"Theming the Safari Zones: St. Louis"

#PokemonGO: Niantic has been hosting Safari Zone events since the 2nd summer of Pokemon Go's existence, and while their inconsistent location, pricing, and in-game bonuses have made them somewhat decisive topics, I have always love that Niantic uses these events to encourage the exploration of what for many are brand new cities, and even more when the special spawns chosen for the event give a nod to the city's culture and history.Unfortunately, due to the current circumstances, many were denied the experience of exploring and learning about these fascinating destinations, so I thought i'd elaborate on the significance of some of the boosted spawns, for anyone else who is interested in that aspect of the events, starting with St. Louis.Note that this is 100% a boredom fueled write-up, and lets get into it.-St Louis's spawns were divided between two distinct themes, the first of which being the Moon.The city's branch of the US Space Program laid a lot of the ground work for the Apollo 11 moon landing, specifically the Gemini and Mercury program, which were the initial programs that gathered the data required to make sure everything went smoothly during the Apollo mission. St Louis even has a hotel named the Moonrise Hotel, which is space themed and even features a large spinning moon on top of the building.To pay homage to St. Louis's lunar legacy, moon themed Pokemon were featured, includingTeddiursa - A pokemon with a crescent moon and full moon on the bodies of both forms respectively.Oddish - A pokemon that is stated to hide during the daytime, and to come out when it's leaves absorb moonlight.Jigglypuff - A pokemon first encountered in Mt.Moon in the main games.Lunatone - A literal moonThe second distinct theme was fighting-type Pokemon, likely related to the fact that St. Louis was the first U.S city to host the modern Olympic Games, and the 3rd city overall. The Pokemon featured were simply fighting type, with no elaborate reasoning, however I will list them for the sake of listing them.ThrohMachopMankeyOne more historical homage I thought was worth mentioning was the inclusion of Chatot as the event's featured regional Pokemon, likely due to the massive walk-through flight cage constructed for the 1904 World's Fair by the Smithsonian Institute, which was later purchased by St. Louis and now serves as both a historical landmark, and the inspiration for the later built St. Louis Zoo in 1916, where it still stand today as one of the largest aviaries in the world.Of course, the event featured other spawns, namely grass types such as the grass starters and Roselia, bugs such as karrablast and shelmet, and trapinch, which I guess could be considered a pseudo bug type, although I couldn't find any direct cultural inspiration for these.I hope my fellow Trainer/History Buffs enjoyed this post, and if I missed anything please feel free to comment! via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/3bPLHHS