Besides having my own great memories at Zoo Ampitheater going back to the early ‘80s, I recently discovered via newspaper archives and ancestry research that my own paternal grandfather (who I never knew…he passed when I was six months old) was very likely involved in the construction of it, along with other zoo features. I found an article in his hometown (Luther) newspaper that he and another young man from there reported to the CCC camp at Lincoln Park in fall of 1934. Not sure (yet) how long he stayed with the CCC, but that time frame would roughly coincide with the building of the amphitheater. He would have been 23.

Suffice to say that I’m in the “retain and restore” crowd when it comes to Zoo Amp.