The old stone caretaker’s cottage located next to the Desert Dome inside Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo always grabs my attention as I trek up the steep hill that leads from some of its newest features including the Bay Family Children’s Adventure Trails, Scott Alaskan Adventure, and Owen Sea Lion Shores. It was that cottage that sent me digging through the archives to discover the history of the park before it became one of the world’s best zoos.

Riverview Park dates back to before the turn of the twentieth century. Perched in the steep hills overlooking the railroad tracks and the Missouri River, the site was approved by Horace W.S. Cleveland, the architect of Omaha’s Park and Boulevard System.

The park was founded in 1894 after land was acquired through eminent domain. Cleveland advocated buying park land before the city grew toward it. The park was developed by William R. Adams, the superintendent of the park system. About 5,000 visitors attended the grand opening on June 24, 1894, as the Fort Omaha Military Band performed.

The land was mostly undeveloped and had belonged to Tom Murray, one of the city’s original pioneers. Referred to as an old-time junk dealer, Murray owned 160 acres of land in the area. Upon learning of the city’s plan to expand the park, he offered a “donation” of 10 acres under the conditions that both the park and the boulevard connecting it to the other parks be named after him and that his adjoining land would be exempt from taxes for paving and sidewalks. Murray had already given the city a right of way through his land for a boulevard. Although the City Council approved the deal in 1894, Mayor George Bemis vetoed the donation. The Omaha World-Herald agreed with the decision, arguing that the conditions undermined any generosity behind the offer. When Murray died in 1903, the paper’s obituary said men who had dealt with him called him the fairest man they had ever done business with.

Following its opening, the World-Herald described the triangular-shaped 66-acre park as being hilly and cut by deep ravines and ridges. True to its name, Riverview offered a view of the Missouri River while a tall, tree-crowned ridge owned by Murray framed the park on its northern end.

Planners proposed turning a ravine reaching the heart of the park into a lagoon. Sitting just beyond the ravine was an open field with baseball fields and tennis courts. On the east side, a shaded walk followed the ravine to a concourse with a small playground beneath large trees. The longest trail, referred to as Lover’s Lane, passed slopes covered with hazel, sumac, and wild grape before climbing to the ridge and its views.

Riverview was accessed via the streetcar line that ran along 13th Street, though it required a three-block walk. Concerts and picnics took place between its two entrances along 9th Street. New attractions followed the park’s expansion in 1895. Among them was the artesian well that was used to fill the lagoon, which, in the winter, doubled as an ice-skating rink.

The park was connected to two boulevards but neither was named for Murray. The first was Riverview Boulevard, which connected to Bancroft Street on the park’s north end. The other was Deer Park Boulevard, which sat on the park’s western end. In 1898, the 10th Street streetcar line finally reached Bancroft Street, about six blocks short of the park. It took roughly another decade to reach Riverview Park.

Plans for the park to double as a zoo started shortly after it opened as it acquired a bear, moose, and fish in 1896. Its first caretaker, Nels P. Anderson, was hired the following year. Anderson remained on-site in a caretaker’s cottage. Before working at the zoo at Riverview Park, he reportedly traveled Europe and South America with the menagerie section of circuses. By 1899, the park had grown to over 100 acres while its collection numbered more than 120 animals, including two bison on loan from Colonel William “Buffalo Bill” Cody while others came from hunters, exotic pet owners, and circuses.

By 1901 the zoo set stone cages within its steep hills for mountain lions, foxes, and coyotes as the bears were kept in stone habitat. The zoo’s grassland was home to buffalo and deer among others. During his tenure, Anderson had witnessed the birth of a baby bison named Monarch II in 1906 which he said was the finest he had ever seen. After 15 years working as the caretaker of the park, Anderson was killed by Monarch II, which was blind, while preparing to feed buffalo in 1912. Superintendent Adams believed that the bison didn’t recognize him as he entered the cage.

The park continued to grow and was among the first in the city to add a swimming pool in 1916. By 1917, its menagerie included mountain goats, monkeys, bobcats, wolves, ducks, alligators, and a “freak five-legged cow,” according to the zoo. Tigers and lions were added by the time veterinarian Gould Dietz donated cat cages to the park in the 1920s. In the 1930s, the WPA built new cat and bear exhibits, and the park added shelters, fences, and a new pavilion. By the early 1940s, the city had added about 30 abandoned acres north of Deer Park Boulevard, including the old Kritenbrink brick yard, bringing the park to 140 acres.

Although the Omaha Zoological Society was organized in 1952, the zoo portion of the park had struggled at times and had just 128 animals by 1962. Its days as Riverview Park came to an end in 1963 after Peter Kiewit and Margaret Hitchcock Doorly donated a combined $1M to the zoo society. With three-fourths coming from Margaret, the zoo was named in honor of her late husband, Henry Doorly, the publisher and chairman of the World-Herald. Among her other wishes, according to former chief executive officer Dennis Pate, was better treatment and improved housing for the animals, which the 1965 World-Herald said would include moats instead of bars.

After Margaret died in 1964, the city leased the park land to the zoo society. Dr. Warren Thomas became director in 1965 and began replacing the barred cages before leaving for Brownsville, Texas, in 1970. His successor, Dr. Lee G. Simmons, continued the work while adding some of its best-known exhibits, including the Lied Jungle and Desert Dome, before retiring in 2009.

Much has changed since Margaret’s donation turned the park into the Henry Doorly Zoo. It has grown to more than 160 acres while caring for more than 33,000 animals. If you squint, you can still see remnants of the old Riverview Park with its caretaker’s cottage and dramatic landscape.

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