Joel Mashburn. Pharmacist and elephant enthusiast. Hugo, Oklahoma.

For several generations, the small town of Hugo in southeastern Oklahoma has been a “wintering over” town for family-owned circuses. Many of its residents are working or retired circus workers and circus references are found throughout town –from store signs to gravestones. Joel Mashburn, a Hugo pharmacist who is fascinated with circus elephants, explains how they intersect with his life and work to researchers Tanya Finchum and Juliana Nykolaiszyn for the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program “’Big Top’: The Show Goes On.”