donald bale

I worked there in 74 and these pictures really capture how great the park was it's first season. keeping the elephants in line was a real trip and watching the rhinos gallop across the section, stop on a dime and turn directions was an amazing sight to see. all of the animals in the park really stood out the best the first couple of years.

Ed, if you remember, Jake and Leonard were supervisiors over two parts of the predators. Jake had 1st lions, brown bears and leopards and black bears..Leonard had bengals, 2nd lions, and siberians IF memory serves me.. David Barnes was in African Plains I think, he did move over to work with Jake..?? Rick worked with Leonard...Ronnie and David worked with me in elephant barn at first them moved on to predators..Bob Berry worked one section ? Can't remember who had 2nd lions or 1 st lions for that much..I have forgotten so much???And I have pictures of people,,,seems Wolf worked everywhere as Lion Zero remember??

Gary, one person you or Ed didn't mention is Tommy Lear. i remember him well but for the life of me i can't remember which section he worked in. maybe you know which.

Gary that is you, i could tell by your stance and when you expand the picture out you are wearing your hat.

I didn't get over to the theme park very often with working 6 days a week in the safari but i do remember going there just to see Maiden Voyage - the all girl band- play. They played good music but i enjoyed watching them even more.

Harry, those are some great pictures of the animals and i'm real glad to see so much green grass in the sections, the animals can really do a number by eating and trampling on it.

If i can butt in here i am pretty sure it was 73 because in early 74 is when Gary and i left Florida to New Jersey.

Thanks for the safari construction pictures, they are great and i hope you post more. I saw pictures of a few people i haven't seen since i left there in 76. one i believe is Brian Vidor, he's in a few pics with Butch. One has Leonard Denault in it, and i think one of the other fellas is Robert Chandler. great pictures.

Gary thanks for the flashback today. thinking of Butch reminds me of the day the rhino got loose. To let others know, in between the elephant/rhino section and the african plains section is a small strip of woods that lead up to the rhino barn and the giraffe barn. A rhino got out the swing gate at the end of the holding pen and made it into this set of woods, where Butch, Gary, myself and a few others traveled up and down these woods and fence line in the dark trying to get him out. It took most of the night, a tractor with headlights and a noisy engine and lots of walking and running but we finally got him back where he belonged. It could have gotten dangerous out there but it was a great experience. Thanks Butch where ever you are.

great picture. boss and another small one named bongo really thought they ruled the place.

That is Gary with the elephants, and your previous question's answer is the elephants wrer transported by plane. I don't know how many stops from africa they made but their last stop before getting here was in England.

Gary will have to tell you about the capturing of the elephants, he was sent to africa to help capture them and to care for and feed them on their trip to to america. A crew of us went to Kennedy airport to meet up with Gary and bring the elephants to the park. Each elephant was in a seperate crate, loaded onto flatbed trucks, secured down and tarps were drapped over and tied down. they were transported to the park but on the way you could see some of them sticking their trunks thru the tarp flaps and the peoples reactions especially the kids was something I will never forget. At the barn a forklift was used to unload the crates into the barn where they were released one at a time into their pens.

These pictures look like about the first few days the elephants were allowed into the section. The pond had so much undergrowth and sapplings around it you could not see beyond the opposite tree line, as you can tell in the pictures. They also loved playing in the mud and water. When all of the small trees were gone and the bark stripped off the large trees, the large ones were protected by wiring sapplings to the big trees and keeping the elephants away from them.

I've watched the first two so far and they were awesome. I had forgotten how much fun it was to interact with the animals and to just sit back and watch them play and chase each other. Thanks Gary for letting me relive a part of my youth, it really was great.

i would like to hear from any wardens, past and present, or from anyone else who might know or might have known any wardens, any gate guards, past or present, would be good to hear from too. are any of these people presently members of this site?

It's not up yet, but soon! We are working on some configuration issues to accomodate the large file size. I'll try to get another short preview clip of you (at least I think it is you!) up tonight.

thanks, i've been looking for the picture or video that gary was talking about but haven't found it yet.

Donald, where you been hiding? Are you going to make the trip in Aug? Did ya see yourself in the video yet?

gary, as much as i would like to go i'm not able to go this year, maybe if they have a 40th. i can go. i didn't know the video was up and running yet, i will have to check it out, the little clip that was posted earlier really brought back memmories.

So we are off to a good start with our Time Capsule! Click HERE to see what we have accumulated so far. The Twicket needs to be added yet.

 

Donald or Gary, were there Safari specific patches on your uniform?

the patch i have looks just like the one you have, i think they were all the same- donald

warner leroy's hard hat was a sight to see up close, that picture didn't show all the jewels and detail it had on it. but it was funny to look at.

you should also add a great adventure patch to the capsule.

The second year we had a fellow, that was a lion warden that came from a park in Virginia. I can't for the life of me remember his name?

gary, i seem to recall a guy that came there the second year we were there and worked with the cats, his name was jim. i don't remember his last name but he was a very good artist. he drew some of the best animal drawings i had ever seen.

Butch Dring- our fearless leader

Rick Wallace with leopards in pen

big cats in open season

these are of the animals in their sections during the open season

Me and baby rhino

These five pics are gary hill and the baby

This is john king from the first section of the park

baby rhino with mother