We decided to go to the new Bass Pro World of Wonders museum today, getting breakfast along the way. That turned out to be two great ideas. We stopped at the Village Inn for breakfast and everyone agreed we'd go back there anytime! I am not tired of biscuits and gravy so I got that, while Randy had an omelette. The friendly waitress did such a great job of selling their Hawaiian Strawberry pie, made with pineapple, coconut, pecans, strawberries, and whipped cream, that I had to try it. Everyone took a taste and we all agreed it was great.
Now, on to Bass Pro, where you start at the "Dream Buck", four times life size with a 12 foot antler spread. Now THIS is how to start with a WOW!
Then upstairs, through the center of a buffalo herd.
The first set of rooms pays homage to Bass Pros' roots. It started as a small 8 ft square store inside Johnny Morris's dad's liquor store and 13 years later branched out into a slightly larger stand-alone store. The first display fish tank was actually an old underground gas storage tank. Johnny cleaned it up and stocked it with local crappie, then added bass, who promptly ate all the crappie.
One plaque has a written Fishermans' prayer, related to Johnny's love of fishing and his gratitude for not dying in a boating accident in 1972.
Another plaque refers to Bass Pros's take-over of Cabela. I thought they phrased it very gentlemanly: "Bass Pro and Cabela's came together to create the world's premier outdoor retailer". That's a classy way to say it.
More camp than class are the jackets that Johnny gave to Porter Wagoner over the years.
The next set of rooms is filled with Indian facts and artifacts, like this painted deer hide representing a late 1700 or early 1800 battle between Sioux and Mandans.
There were bows, lots of arrow heads, and a couple of beautiful dresses.
Next the story of the decimation of the buffalo was recounted - the population went from 60,000,000 before 1800 to around 300 in 1900. Horrible.
And two rooms were full of paintings about Lewis and Clark's journey. Current artist Charles Fritz followed their path to create the 72 paintings, and they look very good.
Then we headed into the wildlife museum. And once again - wow! Taxidermied specimens are the basis for this section, and they are really well done. Not just well done, but beautifully displayed.
Of course I'd rather these were live animals, even if it means I don't get to see them. But I have to admire the skill here.
In the next room is the "National Collection of Heads and Horns". It's unnerving to see so many game animals trophies but according to the plaque, the object of this collection wasn't trophies. In 1906 a zoological society, concerned that the current trend would cause game animals to become extinct, wanted a depository to preserve existing samples for future generations. The collection changed hands a few times before arriving here as "a constant reminder that conservation matters to everyone".
Conservation has changed from doing nothing, to preserving all members of a species' population, and now to managing the population with census, habitat management, relocation, and culling. Apparently a lot of deer can be culled because there is a large room filled with these. This is the only place I've seen a piebald deer.
From here we moved to the more exotic wildlife displays, starting with Narwhals. Simply amazing displays here.
After the rest of the African animal section, we moved to a photography display. This is how I really love to see wildlife!
It took several hours to see everything, and this was just half of it! So we took a little break, snacking on popcorn and soda, before going into the water section. It, too, has an amazing centerpiece to welcome visitors. I like this one even better, because all these fish are alive. They make a beautiful, swirling tornado of life.
There were some mounted displays here but not as many. A lot of the space was given over to the history of sport fishing. On the wall of plaques honoring people who influenced the sport, I looked for the oldest name and to my surprise it was Dame Juliana Berners, a Benedictine nun who in the early 1400s wrote treatises on hunting and fishing.
There was an interesting section about Bass Pro's amiable relationship with several Presidents, lots of memorabilia from famous fishermen/women, and so much more.
Next we moved on to the live animal area - yea!! The tanks in the main room were filled with perfectly clear water, which made it easy to see the wide variety of sea life. These carefully designed settings give their inhabitants lots of room, access to hiding places, and plenty of company.
We watched a short film about a young woman who caught-and-released a fantastic sailfish, before going into the next section. Here we found several displays with different water-life, including a large one with a couple of sharks. One shark was white - not a Great White, simply white. Thanks to Krissie's camera phone, which is much better than mine, I have something to help me remember how beautiful is it.
After enjoying all this, we went back to the main room where the stingray petting tank was. It was a very large circular tank; the stingrays could easily avoid us, as some of the larger ones did. But most came within touching distance. And a couple, if they felt they were being ignored, would slide up the side of the tank, partially out of the water, right in front of us. You can't ignore that!
I was glad to see several staff members there; they were giving information but I'm sure their main job was to make sure nobody did stupid stuff. I expected the rays would feel either slick or rough, but they feel like they are covered with velvet ... wet velvet. Simply wonderful. I couldn't get a good photo but I didn't care - I just want something to remember it!
This place was one of the most wonderful museums we've ever been to! The quality and quantity made it well worth the admission price - I wouldn't have missed this!
We were happy and tired and ready to eat. Fortunately we were close to Lambert's Cafe (Home of the Throwed Rolls). Most of us chose something we'd had before, but Randy opted for Hog Jowls. Which basically means he had a plate full of thick bacon, with fixins'!
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