In early 1941 the city of Mankato had a surplus of deer in a large pen at Sibley Park. Thus, the lucky recipient of three of those unwanted deer was the city of Albert Lea. And handling the arrangements for the movement of the deer from the Mankato Zoo to Albert Lea was the local Eagles organization.

Members of the Eagles Aerie or lodge went to Mankato on Feb. 7, 1941, and helped to load those three deer into compartments on a cattle truck that brought them back to Albert Lea.

The one male and two female yearling deer were placed in an enclosed tennis court located near the corner of West Main Street and St. Mary Avenue. After all, no one would be playing tennis that time of the year. Also, the city had moved in a small shed so the three deer could have a shelter during really rough weather.

I’m aware of the fact that there was once a tennis court in Morin Park near the corner of West Main Street and Euclid Avenue. However, according to Kevin Savick, who inspired this column with the contribution of six Tribune news articles, there was an earlier tennis court where the city parking lot is now located next to St. Mary Avenue. He added a note that this parking lot was set up in 1946.

City Manager R. L. Van Nocker said the small herd would be moved to a new enclosure in Edgewater Park during the spring.

Some local folks may have enjoyed having the deer on display; for a few boys these critters provided something to tease. The Tribune reported in the Feb. 12, 1941, issue that there were rumors “a bunch of boys had been throwing snowballs, tin cans, sticks and stones at the little fellows until one, more excited than the rest, ran into the wire fencing and was fatally injured.”

Since the city’s junior high school was then just a few blocks away., the principal became involved in trying to find who had caused the death of this deer. And when Police Chief Ted Lifeson went to the tennis court to do some investigating , he saw a young boy trying to sic his dog onto the deer.

Mankato must have had a real surplus of deer that winter. Within a few days a replacement deer was sent to Albert Lea. In fact, the Mankato Zoo had a surplus of critters that year. They also had two adult lions that were offered to Albert Lea. This donation was declined because the local folks really had no intention of setting up a municipal zoo.

There were also several surplus buffalo in the Mankato Zoo. However, several of that city’s council members thought the large critters, minus their wings, could be easily sold to a butcher shop.

For five full years the city maintained a deer park in Edgewater Park. By April 1946, there were two deer in the enclosure. According to a Tribune news article on April 9, 1946, a special committee reported to the Albert Lea City Council those deer were both underfed and being mistreated by local boys. This committee recommended that the two deer be released and allowed to find their own habitat. With some reluctance, the City Council agreed and Albert Lea’s deer park ceased to exist.

In retrospect, this is what should have been done at Mankato five years earlier with their surplus deer.

The 1946 Tribune article said this special committee urged the City Council to “replace its interest in a deer park with interest in fish rearing ponds for the purpose of stocking Fountain Lake.” A site for those ponds, the committee suggested, should be north of the Bancroft Bridge. To put it another way, the suggestion was for the city to start a fish hatchery operation.

To close off this topic, I called the Greater Mankato Convention and Visitors Bureau to find out if the zoo in Sibley Park still existed. The answer was yes, with emphasis on what’s now known as a petting zoo. Thus, I wonder if there are still any deer in this park located near the place were the Blue Earth River flows into the Minnesota River on the south side of Mankato.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.