Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo

Located at 847 Whittington Avenue in Hot Springs (Garland County), the Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo is the oldest still-operating attraction in Hot Springs. Visitors can hold baby alligators as well as watch the huge adult reptiles being fed. There is also a petting zoo and wildlife area that includes donkeys, emu, peacocks, pygmy goats, rabbits, ring-tailed lemurs, silkie chickens, and sheep, plus a parakeet enclosure where visitors can feed the birds by using seed sticks. The family-run alligator farm has been a destination for tourists, local school groups, and multiple generations of area residents since 1902.

During the heyday of Hot Springs in the early twentieth century, people seeking the healing properties of the town’s thermal baths also looked for something to do after they dried off. In 1902, the Alligator Farm and Marine Museum was founded by H. L. Campbell, who brought the reptiles back from the Everglades in Florida. Campbell’s facility started as a business that raised alligators for their hides and also sold live alligators to zoos. The farm is said to have been one of the first to use incubators for its eggs and hatchlings. In its early days, visitors were able to purchase live baby alligators from the farm. At the time, the facility had hundreds of alligators along with a small museum that featured a “Merman,” which was allegedly a mummified aquatic creature.

By 1929, the business had been sold to Danny Older, under whose management it was called the Hot Springs Gator Farm. It was then purchased in 1947 by Jack Bridges Sr. and became known as the Arkansas Alligator Farm. In 1965, Jack Bridges Jr. acquired the business, adding monkeys, raccoons, and loggerhead turtles, as well as a gift shop. In 2016, Jamie and Jerry Bridges, who were two children of Jack Bridges Jr., assumed ownership of the business, with Jamie Bridges as manager.

In 2026, the Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo was home to about 200 adult and baby alligators, with none slaughtered for hides or sold to zoos. All of its alligators were donated or were acquired from Louisiana’s Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. About every ten to fifteen years, the farm gets a permit to procure a new group of twelve to fifteen baby alligators from Louisiana. This is done in order to restock and keep the farm’s population healthy and thriving. Alligators at the farm can live up to sixty years and grow to be almost ten feet long, weighing in at 600 pounds.

An especially popular attraction at the farm is the parakeet enclosure, where guests can feed and interact with about fifty friendly, brightly colored parakeets, attracting them with seed sticks.

The farm also boasts a piece of baseball history. In the early twentieth century, it was located directly across a spring training camp for professional baseball teams. On March 17, 1918, the soon-to-be-legendary Babe Ruth was playing in a spring training game. On that day, he hit a home run that soared 573 feet over Whittington Avenue and landed in a pond at the farm. It was baseball’s first known hit to fly more than 500 feet. That record lasted until 1921 in Detroit, when Ruth broke his own record by hitting the longest verified home run in the history of major league baseball, measuring 575 feet. Outside the farm, as part of the Hot Springs Historic Baseball Trail, there is a marker honoring Ruth that reads, “On March 17, 1918 (St. Patrick’s Day), he launched a mammoth home run from Whittington Park that landed on the fly, inside the Arkansas Alligator Farm. It has been measured at 573 feet—baseball’s first 500-foot-plus drive.”

For additional information:
Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo. https://alligatorfarmzoo.com/ (accessed July 21, 2026).

“Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo | History Lives in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.” Hot Springs National  Park Arkansas, August 13, 2025. https://www.hotsprings.org/blog/alligator-farm-history-lives-in-hot-springs-national-park-arkansas/ (accessed July 21, 2026).

“Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo.” Arkansas PBS. https://www.pbs.org/video/arkansas-alligator-farm-and-petting-zoo-5g59bl/ (accessed July 21, 2026).

Carter, Mark. “Digs of the Deal: Arkansas Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo.” Arkansas Money and Politics, June 17, 2025. https://armoneyandpolitics.com/digs-of-the-deal-arkansas-alligator-farm/ (accessed July 21, 2026).

DeClerk, Sarah. “A Day in the Life: Jamie Bridges, Alligator Handler.” Arkansas Money and Politics, October 4, 2024. https://armoneyandpolitics.com/day-life-jamie-bridges/ (accessed July 21, 2026).

“Hands-On Learning at the Arkansas Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo.” Coast to Country, October 20, 2025. https://coast2country.blog/2025/10/20/hands-on-learning-at-the-arkansas-alligator-farm-petting-zoo-%F0%9F%90%8A/ (accessed July 21, 2026).

Schnedler, Jack. “It’s Still the Gator Farm Great-Grandpappy Visited.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 16, 2014. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2014/oct/16/it-s-still-the-gator-farm-great-grandpa/ (accessed July 21, 2026).

Nancy Hendricks
Garland County Historical Society