Fan Favorite

Great Barrier Reef display Amazon rainforest pop-up bubble

WET AND WILD

Fan-favorite museum and aquarium is a must-see attraction

BY GREGORY J. HOLMAN

or the third time in four years, Johnny

FMorris’ Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium in Spring eld, Mo., has been voted the best aquarium in USA TODAY’s 10Best Reader’s Choice awards.

Wonders of Wildlife celebrates hunting, shing and conservation through immersive galleries and a 1.5 milliongallon aquarium. Some 800 species are on display, including zebra sharks, sea turtles and freshwater sport sh.

The aquarium also features a collection of historic boats used by shing legends and celebrities, including singer Jimmy Buffett and renown authors and outdoorsmen Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey.

Wonders of Wildlife was founded by Johnny Morris, founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops, in partnership with more than 40 leading conservation organizations, including Ducks Unlimited, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and National Wild Turkey Federation.

After 10Best readers voted it the best new attraction in 2017, Wonders of Wildlife was named best aquarium in 2018 and 2020. 10Best notes that Morris’ conservation-related efforts have “solidi ed his place alongside such remarkable environmentalists” as Theodore Roosevelt and famed 19thcentury nature photographer William Henry Jackson.

In a statement congratulating Wonders of Wildlife for the achievement, Ducks Unlimited CEO Adam Putnam called it “the most important natural history museum to open in more than a century” and “the single-handed greatest effort to celebrate the true spirit of conservation.”

— GREGORY J. HOLMAN writes for the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader.