Teresa Garrard, West Valley City, was recently congratulated as the 700,000th visitor during 1990 to Utah's Hogle Zoo.
A mother with a young family, she was escorted away from a line at the admission gate by zoo Director LaMar Farnsworth and given a balloon bouquet.Garrard, who is the wife of Richard Allen Garrard, also received a gift certificate to the zoo gift shop, a zoo birthday party package and a family pass.
Garrard and her two children, Ethan, 5, and Chelsea, 17 months, were visiting the zoo Nov. 11 with neighbors, John and Diane Kreihble, and their family.
"We love the zoo and will go a lot more often now that we have a free pass," Garrard said.
Hogle Zoo has one of the largest number of visitors to paid attractions in the state, competing in numbers with Temple Square, where no admission is charged, and the Great Salt Lake.
"Our attendance is up 9 percent from last year, a great accomplishment considering many zoos are reporting a decline as much as 20 percent," Farnsworth said.
During all of 1989, the zoo had 655,487 visitors, according to Pia Byrd, marketing and development director.