Bass Pro Shops store brings the outdoors indoors
What exactly is the 1.7 million-square-foot Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Springfield — a colossal retail store packed with just about any sporting-goods merchandise you can think of? Or Missouri's largest tourist attraction, drawing visitors from across the nation?
Pick either definition. You'll be right.
The Springfield Bass Pro Shops store was the first in what has become an international chain, with 55 stores in 26 U.S. states and in Canada. Together they draw more than 100 million customers each year.
Naturally, this granddaddy of all Bass Pro shops includes equipment and apparel for fishing, hunting, camping, boating and golf, along with gift items and footwear.
Less expected, perhaps, are the live alligator snapping-turtle exhibit, the waterfalls and aquariums, archery and pistol ranges, arcades, barber shop, art gallery and Tracker boat showroom. Ready to go hunting for food? No need to leave the store, which houses a Hemingway’s Restaurant and Starbucks coffee shop.
Bass Pro's origins go back to 1972, when Johnny Morris opened the first retail store in the back of his dad’s Brown Derby liquor store at 3543 S. Campbell Street in Springfield. Two years later, Morris began selling mail-order goods through the first Bass Pro Shops Catalog.
In 1977, he introduced the Bass Tracker, the first nationally advertised boat/trailer package. Ten years later, Bass Pro Shops opened its first store, the Springfield behemoth.
The Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World is open every day except Christmas, Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Check the website for special holiday hours.
- by Ivonne Rovira, Springfield Reporter for HelloMetro
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Ivonne RoviraA graduate of the prestigious Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City, Ivonne Rovira worked as a reporter for the Miami News, The Miami Herald and The Associated Press. She has written articles for The National Catholic Reporter and The Courier-Journal. For more than 15 years, Ivonne wrote and edited articles aimed at middle-school children.
