Robert "Fish" Jones

He first worked as a meat deliverer, but was unimpressed with the job, so he quit and invested $500 in a fish market on Hennepin Avenue.

[3] The fish market prospered so much that Jones was able to buy a front-page advertisement in the St. Paul Pioneer Press that displayed him as a bird with oysters for wings.

In 1906, Jones sold his zoo to the Roman Catholic Church who built the Basilica of St. Mary on its site after receiving complaints about noise from neighbors.

[3] His son, Roy Jones, built a barge and gathered the remaining animals to create a floating zoo on the Mississippi River.

[3] Jones's house still stands as an interpretive center run by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board.