Trapper Nelson
Vince "Trapper" Nelson (born Vincent Nostokovich or Natulkiewicz around 1909) was an American trapper, hunter, and zoo founder. Though he was born in New Jersey, and lived in Mexico and Texas, he is best known for establishing a homestead-turned-zoo on the shore of the Loxahatchee River in Florida. Filled with exotic and wild animals, his zoo was a popular tourist spot in the 1940s and 50s, visited by local and national celebrities. Because of this, he became known locally as "Tarzan of the Loxahatchee".
The zoo was eventually shut down by State health inspectors in 1960. After his zoo was closed, Nelson became a hermit and suffered from undiagnosed health problems. In 1968, he was found dead from a gunshot wound in his cabin by a friend. His death was ruled a suicide. Nelson's campsite is now known as the Trapper Nelson Zoo Historic District in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Hobe Sound, Florida.
Read more about Trapper Nelson: Early Life, Settlement On The Loxahatchee, Decline, Death, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the word nelson:
“The victors and the vanquished then the storm it tossed and tore,
As hard they strove, those worn-out men, upon that surly shore;
Dead Nelson and his half-dead crew, his foes from near and far,
Were rolled together on the deep that night at Trafalgar!”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)