Henry’s Ark

Lovely local attraction, yes you aren’t allowed to feed the animals anymore. But it’s still a great place to go and enjoy a beautiful day with beautiful animals. Honestly I noticed a huge difference now that the animals cannot be fed. Henry’s Ark is much cleaner and the animals are much more respectful of your space. A Gem!

I read other reviews that talked about feeding the animals and we were excited to do so, but there are signs all over the grounds as you walk through warning you not to do it. I can’t help but assume there’s either a liability issue or some terrible people were feeding the animals something toxic/​poisonous. It’s really too bad someone or something ruined it for everyone else, but we brought our organic carrots and kale up to the main building hoping to donate and a couple of volunteers gratefully accepted them. I was chaperoning an 8 year-​old boy and we were delighted to see llamas, alpacas, water buffalo, cows, bison, turkeys, chickens with baby chicks, ducks, geese, fawns, swans (even a black one), goats, sheep, cats, a dog, a pig, and an albino peacock. It was a more intimate view than you’ll get at the zoo and the animals looked well cared for and quite content.
I can’t stress enough the importance of the volunteer/​donation aspect of a visit here though. The place is not state of the art by any means and while it seems to chug along okay, you have to look at the wide expanse, the several outbuildings, and the numerous animals and wonder how on earth they do it. I wanted to start a fundraiser for them as soon as I got back in the car. So do come, do bring the kids, don’t expect to feed the animals, but do bring food to donate and stuff some cash into the donation box – it’s right before you get to the sheep.

Great place for the kids! It nice to have our own little «Ark» right down the street. Thanks for doing what you do Henry’s Ark.

Such a nice place for kids. It’s worth checking out for sure. There are tons of animals and it’s never too crowded so your kids will have a blast. Bring all the veggies for the animals you want, but don’t bring bread.

If you have kids and want to see mostly farm animals, this is a good place to go because there’s no admission (though donations are requested). Otherwise you might give this one a pass. Go well before the «gates close at» time, however, because when we were there they’d already shut down the office and the barn area.
The goats are friendly (some were roaming outside the enclosures) and some of the ducks and chickens came *that close* to letting us pet them, too. They have a gorgeous piebald peacock in the poultry pen, so definitely check him out. The camel, emus, and zebra are the most «exotic» animals that we saw; there were also some sheep, some cervines that might have been elk, a few bunnies, and two friendly barn cats who immediately recognized us as suckers.
That said, some of the animals appear pretty unkempt; the sheep and alpacas badly needed to be shorn, especially with the warm weather having arrived.

This place is worth a stop off the beaten path. If one is traveling with kids through the area then I recommend a 45 minute stop here to get the kids out to walk and see some animals. We stopped with my two year old and she absolutely loved it. I think this might of been her favorite spot during the vacation.
Now don’t expect a nice neat place with state of the art designs. This place runs on donations so it is free to get in. The animals all looked harried and dirty (it was in March). The fences look like they could use some spring cleaning but the place was perfect. If it means staying free, then i would choose this look over anything nice and clean. The interesting thing is one gives about enough money in donation as to what it may cost for a ticket to a petting zoo.
They have a camel, zebra, goats, pigs, deer, elk, water buffalo, emus, ostriches, and other various farm animals. We fed carrots and I noticed others with bread to feed the ducks that are very tame. The animals are all very tame and no one attacked my two year old who was enthralled with the place.
One warning: No public restrooms so stop at the McDonalds about 1 mile from here and use the restroom before coming.

I’ve been coming here for almost 15 years and I love this place. Actually for more than 15 years, my mom used to train horses for Henry Wallace and I would go up to the house where he had the goats, peacocks, rescued 3 legged donkeys and a menagerie of other little critters. Some of the other reviews say the animals are a little aggressive and that makes me sad. I had wondered why all the animals were all locked away these days and now I know. It used to be that when you would come you would be greeted by the emus looking for snacks in the parking lot and goats would follow you nibbling on your shorts. One time when my sister was a toddler she got out of her stroller to walk around and a little goat jumped in. That was too cute. I miss how there used to be animals running around all over, but I understand why. Now that I’m older and I have a child of my own I love taking my child here. I just wish he could experience it the way I had when you could really play with the animals.

This place was really fun to look at. I feel like it could be bigger than what they had open today but it was still a good time. We brought celery, carrots and tomatoes to feed all the animals. It was free, but they would love some donations and they have plenty if places around to remind you about it.
It was a little rainy today so I’d probably try and come back on a day when the animals would be more active. It was really nice for a fun little free outing.

I love Henry’s Ark because it’s very fun to get that close-​up to the animals. Many times I have gone and had a little goat run by me. The only negative thing is some of the lose animals can be aggressive and scary. The emus are definitely scary!

I’m giving this four stars because one day…
Ok, so ready? Once upon a time I went to Henry’s and milling around the parking lot where about six emus. Henry’s has a metal and concrete grate at the entrance so the animals can’t escape and run out into the street and become roadkill, but like, these emus were in the parking lot and I was positive they were gonna get hit so I lured them back into their pen by feeding them carrots and apple slices and it was HARD. Emus are ostrich sized and cranky and aggressive and they really, really like apples. They could have killed me. I locked them back up and felt like the emu hero of the world and called the park and told the lady who answered the phone that I rescued all the emus.
She yelled at me because she had let them out to wander around. :(
Henry’s is a funny place. It is run by volunteers and it has all sorts of animals in a farm type of setting. It’s free to the public and they do have donation kiosks set up so you can leave a monetary donation to help run the place. Speaking to one of the volunteers I found out people dump animals there all the time, which sucks, cats and dogs and chickens and even snakes, and they just expect the poor staff to take them in. On occasion they will adopt out strays to the right family. You can bring fruit and vegetables and feed for the animals, and I’m sure they’d appreciate donations of paper towels and cat and dog food. The other lame thing is jerks have tried to sue Henry’s because them or one of their poorly behaved children have been pecked by a chicken. The place is a nonprofit run by donations! That being said, if you or your kids are skittish around animals do not go there. The animals ARE friendly and borderline aggressive. Most are in pens but some wander freely and they have zero qualms about following you around and trying to nab whatever treats you have brought. There are chickens, zebras, peacocks, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, some super affectionate cats, ducks, goats, pigs, emus, and the sweetest, most darling capybara on earth. This giant rodent will come to the fence and basically PURR when you pet him. I LOVE him and if Henry’s ever needs to find him a new home I will happily take him. He is the cutest biggest dog sized hamster EVER.
I love you Henry’s, and I’m sorry I messed with the emus.