Plans ready for Lubbock zoo
Rachel Henyan, feature editor

Lions and tigers and bears in Lubbock? Oh, my!

Back in the ‘60s, Lubbock had a zoo. 

The Rimrock City and Zoological Gardens Inc. was an old frontier city that had been moved to Lubbock from Abilene. It had a mini-golf course, children’s rides and horseback rides.

Lubbock will soon have another zoo, without the mini-golf course, children’s rides and horseback rides.

“The archeological work has been finished and turned into the state,” co-founder Kai Hill said. “Now it will take four to six months for the state to approve the site.”

Hill is planning to build the zoo in Mackenzie Park, across from the Windmill Center on Canyon Drive. It will encompass approximately 95 acres.

The zoo will be staffed by volunteer veterinarians, zoologists and interns from local colleges. The staff will also work with professors in biology, agriculture, architecture and education. With their help, local elementary students will be able to visit the zoo without having to take a field trip to Amarillo.
Hill expects the zoo to help the Lubbock economy as well.

“Anytime you add an attraction to any town, it helps the economy,” Hill said. “There are not any attractions like is, so the attractions are not competing with one another.”

For more information about the zoo, or to adopt an animal, go to http://www.lubbockzoo.org/index.html.