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Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream
A resonant true story of small-town politics and community perseverance and of decent people and questionable choices, Zoo Nebraska is a timely requiem for a rural America in the throes of extinction.
Royal, Nebraska, population eighty-one—where the church, high school, and post office each stand abandoned, monuments to a Great Plains town that never flourished. But for nearly twenty years, they had a zoo, seven acres that rose from local peculiarity to key tourist attraction to devastating tragedy. And it all began with one man’s outsize vision.
When Dick Haskin’s plans to assist primatologist Dian Fossey in Rwanda were cut short by her murder, Dick’s devotion to primates didn’t die with her. He returned to his hometown with Reuben, an adolescent chimp, in the bed of a pickup truck and transformed a trailer home into the Midwest Primate Center. As the tourist trade multiplied, so did the inhabitants of what would become Zoo Nebraska, the unlikeliest boon to Royal’s economy in generations and, eventually, the source of a power struggle that would lead to the tragic implosion of Dick Haskin’s dream.
Royal, Nebraska, population eighty-one—where the church, high school, and post office each stand abandoned, monuments to a Great Plains town that never flourished. But for nearly twenty years, they had a zoo, seven acres that rose from local peculiarity to key tourist attraction to devastating tragedy. And it all began with one man’s outsize vision.
When Dick Haskin’s plans to assist primatologist Dian Fossey in Rwanda were cut short by her murder, Dick’s devotion to primates didn’t die with her. He returned to his hometown with Reuben, an adolescent chimp, in the bed of a pickup truck and transformed a trailer home into the Midwest Primate Center. As the tourist trade multiplied, so did the inhabitants of what would become Zoo Nebraska, the unlikeliest boon to Royal’s economy in generations and, eventually, the source of a power struggle that would lead to the tragic implosion of Dick Haskin’s dream.
254 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2019
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March 5, 2019
Amazon Review For Kindle First!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/B...
Whew. I was going to write a big thing and then I wasn’t going to say anything. Now I’m going to try to piece together some thoughts.
First off; years ago I volunteered in a wildlife refuge. I met a wonderful friend there and we tried our best to do everything we could for the animals every day. The owner was off her rocker and we stayed as long as we could to help those wonderful animals. In the end, we had to leave and most of those animals were killed to get shiny new ones. I can’t even with that any more.
This story reminds me of a lot of horrible things that have gone wrong in zoos, circuses, so called refuges and other, more disgusting things wildlife is put through.
A man, Dick, had a dream. He watched Jane Goodall and wanted to go to Africa and learn all about chimps. He thought his dreams were going to come true when he was invited to go intern a bit with Dian Fossey. Y’all might remember the movie, "Gorilla’s in the Mist" where Sigorney Weaver played Dian. Unfortunately, this didn’t come to pass as Dian was murdered
Side note: I always wanted to be a poacher hunter when I was little but that’s neither here nor there!
Jump ahead and Dick opened Zoo Nebraska in Royal; a tiny town with high hopes. Now it wasn’t the original name but I’m not going into all of that.
The board members eventually wore Dick down to where he had to leave. I mean he loved his chimp Reuben but the jerks that were on the board and other things wore him down.
He found a good couple to come take over but didn’t give them the skinny on how dire the place was financially and most importantly, the environments for the animals.
I actually plan on reading the book Sandra wrote about Reuben.
The Bakkens were finally able to get better funding and bills paid; also acquiring some friends for Reuben. Jimmy Joe, whom they considered a "gentle giant." Tyler, whom starred in the 2001 family drama Race To Space alongside actor James Woods. And they acquired Ripley, who accompanied Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura (1994) and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in Junior (1994). He also appeared in an episode of Seinfeld.
According to the Center for Great Apes, they become too dangerous to work with once they mature.
Unfortunately, the Bakkens were forced out by idiots on the board. Then some other nice people try to help and they get pushed out. Then we are left with Junior who took over as Director and knew nothing about how to take care of primates, much less any other wildlife.
Everything went to hell in a hand basket with people volunteering and working with animals they never should have worked without proper training in anything.
This ultimately resulted in the apes getting out and killed instead of a training system set in place with people that knew how to take care of this and use a tranquilizer gun!! Only Riley made it out alive as he managed to get back to the enclosure before being shot. Some say that’s where Reuben was heading before he was shot in the back.
Dick couldn’t understand why no one called him. He was devestated, even though he never came to visit, he never invisioned them being killed. He even watched the video and saw that Junior could have corralled them back to the enclosure instead of riling then up.
There were many complaints to the USDA to get the place shut down. Even the state senator, Ernie Chambers supported they be closed as he was an animal welfare advocate.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/B...
Whew. I was going to write a big thing and then I wasn’t going to say anything. Now I’m going to try to piece together some thoughts.
First off; years ago I volunteered in a wildlife refuge. I met a wonderful friend there and we tried our best to do everything we could for the animals every day. The owner was off her rocker and we stayed as long as we could to help those wonderful animals. In the end, we had to leave and most of those animals were killed to get shiny new ones. I can’t even with that any more.
This story reminds me of a lot of horrible things that have gone wrong in zoos, circuses, so called refuges and other, more disgusting things wildlife is put through.
A man, Dick, had a dream. He watched Jane Goodall and wanted to go to Africa and learn all about chimps. He thought his dreams were going to come true when he was invited to go intern a bit with Dian Fossey. Y’all might remember the movie, "Gorilla’s in the Mist" where Sigorney Weaver played Dian. Unfortunately, this didn’t come to pass as Dian was murdered
He remembered her stories back in San Diego, so often making light of a grave situation; he’d even warned her, "those poachers are going to kill you someday," and she had admitted that, yes, her life was in danger, but she would return to Rwanda and continue her with nonetheless.
Side note: I always wanted to be a poacher hunter when I was little but that’s neither here nor there!
Jump ahead and Dick opened Zoo Nebraska in Royal; a tiny town with high hopes. Now it wasn’t the original name but I’m not going into all of that.
The board members eventually wore Dick down to where he had to leave. I mean he loved his chimp Reuben but the jerks that were on the board and other things wore him down.
He found a good couple to come take over but didn’t give them the skinny on how dire the place was financially and most importantly, the environments for the animals.
More devastating still, Reuben has lived alone since his arrival in 1986, despite so many warnings against it, and the public seemed either ignorant of or apathetic to the consequences. The Bakkens say the star of Antelope County compulsively tore out his own hair; that his thighs and forearms were nearly bald; and that he acted bored, depressed, frustrated, even psychotic.
I actually plan on reading the book Sandra wrote about Reuben.
The Bakkens were finally able to get better funding and bills paid; also acquiring some friends for Reuben. Jimmy Joe, whom they considered a "gentle giant." Tyler, whom starred in the 2001 family drama Race To Space alongside actor James Woods. And they acquired Ripley, who accompanied Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura (1994) and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in Junior (1994). He also appeared in an episode of Seinfeld.
According to the Center for Great Apes, they become too dangerous to work with once they mature.
"The sad fact is that for decades these famous simian actors who made us laugh have ended up as experimental subjects in biomedical research, states their website. "Or in deplorable and shabby roadside zoos...or in tiny backyard cages... or in breeder compounds where their own babies are pulled from them to repeat the whole process of working young apes for entertainment."
Unfortunately, the Bakkens were forced out by idiots on the board. Then some other nice people try to help and they get pushed out. Then we are left with Junior who took over as Director and knew nothing about how to take care of primates, much less any other wildlife.
Everything went to hell in a hand basket with people volunteering and working with animals they never should have worked without proper training in anything.
This ultimately resulted in the apes getting out and killed instead of a training system set in place with people that knew how to take care of this and use a tranquilizer gun!! Only Riley made it out alive as he managed to get back to the enclosure before being shot. Some say that’s where Reuben was heading before he was shot in the back.
Dick couldn’t understand why no one called him. He was devestated, even though he never came to visit, he never invisioned them being killed. He even watched the video and saw that Junior could have corralled them back to the enclosure instead of riling then up.
There were many complaints to the USDA to get the place shut down. Even the state senator, Ernie Chambers supported they be closed as he was an animal welfare advocate.
"I think that any license this outfit has should be revoked immediately," Chambers told the Lincoln Journal Star. "It’s regrettable that three animals had to die due to the stupidity of human beings.
I’m done. I can’t no more. 5 stars to the author for bringing this story to light.
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
MY BLOG
July 16, 2019
3.5 Royal, Nebraska population less than a hundred, but due to the passion of one man, they opened what became quite a tourist attraction. They opened a zoo. Dick Yasmin fell in love with chimps, revered Diane Rossi, and almost had a chance to work with her. Her terrible murder put to bed that ambition. Nevertheless, he went on with his passion, working with different chimps, in different places. When the last place went under he asked to keep one of the chimps. He was now the main caretaker of Reuben, and at the age of 25 he went on to start a zoo. He had, however little know how, he knew how to care for chimps, but money management and all the other details he needed help for. Johnny Carson even donated money, but things at the zoo were never right, never stable, and in 2005 a terrible event and resulting tragedy occurred.
The best of intentions were just not enough, neither was hard work. An interesting read, i actually keep thinking about this book after it ended. How things changed for all involved, how things went so tipsy turvy so quickly. A good look at a little town, and the big dreams of one man.
Narrated by Patrick Lawlor, i had a little trouble getting used to his voice, so I rate the narration a 3.
The best of intentions were just not enough, neither was hard work. An interesting read, i actually keep thinking about this book after it ended. How things changed for all involved, how things went so tipsy turvy so quickly. A good look at a little town, and the big dreams of one man.
Narrated by Patrick Lawlor, i had a little trouble getting used to his voice, so I rate the narration a 3.
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March 13, 2019Throwing in the towel at the 25% mark. I tried and tried, but I can't stay interested in this story. Yet another nonfiction book comprised of material that could have easily been covered in a magazine article.
April 3, 2019
I'm giving this 3.5 stars only because I'm originally from Nebraska (I grew up 25 miles from the nearest town, population 310) and the author was from Broken Bow. I wanted to scream as I read the book because it highlighted several issues that frustrate me about many rural Nebraskans...well-intentioned but woefully uniformed, unwilling to listen and take advice from others who are considered "outsiders" and view education as something that is not always needed. The pipe dream of one guy who had a chance to study with primatoligist Dian Fossy but declined because he desired to start his own research center in his hometown of Royal, NE started the wheels in motion. After a series of gross mishaps, loans from Johnny Carson, threats from the USDA and IRS everything really went to hell in a hand basket. Royal became the site of a massacre where three dangerous escapees were shot and killed by its terrorized residents. The three victims were chimpanzees. Vaughan examines this bizarre incident, which outraged animal lovers and animal rights advocates such as the Jane Goodall Institute and PETA. I'd never heard of this "center" before and I wonder how many in Nebraska did know about it. Very sad what happened to the animals that were corked up in inadequate facilities when the world class Henry Dorley zoo in Omaha was relatively close by. Even more maddening was the utter stupidity of the people who thought a research center/zoo in a tiny rural town was a good idea.
March 8, 2019
{Video Review: The Most Dangerous Book Review on the Internet! at http://bit.ly/ZooNebraska}
This is a story of rural America, one that laments the passage of time that causes small towns to become even smaller as they struggle not to wink out of existence. It is also the story one man’s dream, a man ready to sacrifice everything to make it happen.
Author Carson Vaughan has created a work of literary journalism, spending years researching the people and history of the town of Royal, Nebraska. The reader is easily able to view the heroes, villains, and spectators in this tale (although, as in most stories, there is a little of all three in everyone). The only true innocents are the animals, and one can only wonder what their perceptions of the chain of events might be.
The book is easy to read, providing interesting back-stories and even offering closure for some of the participants. While an author can become lost in a story like “Zoo Nebraska” and be swayed to choose sides, Mr. Vaughan did his best to straddle the fence. Any character impressions appear to be gleaned from others living in and around Royal, similar to what anyone might learn if you are in a small town for any length of time.
This book is a fascinating and engrossing read. Just like you might miss the interesting attractions of small-town America if you never leave the Interstates, “Zoo Nebraska” is not a book to be passed by. Five stars.
This is a story of rural America, one that laments the passage of time that causes small towns to become even smaller as they struggle not to wink out of existence. It is also the story one man’s dream, a man ready to sacrifice everything to make it happen.
Author Carson Vaughan has created a work of literary journalism, spending years researching the people and history of the town of Royal, Nebraska. The reader is easily able to view the heroes, villains, and spectators in this tale (although, as in most stories, there is a little of all three in everyone). The only true innocents are the animals, and one can only wonder what their perceptions of the chain of events might be.
The book is easy to read, providing interesting back-stories and even offering closure for some of the participants. While an author can become lost in a story like “Zoo Nebraska” and be swayed to choose sides, Mr. Vaughan did his best to straddle the fence. Any character impressions appear to be gleaned from others living in and around Royal, similar to what anyone might learn if you are in a small town for any length of time.
This book is a fascinating and engrossing read. Just like you might miss the interesting attractions of small-town America if you never leave the Interstates, “Zoo Nebraska” is not a book to be passed by. Five stars.
September 16, 2019
This is a carefully researched, beautifully written book about a place and an event that are both insignificant and universal. Royal, Nebraska is a dying prairie town. The school, post office, library, and Methodist church have closed their doors as the population declined. Young folks leave for more opportunities. The only ones left are those who are too old, too sick, or too odd to live elsewhere.
Everyone loves the idea of living in a small town, but few people understand the realities of living in a place where you have little choice of friends and no privacy at all. Resentments fester and feuds are common. As one local says, "Royal has always had a 'Hatfields and McCoys' reputation." And yet the people of Royal love their town and for a few years they had something that set them apart from their neighbors. They had an accredited zoo.
Dick Haskin was a serious, studious boy who wanted to get out of Royal. From the age of 12, he was fascinated by the study of primates in the wild. He planned to use his degree in life sciences from the University of Nebraska as a springboard to a career as a primatologist. He was offered an internship with at Dian Fossey's Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda, but Fossey's murder intervened and no other offers materialized.
He took a job at a small zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska, and used his free time to study the chimpanzees. He developed a close relationship with a young chimp named Reuben, teaching him American Sign Language. But Dick disliked the concept of zoos and he eventually acquired Reuben and headed back to Royal with the dream of founding a primate study center.
Amazingly, he managed to acquire other animals and to raise funds for housing for Reuben. A $55,000 contribution from Nebraska native-son Johnny Carson was both a financial windfall and a public relations prize. The tiny educational center operated on a shoestring, but was popular with locals and attracted attention from other parts of the state. But animal centers must meet strict federal and state standards to earn and keep a license. The strain of running a poorly-financed operation broke down Dick Haskin's health and he was forced to resign as director.
A Canadian couple with experience in zoo management took over and acquired three more chimps and other animals, doubling the number of animals on display. But they didn't know that the zoo was deeply in debt and had received warnings from government agencies about the conditions in which the animals lived. When they criticized Dick Haskin's management, the board of directors indignantly fired them. Royal was NOT putting up with know-it-all outsiders!
From then on, the zoo was run by untrained volunteers. Conditions (both financial and physical) deteriorated. On September 10, 2005, a volunteer failed to close a gate while the chimp enclosure was being cleaned and the four chimpanzees (all male) escaped. Two stayed on the zoo grounds, but two wandered into town.
Chimpanzees are extremely powerful and can be very aggressive. As one expert said, "If one chimp escapes, someone will be hurt. If two chimps escape, someone will be killed." There has never been an incident int he U.S. where four chimps escaped at the same time, with some of them leaving the zoo grounds. While the rest of the country was watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this tiny town was having its own horrific emergency and no one there was trained for it.
The chapter that covers the escape of the four chimpanzees is hard to read. I was left weak-knee and very emotional. Many people savagely criticized the handling of the emergency, but the fact that there were no human casualties is a miracle. These untrained civilians dealt with the danger as best they could, with no time to think before they acted. It's easy to be wise after the fact. Everyone involved was scarred by the tragedy, but they moved on. What else can you do?
What happened in Royal sounds like a horror movie, but the plain fact is that the keeping of "exotic" animals, including very dangerous ones by private individuals and in unlicensed road-side zoos without trained staff is more common than we want to believe. The tragedy in Royal could easily be repeated in many communities across America.
This is an incredible book; investigative reporting at its very best. The author shows a real feel for the people in this tiny town. He presents their lives and opinions honestly, without ever being condescending or cruel. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
Everyone loves the idea of living in a small town, but few people understand the realities of living in a place where you have little choice of friends and no privacy at all. Resentments fester and feuds are common. As one local says, "Royal has always had a 'Hatfields and McCoys' reputation." And yet the people of Royal love their town and for a few years they had something that set them apart from their neighbors. They had an accredited zoo.
Dick Haskin was a serious, studious boy who wanted to get out of Royal. From the age of 12, he was fascinated by the study of primates in the wild. He planned to use his degree in life sciences from the University of Nebraska as a springboard to a career as a primatologist. He was offered an internship with at Dian Fossey's Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda, but Fossey's murder intervened and no other offers materialized.
He took a job at a small zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska, and used his free time to study the chimpanzees. He developed a close relationship with a young chimp named Reuben, teaching him American Sign Language. But Dick disliked the concept of zoos and he eventually acquired Reuben and headed back to Royal with the dream of founding a primate study center.
Amazingly, he managed to acquire other animals and to raise funds for housing for Reuben. A $55,000 contribution from Nebraska native-son Johnny Carson was both a financial windfall and a public relations prize. The tiny educational center operated on a shoestring, but was popular with locals and attracted attention from other parts of the state. But animal centers must meet strict federal and state standards to earn and keep a license. The strain of running a poorly-financed operation broke down Dick Haskin's health and he was forced to resign as director.
A Canadian couple with experience in zoo management took over and acquired three more chimps and other animals, doubling the number of animals on display. But they didn't know that the zoo was deeply in debt and had received warnings from government agencies about the conditions in which the animals lived. When they criticized Dick Haskin's management, the board of directors indignantly fired them. Royal was NOT putting up with know-it-all outsiders!
From then on, the zoo was run by untrained volunteers. Conditions (both financial and physical) deteriorated. On September 10, 2005, a volunteer failed to close a gate while the chimp enclosure was being cleaned and the four chimpanzees (all male) escaped. Two stayed on the zoo grounds, but two wandered into town.
Chimpanzees are extremely powerful and can be very aggressive. As one expert said, "If one chimp escapes, someone will be hurt. If two chimps escape, someone will be killed." There has never been an incident int he U.S. where four chimps escaped at the same time, with some of them leaving the zoo grounds. While the rest of the country was watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this tiny town was having its own horrific emergency and no one there was trained for it.
The chapter that covers the escape of the four chimpanzees is hard to read. I was left weak-knee and very emotional. Many people savagely criticized the handling of the emergency, but the fact that there were no human casualties is a miracle. These untrained civilians dealt with the danger as best they could, with no time to think before they acted. It's easy to be wise after the fact. Everyone involved was scarred by the tragedy, but they moved on. What else can you do?
What happened in Royal sounds like a horror movie, but the plain fact is that the keeping of "exotic" animals, including very dangerous ones by private individuals and in unlicensed road-side zoos without trained staff is more common than we want to believe. The tragedy in Royal could easily be repeated in many communities across America.
This is an incredible book; investigative reporting at its very best. The author shows a real feel for the people in this tiny town. He presents their lives and opinions honestly, without ever being condescending or cruel. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
May 26, 2020
Carson Vaughan is an excellent writer with an easy way of telling the story of how a disastrous event came to pass in a small town. The story of one man’s dream and its violent end was heart wrenching. At times, I found it difficult to read about gross negligence on the part of so many that ended in truly avoidable tragedy, but Vaughan managed to humanize them by showing the reader that these individuals were ignorant of their own shortcomings, as are we all. Vaughan saw the events at Zoo Nebraska as symbolic of many small towns in America, which I presume to mean lots of good intentions and grand promises by devoted residents unwilling to concede defeat, but often unable to deliver. I will admit that, like other reviewers, I found his central thesis a bit muddy and have done my best to parse it out. However, I appreciated his vivid descriptions that placed me in the town of Royal, Nebraska, his approach to telling the story, and his commitment to giving me as much background as possible and letting me form my own opinions regarding individuals and what happened there.
July 18, 2019
How not to run a zoo
This book was a cautionary tale about following one’s dreams. When Dick couldn’t land his dream job and “settled” (my words) for setting up a zoo in a small Nebraska town, this game just got complicated. The story was just okay for me, but I bridge find it sad for the death of the animals and almost amusing at the incompetence of so many otherwise smart people.
This book was a cautionary tale about following one’s dreams. When Dick couldn’t land his dream job and “settled” (my words) for setting up a zoo in a small Nebraska town, this game just got complicated. The story was just okay for me, but I bridge find it sad for the death of the animals and almost amusing at the incompetence of so many otherwise smart people.
April 18, 2019
This book had a range of emotions, but it mostly left you feeling sad and angry for what should've been stopped from happening and how woefully everything went wrong in this one small town.
I am sure none of us animal lovers haven't dreamed of having a zoo of our own. Thankfully, it stays just that, a dream, nothing more than a fantasy. But for one man, he grew his dream into owning first one chimp and it just grew from there. Though he was very unprepared for the upkeep, budget and time having all those animals brings. The blunder just blooms from there and falls on others shoulders and keeps getting passed around until it ends in tragedy.
I won a kindle copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads program.
I am sure none of us animal lovers haven't dreamed of having a zoo of our own. Thankfully, it stays just that, a dream, nothing more than a fantasy. But for one man, he grew his dream into owning first one chimp and it just grew from there. Though he was very unprepared for the upkeep, budget and time having all those animals brings. The blunder just blooms from there and falls on others shoulders and keeps getting passed around until it ends in tragedy.
I won a kindle copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads program.
April 11, 2019
It’s a 5 star story, but this book’s telling is clunky. I respect and admire Vaughan’s journalistic approach. He let the various players’ words and actions speak for themselves instead of inserting his own opinions into what happened. However, I struggled to keep all of the various people straight since many were mentioned only briefly and then often never again or many chapters later. The writing kept tripping me up. (Perhaps a lot of that has to do with me being a sleep-deprived mom with a 5-week-old!) I wanted to like this book more since the story itself is stranger than fiction. The opening hooked me, but the book lost me with its seemingly unimportant details Vaughan gathered in his research. He drew me back in on the day that led to the zoo’s demise, but he lost me again with the minutiae of the legal proceedings. Ultimately, as the reader, I didn’t get enough of a portrait of any of the people to feel connected to them. We learned a lot about Dick, and Vaughan obviously spent a lot of time with him to gather so much firsthand material, but I didn’t feel like I understood him the way Vaughan wanted me to. I’m glad I read this book for the sake of its importance to my home state, but the narrative fell flat.
Read
September 24, 2019Totally and utterly captivating and horrifying and sad story of a zoo in Royal, Nebraska (population 81). One man had a dream, destroyed when his role model died, and saw that dream be chipped away by his own decisions and the people and politics in the small town. But it wasn't until years after he was out of the job when the chimpanzees escaped the zoo, causing them to be shot and killed, that the story really comes together.
It's a story of small, Midwestern towns -- the bad, the good, the quirks, the politics -- and a story I never knew about, even though I went to college just a few hours away at the time (it happened at the same time as Hurricane Katrina, which gives context as to why).
At times, it gets a little in-depth with some of the players in the town, but I get why Vaughan made those choices as a writer. No one here is a good and no one is bad. They're complicated and complex, all hoping to just do their best but failing (and harming) themselves and others in the process.
It's a story of small, Midwestern towns -- the bad, the good, the quirks, the politics -- and a story I never knew about, even though I went to college just a few hours away at the time (it happened at the same time as Hurricane Katrina, which gives context as to why).
At times, it gets a little in-depth with some of the players in the town, but I get why Vaughan made those choices as a writer. No one here is a good and no one is bad. They're complicated and complex, all hoping to just do their best but failing (and harming) themselves and others in the process.
August 22, 2021
2.5 ⭐️
The book is ok - probably longer than it needed to be.
But the story is… horrible. Akin to Tiger King but with chimps. It’s about a failing “zoo” that never really worked, because it’s in the middle of nowhere and can’t really be supported by the locals alone. And it’s about the man who dreamed this up… but really wanted to just work with primates. It ends tragically, way too long after it should have been shut down.
And I can’t help but think, is this the result of letting people think you can have it all? That you can open your own zoo in a Nebraska town of under 1000 people, and that’s a good life choice?
Or is it a failure of the myth of the small town? Were they supporting him by looking the other way, or letting him & the animals be abused by saying it’s not my business?
It’s definitely a failure of small government. Someone should have shut this down within a year or two. He had fines against him; there were plenty of red flags. Why none of them were acted against before it was too late is inexcusable.
The book is ok - probably longer than it needed to be.
But the story is… horrible. Akin to Tiger King but with chimps. It’s about a failing “zoo” that never really worked, because it’s in the middle of nowhere and can’t really be supported by the locals alone. And it’s about the man who dreamed this up… but really wanted to just work with primates. It ends tragically, way too long after it should have been shut down.
And I can’t help but think, is this the result of letting people think you can have it all? That you can open your own zoo in a Nebraska town of under 1000 people, and that’s a good life choice?
Or is it a failure of the myth of the small town? Were they supporting him by looking the other way, or letting him & the animals be abused by saying it’s not my business?
It’s definitely a failure of small government. Someone should have shut this down within a year or two. He had fines against him; there were plenty of red flags. Why none of them were acted against before it was too late is inexcusable.
January 29, 2021
Overall, I found this book well-written and in places it read more like a novel than the nonfiction book that it is. The story was heartbreaking, on so many levels.
I experienced it as a cautionary tale of how disaster is the inevitable end of striking out passionately towards something grand with totally inadequate personal and community resources. One man's dream devolves into a nightmare . . .
The sadness of the situation for some of the human beings (the ones who cared) and of course the animals in this story weighed me down as I continued to read. But I did continue to read, and found a great many things to think about as I did.
I experienced it as a cautionary tale of how disaster is the inevitable end of striking out passionately towards something grand with totally inadequate personal and community resources. One man's dream devolves into a nightmare . . .
The sadness of the situation for some of the human beings (the ones who cared) and of course the animals in this story weighed me down as I continued to read. But I did continue to read, and found a great many things to think about as I did.
August 10, 2024
“Why didn’t you call me?”
11/14✔️
5 stars!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
11/14✔️
5 stars!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
March 3, 2019
I have lived most of my life in Nebraska, and yet I do not remember hearing about this when it happened. Really, reading the description you would think it's fiction. The author gives excellent insight into small town (in this case extremely small town) life: the lack of privacy, the dwindling of businesses and population, the petty squabbles and grudges.
Dick Haskins heart was probably in the right place, but his lack of knowledge about anything other than the animals was staggering. How the zoo managed to stay afloat for that many years is mind-boggling. The people who tried to run it after Dick seemed a little more business savvy, but several of the zoo's board of directors seemed batshit crazy.
The awful day when the chimps escaped (from an unlocked gate, highlighting the incompetence of the people running it at the time) was hard to read, a violent and sad day that could have been avoided. I found myself asking the same question as Dick when he heard the news, "Why didn't anyone call me?"
It's obvious the author did his research, and did a great job of presenting the different viewpoints, even when they contradicted each other.
Dick Haskins heart was probably in the right place, but his lack of knowledge about anything other than the animals was staggering. How the zoo managed to stay afloat for that many years is mind-boggling. The people who tried to run it after Dick seemed a little more business savvy, but several of the zoo's board of directors seemed batshit crazy.
The awful day when the chimps escaped (from an unlocked gate, highlighting the incompetence of the people running it at the time) was hard to read, a violent and sad day that could have been avoided. I found myself asking the same question as Dick when he heard the news, "Why didn't anyone call me?"
It's obvious the author did his research, and did a great job of presenting the different viewpoints, even when they contradicted each other.
March 13, 2019
I just finished Zoo Nebraska. I don't usually read non-fiction but this one was about a small town in Nebraska so it piqued my interest - and I'm glad it did! I have lived in Nebraska most of my life and can't believe I didn't hear anything about this when it was happening! I had never heard of Royal, NE! I'm glad I read the book. It really spoke to me and made me want to keep reading. The author wrote in a way that made it hard to remember it wasn't, in fact, fiction, but unfortunately, it had really happened. It's one of those "true stories" that I am sure many would prefer was "fiction". I talked so much about this book while reading it that my husband wants to read it next! And isn't that the highest praise?
March 3, 2019
A train wreck of a zoo and its heartbroken, passionate founder
Full disclosure: I contemplated not finishing this book, and a low rating early on. It's a difficult read - not due to the writing, which is concise and clear - but the subject matter. The proverbial train races off the tracks in the first few pages, then the author back tracks to the beginning.
I'm glad I continued reading; this book will stay with me for a long time.
Two strong themes weave their way through the narrative. One, most inspiring yet heartbreaking, is of the man with a quiet passion for the quests of his heart. Everything to do with primates encompassed his earlier years, leading to the creation of the zoo. You can't help but pull for him despite seeing how badly things went in retrospect.
The other theme is the story of what PETA and other animal rights groups would disparagingly term a "roadside attraction". Given that the climactic event resulted in the violent deaths of some of the animals, others froze to death, and others malnourished and poorly kept, they wouldn't be entirely wrong. This book could be used as a cautionary tale against such tourist destinations.
Reading, you can see how it evolved. People who cared deeply - some about the animals, some about the town, and some only for themselves - in charge of a fledgling zoo that probably should never have flown.
I look forward to reading more from this author. An example of the writing, during a climactic scene:
"Up ahead, the pointed cap of the water tower peaked above the trees, still flush with green in September. Distracted by the horn, Ripley surrendered the door and rushed toward the van, knuckles brushing the grass, every muscle shifting and flexing beneath his coat. Still outside despite the warning, Hughes watched from her porch as Ripley, midsprint, effortlessly lifted a gas grill from the yard and hurled it with one arm at the van like a pissed-off baggage handler. When Carolyn accelerated, the chimp lunged at the vehicle and slapped it with his hand."
Full disclosure: I contemplated not finishing this book, and a low rating early on. It's a difficult read - not due to the writing, which is concise and clear - but the subject matter. The proverbial train races off the tracks in the first few pages, then the author back tracks to the beginning.
I'm glad I continued reading; this book will stay with me for a long time.
Two strong themes weave their way through the narrative. One, most inspiring yet heartbreaking, is of the man with a quiet passion for the quests of his heart. Everything to do with primates encompassed his earlier years, leading to the creation of the zoo. You can't help but pull for him despite seeing how badly things went in retrospect.
The other theme is the story of what PETA and other animal rights groups would disparagingly term a "roadside attraction". Given that the climactic event resulted in the violent deaths of some of the animals, others froze to death, and others malnourished and poorly kept, they wouldn't be entirely wrong. This book could be used as a cautionary tale against such tourist destinations.
Reading, you can see how it evolved. People who cared deeply - some about the animals, some about the town, and some only for themselves - in charge of a fledgling zoo that probably should never have flown.
I look forward to reading more from this author. An example of the writing, during a climactic scene:
"Up ahead, the pointed cap of the water tower peaked above the trees, still flush with green in September. Distracted by the horn, Ripley surrendered the door and rushed toward the van, knuckles brushing the grass, every muscle shifting and flexing beneath his coat. Still outside despite the warning, Hughes watched from her porch as Ripley, midsprint, effortlessly lifted a gas grill from the yard and hurled it with one arm at the van like a pissed-off baggage handler. When Carolyn accelerated, the chimp lunged at the vehicle and slapped it with his hand."
March 5, 2019
Thought this book would be mostly a 2* affair. I disliked Dick who wanted to live with the apes, monkeys and gorillas, yet didn't want to take the time to get the degrees, put in the hours necessary in order for that to happen. Instead, he works with a primate, purchases property for a zoo in Royal, Nebraska where, again, he never learned about marketing, finance, the degree in which animals need to be cared for. His constant blame of others, and never taking into consideration his own attitudes really put me off. Similar characters appear throughout. No one was altruistic. Of course, it was the animals that suffered. Now, 3/4 or more of the way through, the zoo is gone, the animals removed and our author writes a book about Zoo Nebraska and actually speaks with the people involved. This was the best part of the book. The history of this area of Nebraska, Dick's family from hundreds of years before and his regret. Finally! Glad I did read it.
April 5, 2019
A story that delves into childhood dreams, community support, and small-town politics.
The townspeople and governing body of Royal, Nebraska (pop.81) never planned to open a zoo, but when local boy, Dick Haskin, decided to bring his childhood dream--working with primates--to the community, they supported him. From the mid-1980s to 2005, thousands visited Zoo Nebraska and the community came to view Haskin's first chimp, Reuben, as a valued member.
But, as journalist Vaughan eloquently shows, it takes more than one chimp to make a zoo and it takes more than one's love for animals to run a zoo. His reporting of the day-to-day activities is fair and even-handed. His descriptions of the main players in the zoo's success and ultimate demise are subtle yet reveal the complex interactions that occur in small towns. His treatment of the chaos that ensued on a September day in 2005 when three chimpanzees escaped and were killed by local residents sincere.
The townspeople and governing body of Royal, Nebraska (pop.81) never planned to open a zoo, but when local boy, Dick Haskin, decided to bring his childhood dream--working with primates--to the community, they supported him. From the mid-1980s to 2005, thousands visited Zoo Nebraska and the community came to view Haskin's first chimp, Reuben, as a valued member.
But, as journalist Vaughan eloquently shows, it takes more than one chimp to make a zoo and it takes more than one's love for animals to run a zoo. His reporting of the day-to-day activities is fair and even-handed. His descriptions of the main players in the zoo's success and ultimate demise are subtle yet reveal the complex interactions that occur in small towns. His treatment of the chaos that ensued on a September day in 2005 when three chimpanzees escaped and were killed by local residents sincere.
July 26, 2019
This book went nowhere fast.
March 22, 2019
An interesting story about one man's dream that briefly flowered then withered under the weight of small town personality politics and non-profit board miscues.
Dick Haskins dreamt of working with primates. That drive manifested itself into a small, scrappy zoo in his hometown of Royal, Nebraska.
Dick's desire burned so brightly, though, he drove himself to care for the animals and the zoo beyond the limits of human endurance. Without pay, without rest, and often without assistance, he persevered until his health waned and he had to hand over direct control of the daily operations.
From that point, zoo management spirals out of control. A string of zoo directors attempt to manage the operation but they're undermined by one local family bent on imposing their will on proceedings. Without Haskins at the wheel, the zoo is a hog on ice and ends as well.
The Goodreads review says, "A resonant true story of small-town politics and community perseverance and of decent people and questionable choices, Zoo Nebraska is a timely requiem for a rural America in the throes of extinction."
While the last line caught my eye and compelled me to read "Zoo Nebraska" it's inaccurate. Rural America, in the form of Royal, Nebraska described by Carson Vaughan, allegedly in the hyperbolic "throes of extinction," is timeless and eternal.
Vaughan's book is filled with people simply being people. The story could have been set in any country in the world.
But people like Dick Haskins are rare as diamonds. Once the book moves past his time as director, it loses much of its momentum and doesn't regain it until Vaughan's description of the day the zoo dies.
Dick Haskins dreamt of working with primates. That drive manifested itself into a small, scrappy zoo in his hometown of Royal, Nebraska.
Dick's desire burned so brightly, though, he drove himself to care for the animals and the zoo beyond the limits of human endurance. Without pay, without rest, and often without assistance, he persevered until his health waned and he had to hand over direct control of the daily operations.
From that point, zoo management spirals out of control. A string of zoo directors attempt to manage the operation but they're undermined by one local family bent on imposing their will on proceedings. Without Haskins at the wheel, the zoo is a hog on ice and ends as well.
The Goodreads review says, "A resonant true story of small-town politics and community perseverance and of decent people and questionable choices, Zoo Nebraska is a timely requiem for a rural America in the throes of extinction."
While the last line caught my eye and compelled me to read "Zoo Nebraska" it's inaccurate. Rural America, in the form of Royal, Nebraska described by Carson Vaughan, allegedly in the hyperbolic "throes of extinction," is timeless and eternal.
Vaughan's book is filled with people simply being people. The story could have been set in any country in the world.
But people like Dick Haskins are rare as diamonds. Once the book moves past his time as director, it loses much of its momentum and doesn't regain it until Vaughan's description of the day the zoo dies.
May 1, 2020
If ever there was a series of unfortunate events this would be it. I stayed up way later than I should have to finish a story that left me so very sad but that so fully captured what it means to be human. So many what ifs. Dick Haskins had a dream to study Chimpanzees. He had talent and potential. What if one of the organizations he applied to had taken a chance on him? What if he had accepted the internship with Dian Fossey? What if he actually had the funding and support to build a facility to fulfill his dreams?
Instead we are told the story of a dream that spirals out of control to a catastrophic end. A man with passion for his cause but Ill equipped with know how or finances blindly and stubbornly attempts to set up a chimpanzee research facility in the middle of no where. The ridiculous small town politics, very recognizable to anyone who has lived in a small town, accelerates the race to a bad end.
I was left pondering how this sums up so much of the human experience. How many multitudes of people have talents and passions and dreams only to find themselves mired in the reality of life? At least he had the courage to try, if only it hadn’t ended so tragically.
I recommend this book. It will haunt my thoughts and keep me pondering for a long time.
Instead we are told the story of a dream that spirals out of control to a catastrophic end. A man with passion for his cause but Ill equipped with know how or finances blindly and stubbornly attempts to set up a chimpanzee research facility in the middle of no where. The ridiculous small town politics, very recognizable to anyone who has lived in a small town, accelerates the race to a bad end.
I was left pondering how this sums up so much of the human experience. How many multitudes of people have talents and passions and dreams only to find themselves mired in the reality of life? At least he had the courage to try, if only it hadn’t ended so tragically.
I recommend this book. It will haunt my thoughts and keep me pondering for a long time.
June 26, 2019
Dick Haskin comes off as a poster child for the obsessive half of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for some disorder of grandiosity as well.
It leads him into outright lies, like telling the couple who later ran this very small town zoo a few years after he did that he had tried to place the chimps there with sanctuaries when he had not.
It makes me wonder what would have happened had he gotten to Rwanda to "intern" under Dian Fossey before she was killed. He might have been more obsessive and grandiose yet.
That said, after he's not running the zoo, the book has several story line threads that never get fully woven together. The one small-town crazy family? Perhaps could have been developed more.
Attitudes of the town toward the zoo? Ditto.
Or, asking Haskin to talk directly about why he complained about never having time off when all he had to do was place the chimps with a sanctuary. Asking more people from the professional zoo world their thoughts on him. Asking Haskin why he didn't work the rungs of career advancement in the professional zoo world more than the brief asking that happened.
In short, the book is sort of interesting, but could have been more.
It leads him into outright lies, like telling the couple who later ran this very small town zoo a few years after he did that he had tried to place the chimps there with sanctuaries when he had not.
It makes me wonder what would have happened had he gotten to Rwanda to "intern" under Dian Fossey before she was killed. He might have been more obsessive and grandiose yet.
That said, after he's not running the zoo, the book has several story line threads that never get fully woven together. The one small-town crazy family? Perhaps could have been developed more.
Attitudes of the town toward the zoo? Ditto.
Or, asking Haskin to talk directly about why he complained about never having time off when all he had to do was place the chimps with a sanctuary. Asking more people from the professional zoo world their thoughts on him. Asking Haskin why he didn't work the rungs of career advancement in the professional zoo world more than the brief asking that happened.
In short, the book is sort of interesting, but could have been more.
April 29, 2022
Honestly, the first 160 pages were incredibly boring. I picked up this book because I was fairly interested in learning about the Zoo Nebraska tragedy that occurred but it didn't even get to the incident until the last like hundred pages. There is so much back story on the zoo members and co-owner/founder of the zoo and it was just super mundane and boring. Thankfully, this one was I did as an audiobook and was able to keep listening, if I had to read it, I probably would've put it in my DNF pile unfortunately. This book took 242 pages to discuss an incident that could've been explained in 5 minutes and I feel like it was a bit of a waste of time for me, so I would recommend to anyone interested in this story to just hop on YouTube or Google and watch a 5 minute video discussing the events that occurred that day.
March 10, 2019
Gossip at a local zoo
So this book was offered as my free book of the month. I like to step out of my traditional genres of reading and try something different. This was definitely a different read. Based on a true story in Nebraska, I’m not sure how I feel about this read. On one hand it was a strange, unbelievable story about one person starting a zoo. Then all the drama that followed. It was intriguing but I can’t say interesting. At times it felt like I was reading about the local gossip of a rural zoo. There was scandal but with nothing getting fixed it was the same story, the same drama and a tragic ending. A kind of “Groundhog Day” knowing the ending was going to be tragic for the chimps.
So this book was offered as my free book of the month. I like to step out of my traditional genres of reading and try something different. This was definitely a different read. Based on a true story in Nebraska, I’m not sure how I feel about this read. On one hand it was a strange, unbelievable story about one person starting a zoo. Then all the drama that followed. It was intriguing but I can’t say interesting. At times it felt like I was reading about the local gossip of a rural zoo. There was scandal but with nothing getting fixed it was the same story, the same drama and a tragic ending. A kind of “Groundhog Day” knowing the ending was going to be tragic for the chimps.
March 10, 2019
Too long
I’d give this 3.5 stars. It is deeply researched and the writing is quite readable. For me the main drawback is that there’s just too much of it. When you have a huge stack of information in front of you, all that hard work and time represented by it, it can be hard to know what to include. I read this in ebook format. If I’d held the hard copy book in my hand I might’ve realized what was happening sooner. As it was, I started wondering if I was getting close to the end and saw I was only 50% through. I respect the author wanting to have the fully flushed out story told but by the end I just wanted it to be over.
I’d give this 3.5 stars. It is deeply researched and the writing is quite readable. For me the main drawback is that there’s just too much of it. When you have a huge stack of information in front of you, all that hard work and time represented by it, it can be hard to know what to include. I read this in ebook format. If I’d held the hard copy book in my hand I might’ve realized what was happening sooner. As it was, I started wondering if I was getting close to the end and saw I was only 50% through. I respect the author wanting to have the fully flushed out story told but by the end I just wanted it to be over.
January 14, 2020
This book gives me many mixed emotions. I lived in Royal/Orchard for two summers as an intern at Ashfall fossil beds and had heard rumors of this zoo but no one really talked about it. This book is as depressing as it is fascinating. It is not happy, it is not feel good and nothing positive came out of the zoo. It is honestly one of the saddest historically accurate books I have ever read. Small town vibes are really Ride or Die when it comes to businesses and when they die they destroy lives. This book, well written and incredible good, is also incredibly difficult to get through. "The dismantling of an American Dream" is the most accurate subtitle the author could have chosen.
March 17, 2019
Well-researched and heartfelt
Though the author’s heated prose has a tendency to get in its own way, “Zoo Nebraska” is a taut tale about a small town, the inevitable dysfunction that arises when one man’s dream meets civic reality, and the ugly consequences caused by our need to connect with the natural world in ways that are ultimately destructive to the animals we profess to love. Meticulously researched and written with a full heart and gimlet eye, “Zoo Nebraska” is a fascinating look at the mechanisms of small-town politics and the people and animals who get enmeshed in those gears.
Though the author’s heated prose has a tendency to get in its own way, “Zoo Nebraska” is a taut tale about a small town, the inevitable dysfunction that arises when one man’s dream meets civic reality, and the ugly consequences caused by our need to connect with the natural world in ways that are ultimately destructive to the animals we profess to love. Meticulously researched and written with a full heart and gimlet eye, “Zoo Nebraska” is a fascinating look at the mechanisms of small-town politics and the people and animals who get enmeshed in those gears.
September 26, 2019
I was really interested in this story. I knew nothing about it until I saw this book. Unfortunately, I still do not know much about it since I couldn't finish this one. My main issue with the book was the writing style. It was all over the place. One minute you are reading about one thing then it flies to something else going on then off to something else then back again. It seemed like the author couldn't focus which in turn left me unable to focus. I'm still interested in the story but will get my information from somewhere else.
July 20, 2019
A very sad true narrative of the failure of a zoo created in the tiny town of Royal, in northeast Nebraska, by a person fascinated by primatology. Johnny Carson gave tens of thousands of dollars to help support this zoo. Continuous squabbling by residents of Royal, a lack of volunteers to help run the zoo, a lack of financial support, litigious residents, and exhausted supervision of the zoo by a handful of volunteers that were running it resulted in big animals getting loose and having to be shot and killed by law enforcement.
The author spent several years researching this book, interviewing all the principals in the conflict and determining the root cause of the disaster. This book is a sobering read about how politics can destroy a worthy project. It is an important book to read in this day of extreme tribal politics.
The author spent several years researching this book, interviewing all the principals in the conflict and determining the root cause of the disaster. This book is a sobering read about how politics can destroy a worthy project. It is an important book to read in this day of extreme tribal politics.
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