Imagine being able to hunt exotic, wild game in New Hampshire! That’s exactly what some very affluent people were able to do for sport at the turn of the 20th century in a private wild game preserve that spreads over 22,000 acres in Croyden, Cornish, Grantham, and Plainfield.

On Friday, May 24, at 6:30 PM, the Wilmot Historical Society will host a talk entitled Corbin’s Animal Garden, a fascinating topic by author and academic Dr. Mary Kronenwetter. The program will take place at the Wilmot Community Association Red Barn, 64 Village Road (next to the post office) in Wilmot.

Dr. Kronenwetter will use an illustrated slideshow featuring archival images to enhance a discussion of the complicated history of Corbin Park. This park, still in existence today, is the legacy of New Hampshire’s own American Gilded Age robber baron, Austin Corbin.

In the late 1800s, Corbin, a banking, railroad, and real estate mogul, returned to his hometown in Newport, New Hampshire, where he built a grand estate for himself. He then bought out his neighbors’ farms and created a 22,000-acre wildlife game preserve, which he stocked with boar, bison, bighorn sheep, antelope, elk, Chinese pheasant, and other imported animals.

The property eventually became a prestigious private hunting park that hosted illustrious guests, including Theodore Roosevelt, the Prince of Wales, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Joe DiMaggio, Rudyard Kipling, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

The lecturer, Mary Kronenwetter, holds a doctorate in educational research, policy, and administration and has held academic administration and teaching positions at colleges in the United States, China, and Japan. She currently teaches for OSHER at Dartmouth and Adventures in Learning (AIL) at Colby-Sawyer and has recently published the New Hampshire-based historical fiction, Pauper Auction.

Come early and enjoy refreshments. More info at wilmothistoricalsociety.org or email <info@nullwilmothistoricalsociety.org.>