACTIONS Historical Photos Gallery - All Years - click on image to view > 1970 - elephants at the Crandon Park Zoo
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1970 Courtesy of Brad King

1970 - elephants at the Crandon Park Zoo

Crandon Park Zoo, Key Biscayne, Florida


Thank you to Brad King for contributing this image. The Crandon Park Zoo was a wonderful convenient zoo to visit during a day at the beach at Crandon Park.


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MJ 11-Aug-2024 21:57
Does anyone know if there’s anyone out there who knew the zoo official James Amon? He worked at the zoo in the 1960’s and perhaps before then.
Ginger P 31-Oct-2020 13:10
I rode Dixie the Elephant when I was a small child. She was owned by my father's boss who donated her to the zoo when she got big. the man was an animal lover and even imported a pink dolphin to put in a pool I think that went south he also had wolves.. We are talking the late 60's early 70's . She was just a baby when I rode her. I visited Crandon park zoo multiple times I remember a time when I went with a group of other children. They had the big cats in cages that were in a rather L shape and in the middle was a round tall cage with bald eagles in it. When we got at the end of the row. A lion was not present a child asked where she was she supposedly had babies and was locked up. It was the last cage and as we walked past the big cats you could see the cages behind the display cages a chain hung to prevent people from going back there but I heard babies and I went under the chain looking for them. As I walked back there a loose bald eagle may be attracted by the caged ones stood in my path and was about as tall as I was I felt. I went to walk up to it.. I will never forget the feeling of the air as it raised up to fly off. . It was a massive bird. I have seen bald eagles since but never that big but then again I was rather small so I am sure through my child's eyes that eagle was the size of a dinosaur :) .
Jennifer Bergstrom Jensen 22-Dec-2018 19:25
Dixie the elephant was not donated by the guy that owned winn dixie it was owned by William Bergstrom and later donated to Crandon Zoo. (Seriously where do people come up with this stuff)
Tina Cridlin 11-Dec-2016 22:36
Erle J Cridlin
Tina Cridlin 11-Dec-2016 22:34
When I was little, My popa, Release J. Cridlin(Ping), worked for him, on the weekends he would take my sister Tammy and I with him to the house, we lived in Westwood Lake, we played with Dixie all the time, they would bring her to the church and let the kids ride her. Everyone thought me and Tammy were so cool! When she was donated to the zoo, we would go see her, she remembered us and would come eat peanuts out of our hand. I cried like a baby when she died.
Sharron 22-Jan-2016 12:18
I'M A LATE POSTER HERE. I SEE LAST POST MADE 2011. I JUST WANTED TO MENTION THAT WE LIVED ON 112TH ST AND I SHOPPED AT THE WINN DIXIE THAT I THINK WAS ON 102 AND BIRD ROAD. DIXIE'S HOME WAS ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE WINN DIXIE. IT WAS A DELIGHT FOR MY 2 DAUGHTERS AND I TO SEE DIXIE JUST ACROSS THE ROAD. I REMEMBER HER TIRE, THE SADNESS OF THE LOSS OF HER "DADDY" AND HER FINALLY ENDING UP AT CRANDON ZOO. WE VISITED THERE OFTEN. I FELT A CLOSENESS TO THAT ELEPHANT AS I HAD WATCHED HER GROW UP IF ONLY FROM WINN DIXIE'S PARKING LOT. WE DID WALK TO THE FENCE TO GET A CLOSER LOOK ONCE BUT I FELT WE WERE BEING INTRUSIVE SO IT WAS JUST FOR A FEW MINTUES. MY GIRLS ARE IN THEIR FIFTIES NOW AND THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER DIXIE WITH GREAT FONDNESS AS WILL I.
Guest 05-Nov-2011 07:51
I remember that key that Wally mentioned below. I've been trying for YEARS to remember exactly how that worked. If I'm recalling this correctly, they sold them in the gift shop, or maybe where you paid the admission. It was just like he said...there was a metal box by each animal exhibit, and that key fit into it and activated the recording. I was watching Animal Planet one evening a few years ago..some zoologists were out at the end of Key Biscayne at a beach near some condos trying to catch wild iguanas. They said that the iguanas were descended from iguanas that were originally housed at the Crandon Park Zoo "many years ago."
M Cooley 29-Dec-2010 15:03
I lived on the street, SW 104 Ct, that dead-ended (at the time, not a thru street) in to the property owned by Bergstrom, where he and Dixie lived. My dad knew Dixie's commands and what she liked for a reward (cigarettes). I think he spent some time with her, I was born in '64 and Dixie moved in '67 so my memory is sketchy. I think she put on some shows for the neighbors occasionally. When she was moved to the zoo we visited her often. At that time, I suppose it was Crandon Park Zoo, you could get rather close to the animals. My dad would call her and she, I assume, remembered him, would stand, bow, sit, and salute for him. When she was moved to the "habitat" with Pan and Am it was more difficult to get her attention, but that didn't stop my father from trying! I think maybe one time she heard him and responded, this would have been just a year or more before her death.
Erik Olufson 13-Aug-2010 22:59
William Bergstrom was the owner of Dixie. He was the founder of ACES, Air Carrier Engine Service which is now Aerothrust , corp.. My father worked there from 1955 til his death in 1993. He knew Mr. Bergstrom very well. As a child I remember going to the zoo just to see Dixie play with that tire. As my father told me, Dixie was always friendly and happy around Mr. Bergstrom. That changed after Mr. Berstroms death. Apparently, when Mr. Bergstrom passed on in the late 60's, Dixie became unmanagable for the family which in turn donated Dixie to Crandon Park. Til my fathers death in 1993, every year on Christmas eve he would place flowers on his my uncles tombstone, my little cousin, both his mother and fathers final resting place, and finally he would stop and place some flowers on Mr. Bergstroms grave site. He had lots of respect for that man.
Wally Roberts 27-Mar-2010 04:15
I remember going as a kid and they gave you a little elephant key that you used in a box at each exibit and it would play a recording ... WOW that was a long time ago
laura 17-Nov-2009 17:38
I currently work for the orthopedic doctor that operated on Dixie the Elephant. What do you remember about that time?
Guest 06-Jan-2009 15:51
Dixie the Elephant, was donated by the guy that owned Winn Dixie
Guest 16-Sep-2007 03:49
My brother was a night keeper at Crandon Park. He had me out a few times to see the animals in their 'cells'.

He is still a zoo keeper in Nashville, with the Pandas his charge.

I can still remember the tiger who's call could be heard a mile away.

I also remember when an idiot tried to climb into his cage.
- Mark Lincoln