The random stuff from X thread (29 Viewers)

[guidomerkinsrules]

How many monkey hills are there? We used to call the hill at the Fly Monkey Hill. And now there is a Monkey Hill in the zoo. And now you are telling me there is one in city park, too? Is it back in Couterie Forest? Because if it isn't, that's 4.

He means the mountain

 

[insidejob]

How many monkey hills are there? We used to call the hill at the Fly Monkey Hill. And now there is a Monkey Hill in the zoo. And now you are telling me there is one in city park, too? Is it back in Couterie Forest? Because if it isn't, that's 4.

It's across the street from Scout Island (well, a little ways down towards Wisner) and there is no signage or anything. You have to know it's there to go. It's one of the tallest "hills" in the city.

 

[insidejob]

He means the mountain

We always called it Monkey Hill as kids. Never heard it called the Mountain. Is that its official name?

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

We always called it Monkey Hill as kids. Never heard it called the Mountain. Is that its official name?

I don’t think there is an official name - I know coeterie used it a lot when trying to draw attention to it

I don’t know if we ever called it anything (except the hill my dad busted his *** on)
But
Agree with Buzd that we only used ‘monkey hill for The Fly and then all of a sudden there was another one in the Zoo
Oh and then the bar on magazine and webster

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Some NSFW language

Bruh, I'm dead.

 

[buzd]

It's across the street from Scout Island (well, a little ways down towards Wisner) and there is no signage or anything. You have to know it's there to go. It's one of the tallest "hills" in the city.

Yep, that's the one in Couterie Forest. So that's 3. And there is signage for the forest now, but not for the hill. I haven't been back there in a long time. There are signs for no bikes now (we used to ride back there too. Busted my arse a few times.).

 

[SharonT]

I don’t think there is an official name - I know coeterie used it a lot when trying to draw attention to it

I don’t know if we ever called it anything (except the hill my dad busted his *** on)
But
Agree with Buzd that we only used ‘monkey hill for The Fly and then all of a sudden there was another one in the Zoo
Oh and then the bar on magazine and webster

Okay, younguns...
Back in my day, my mother* would drive us to Monkey Hill which was in Audubon Park, but outside the zoo fencing, near the stables and the train engine. To get there, you would have to drive the one-way street that looped across the railroad tracks and past the *Butterfly Building* and river, same as now. It was free and unsupervised. The zoo expanded putting Monkey Hill behind a paywall, but they've spruced it up, so hey.

There is only one. But I could see a kid calling anything higher than a pile of riversand Monkey Hill.

Edit: *She was also known for going the wrong way down streets if declared necessary, so we might have just cut through the other side.

 

[buzd]

Okay, younguns...
Back in my day, my mother* would drive us to Monkey Hill which was in Audubon Park, but outside the zoo fencing, near the stables and the train engine. To get there, you would have to drive the one-way street that looped across the railroad tracks and past the *Butterfly Building* and river, same as now. It was free and unsupervised. The zoo expanded putting Monkey Hill behind a paywall, but they've spruced it up, so hey.

There is only one. But I could see a kid calling anything higher than a pile of riversand Monkey Hill.

Edit: *She was also known for going the wrong way down streets if declared necessary, so we might have just cut through the other side.

That jives with my remembering of history, but my memory of the pre-rehab/expansion of the zoo is very fuzzy.

 

[SystemShock]

If you ever wonder what is that arrowhead next to the gas pump icon on your dashboard ...

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Does anyone remember when they put a snow machine on Monkey Hill and let people "ski" down it one winter when it got close to freezing?

 

[buzd]

Does anyone remember when they put a snow machine on Monkey Hill and let people "ski" down it one winter when it got close to freezing?

I didn't go but I do remember that.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Okay, younguns...
Back in my day, my mother* would drive us to Monkey Hill which was in Audubon Park, but outside the zoo fencing, near the stables and the train engine. To get there, you would have to drive the one-way street that looped across the railroad tracks and past the *Butterfly Building* and river, same as now. It was free and unsupervised. The zoo expanded putting Monkey Hill behind a paywall, but they've spruced it up, so hey.

There is only one. But I could see a kid calling anything higher than a pile of riversand Monkey Hill.

Edit: *She was also known for going the wrong way down streets if declared necessary, so we might have just cut through the other side.

there are 2 hills in audubon
the official monkey hill is indeed inside the fence
but there is also one on the Fly by the soccer fields

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Does anyone remember when they put a snow machine on Monkey Hill and let people "ski" down it one winter when it got close to freezing?

not to that one
i went to a snow event in City Park by the museum maybe 7 or so years ago
it was cute and sad all at the same time

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

But Monkey Hill fell on rough times by the 1960s and 1970s. The zoo, hardly changed since the Depression, had become a local embarrassment, and Monkey Hill had become loved to death -- trod bare of grass, furrowed with a deep gully and, like coastal Louisiana, eroding to its current a height of 27.5 feet.

To add insult to injury, a new hill had been built in City Park's Couturie Forest from spoil excavated for Interstate 610, and it measured not only higher above sea level but much higher above grade. Now known as Laborde Mountain, the City Park peak rose 46 feet above its 3-feet-below-sea-level base, enough to peer above the treeline, whereas Monkey Hill measured only 16.5 feet above its 11-foot-above-sea-level base.

Planners devising a $5 million renovation of Audubon Zoo thought visitors were ready for something new, and proposed in 1974 fencing off Monkey Hill and letting goats graze on it, while building a new mound on the batture park (today's "The Fly").

What they had not gauged was just how cherished Monkey Hill had become. Schoolchildren wrote letters of protest, and parents rebuked officials in indignant letters. "How can adults consider goats more important than children?, demanded one mother. "Haven't city officials taken away enough natural ground and woods from our children because of progress?" Another declared "every citizen would be happy to contribute a bucket of mud" to shore up the hill and give it back to children, and recommended the goats instead be "turned loose on Bourbon Street," where adults played.

The outcry helped raise funds and convinced planners to stabilize the original Monkey Hill and incorporate it into the zoo's Grasslands of the World (now African Savannah) exhibit.


Unveiled in 1980, the renovation was a hit, and Monkey Hill became as popular as ever, so much so zoo officials in the 1980s held an annual Ski Monkey Hill festival, in which 10 tons of ice were trucked to the top -- in September! -- for a mini slalom, to promote Eastern Airlines flights to Canadian ski resorts. The gimmick became particularly popular when "a Cajun band and free beer" were added.

Ever the entrepreneurs, some New Orleanians sold "Ski Monkey Hill" T-shirts, testament to the mound's role as an amusing prop highlighting the ironies of local geography and the eccentricities of local culture.

 

[buzd]

But Monkey Hill fell on rough times by the 1960s and 1970s. The zoo, hardly changed since the Depression, had become a local embarrassment, and Monkey Hill had become loved to death -- trod bare of grass, furrowed with a deep gully and, like coastal Louisiana, eroding to its current a height of 27.5 feet.

To add insult to injury, a new hill had been built in City Park's Couturie Forest from spoil excavated for Interstate 610, and it measured not only higher above sea level but much higher above grade. Now known as Laborde Mountain, the City Park peak rose 46 feet above its 3-feet-below-sea-level base, enough to peer above the treeline, whereas Monkey Hill measured only 16.5 feet above its 11-foot-above-sea-level base.

Planners devising a $5 million renovation of Audubon Zoo thought visitors were ready for something new, and proposed in 1974 fencing off Monkey Hill and letting goats graze on it, while building a new mound on the batture park (today's "The Fly").

What they had not gauged was just how cherished Monkey Hill had become. Schoolchildren wrote letters of protest, and parents rebuked officials in indignant letters. "How can adults consider goats more important than children?, demanded one mother. "Haven't city officials taken away enough natural ground and woods from our children because of progress?" Another declared "every citizen would be happy to contribute a bucket of mud" to shore up the hill and give it back to children, and recommended the goats instead be "turned loose on Bourbon Street," where adults played.

The outcry helped raise funds and convinced planners to stabilize the original Monkey Hill and incorporate it into the zoo's Grasslands of the World (now African Savannah) exhibit.


Unveiled in 1980, the renovation was a hit, and Monkey Hill became as popular as ever, so much so zoo officials in the 1980s held an annual Ski Monkey Hill festival, in which 10 tons of ice were trucked to the top -- in September! -- for a mini slalom, to promote Eastern Airlines flights to Canadian ski resorts. The gimmick became particularly popular when "a Cajun band and free beer" were added.

Ever the entrepreneurs, some New Orleanians sold "Ski Monkey Hill" T-shirts, testament to the mound's role as an amusing prop highlighting the ironies of local geography and the eccentricities of local culture.

Awesome. What is that from?

Aside - I have a "Ski Monkey Hill" tshirt of a more recent vintage.