Two years after Kathie and Jurgen took over, the Santa Cruz Sentinel ran an article about a former San Diego zoo employee alleging that zoo animals were being sold as fodder for canned hunts. In 1989 an aging Lindemann sold the zoo to his daughter Kathie Schultz to manage with her husband Jurgen, who had a business importing animals for zoos and whose parents had had transactions with Lindemann going back to his time in Africa. It was the largest privately owned zoo in the United States and featured many animals that, due to tightening restrictions, could no longer be imported. The popularity of the Catskills as a vacation destination was waning with the advent of affordable airfare in the late 1970s and 1980s, but the game farm was still doing well. “You’ll find adventure at Catskill Game Farm. Watch them pleading for ice cream,” the ads implored. “You must see the cutest baby bears we’ve ever had. While brochures enticed families to the zoo with promises of baby animals in colorful storybook nurseries, train rides, and a small amusement park, Lindemann was working to round up more animals from a Jeep in the outback. Lindemann was genuinely concerned with the unchecked expansion and colonialism that was eradicating species and hoped that “zoological parks of the world exert their influence so that well established parks and game sanctuaries would be placed under international or even United Nations control.” He saw tourism as the best means of convincing world leaders that it was in their best economic interest to preserve indigenous species, and the Catskill Game Farm was an extension of this mentality. The Game Farm was officially recognized as a zoo by the Department of Agriculture in 1958, and was the first privately owned venture to gain the distinction. The Catskill Game Farm’s miniature golf kiosk, covered with moss, is one of my favorite spots on the property. Conservation was one of the primary goals: “The Catskill Game Farm now has over 3,000 rare animals and birds and it is believed to be the fastest growing wildlife collection in America.” Lindemann said in an interview, “With our many secluded breeding grounds, the perpetuation of many species is assured.” As hardworking as he was enterprising, Lindemann travelled constantly to acquire rare new breeds and his efforts were often centered around the preservation of endangered species, such as the American bison, whose population by that point had dwindled to only two herds. By 1950 nearly 200,000 visitors were coming yearly and the menagerie had grown to 600 wild animals and 250 tame animals. The children born during the postwar baby boom loved one of the farm’s central conceits - a feeding area where families could mingle freely with tame animals and feed them crackers or milk from bottles dispensed from conveniently placed vending machines. The Catskill Mountains were a popular vacation destination, located close enough to New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania for a day trip. “Over 100 tame animals bottle raised, for you to pet and feed,” the advertising material exclaimed. Whatever the case may be, Lindemann's menagerie grew exponentially: a brochure in 1946 boasted that the Catskill Game Farm had bison, buffalo, yaks, llamas, alpacas, camels, antelopes, mountain lions, goats, and several exotic varieties of deer. To make it even more confusing, there's a sign from the park listing 1969 as their 30th season, which would make 1939 their opening year. Though (in what appears to be a common mistake) the farm is often listed as opening to the public in 1933, an interview in the Tucson Daily Citizen that I consider to be more reliable states that it was in 1945 that Lindemann first opened the property to paying guests because of the great demand to see his collection. By 1940, he was selling them to zoos and acquired more land for breeding in Catskill, New York. His father had taught zoology (among other subjects) subject in Germany, and it inspired Roland to stock his farm in Palenville, New York with different varieties of deer. The Catskill Game Farm began in 1933 as the hobby of a New York banker named Roland Lindemann. The entrance to the former Catskill Game Farm, flanked by the silhouettes of the hand-painted giraffes that stood on either side when it was open
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