Workers with the Oklahoma-based Kelly Miller Circus set up the big top on the site of the former Golf Dome off Route 22 in Southeast for two Wednesday performances. (Michael Risinit/The Journal News)
Elephants, camels come with circus in Southeast
By Michael Risinit • mrisinit@lohud.com • June 17, 2010
SOUTHEAST — For Becky, Lisa and Tracy, Wednesday morning was just another day. The three elephants, all in their mid-30s, stepped out of their trailer and began munching hay. For Julia Courtney, 11, Sabrina Segretti, 11, and Nicholas Santucci, 10, the day was a chance to delay their appearance at the C.V. Starr Intermediate School in Southeast.
The latter trio were among 40 or so onlookers gathered on the site of the former Golf Dome off Route 22 to watch the Oklahoma-based Kelly Miller Circus (caretakers of the pachyderm trio) set up for two performances. Julia, who won six tickets in a drawing held by the Value Village store, was about as silent as the elephants when asked what she was hoping to see at the circus. Turns out, it was the elephants, her mom said."We'll be here tonight (Wednesday)," Sandi Courtney said. "It's nice that they have a circus."
SOUTHEAST — For Becky, Lisa and Tracy, Wednesday morning was just another day. The three elephants, all in their mid-30s, stepped out of their trailer and began munching hay. For Julia Courtney, 11, Sabrina Segretti, 11, and Nicholas Santucci, 10, the day was a chance to delay their appearance at the C.V. Starr Intermediate School in Southeast.
The latter trio were among 40 or so onlookers gathered on the site of the former Golf Dome off Route 22 to watch the Oklahoma-based Kelly Miller Circus (caretakers of the pachyderm trio) set up for two performances. Julia, who won six tickets in a drawing held by the Value Village store, was about as silent as the elephants when asked what she was hoping to see at the circus. Turns out, it was the elephants, her mom said."We'll be here tonight (Wednesday)," Sandi Courtney said. "It's nice that they have a circus."
After two shows Wednesday in Southeast, the same big top is expected to rise today in Cortlandt — on the baseball field behind Town Hall.
Its visit to Southeast harkened back to the town's early days. Southeast, as well as Somers, lay claim to being the birthplace of the early traveling American circus. Hachaliah Bailey, a Somers farmer, purchased an elephant around 1805 and began exhibiting it for a fee in surrounding towns. Bailey mentored Nathan Howes of Southeast, whose family created its own successful circus operation. His brother, Seth B. Howes, became one of P.T. Barnum's partners.
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