Parrot Jungle Island
Jungle Island along the MacArthur Causeway
|
|
| Date opened | December 20, 1936 (as Parrot Jungle) June 28, 2003 (at current location) |
|---|---|
| Location | Miami, Florida |
| Coordinates | 25°47′10″N 80°10′27″W / 25.78611°N 80.17417°WCoordinates: 25°47′10″N 80°10′27″W / 25.78611°N 80.17417°W |
| Website | www |
Jungle Island (formerly Parrot Jungle) is a zoological theme park in Watson Island, Miami, Florida, United States. The park is currently closed until further notice due to damage from Hurricane Irma. It was originally named Parrot Jungle and moved from its first suburban location in Pinecrest, Florida to its present location just east of Downtown Miami renamed as Parrot Jungle Island. In 2007, the park was again renamed to Jungle Island.
Parrot Jungle was a zoological park south of Miami on 20 acres (8.1 ha) of property at Killian Drive and South Red Road.
Founded in 1936 by Francis "Franz" & Louise Scherr, Parrot Jungle is one of the oldest tourist attractions established in the Miami area. Scherr would often visit another attraction Monkey Jungle owned by Joe Drummond. On one visit when Scherr was again making one of his many suggestions for improvement, Drummond became fed up and told him, "go start your own jungle." Scherr, who owned and operated a feed and supply store in Homestead, became intrigued with the idea of building an attraction where birds would "fly free". Scherr leased 20 acres (81,000 m2) of hammock land for US$25 (equivalent to about $431 in 2016). The site was previously a nudist colony. Parrot Jungle was built as a winding nature trail dug through the coral rock and hammock land, indigenous to the area. All the natural plants were left undisturbed, the entrance was built on Red Road.
The attraction opened on December 20, 1936, to about 100 visitors, each person paid 25 cents to see and hear Scherr talk about his birds, trees and flowers. Since 1936, over a million visitors have visited Parrot Jungle. Among its many famous visitors was Sir Winston Churchill, film director Steven Spielberg, and former US President Jimmy Carter.
...
Wikipedia