It happened one afternoon in the fall of the early 1960's. I
would have just turned 11 or 12 years old. My family recently moved closer to my grade school.
Close enough in fact to ride my bike there and home.
My school was on 95th and Bluemound a few
blocks east of the Milwaukee County Zoo which was being built up little by little. Not too many buildings were there yet. However Monkey Island
Situated between the school and the zoo, my friends and I found
some great hills to ride our bikes on. We noticed a lot of trucks going in and
out of that area, but on the weekends we had the place to ourselves. We also
found sticks in the ground - not branches - but sticks that had some markings
on them. We played around with them pulling them out to look them over and then
either sticking them back where we found them, or moving them to make a sort of
track for our bikes. It was a really fun time.
So back to that fall afternoon. A couple of Milwaukee police
officers came to school and visited every classroom asking if we had seen
anyone in the area between our school and the zoo. They told us a highway was
being built and it was a very important project. The police were investigating
some vandalism regarding surveyor markers. The damage would likely cause big problems and probably a
delay in the construction.
Of course no one admitted anything!
After researching the Zoo Interchange history I found The Milwaukee Journal wrote in a
front-page story in early August, 1963 "the interchange has been a
source of concern. The work is complicated, and the relocation of strategic power
lines is involved...the structures weave and twist like an intricate
pretzel..."
I think the real reason we going through today's
re-construction is because those surveyor markers got messed up back in the l960's. The current
FIX started in 2012 and won't be completed until 2018. I sure hope no kids are riding their bikes
around the area now...
To read more information about how they are fixing the mess I made go here:
Ha! Thanks a LOT!
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