Gibsonton, a community roughly 11 miles southeast of Tampa, became a winter haven for circus performers in the 1930s. Many of those Gibsonton snowbirds became full-time residents when they retired from the road.
In 2021, another group of circus retirees began settling into their own community a couple hundred miles north of “Gibtown.” There they found 2,500 acres of wetlands, grasslands and woodlands – plus watering holes large enough for elephants, which is kind of a big deal if you’re an elephant, which these new residents were.
The pachyderms “retired” when Feld Entertainment, owners of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, ceased using animal acts in 2016. The Asian elephants were moved to a Feld facility.
Wildlife organization Walter Conservation bought the animals and placed them at White Oak Conservation Center in northeast Florida, a 2,500-acre facility designed and built with elephants in mind.
Elephants are on our minds at Straz, with the musical Water for Elephants coming to Morsani Hall Oct. 28-Nov. 2. Need tickets or more info? Click here.
(Elephants are on our minds but won’t be on our stages. Puppets are used to portray pachyderms in Water for Elephants.)
The show tells of a young man, Jacob, reeling from tragedy, who impulsively joins a circus. It’s what James Darren threatened to do in his 1961 single “Goodbye Cruel World,” although the lyrics don’t say if the singer followed through.
If he had, he might have retired to Gibsonton, a town which welcomed circus people that other burgs had shunned. Zoning restrictions were loosened to allow residents to park circus trailers and even train animals – including elephants – in their front lawns.
It was a place where Priscilla the Monkey Girl, Alligator Boy and conjoined twin sisters, paid to be gawked at in sideshows, could go about their business free of staring eyes, dropped jaws and unkind comments.
Gibsonton also was close to Sarasota, where the employer of many circus workers, John Ringling, had a home. Ringling was investing successfully in real estate there, having made the town the winter home for himself and the circus. Ringling was a pioneer in the development of Sarasota, and Sarasota is the home of his mansion, Cà d’Zan, the Ringling College of Art and Design, and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
Circuses play arenas now and carnivals don’t travel like they used to. However, the Gibsonton area remains a home for members of the outdoor entertainment community and industry.
It’s home to the International Independent Showmen’s Association, an organization for those in the outdoor entertainment industry. According to its website, it has 4,500 members across the U.S. and in some foreign countries.
The Association annually hosts the largest trade show in the carnival industry. The upcoming “Super Trade Show and Extravaganza” will next take place Feb. 10-13, 2026.
For a real taste of the golden age of travelling circuses and carnivals, visit the International Independent Showmen’s Carnival World Museum. Its collection includes one of the first carousels ever built, train cars that took the carnivals all over the nation, and plenty of photographs and artifacts from industry’s heyday.