Near this site on September 15, 1885, one of the best known and most beloved animals met an untimely death when he was struck by a railway locomotive. Jumbo, the 13,000-pound African elephant, had been brought to North America in 1882 from the London Zoo where for seventeen years thousands had been fascinated by the mammoth creature. His purchase for £2,000 by the American, P.T. Barnum, raised a nation-wide outcry in Britain and daily reports of his trip across the Atlantic were carried in the British press. From 1882 to 1885 the majestic animal, reputedly born in 1861 and nearly eleven feet tall, was one of the foremost attractions of the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Location

Near the site of his death, Woodworth Avenue at the railway crossing, St. Thomas

Themes

• Arts and culture