"Hugo" #1 (From Buckles)

There were 18 Circus World elephants in the herd when I took over from Hugo Schmitt at the Venice Quarters in the Fall of 1973 but I kept hearing about others that had been dispersed at several zoos around the country. As I recall, the original plan for Circus World included a Zoo and a number of animals had been purchased from a park in Texas for that purpose (including some elephants) but Hugo refused to have anything to do with them and other arrangement had to be made until the park opened. Ironically, one of those was later named "Hugo" and is seen in the picture above.