A Shopping Expedition

Have supper, get a haircut, and learn how to tie flies at Missouri's biggest outdoors store.

Bass Pro Shops has the sort of epic proportions that make you gape and gawk like a tourist peering over the lip of the Grand Canyon. It's a spectacle. Even for those of us who don't become giddy over the latest innovations in fly-fishing tackle, visiting the Springfield headquarters of this famous store is a stupifying experience. Missouri's number one tourist attraction, it's not so much a store as a theme park filled with surprises. Here's our guide to the great indoors.

Go Sightseeing

You might notice, out of the corner of your eye, a man falling through a dilapidated swing bridge. That's just one of the many dramatic displays. You'll also spot a cascading waterfall, a river flowing by a rearing bear, a geezer kicking back on a cabin porch, and a herd of taxidermied bucks peering from the walls with impressive antlers. And you don't even need bug spray.

You might be shocked to find an art gallery here, but there it is, over in the log cabin with the stuffed peacock perching on the railing. You can buy paintings and crafts, or watch a glassblower at work making figurines.

Shoots, Eats, and Leaves With a Haircut

Want to dazzle a date with an exotic outing? Get a haircut in the barbershop, then meet for dinner at Hemingway's Blue Water Café, a restaurant with unique mood lighting: a 30,000-gallon saltwater aquarium. Then, go shooting at the firing range (that's Hemingway's version of a romantic date).

Lions and Tigers and Deer, OhMy!

Head upstairs to explore a hunting and fishing gallery as intriguingly peculiar as Alice's Wonderland. For a fee, you can walk through a forest of wildlife dioramas in lifelike poses that include ambling polar bears, charging moose, and even a Bengal tiger. Ask a guide to show you the antlered doe and piebald buck, and don't miss the gallery of atypical deer, whose antlers look like something from a Dr. Seuss book.

Next door to Bass Pro, watch animals in action at the Wonders of Wildlife Zooquarium. See river otters frolic in a waterfall, operate a beaver cam to spy inside a den, and walk through a cave and glimpse bats (behind glass). Reel in a swordfish at the virtual fishing exhibit, and meet Capella, a majestic bald eagle (an injury prevents her release into the wild).

Who said adventure can't be airconditioned? KIM CROSS

Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World: 1935 South Campbell Avenue, Springfield, MO 65807; (417) 887-7334. Hunting and fishing gallery admission: $3.95 adults, $2.50 ages 5-17. Wonders of Wildlife Zooquarium: (417) 890-9453. Admission: $9.95 adults, $8.95 seniors and students, $5.95 ages 4-11. Ask for local discounts.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Jun 2005
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