marlene March 5, 2007 17:12:36 (EDT)

I have many great memories of Benson's. I even have a red plastic kaleidoscope from there. I was glad it was open long enough for me to bring my son to a place that was so great when I was young. I once heard that there was a murder in Lowell that was related to Benson's because the man fed his wife's head to the lions to get rid of it. Has anyone got any info on this? Is it a true story?
Thanks.

Jd February 28, 2007 15:37:44 (EDT)

One of the donkey's "benny" from the park has the honor of being the donkey(rightly so)in my church's live nativity at christmas time

Diane Jones February 22, 2007 08:55:12 (EDT)

I worked at Bensons in 1980,I sold gifts in the hat and T-shirt shop across from Mr Elegant the Giraff. I still have one of the Red Jackets and just looking at some of the pictures here brings back many wonderful memories. I grew up in Derry and Bensons was always a great place to visit. Thanks for creating the site it sure is nice to see so many people remembering a wonderful place. I now live in Georgia but still enjoy remembering the good times.

Peter Fenton February 19, 2007 15:24:25 (EDT)

Any idea where the animals from bensons animal farm went after it closed, I am trying to track down a few that may have come from a place called Old MacDonalds Farm.

Thank you,
Pete

Buddy Moore February 2, 2007 20:34:22 (EDT)

I started work at Bensons in 1942 at ten years old and continued summers and weekends all through my school years,during that time I perfomed with a liberty horse act and a five pony act.Also as I got older I had the opportunity to work with some of the top animal trainers with elephants,lions,tigers and chimpanzees

Richard Albee January 14, 2007 21:25:52 (EDT)

I worked at Bensons as a teenager. My father grew up there and My Great Grandmother was a housekeeper for John Benson. My Grandfather Grand mother,Farther, Mother, and a son work at Bensons.

Steve January 6, 2007 22:43:34 (EDT)

I received the following e-mail and am posting it as well as my response. I was hesitant to say this before but now I will: There is only one "No Trespassing" sign up and it's well in the property. As you can see in my message, there are only "No Motorized Vehicles Signs"

I have yet to receive a response...

TEXT:
Hello Steve,
I saw your posting on a Benson's Animal Farm message board,
and I am the bearer of bad news.
The No Trespassing signs are for everyone, not just hunters. The Town of Hudson has an agreement
with the NHDOT while a quit claim deed is hammered out, so the Hudson Police will patrol the property,
and given recent vandalism of buildings and property inside said buildings, the Hudson Police are patrolling on a more frequent basis. The HPD will get a call if vehicles are seen parked there, this is not to frighten you, but to let you know that we have become touchy about potential vandals on the property.
I am the Vice Chairman of the Bensons Committee and also have to get permission to access the property, so that the HPD knows I am on the Property doing work for the Town.
We hold clean up days in May and in Sept. if you wish to volunteer to help with trail development and look forward to seeing you out there.
Regards
Duane King
DKing@hillsml.lib.nh.us

Ps the Benson Animal Farm message board is not affiliated with any Benson Park initiative, so I do not
read this on any sort of regular basis.

RESPONSE:
Unfortunate

Perhaps we could get the town to post some photos of before and after
on-line so there would be less curiosity or maybe a guided tour, even once a
year. I'd volunteer to lead it!

The "clean up" days could be posted on that site, I'd take you up on it

Also, I was being nice when I said it was posted. There are no signs except
for the "no motorized vehicles" and one broken trespassing sign. A hunter
had to clue me in....

Benson's is an icon and it's listed in several "Ghost Town" sites. Hudson
should take advantage of this.

FYI: I'm not just an enthusiast, I am a homeowner in town and have a great
interest in this as do many others as you can see from the webpage (great
video!)

We're not here to do damage (as others have done as we can see) we're here
to relive the past as I'm sure you can understand. Hopefully, the Town will
let us do that before it's all gone.

Thanks,
--Steve

Jim January 6, 2007 19:14:14 (EDT)

I love this place.

Lee December 19, 2006 21:23:53 (EDT)

Hi Jim L,

That stone lion in the picture from 1947 actually still exists and currently sits in the front yard of my aunt's house. She bought them during the auction when Benson's closed. If you get a chance you can drive by the front yard and see them here:

46 Highland St.
Hudson, NH 03051

Jim L December 14, 2006 14:36:13 (EDT)

Summer of 1947. It was our first big vacation excursion as a family. We were thrilled to be at Benson's Animal Farm as you can tell from the 2 photos. I'm at the lions mouth:

http://home.comcast.net/~larkinjs/benson1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~larkinjs/benson2.jpg

Steve December 6, 2006 22:01:50 (EDT)

Thanks to Ryan, we now have a 9-minute streaming video home movie of Bensons Animal Park on our web site! See the video.

Dan O December 4, 2006 18:20:56 (EDT)

Here's a satellite image of the old park...you can't really tell that anything was there though.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Hudson+NH&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=42.769376,-71.406777&spn=0.003647,0.010815&t=k&om=1

Emery Daly December 4, 2006 12:46:51 (EDT)

I worked at Bensons in the 1940's and lived just up the road from the farm. I have many fond memories of my years there.

Ryan November 30, 2006 13:09:57 (EDT)

Sorry I forgot about the whole contact me thing. It's Ryan_Towle@student.uml.edu