Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris isn’t building a store south of Hollister. He’s building an ecotourist destination.
Just west of the U.S. Highway 65 and Highway 86 intersection, Morris is working to combine three unique areas based on outdoor preservation, education and fun. The projects, alongside Morris’ nearby Big Cedar Lodge resort, create a Bass Pro-style tourism corridor south of Branson.
The latest plans involve opening to the public a cave and nature trail and a natural history museum, just north of Highway 86 in an area known as the Ozark Rivers Heritage Preserve. The plans are part of the renovations to the Top of the Rock golf course area that have been in the works for more than eight years.
On Dec. 16, the Taney County Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously approved the Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail, a 218-acre project, just south of Top of the Rock. To the south and west, the 1,100-acre Bass Pro Shops Outdoor Academy is still in the works. Tourists visiting the Outdoor Academy, which includes the former Gage’s Long Creek Marina on Table Rock Lake, will have access to horseback riding, fishing, trails for walking or biking, and guided tours to bison and elk pastures across the Arkansas state line.
Bob Atchley, administrator for the Taney County Planning & Zoning Commission, said Morris and crew plan to build an entryway in the cave and trail area, dubbed The Grand Entrance, to serve as the gateway into the museum, Top of the Rock and Big Cedar Lodge.
“They want to try and rectify any past traffic concerns that we’ve had in the area,” Atchley said. “The hope is that this would eventually be the primary entrance into Big Cedar.”
Plans for the museum have a strong educational focus, said Atchley, who has toured the cave.
“It is going to have an area that focuses on karst topography, caves and protection of water quality,” Atchley said. “They sought approval for this commercial cave and nature trail that essentially leads to the cave, but … I think they are really coming up with one big master plan for all of their properties out there.”
Bass Pro Shops Communications Director Tammy Sapp said Morris is working to get people interested in preserving the beauty and resources of the area.
“The vision of the Outdoor Academy, the Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail, plus the Ozark Rivers Heritage Preserve, is to create a world-class ecotourism destination,” Sapp said by email, declining to disclose Morris’ investment in the projects.
According to a staff report Atchley prepared on the cave and nature trail for commission members ahead of the Dec. 16 vote, The Grand Entrance would include a registration building for guests and a parking area. One-third of the cave is designed with a visitor path, waterfall, elevator, moonshine still, cave store and observation deck, while the rest of the cave will be preserved.
Visitors of the cave will be able to learn about rock formations, cave nomenclature, cave plant and wildlife, and the past cultural importance of caves to the Ozarks, according to the report.
The Nature Trail, which has taken hundreds of thousands of man hours to develop, according to information submitted to the county commission, will allow visitors to walk on pathways around the perimeter of the cave or traverse by electric cart. The pathway will cross over two covered Amish bridges and showcase Table Rock formations and Ozarks scenery.
Sapp said Bass Pro plans to announce this spring when the cave and nature trail area, as well as Top of the Rock, which includes the museum, would open to the public. She said officials haven’t determined if they’ll charge for the activities.
She said the final master plan for the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor Academy is still in process. Currently, the academy’s activities center is under construction to include outdoor skills meeting rooms, a place to eat and a check-in station for various outdoor skill activities. A shooting range is part of the plans, but that is still in the design process, she said.
One of the craftsmen working at Top of the Rock, which has been shut down since a 2005 kitchen fire, said the lengthy process is a result of the high-caliber artist calling the shots.
Tim Burrows, owner of Tim Burrows Metal Art & Design LLC, has worked for Morris since the mid-1980s on various projects, including the Grand Staircase at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Springfield.
“I look at him like Van Gogh or Michaelangelo. Those artists would change things. When they X-ray Michaelangelo’s work, they can find three paintings underneath. That’s how artists work,” said Burrows, who is crafting metal gates and lanterns for Top of the Rock and recently completed railings for Big Cedar Lodge. “I’ve worked in a lot of corporate situations and they can seem to get perturbed. ‘Here’s the plans; here’s the architect; here’s what we decided and do it. Don’t change it because when you change something it costs money.’ Johnny’s never worried about that. When it is right, it’s right, and if something needs to be changed, you change it.”
Burrows said he doesn’t know when the golf course area might be open to the public.
“I hope it doesn’t open for two more years, personally, but I don’t know their schedule,” he said. “When they’re ready to open it, they’ll open it. I just stand back and do my little part.”
Evidence of Morris’ approach to projects can be found in the long-delayed reopening of the Wonders of Wildlife museum. In 2011, the museum that closed in December 2007 was scheduled to reopen by the end of 2012, according to Springfield Business Journal archives. Sapp said the grand reopening of the facility is now slated for March 2015. Planned displays and features include a rain forest, shark and ray touch tanks, catfish and turtle feeding pools, live coral, a bird aviary and a nocturnal swamp.
The 218-acre Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail joins the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor Academy and Top of the Rock golf course near Big Cedar Lodge to form a unique Ozarks tourism corridor south of Hollister.
