@article{DA,
      recid = {1529178},
      author = {Unknown},
      title = {Barless bear enclosure at Mesker Zoo in Evansville,  Indiana},
      publisher = {University of Southern Indiana},
      address = {n.d.},
      number = {DA},
      abstract = {Barless bear enclosure-- Mesker Zoo. Designed and built by  Gilmore M. Haynie Evansville, Indiana. In 1916, Mesker Park  was no more than a cluttered and undeveloped picnic area.  Thanks to a $25,000 cash gift George Mesker gave to the  city to purchase more land around the park, the dilapidated  50-acres became the site to one of the finest zoos in the  country. Gilmore M. Haynie, visionary and proponent of the  Park's transformation, became the executive secretary of  the city park board in 1916, and later the board's  president. Once Mesker's donation was realized, both Haynie  and Mayor Benjamin Bosse created a plan to change the face  of Mesker Park. The next 15 years saw weeds pulled, paths  built, lights added, areas cleared, and a fine menagerie of  random critters added to the planned zoo, featuring a goat,  three rabbits, one raccoon, and six chickens. Belle and  Brutus, the main attractions, were gifted lions from the  American Circus Association, followed by a black bear from  the Denver Zoo. On June 14, 1929, the park acquired its  biggest creature when Kay, an 11,000-pound elephant, joined  the team. Haynie utilized Works Progress Administration  labor and efficient building strategies to do with $250,000  dollars what $2 million projected dollars would have done.  He oversaw the design and construction of one the first  barless bear exhibits in the country, followed by the  unique, one-third concrete scale model of Christopher  Columbus' Santa Maria, crewed by 20 rhesus monkeys. Haynie,  whose wife Mildred founded Haynie Travel in 1938, was a  world traveler who was inspired by zoos he visited in  Germany for these ideas. Barless exhibits became the  zoological standard for innovative and best practices  largely due to the concepts he introduced in Evansville. In  1936, Mesker donated more funds to build the Mesker  Amphitheatre that boasted seating room for 8,500. Mesker  Park Zoo was rapidly becoming Evansville's number one  attraction, receiving international renown for its  ingenuity, creativity, and unique topographical use of  space. During the zoo's initial design, Haynie contributed  to another innovative barless den, this time for the lions,  with spot-on botanical accuracy and an imitation African  watering hole smack dab in the center of the zoo. It  created a draw, says Amos Morris, current director of the  zoo. The lions would stand on a pinnacle, and as you walk  around the perimeter of the zoo you could almost always see  them.  (http://www.evansvilleliving.com/articles/its-a-zoo-out-there)  Gilmore Haynie is the grandfather to the originator of this  collection.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1529178},
}