tz
/ November 1, 2026
The Utica Zoo has anchored Roscoe Conkling Park in Utica, New York, since 1914, when it opened with a modest collection of three fallow deer. More than a century later, it has grown into an AZA-accredited zoo caring for roughly 200 animals representing about 99…
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tz
/ October 31, 2026
Koziar’s Christmas Village sits on a converted dairy farm in Jefferson Township near Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 15 miles northwest of Reading. What began in 1948 as one man’s Christmas lights on his family home has grown into one of the country’s most celebrated holiday light…
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tz
/ October 27, 2026
Stone Zoo is a 26-acre (11-hectare) zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts, tucked against the Middlesex Fells Reservation just north of Boston. Founded in 1905 as the Middlesex Fells Zoo, it was renamed the Walter D. Stone Memorial Zoo in 1969 in honor of its longtime director…
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tz
/ October 26, 2026
Seneca Park Zoo has been a fixture of Rochester, New York, since 1894, tucked into the Olmsted-designed Seneca Park along the Genesee River gorge. Operated by Monroe County with support from the Seneca Park Zoo Society, the zoo has grown from a small collection of…
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tz
/ October 26, 2026
Scovill Zoo sits inside the 62-acre Scovill Park overlooking Lake Decatur in Decatur, Illinois, where it has welcomed visitors since 1967. What began as a modest farm exhibit funded by a $14,000 Kiwanis Club donation has grown into an AZA-accredited zoo spread across 15 acres…
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tz
/ October 26, 2026
The Santa Barbara Zoo opened in August 1963 on the former Child Estate, a Mediterranean-style property along the Santa Barbara coastline that had been donated to the city for public use. Built on the site of a mansion destroyed by a 1959 fire, the zoo…
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tz
/ October 25, 2026
Tucked inside Pueblo City Park in southern Colorado, the Pueblo Zoo has welcomed animal lovers since the early 1900s, when the city’s first scattered animal exhibits began drawing local crowds. The zoo’s historic core, built between 1933 and 1940 by Depression-era relief programs including the…
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tz
/ October 25, 2026
Saginaw Children’s Zoo, officially the Children’s Zoo at Celebration Square, has been a staple of Michigan’s Great Lakes Bay Region since 1929, when Parks and Cemeteries Commissioner George Phoenix first established it on a corner of Ezra Rust Park. What began with a handful of…
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tz
/ October 24, 2026
Potter Park Zoo has welcomed visitors in Lansing, Michigan since 1920, making it the oldest public zoo in the state. The zoo occupies about 20 acres within the larger Potter Park, a 102-acre riverside property along the Red Cedar River that the Potter family began…
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tz
/ October 24, 2026
SEA LIFE Michigan Aquarium opened in early 2015 inside the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets mall in Auburn Hills, taking over space once occupied by a GameWorks arcade. Operated by UK-based Merlin Entertainments, it quickly became known as the largest aquarium in Michigan, drawing families and…
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tz
/ October 23, 2026
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo sits inside Burnet Park in Syracuse, New York, tracing its roots back to a small four-acre menagerie that opened in 1914. What began as the Burnet Park Zoo grew over the decades into a full-scale accredited zoological facility, eventually taking on…
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tz
/ October 23, 2026
Roosevelt Park Zoo sits along the Souris River in Minot, North Dakota, and holds the distinction of being the oldest zoo in the state. What began in 1914 as a modest municipal menagerie with two dozen squirrels grew into a full-fledged zoo, renamed in 1922…
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tz
/ October 22, 2026
Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies opened in 2000 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, bringing a massive indoor ocean experience to the heart of the Smoky Mountains. The 115,000-square-foot facility holds roughly 1.3 million gallons of water and is home to around 10,000 marine animals representing more than…
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tz
/ October 18, 2026
The Peoria Zoo sits inside Glen Oak Park in Peoria, Illinois, tracing its roots back to 1897, when the Peoria Park District dedicated a small zoological collection built around a donated elk herd. Over more than a century, that modest menagerie grew into an accredited…
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tz
/ October 18, 2026
Potawatomi Zoo sits inside Potawatomi Park on the east side of South Bend, Indiana, tucked between the St. Joseph River and the Grand Trunk railroad line. Founded in 1921 after Studebaker Corporation president Albert Russell Erskine donated a single deer to the city park board…
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tz
/ October 17, 2026
Oglebay’s Good Zoo sits inside Oglebay Park in Wheeling, West Virginia, and holds a distinction no other zoo in the state can claim: accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The zoo grew out of a tragedy and a gift. After seven-year-old Philip Mayer…
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tz
/ October 16, 2026
The Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo traced its roots to 1952, when 54 acres were set aside inside Fort Wayne’s Franke Park to create a nature preserve. Local enthusiasm for the preserve pushed city officials to build a full zoo, and on July 3, 1965, the…
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tz
/ October 13, 2026
The Great Plains Zoo has welcomed visitors to Sioux Falls, South Dakota since opening on June 30, 1963. Spread across 45 acres, the zoo grew out of the Zoological Society of Sioux Falls, a nonprofit founded in 1957 to bring a permanent wildlife park to…
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tz
/ October 12, 2026
Miller Park Zoo sits inside Miller Park in Bloomington, Illinois, and traces its roots back to 1891, when the city first spent public money caring for animals kept in the park. Local lore holds that the collection got its real start around 1900, after a…
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tz
/ October 12, 2026
The Little Rock Zoo traces its roots to 1924, when its first two residents, a timber wolf and a circus-trained brown bear, arrived in what is now Little Rock, Arkansas. Nearly a century later, it has grown into the state’s only zoo accredited by the…
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