Let’s look back at Miami’s original zoo.

From the late 1940s until August 1980, Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne was the place to see bears, tigers, monkeys, reptiles and birds just a few steps from the beach. The zoo, located in the 900-acre Crandon Park, opened in 1948 and was the county’s first.

It blossomed from the misfortune of a traveling animal show. The show’s caravan broke down, leaving two black bears, three monkeys and a goat stranded. Over the years, the zoo purchased animals, received some as gifts, traded with other zoos and picked up strays.

It even had a miniature train that took visitors on a 1 1/2-mile track along the periphery of the zoo.

The zoo also had its share of controversy. In the early 1960s, local news organizations reported that the zoo was mistreating its animals. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy slammed into the area. High waters drowned numerous animals in their cages and created a panic that resulted in the deaths of other animals. This sparked talks about moving the zoo to a larger, inland location.

In the 1970s, Crandon’s size, location and format led to its decline. The island location threatened the safety of the animals every time a storm or a hurricane blew by. The animals were caged in concrete and steel, and the population continued to grow.

When Zoo Miami was built, originally called Metrozoo, Crandon became nothing more than a memory. In 1991, the site of the old zoo opened as The Gardens at Crandon Park, a botanical garden.

Here is a look at the history of the old zoo through the Miami Herald archives:

Crandon Park Zoo History

Published April 4, 1993

Parents used to be able to take their kids to the beach, zoo and Seaquarium without ever leaving Key Biscayne.

From the late 1940s until August 1980, Crandon Park Zoo was the place to see bears, tigers, monkeys, reptiles and birds.

The 900-acre Crandon Park, named after former County Commission Chairman Charles H. Crandon, who envisioned the lush beachfront park in the 1930s, provided ample parking, shady palms, picnic tables and balmy breezes. Visitors could enjoy a barbecue, swim and then walk a few hundred yards to the zoo.

The county’s first zoo blossomed from the misfortune of a traveling animal show. The show’s caravan broke down, leaving two black bears, three monkeys and a goat stranded.

Crandon Park was dedicated in 1947. The next year the park became the zoo’s home.

“We didn’t have many parks at the time, and Key Biscayne seemed like a good place to put the zoo,” said Virginia Richards, public information officer for the Metro-Dade Parks and Recreation Department.

Over the years, the zoo purchased animals, received some as gifts, traded with other zoos and picked up strays. The zoo housed a polar bear -- a gift from schoolchildren from Point Barrow, Alaska -- penguins, peacocks, zebras, Bengal tigers, giraffes and an array of reptiles and birds.

By the 1960s, new facilities included reptile moats, a bird hatchery and four pheasant runs.

Admission was free. Property taxes paid for the zoo’s operation.

“I used to take the children to the beach,” recalls Richards. “There was a little train with a clapboard station. I remember going on that train. Parents had to squish into it if they wanted to ride.”

The miniature train took visitors along a 1 1/2-mile track along the periphery of the zoo.

Just inside the zoo’s turnstiles, the reptile house featured assorted snakes, lizards and turtles. At the Children’s Zoo, a 500-pound bear, a leopard, monkeys, rabbits, goats, donkeys and guinea pigs delighted the kids.

In 1960, Hurricane Donna threatened the zoo dwellers. Before the storm, many animals were evacuated. Birds, snakes and other animals were transported from their cages into the zoo’s buildings, boarded up as emergency shelters. When the electricity went off, many of the birds -- finches and hummingbirds -- were afraid to eat. About 15 starved to death.

Five years later, Hurricane Betsy slammed into the Key. High waters drowned numerous animals in their cages and created a panic that resulted in the deaths of other animals. Many birds died in the storm.

Hurricane Betsy sparked talks about moving the zoo off the Key to a larger, inland location.

By 1971, the growing zoo was getting too big for the 25 acres it occupied at the park. By 1972, a million people a year were visiting.

That same year, voters approved an $8 million bond issue to construct a modern, sprawling Metrozoo on 600 acres at the old Richmond Naval Air Station in South Dade. Zoologists wanted to move the animals out of cages into open spaces separated from the public by moats.

Although the Crandon Park Zoo was small in size, it ranked 29th in the nation for the number of species (366) and 35th in the number of animals (1,053) by 1974. With 100,000 visitors on a single Sunday, it ranked 16th in the nation for attendance.

In the early 1970s, the county considered leaving some of the animals on the Key and keeping the Crandon Park Zoo open as a satellite. That never happened.

After years of planning, the first stages of Metrozoo, at 12400 SW 152nd St., opened Dec. 13, 1981.

Richards says she thinks the animals are happier at Metrozoo. “At the new zoo, they can roam around and play. The old zoo was a traditional-type zoo with cages. None of the animals were happy there.”

In March 1991, the site of the old zoo opened as The Gardens at Crandon Park, a botanical garden.

FLASHBACK MIAMI: See photos of the old zoo

CROCODILE THEFT AT THE OLD ZOO

Published March 26, 1983

Someone with a liking for living leather apparently carried off three rare, endangered crocodiles early Friday from a holding pool at the old Crandon Park Zoo.

Believed stolen: a black female caiman, a Johnston’s crocodile and an African slender-snouted crocodile.

Two reptile keepers reporting for work discovered the loss of the exotic creatures, said Rick Hensler, Metrozoo’s director of marketing.

“There are less than 10 of the black caiman in the United States. They are almost extinct,” Hensler said.

“The African slender-snouted is almost gone from the wild,” he added.

The zoo, which still keeps some animals at the closed Crandon facility, was the first in the Western Hemisphere to successfully breed the African croc.

The animals range from 4 to 4 1/2 feet in length and are dangerous, Hensler cautioned.

“You couldn’t put a price tag on them, they’re so rare,” he said.

Whoever bagged the reptiles is a private collector or someone who thinks he can sell them.

The zoo had two caimans, male and female; one Johnston’s from Australia; and three Africans -- plus three young Africans hatched this year — until the theft.

Hatching of the Africans, Hensler said, “was one of our greatest zoological achievements in our history.”

He said he hoped the reptiles will be returned unharmed.

Two Mexican-beaded lizards were stolen from the zoo about two years ago, Hensler recalled. They were returned by persons unknown after their disappearance was publicized.

Ron Magill, senior reptile keeper, said the theft is a federal offense because it violates the Endangered Species Act.

He has contacted federal and state agencies dealing with wildlife, private animal farms, pet shops and game farms.

WHAT THE OLD ZOO BECAME

Published March 31, 1991

The message was clear as more than 100 nature lovers gathered Saturday for the reopening of the old Crandon Park zoo- turned botanical garden: Leave Key Biscayne alone.

As a woodwind quartet and a harpist played, the visitors walked along the winding pathways of the Gardens at Crandon Park, as it is now called. It is filled with hibiscus, poinsettias, orchids and crotons. Each step around the 24 acres was a step along memory lane.

Many of the fixtures from the original zoo, like the weathered wall encircling the crocodile pit, the monkey cages and the turtle pen, are still in their original spots -- on purpose.

“The object was not to destroy everything,” said Kevin Asher, a planner for the county. “This area has history that goes back to the 1400s with the Spanish explorers, the Caribbean pirates and the coconut plantations.”

He said that while people can enjoy picnics on the land, the park is not a place for barbecue pits, frisbees or radios.

The park, which was closed in 1979 when Metro Zoo opened in South Dade, was transformed from a weed-and-debris choked mess to its new pristine state through the work of volunteers from the Key Biscayne Quiet Gardens Club, who have spent the last two years pulling weeds in sweltering heat.

Vivian Donnell Rodriguez, executive director of Art in Public Places, which has big plans for the new park, recalls coming to Crandon as a child in the early 1960s and later, bringing her own children.

Sydney Keep, a longtime Key Biscayne resident, remembered hearing the distant cry of the lions from their den. “I used to enjoy those sounds,” said Keep. When Charlie Sanz, the chief landscape architect for the Metro parks department, called Crandon’s restoration “a first victory,” Keep stood up and asked, “Does it look to you if we’re going to lose any of this?”

He was referring to the controversy swirling around the Lipton International Players Championships, played annually on Key Biscayne. “No, no, no!” the people cried. Sanz simply smiled and stepped back from the microphone.

One quiet observer of the festivities was Bruce Matheson, of the Matheson family, which donated the land on which the zoo sits.

He offered: “It’s nice to see the old zoo site getting some attention.”

Dorothy Cohen, a former president of the Key Biscayne Property Taxpayers Association, was honored for her fervent efforts over the years to restore the zoo. She called the park’s opening a “continuation” of the battle. “There’s more work to be done.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 10:29 AM.