These photos were taken at Lion Country Safari in Laguna Hills/Irvine in 1971. Visitors would drive their cars through enclosures of wild African animals, including lions, elephants, ostriches, zebras, rhinos and many others. Many locals remember the escape of Bubbles the Hippo in 1978. Over time, Lion Country Safari grew to incude a variety of other animal-related attractions and shows, including the Zambezi River Boat Ride. Orange County's Lion Country Safari opened in June 1970, and closed in 1984. The original Lion Country Safari, located in Florida, is still open for business..
Today's first photo (top) is taken from the latest round of uploads to the Orange County Archives' new Flickr site. Note the man who appears to be hiding behind the elephant.
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Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. It's been a busy week, followed by being down sick for a couple days. Given my choice between sleep and blogging, I've been opting for sleep.
8 comments:
Sorry you've been sick. Holler when you feel up to oak pit.
What's strange is that so many folks took plenty of photos of the animals at Lion Country (of course) but few seem to have been taken ON the rides. We have only a few from the river boat and none at all from the children's jeep safari ride. Do you have any in the archives?
Wish we did. I've pretty much posted what we have. Also wish we had some photos of the peddal hippo boats.
These are very cool shots. Remember the place well. The kids always loved going there. Great bunch of pics on Flickr. Fantastic stuff.
Thanks for the info, Chris. Sure wish we could round up some photos of that jeep ride.
We do have some 'interesting' tourist slides of Frasier 'The Sensuous Lion' doing what he did best. But they are a little x-rated!
wow.I remember LCS. You would be driving along the I-5 and would see the words in big white letters saying Lion Country Safari. I also went to school with Todd N Mark Quinn. there dad was the guy who ran LCS for many years. I remember the hippo excape. didn;t they find her along the road heading into the laguna Beach?..lol. Thanks for the memorys.. Bruce Priddy
I remember going as a kid and seeing people with their windows rolled down and throwing food out to the animals. I thought they were pretty stupid at the time, prob one of the reasons it had to close down. I also remember getting my picture taken on a HUGE tortoise when I was about 2 or 3. That was in the late sixties...
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