Trapper Nelson

Trapper Nelson
Born	c. 1909 Trenton, New Jersey, United States
Died	1968 (aged 58–59) Hobe Sound, Florida, United States
Cause of death	Self-inflicted gunshot wound
Body discovered	July 30, 1968
Other names	Vincent Nostokovich or Natulkiewicz Vince "Trapper" Nelson
Height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Weight	240 lb (108.86 kg)
Children	Robert Charles Pritchard

Vince "Trapper" Nelson (born Vincent Nostokovich or Natulkiewicz around 1909) was an American trapper, hunter and zoo founder. Though he was born in New Jersey, and lived in Mexico and Texas, he is best known for establishing a homestead-turned-zoo on the shore of the Loxahatchee River in Florida. Filled with exotic and wild animals, his zoo was a popular tourist spot in the 1940s and 1950s, visited by local and national celebrities. Because of this, he became known locally as "Tarzan of the Loxahatchee".

The zoo was eventually shut down by state health inspectors in 1960. After his zoo was closed, Nelson became a hermit and suffered from undiagnosed health problems. In 1968, he was found dead from a gunshot wound in his cabin by a friend. His death was ruled a suicide. Nelson's campsite is now known as the Trapper Nelson Zoo Historic District in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Hobe Sound, Florida.

Trapper Nelson was born Vincent Nostokovich (or Natulkiewicz) to Polish immigrant parents in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1908 or 1909. As a boy, to earn money he began trapping animals such as muskrats in the marshes of New Jersey. His parents did not speak English, so Nelson would often assist them in translating to make sure they were not taken advantage of. However, when his mother died and his father remarried, Nelson ran away from home, heading west.

Hopping freight trains, Nelson first ended up in Colorado, then eventually in Mexico. While there, he was arrested by the Federales under suspicion of gunrunning. He spent time in a Mexican jail and was later released. Nelson later claimed his release was because he "wrecked their food budget."

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