Aunt Sally’s Farm to bring back memories with a modern zoo experience

A concept rendering of the new Aunt Sally’s Farm exhibit, scheduled to open at Assiniboine Park Zoo in spring 2021. (APC / HANDOUT)

The original Aunt Sally’s Farm at Assiniboine Park Zoo in the 1960s. (ARCHIVES MANITOBA, GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPHS, 1960)

WINNIPEG — A new exhibit at Assiniboine Park Zoo is coming back to life after originally opening in 1959.

Aunt Sally’s Farm was popular with Winnipeggers during the 1960s, but is being completely reimagined to reopen in spring 2021.

The new exhibit will include a barn and barnyard with goats, llamas, donkeys, a pot-bellied pig, and chickens.

Visitors can also see goats climb overhead through bridges with rainbow platforms, while the wishing well from the original exhibit will also return.

“The new Aunt Sally’s Farm will offer a modern zoo experience inspired by those wonderful memories so many of us share of the original exhibit,” said Bruce Keats, chief operations officer, Assiniboine Park Conservancy.

“We can’t wait to welcome visitors next spring and start building joyful new memories together!”

The original Aunt Sally’s Farm was named in honour of Winnipegger Sally Warnock for her lifelong dedication to animal care and welfare in Winnipeg.

Zoo officials say the exhibit is part of a recent $10 million redevelopment phase, which includes the Education and Program Centre (2018), rotating exhibit gallery that saw the Stingray Beach exhibit (2019), and a future animal encounter centre that is in the early stages of planning and design.

Funding is coming from previously announced City of Winnipeg grants and private donations. More than $4 million has already been raised from the private sector.

A concept rendering of the new Aunt Sally’s Farm exhibit, scheduled to open at Assiniboine Park Zoo in spring 2021. (APC / HANDOUT)

A concept rendering of the new Aunt Sally’s Farm exhibit, scheduled to open at Assiniboine Park Zoo in spring 2021. (APC / HANDOUT)