SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri wildlife museum is nearing completion of its $100 million, seven-year renovation and will soon reopen with a new name as well as a new look.
The Springfield News-Leader (http://sgfnow.co/1ExJL0R) reports the Wonders of Wildlife museum and aquarium will be renamed America's Wildlife Museum & Aquarium when its doors reopen in spring 2016.
Museum officials say the site's 35,000 fish, mammals, reptiles and birds will be showcased in a way that will encourage conservation of the world's natural resources.
Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, who financially contributed to the renovation said he hoped the museum would "get people connected to our past and help them appreciate the role hunters and fishermen played in the role of conservation in this country."
The museum's exhibits include a two-story tall saltwater tank designed to make visitors feel like they are exploring a sunken ship as well as "a flooded rain forest exhibit, shark and ray touch tanks, catfish and turtle feeding pools, a large living coral tank, a bird aviary and a nocturnal swamp."
In addition, the International Game Fish Association's Fishing Hall of Fame will be relocating to the museum from Dania Beach, Florida. Morris is a member of the hall of fame.
When the museum closed in 2007, the renovation cost was estimated to be $14 million until Morris pledged $12 million and additional assets to expand the project. Other private donations contributed to the renovations.
Springfield Mayor Bob Stephens says that the museum will be a major tourism draw for the city once it reopens.
"This is huge," he said, "and gives people even more of a reason to continue to stop in our city and to be educated on how conservation should be done. It's absolutely fantastic, even just from the engineering standpoint.