Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo

The Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo is a privately owned zoo located on Whittington Avenue in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The farm raises alligators and has done so since it was founded in 1902. The farm includes a small museum with a collection of mounted alligators, a souvenir shop and a snack bar. It includes the mummified carcass purporting to be a "Merman", similar to ones held in Ripley's Believe It or Not! museums. The main alligator pit contains a small headstone, a memorial to somebody's fox terrier that was killed by alligators on that spot in 1906. H. L. Campbell founded the farm in 1902 because he thought the hot springs area needed a tourist attraction in addition to the thermal baths. He sold it to D. S. Older some time...