Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium sits next to the Bass Pro Shops flagship store in Springfield, Missouri, pairing a sprawling wildlife museum with a massive aquarium under one roof. Founded by Bass Pro Shops’ Johnny Morris and opened on September 22, 2017, the 350,000-square-foot facility grew out of a smaller museum that had operated on the same site since 2001.
The attraction combines taxidermied dioramas from habitats around the globe with a 1.5-million-gallon aquarium housing roughly 35,000 fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Visitors move through themed zones like an ocean shipwreck, a Louisiana swamp, an Ozark forest stream, and an Amazon rainforest tank, all built around a conservation and outdoor-heritage message tied to Morris’s hunting and fishing background.
Stats at a Glance
- Location: Springfield, Missouri
- Opened: September 22, 2017
- Size: 350,000 sq ft (aquarium holds about 1.5 million gallons)
- Species/animal count: About 35,000 fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals
- Annual visitors: About 1.6 million (2018)
- Famous for: Boone and Crockett Club’s North American Heads and Horns Collection
Museum Meets Aquarium
Wonders of Wildlife splits into two connected halves. The Wildlife Museum uses elaborate dioramas and taxidermy to recreate hunting and conservation history across continents, including the Boone and Crockett Club’s historic North American Heads and Horns Collection. The Aquarium side pushes visitors through immersive tanks rather than static glass boxes, including an underwater tunnel and touch pools built around stingrays and other species.
The facility was voted USA Today’s 2017 Best New Attraction in the country, and its opening drew former presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush alongside conservation leaders, reflecting the roughly $80 million expansion and the more than 40 conservation groups that partnered on the project.
A Conservation-Focused Attraction
Unlike typical municipal zoos or aquariums, Wonders of Wildlife operates as a not-for-profit built around Johnny Morris’s outdoor-industry roots at Bass Pro Shops. Its exhibits emphasize hunting, fishing, and land stewardship alongside species education, giving the site a distinct identity among Missouri attractions.
Its location next to the Bass Pro Shops headquarters store in Springfield makes it a common pairing for visitors touring the retailer’s campus, and the aquarium and museum combination lets guests experience both live animals and natural-history displays in a single visit.
Explore more: More Zoos & Aquariums.
Wonders of Wildlife FAQs
Where is Wonders of Wildlife located?
It’s in Springfield, Missouri, next to the Bass Pro Shops flagship store.
When did Wonders of Wildlife open?
The current facility opened on September 22, 2017, following an earlier, smaller museum that ran from 2001.
How big is the aquarium at Wonders of Wildlife?
It holds about 1.5 million gallons of water and roughly 35,000 animals across its exhibits.
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Photo: Robert Lawton / CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.