Phoenix Zoo 1953.

 A renewed call for a zoo in Phoenix occurred in the early 1950s. In April 1953, J. Robert Burns, representing the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, went before the local parks board to inquire about land being set aside for a zoo, either in South Mountain Park or Papago Park. Not surprisingly, the Arizona Republic agreed with the Chamber of Commerce. “Arizona Needs a Zoo,” proclaimed an editorial headline three days later. The staff at the Arizona Daily Star apparently read the Republic, because three days later the Star retorted with its own editorial: “Arizona Has a Zoo.” The new Arizona-Sonora Desert Trailside Museum in the Tucson Mountains―just opened in 1952―displayed indigenous animals. But, in fact, it was “more than a zoo,” according to the editorial, and in its first year welcomed over 130,000 visitors. “The Republic editorial should have been entitled ‘Phoenix Needs a Zoo,’ for Arizona already has a zoo―and a good one,” the Star boasted.