Royal, Nebraska, population 81, is a place of characters out of central casting, rural charm, and deep dysfunction. It is a Great Plains town that failed to flourish—until Royal native and primate enthusiast Dick Haskin returned to his hometown with Reuben, an adolescent chimp, in the bed of a pickup truck and transformed a trailer home into the Midwest Primate Center.
From that ill-fated August 1986 decision, Zoo Nebraska grew, and transformed a desolate town on the brink of despair into a popular tourist destination over the next two decades.
With financial support from Nebraska native Johnny Carson, the primate center at Zoo Nebraska flourished, and ultimately became home to 60 animals across 7 acres. Haskin had hopes of creating “a first-class facility” that would become both an important research center and a boon to the local economy.
In "ZOO NEBRASKA: The Dismantling of an American Dream" - author and journalist Carson Vaughan describes how greed, small-town politics and power struggles, inept financial dealings, and myriad personality clashes led to the demise of the zoo.
It finally closed its doors for good in 2005 after 4 of the beloved chimps escaped and wreaked havoc on the town of Royal for hours, terrorizing its residents.
In an act of final desperation, 3 of the chimps - one of which was Reuben and Haskin’s “best friend” - were shot and killed by locals, a devastating and tragic end to the zoo and its inhabitants!!