Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/32575
Penrose mentions in 1928 that the boa constrictor would share quarters with a newly acquired Gila monster. There is no mention of the snake after that. Enter Tessie All the while, Penrose had been searching for an elephant. He was looking for a tame, gentle creature that would tolerate the attention of hotel guests and serve as a novelty to get publicity. Penrose let it be known that he was acquiring such a beast, named Empress of India, so he had to make good on his boast. Geiger’s book quotes a letter from Frederick Bonfils, owner of the Denver Post, who was Penrose’s friend and who had circus connections: “I have all these articles about … the Empress of India … that you have printed in The Post here. You have got to make good now and we must get an elephant that will not kill a lot of people down there.” A month later, in November 1925, an appropriate pachyderm was found. She was a 45-year-old female who belonged to a herd owned by the John Robinson Circus. Penrose bought her for $3,000 and she was sent to Colo- rado Springs in the spring of 1926. On the side of the boxcar in which she was shipped, it proclaimed: “This car con- tains the Empress of India, the largest elephant in the world, gift of the Raja of Nagapur to Spencer Penrose, Broad- moor Hotel, Colorado Springs.” Of course, most of that was not true. Her real name was Tessie, she wasn’t all that enormous by elephant standards, and the Raja of Nagapur (if he existed at all) knew nothing about her. But it was a great publicity ploy! Tessie more than fulfilled her role as hotel greeter and, in 1928, Penrose had an elephant house built of native stone for her. That building is actually scheduled for demolition in to make way for a new, more modern elephant house. Because Penrose owned most of Cheyenne Mountain, there was no encumbrance to moving his collection up to a habitable point at about 6,800 feet above sea level. And from there, the collection grew. A Community’s Embrace In 1935, American Film did a 10-min- ute documentary on the zoo, calling it “The Hundred Thousand Dollar Hobby.” Indeed, Penrose spent a lot of money on his collection and he offset it with admis- sions of 15 cents per person. As Penrose’s health began to fail in the late 1930s, he turned to his friend Robert Menary and asked him to take care of the animals when Penrose was gone. In a 1993 hotel archive audio interview featuring Menary’s daughter, Catherine, and son-in-law, John Calder, they recall the early days of Menary’s management. “He knew nothing about animals [when he started],” says John Calder. “What he did, he did for Mr. Pen- rose.” But he learned quickly. “In fact, he was the first person elected to the American Zoological Society who was “THIS CAR CONTAINS THE EMPRESS OF INDIA, THE LARGEST ELEPHANT IN THE WORLD, GIFT OF THE RAJA OF NAGAPUR TO SPENCER PENROSE, BROADMOOR HOTEL, COLORADO SPRINGS.” 1951: The entry building, the Thundergod House, is built and opened. 1957: Zoomobile (an on-site trolley) makes its debut. 1965: A flood rushes down the mountain, destroying the newly completed primate building. 2008: The Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit opens. The Sky Ride opens. 1953: The giraffe building opens. 1956: The bird and reptile houses open. 1960: The aquatics building opens. 2003: The African Rift Valley exhibit opens. Source: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo 39 broadmoor.com