Space Farms Zoo and Museum is a 100-acre family-run attraction in Sussex County, New Jersey, that mashes together a zoo of more than 500 live animals with a sprawling museum of antique cars, dolls, firearms, and farm relics. It started in 1927 as a roadside repair shop and grew, almost by accident, into one of the oddest and most memorable day trips in the state. If you’ve ever wanted to look a Kodiak bear in the eye and then wander into a barn full of Model Ts, this is the place.
What Exactly Is Space Farms Zoo and Museum?
Tucked into the Beemerville section of Wantage Township, Space Farms blends outdoor animal exhibits with an eclectic collection of Americana and unrestored historic vehicles. It’s not a polished, corporate zoo experience. It’s a family operation that’s been building its collection, one donated heirloom and one rescued animal at a time, for nearly a century.
The zoo side holds over 500 animals across 100 species, including the largest private collection of North American animals in the United States. The museum side is just as sprawling, with buildings full of over 50 antique cars, motorcycles, old horse-drawn carriages and sleighs, antique dolls, one of the largest private antique firearms collections, old farm machinery, Indian artifacts and much more.
How Did a Repair Shop Turn Into a Zoo?
The story starts small. Space Farms traces its history to 1927 near Sussex, when Ralph and Elizabeth Space purchased a quarter-acre parcel of land that featured a small general store, repair shop, and wild animal shelter, with Ralph trapping predatory animals for the New Jersey State Game Department to supplement the family’s income.
Here’s the part that makes the whole place feel accidental in the best way: instead of killing the animals and selling their furs, Ralph built small enclosures around his garage, and soon people from the community heard about his wild animal collection and would drive out to see the critters. According to local accounts, bobcats, foxes and raccoons were originally caged only until their pelts gained value in the fall, but many were saved by the pleas of the Space children before they could be sold. A side hustle in pest control turned into a menagerie because nobody in the family could bring themselves to follow through on the original plan.
The museum half has its own origin story, and it’s a very Depression-era one. After the Great Depression hit, local farmers who still needed supplies and repairs would “pay” with family heirlooms like old firearms, dolls, and wicker cradles, with the understanding the items would be returned once bills could be paid, and in the meantime they were hung on the walls of the general store, where visitors started stopping by to see the animals and the antiques. Nobody ever came back for most of it, and that unclaimed pile of trade goods became the seed of an eleven-decade collection.
What Animals Will You Actually See?
This is not a petting-zoo-with-a-few-goats situation. Expect real exotic animals living on real acreage. The zoo’s residents have included African lions, black leopards, South American jaguar, cougars, lynx, bobcats, Bengal tigers, as well as Grizzly bears, Hokkaido bears, Kodiak bears, and black bears, alongside more familiar farm animals roaming free.
The most famous resident is long gone but still on display. The zoo’s most prominent resident was Goliath, a 2,000-pound Kodiak bear who was the largest bear in the world until he died in 1991, and he’s now part of a diverse taxidermy exhibit in the main hall of the museum. A few other animals at Space Farms have even landed in record books: the attraction notes Guinness-recognized longevity for a bobcat that lived 33 years, a jaguar that lived 21 years, and a puma that lived 22 years, all between 1967 and 1991.
What’s Inside All Those Museum Buildings?
If the zoo is the draw, the museum is the surprise. One visitor summed up the collections pretty perfectly, writing that the scope of it all “seems like someone with OCD married a hoarder and they worked it out into Space Farms.” That’s not an insult. It’s basically a compliment once you’ve wandered through nine buildings of unrestored antique vehicles, colonial-era tools, old firearms, dolls, carriages, and farm equipment that most museums would never think to display side by side.
The vehicles in particular are a quiet highlight. Space Farms’ museum houses antique vehicles and items used during the early history of the United States, such as horse-drawn carriages and early motorcycles, and the vehicles are largely unrestored, which gives the whole place a time-capsule feel rather than a polished showroom vibe. You’re looking at history exactly as it aged, dust and all.
Who Runs Space Farms Today?
This is still very much a family business, and it’s an unusual one. The current owner is Parker Space, a farmer and owner of Space Farms Zoo and Museum, an institution in northwest New Jersey since 1927, whose family has farmed in Sussex County for eight generations. He also happens to hold public office: Parker Space is a Republican politician who, since January 2024, represents the 24th Legislative District in the New Jersey Senate. So yes, one of New Jersey’s state senators spends part of his week running a zoo full of tigers and jaguars. That’s a very Sussex County detail.
Space Farms Hours, Tickets, and When to Go
For the 2026 season, Space Farms is open daily from Saturday, March 28, 2026 through Sunday, November 1, 2026, with hours from 10 am to 5 pm and last admission at 4 pm. Current ticket prices run $26 for adults ages 13-64, $22 for children ages 3-12, and $25 for seniors 65 and up. If you’re local or planning more than one trip, a season pass costs $52 for adults and $44 for children, and the site notes it pays for itself after just two visits.
If you time your visit right, you can catch more than just the walk-through experience. During the warmer months, visitors can watch animal feedings every day at 12:45 pm. There are also seasonal events worth planning around, like Teddy Bear Day, where kids get free admission if they bring a teddy bear along, with one free child admission per paying adult, and Boo at the Zoo, where every costumed child under 12 gets in free when accompanied by a full-priced adult.
Is Space Farms Worth the Drive?
It depends on what you’re after. This isn’t a slick, air-conditioned modern zoo, and it doesn’t pretend to be. It’s a genuinely strange, genuinely personal collection built over nearly a hundred years by one family who couldn’t stop rescuing animals or holding onto other people’s old stuff. If you like your attractions a little rough around the edges and a lot more interesting because of it, Space Farms Zoo and Museum is worth the drive out to Sussex County. Bring cash for the feedings, wear comfortable shoes for the 100 acres, and don’t rush the museum buildings — that’s where the real surprises are hiding.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
