I just adore your abandoned explorations. There is an abandoned zoo here in Los Angeles that isn't quite as lovely as yours, but it's still very interesting. I had my birthday party there a couple weeks back and it was such a great setting.
You don't watch much tv, as I recall, but there is an interesting series on right now called "Life After People" on the History Channel. Your pictures of the zoo remind me of the show because they discuss how the flora and fauna take over and the systems we have built break down without our constant maintenance.
The abject beauty is staggering.
This reminds me of the global warming argument that it's not that important to save the planet. It's important to save the humans. The planet will be fine.
lovely
I spent countless summer days on Belle Isle as a child. Now as an adult I find myself riding furiously down winding streets just to try and get enough wind in my air to mimic the feeling of sliding down that yellow monster slide in a bean sack. It never works and, although those photos made me gasp a little at the sight of a place so vibrant in my memories they also break my heart. I live in New York now but I will never give up hope that someday someone who has stayed behind, through all the destruction and madness, will rebuild my city and allow me to cowardly slink back.
Can you imagine what kind of giant mutant spiders and hungry hungry hippos would be roaming the zoo if it wasn't in MI with an actual winter to kill off or at least slow down plant and animal growth?!?
i saw that movie arachnophobia in 6th grade science class (no idea why). that photo really reminds me of it haha. i think it's the color of the stained wood or something. i only remember the first part of that movie, and vaguely. i don't remember if i blocked the rest from my mind or stayed home sick.
also that lion mural, haha..at first i thought it was some photoshop effect...it looks weirdly 3dimensional! ..or maybe just his nose.
this is my first comment and it's an odd one!
i was in detroit with my boyfriend (he actually sent you an email about that documentary being made) recently and did some slight exploring, as well as a tour of where i grew up (redford). your blog was recommended to me..i knew of your photos but not of your blog. i'm really enjoying it!
did you grow up in detroit? i am in chicago with most of my relatives in michigan..i have a big soft spot for it. ..we are hoping to get back to detroit in the near future.
I am now pretty curious and will probably have to visit myself. So many memories. The big yellow moon we would stop and take pictures at, and I think before it was redone there was a small barn and farm animals at the main doors. Crazy world we live in.
Cool mood with the overgrowth and the forlorn expressions on the lion and lioness.
I didn't even know there used to be a zoo back there. I just thought that side of the park was emptiness.
since it is abandoned can anyone access it? i would figure everything would be locked up and you wouldn't be able to get in. what's your secret?
It's funny how my oldest daughter, now 38, and I were just reminiscing this week about all the places I took her as a single parent in the 70's. The Belle Isle Zoo was one of them. It was a great place. It's sad to me how the place is abandoned, but it's strangely still beautiful. Thanks for the pictoral review. This too is my first post. My youngest daughter turned me on to your blog. I sit for hours sometimes just to get caught up.
I am quietly thrilled that you traveled back to Belle Isle Zoo. Your original post had me totally captivating and this follow-up does not disappoint. Thanks as always.
I would have really loved an old-school-style-Dutch (or dutch? I can't remember if you capitalized the "d") photoshop job of your face on the body of Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins in Shelob's lair.
Loved your turn of phrase, "pen captive wildlife and captivate humanity."
Thanks for the new photos. I showed your old Belle Isle post to my English students last year when we were reading "Cannery Row" to illustrate the balance and battle between nature and man's need for civilization. Thanks for the update!!!
Really awesome photos..
Nice photo...wonderful thoughts....
Thanks for sharing...
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Andrew
I love the faded yellow footprints disappearing into the bush...
You should def. write the treatment for that horror movie about spider doom at an abandoned zoo!! it's perfect.
Maybe Time will be calling you soon about getting another photographer to photograph your photographs of the Belle Isle Zoo.
Last time I was in Detroit I took a trip to Belle Isle for the first time and saw the zoo but didn't realize it was functioning as a "Nature vs Man" reality TV show.
It was winter though so just about all of Belle Isle was abandoned. Maybe that's why I didn't notice.
I love your blog and your pics of Detroit and Belle Isle. Have you ever watched "Life After People"?--it's on cable but you could probably google it. Everytime I watch it I think of your site. keep up the good work..... and I miss the bike-capade stories.
I too like the good pics of abandoned Detroit former icons. This one is almost as sad as the elementary school(s). We live
Cool Photos! Thanks Jim. It was your original essay that brought me to your site. By the by, about 10 years ago a fallen tree let one of the alligators out. He made it to the golf course pond and it took about 2 weeks to catch him. I think they caught him.....
the life after people show that everyone's talking about can be found here:
http://www.history.com/content/
l...fe_after_people
you can watch full episodes there.
it's mostly digital animations with skyscrapers crashing dramatically to the ground, but they do go visit places that have been abandoned for a few decades just to see what's up.
I loved Belle Isle as a kid and sometimes I can only read some of your entries before I start to tear up and can't read anymore. It's just devastating the way Michigan has gone downhill. I moved to Tucson, Arizona shortly after marrying and it's home now. I spent the first 34 years of my life in Michigan and we realized in 2005 after we got married that if we stayed in Michigan, we would be bankrupt in a little less than a year. And yes, I spent the first few weeks missing family/friends, Port Huron, the water and missing my little apartment with the lake view....but somehow along the way I realized that financial devastation for my family was not what I wanted even though I wanted to turn the Uhaul around and go back. I miss Michigan but Tucson is home now. Thanks for sharing all of this with me...for a little while it brings back memories
So many things come to mind: a movie about killer spiders that William Shatner was in; that previously mentioned TV show that freaks out my son because it means we're all dead; that if I had come across all those spider webs, I would have a permanent case of the "willies"; that it's sad such a pretty zoo (you can tell it was pretty) went to pot.
Fascinating. Gives me goosebumps.
I took my son to belle isle zoo several times when he was young (he turned 18 few weeks ago)... and the aquiruim. When I was a kid we use to go to Belle Isle to canoe - there were vendors with popcorn (my childhood memory remembers that vividly)... In the winter we would go there to ice skate, remember all the fun my friends and I had - and the warming house served hot chocolate (memories of my childhood).
a friend now living in the states posted the link on a networking site... its terribly sad and were the animals rehomed...i think the trauma of being rehomed can be worse...our zoos in the uk are fabulous chester and twycross have great programmes and cant imagine them being derelict
a friend now living in the states posted the link on a networking site... its terribly sad and were the animals rehomed...i think the trauma of being rehomed can be worse...our zoos in the uk are fabulous chester and twycross have great programmes and cant imagine them being derelict
Very Cool. I would love to explore this place !!!
I'd think this would be a great place to go collect cuttings from-- imagine the interesting things you could grow! I sure hope some gardening fan got in there to save a few non-native species (and cut their seed budget!)
Really interesting photos. I'm in Fort Worth, TX, and the structure of this zoo reminds me so much of our beautiful, beautifully maintained, much-loved and visited zoo. The only difference? Time. Politics. Quirks of fate. And eventually, nature consumes us, every one. What a shock to finally understand that humanity and all its cultural and social expressions is not only at the top of the food chain, but also at the bottom of it.
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