Space Farms Zoo and Museum is a roadside zoo and historical museum in Sussex County, New Jersey, currently owned by New Jersey State Senator Parker Space.

The zoo was founded in 1927 and is home to more than 500 live animals, including some endangered species.Space Farms Zoo and Museum (zoo section)

Exhibits The Space Farms museum houses antique vehicles and items used during the early history of the United States, such as horse-drawn carriages and early motorcycles. The vehicles are largely unrestored. There are also colonial period tools and weapons on display.

Animals According to the zoo's website, residents include African lions, black leopards, South American jaguar, cougars, lynx, bobcats, Bengal tigers, as well as Grizzly bears, Hokkaido bears, Kodiak bears, and black bears.

Space Farms hosted a large bear in captivity exhibition, which showcased a Kodiak bear named Goliath, as part of a taxidermy exhibit in the main hall of the museum. After his death in 1991, his skull was put on display in the Space Farms museum.Strunsky, Steve. "ON THE MAP; A Zoo (and Much More) That Would Overwhelm Noah's Ark", The New York Times, October 19, 1997. Accessed October 11, 2007. "One of the permanent fixtures at Space Farms is Goliath, a 12-foot-tall, 2,000-pound Kodiak bear, who arrived as a cub 30 years ago and remains an attraction, having been stuffed after his death in 1991."

Human bones In 1979, the skeletal remains of three men uncovered nearby were stored "for safekeeping" at Space Farms. Narly thirty years later, forensic experts with the American Museum of Natural History determined that the bones belonged to African-American men enslaved by the family who owned the property where they were uncovered.

Notes

Further reading Day, Lori S. The Zookeeper's Daughter PublishAmerica, 2004. Day, Lori S. Zoo Momma Daylite Sales, 2016 Space, Fred. Ralph Space the Legend, The Story of Space Farms and Tales of Beemerville Privately Published, 2007.

External links

The Space Farms Museum Collection of Southwest Virginia Artifacts by Jim Glanville