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| Photo provided by Mary Avery Garrison |
Corvallis may have a buried secret over half a century old involving two captive bears at the Avery Park Menagerie.
The park was a much different place in the 1950s. Gone is the fighter jet that used to be on display and the mini zoo with the duck pond, deer pen, monkey cages, and kinkajou - a rainforest mammal in the racoon family. There were many more trees back then, and the park was a summertime hotspot for families to spend the day outdoors under the canopy.
Two of the most controversial residents in the menagerie were Christy and Patty - two black bear cubs delivered to the zoo in 1954, as announced on the front page of the Benton County Herald on June 3. The cubs lived in a pit not far from where the old custodian’s house stood.
Their pit had no vegetation and limited structures to engage them in play. By many accounts of locals who observed them, the bears had a dismal existence.
Rocky Lange was born in Albany in 1949 and first visited the park when he was 5 years old.
“As I recall, they were in a sunken habitat with a high red cyclone-type fence around it. In the center was another concrete rise with a wooden log,” he said.
Lange remembers spending the day with his family in the park when his dad treated them to barbecued burgers and soda. His memory of the food and fun is fond, but his memory of the bears is anything but.
“These poor animals were just lazy looking, sitting up and looking up to anyone that would give them food. At the time there was so much garbage that people had thrown at them it was crazy,” he said.
Jackie Myers moved to Corvallis with her family in 1946. Her recollection of the bears’ living conditions are similar to Lange’s, and in August 2011 she wrote an editorial published by the Corvallis Gazette-Times titled “As I see it: Memory of Avery Park bears in a pit still disturbing.”
“Even as a child, I felt empathy for those poor animals as they paced around their small enclosure where people would throw food down into the pit,” she wrote.
Instead of a positive experience seeing the bears, both former visitors can’t escape the memory of their stench.
“It was sad to see them, even for a little kid. The area they were in smelled to high-heaven all the time,” Lange said.
As the bears got older and their domain became hard for many to palate, unruly residents also became a concern. The Gazette-Times reported people sneaking into the pit at night, and longtime residents recall hearing of vandals shooting arrows at them.
In the late ‘50s park management decided the bears had to go. A brief published in the Gazette-Times read, “BIG PROBLEM still confronting city is where to get rid of two grown bears at Avery Park … City has tried to sell ’em or give ’em away but hasn’t found any takers.”
What ended up happening to the bears seems to be a well-kept secret, and the murmurs of their eventual demise still linger around town.
There are two scenarios rumored about their disappearance from the park. Both of them involve the shooting death of the bears. What is unclear is if park officials or vandals pulled the trigger — if the shootings happened at all.
“I sort of recall that after many years in the pit the bears were put down, and the pit became their final resting place,” wrote Myers.
Lange remembers hearing a similar story.
Jude Geist, park supervisor since 2012, was unable to confirm what happened to them. The zoo closed in 1972 and most references he found were in regards to the disbursement of wildlife. Although it listed some of the birds, deer and the kinkajou, there is no mention of Christy and Patty.
“I looked through my supervisor files regarding the zoom, but there are only three references and none about bears,” said Geist.
Mary Gallagher, historian for Benton County, did find records of the bears, but she too is not clear on what happened to them.
“Everyone who was around here in the late ’50s and early ’60s will remember them,” said Gallagher. “I just don’t know about their end — that part is questionable.”
If the brief published by the Gazette-Times referencing the “big problem” in relocating them is any indication, it’s plausible that the rumors may not be rumors at all, and in fact, someone did take the “problem” into their own hands.
Although neither Gallagher or Geist were able to confirm either way, one thing’s for sure: there is no found record that the bears left the park. Geist confirmed the pits were buried, so if the stories are true, Avery Park may have two skeletons just feet below the lawns seen today.
The park was a much different place in the 1950s. Gone is the fighter jet that used to be on display and the mini zoo with the duck pond, deer pen, monkey cages, and kinkajou - a rainforest mammal in the racoon family. There were many more trees back then, and the park was a summertime hotspot for families to spend the day outdoors under the canopy.
Two of the most controversial residents in the menagerie were Christy and Patty - two black bear cubs delivered to the zoo in 1954, as announced on the front page of the Benton County Herald on June 3. The cubs lived in a pit not far from where the old custodian’s house stood.
Their pit had no vegetation and limited structures to engage them in play. By many accounts of locals who observed them, the bears had a dismal existence.
Rocky Lange was born in Albany in 1949 and first visited the park when he was 5 years old.
“As I recall, they were in a sunken habitat with a high red cyclone-type fence around it. In the center was another concrete rise with a wooden log,” he said.
Lange remembers spending the day with his family in the park when his dad treated them to barbecued burgers and soda. His memory of the food and fun is fond, but his memory of the bears is anything but.
“These poor animals were just lazy looking, sitting up and looking up to anyone that would give them food. At the time there was so much garbage that people had thrown at them it was crazy,” he said.
Jackie Myers moved to Corvallis with her family in 1946. Her recollection of the bears’ living conditions are similar to Lange’s, and in August 2011 she wrote an editorial published by the Corvallis Gazette-Times titled “As I see it: Memory of Avery Park bears in a pit still disturbing.”
“Even as a child, I felt empathy for those poor animals as they paced around their small enclosure where people would throw food down into the pit,” she wrote.
Instead of a positive experience seeing the bears, both former visitors can’t escape the memory of their stench.
“It was sad to see them, even for a little kid. The area they were in smelled to high-heaven all the time,” Lange said.
As the bears got older and their domain became hard for many to palate, unruly residents also became a concern. The Gazette-Times reported people sneaking into the pit at night, and longtime residents recall hearing of vandals shooting arrows at them.
In the late ‘50s park management decided the bears had to go. A brief published in the Gazette-Times read, “BIG PROBLEM still confronting city is where to get rid of two grown bears at Avery Park … City has tried to sell ’em or give ’em away but hasn’t found any takers.”
What ended up happening to the bears seems to be a well-kept secret, and the murmurs of their eventual demise still linger around town.
There are two scenarios rumored about their disappearance from the park. Both of them involve the shooting death of the bears. What is unclear is if park officials or vandals pulled the trigger — if the shootings happened at all.
“I sort of recall that after many years in the pit the bears were put down, and the pit became their final resting place,” wrote Myers.
Lange remembers hearing a similar story.
Jude Geist, park supervisor since 2012, was unable to confirm what happened to them. The zoo closed in 1972 and most references he found were in regards to the disbursement of wildlife. Although it listed some of the birds, deer and the kinkajou, there is no mention of Christy and Patty.
“I looked through my supervisor files regarding the zoom, but there are only three references and none about bears,” said Geist.
Mary Gallagher, historian for Benton County, did find records of the bears, but she too is not clear on what happened to them.
“Everyone who was around here in the late ’50s and early ’60s will remember them,” said Gallagher. “I just don’t know about their end — that part is questionable.”
If the brief published by the Gazette-Times referencing the “big problem” in relocating them is any indication, it’s plausible that the rumors may not be rumors at all, and in fact, someone did take the “problem” into their own hands.
Although neither Gallagher or Geist were able to confirm either way, one thing’s for sure: there is no found record that the bears left the park. Geist confirmed the pits were buried, so if the stories are true, Avery Park may have two skeletons just feet below the lawns seen today.
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