Williams welcomes 'Bearizona'

By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Sunday, August 02, 2009

Promoters of a wildlife-viewing park on 160 acres win the blessing of the city council after projecting 60 jobs and 500,000 visitors a year.

Three brothers who helped to operate an animal-viewing park in the Black Hills of South Dakota are proposing to bring a similar operation to Williams.

They are proposing a driving and walking park containing various North American animals called "Bearizona," to open June 1, 2010. The driving part would likely have black and grizzly bears, buffalo and wolves, segregated from each other.

The walk-though part would have porcupines, skunks, foxes, otters, bear cubs, wolf pups, bobcats and lynx, said Sean Casey, one of the three men behind it.

The 160-acre park would be located southeast of the Interstate 40 and Highway 64 intersection and aimed at attracting about 500,000 of the Grand Canyon's annual 4.5 million tourists.

"We thought it would be a nice addition to the area," Casey said. "Just an attraction to visit when they're in Arizona so they'd stay a little longer."

The software engineer and former wildlife park employee is in the process of purchasing the private land and has received preliminary approval from the city of Williams.

Casey estimated it will cost about $10 million to build and take a couple of years to fully build the two wildlife sections, along with a dining area and a gift shop. He expects to close the business seasonally in January and February. Plans also include a hotel.

In all, he expects to hire 60 employees, with 50 seasonal and 10 year-round.

Casey's family opened a different business, called Bear Country USA, in 1972 in Rapid City, South Dakota. It attracted tourists headed to Mount Rushmore and featured black bears, elk, reindeer, deer, cougars, bobcats and rocky mountain goats.

Casey and two brothers are managing this enterprise separately. He proposes to build a facility light on energy and water use.

The Williams City Council hasn't heard much lately about the status of a large proposed Old West theme park, said Mayor John Moore. That project's promoters initially pegged the cost at $1 billion, later scaled back to $500 million. But no financial backers were ever publicly disclosed, and attempts to sell bonds through a special taxing district have stalled.

But Moore is pleased with animal park, he said, partly for the jobs.

"Probably, this is one of the biggest and better projects we've had for several years," Moore said.

Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .