SPRINGFIELD, Mo. â€" When asked to guess the most popular tourist attraction in
Missouri, even non-Midwesterners probably could make some educated guesses.
Mark Twain's home along the mighty Mississippi in Hannibal.
The Gateway Arch, downriver in
St. Louis.
The Harry Truman Presidential Library in Independence.
Good as those guesses are, they're all wrong. The single most visited attraction in the Show-Me state is a store â€" actually a megastore much bigger than the biggest Walmart Supercenter. It sprawls at the corner of Campbell Avenue and Cherokee Street in Springfield.
Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World "is the No. 1 tourist attraction in the state of Missouri and has been for several years," noted Larry Whiteley, Bass Pro's corporate communications chief. "We attract over 4 million people a year to this location, which is greater than the Gateway Arch or Silver Dollar City," a theme park in Branson. The more visited of those two, the Arch, gets about 2.5 million a year, according to the National Park Service.
Is it fair to call a store a tourist attraction? It certainly is when the store not only boasts seemingly endless retail opportunities but also a public aquarium, exhibits reminiscent of a natural-history museum and recreational choices galore.
Bass Pro has 54 stores scattered across 26 states. And though each features attractions specific to its locale, the flagship store in Springfield remains the most visited. And it's just one of three area destinations imagined â€" and then created â€" by Bass Pro founder Johnny Morris, now 64.
Morris is a bit of a legend in southwest Missouri. A Springfield native, he began his empire in 1972 by selling tackle in a corner of his dad's liquor store.
It was, according to Bass Pro general manager, Mickey Black, "a humble man's bait shop."
"That's all it was to begin with, a fishing shop," Whiteley added.
That small space developed into a "pro shop" for local bass fishermen and eventually, in 1981, became the first Bass Pro Shop.
That store was a mere 50,000 square feet. It's now more than six times larger. Shoppers and curiosity-seekers crisscross the equivalent of almost seven football fields (minus end zones) in visits to the four-story superstore.
Inside are 200,000 gallons of freshwater and saltwater in fish tanks and other water features. Roughly a thousand live "critters," as Whiteley calls them, can be viewed. They include those fish, plus ducks, snakes and even an alligator.
Guests also can indulge in a putting green and gun and archery ranges. Year-round the store, like others in the chain, offers ongoing educational workshops on a bevy of outdoor topics â€" from Dutch-oven cooking to fly tying.
"The bluegill are kind of like the 'crazy Aunt Shirley' of your family. They'll bite on anything," Rob Dickerson remarked as he casually showed guest Bob Zumwalt how to make a lure for more discerning fish.
About an hour's drive south on U.S. Highway 65 brings folks to an excellent place to try out their newly purchased fishing gear. Situated on the banks of sprawling Table Rock Lake, Johnny Morris' Big Cedar Lodge is a big ole slice of heaven, Ozarks-style.
This lodge, which incorporates not only hotel-style accommodations but also a number of one- and two-bedroom cabins made from hand-hewn logs, is a five-star property that easily holds it own with the finest resorts of the Poconos and Catskills.
Big Cedar, which sits on 75 acres surrounded by another 1,200 acres of rolling hills, includes a marina, stables and fine dining featuring local produce when possible. Morris bought the land in 1987, when it was known as Big Cedar Hollow.
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