View my GuestbookBack to New Jersey Weird and Unusual Page
A Look Back at Jungle Habitat
West Milford Messenger > News
Updated: August 9, 2007
Jungle Habitat
Jungle Habitat Miscellaneous Pictures
Jungle Habitat Old School Pics
A look back
Although most of the structures are long gone, there are still remnants of days
gone by. This tubular walkway once led to an area that contained a petting zoo
and food stands. Also shown, an entry ticket.
When lions and tigers roamed free
WEST MILFORD — Back in 1972, Atari introduced Pong — the very first video game;
Carole King swept the Grammys, winning Best Record, Album and Song of the year
with Tapestry; Both “The Godfather” and “Deliverance” came out in theaters; and
that summer, Warner Brothers opened a theme park where the animals roamed free
and the people stayed caged up in their automobiles. It was called Jungle
Habitat and spread over 800 acres of West Milford.
Even before it opened, Jungle Habitat was the biggest single employer West
Milford ever had. Dick Nobis was one of the people hired to help put 26 miles of
paved roads in the drive-through safari. Like most people who lived in West
Milford at the time, one of the first memories he shared was of the traffic
problems that first year. “It was crazy,” he said. “At the time, Route 23 was
just a two-lane road. It was really something to see.”
The entrance to the park was on Greenwood Lake Turnpike and was — to make an
understatement — inadequate for the amount of cars coming in. The traffic jams
were legendary. Jim Dykstra, who was a sergeant on the West Milford Police force
at the time, remembers standing all day, every day, directing traffic. “Oh, it
was terrible. I was out there for hours and hours and it was so hot and so
frustrating. Cars were constantly overheating and the drivers were all angry.
Everyone was angry.”
Dykstra didn’t like the traffic problems of the summer of ‘72, but he has fond
memories, too. “That place provided all the kids with jobs and brought a lot of
money into West Milford,” he mused. “And on the good side, at night, because of
where I lived, I could sometimes hear the lions roar. That was really nice.” A
fellow former police officer, Lt. John Wax, was even more enthusiastic. “Jungle
Habitat was the greatest thing West Milford ever had.”
Jim Novak remembers another problem. “There weren’t enough bathrooms,” he said.
This led to some unpleasant roadside scenes. “But anyone with a tow truck made
plenty of money.”
One such person was John Castronova. He and his sons Rich and Steven ran a
Sunoco station (on Union Valley Road where the Tiger Mart is today) with a
towing service. According to Rich, they received between two and three hundred
calls a day for broken down cars at Jungle Habitat. They quickly went from one
tow truck to a fleet of seven to try to keep up with demand.
This abandoned building was where safari goers could rent strollers. It was also
where folks could drop off their dogs. For some reason, enough people showed up
at Jungle Habitat with their dogs, that the company opened a dog sitting area to
keep them safely away from the park animals.
“A lot of them simply needed water or a quick repair, which we would do right
there — that’s what we hoped for when they broke down inside the compounds in
the park, because the lions and tigers or whatever would be roaming around free.
An employee would stand over us with a gun in his hands while we did whatever it
was we had to do. I didn’t like the baboons; they were really fresh.”
To compliment their towing and car repair business, the Castronovas eventually
also opened a taxi service. To this day, Rich believes the township made a huge
mistake when it didn’t let Warner Brothers expand the park.
The Castronovas were by no means the only locals to profit from the park. Local
restaurants and retail businesses were jammed all summer.
By the second season, Jungle Habitat built another entrance on Airport Road and
added a parking lot. The traffic became much more manageable.
Rumors abound about the park. One common one is that dangerous animals escaped
into the neighborhoods of West Milford. There were a few escapes, but they were
by birds — an ostrich and a few peacocks.
The park was divided into compounds so that lions, for instance, wouldn’t come
in contact with animals they would consider prey.
According to Dykstra, none of the dangerous animals ever breached the second,
outer perimeter of the park.
Another persistent rumor is that people were killed in the park. That’s not
true; however, there was an Israeli tourist who was in a hired car going through
the park when he rolled down the window to take a photo of a lion. The lion
reached in and swatted him, causing a lot of damage to his shoulder, arm and
neck. Shortly after the attack, the tourist made a public statement taking
responsibility.
By the third year, ticket sales were declining and Warner Brothers wanted to
grow the park to include mechanical amusement rides such as roller coasters. But
when they went to the township, they encountered resistance. Residents in
Mountain Rise were particularly vocal in their opposition because of the night
noise and lights the rides would bring. In the fourth year, Warner Brothers was
denied its application. On October 31, 1976, the park closed its gates for good.
The animals were sold off to zoos and parks, with the exception of some sickly
ones. They died on the premises but weren’t buried until the spring because the
ground was frozen.
Eventually, the land was bought by the state and today the 800 acres and 26
miles of pavement make for an interesting afternoon hike.
http://www.strausnews.com/articles/2007/08/10/west_milford_messenger/news/4.txt
To contact Abandoned But Not Forgotten please e-mail us at abnfco@gmail.com with any questions or submissions you may want to contribute to the site.
View my GuestbookCheck out our Forums