Good Getaways

Good Getaways Life is Amazing – not to mention fun – with a visit to the Cook Museum of Natural Science

Story and photos by David Moore “Life is Amazing.” “Discover Something Amazing.”

These slogans show up everywhere at the Cook Museum of Natural Science in downtown Decatur. But you don’t spend long at all there before the kids around you demonstrate another important aspect of the museum – it’s fun!

From live snakes, turtles, baby gators and bookoodles of bugs to creating lava-flowing volcanoes at a kinetic sand table and exploring inside a replica beaver lodge and a cave, exhibits galore await your kid – or grandkid – at every turn in this beautifully designed, 62,000-square foot state-of-the-art museum.

The amazement factor derives from the Cook family’s intrigue with the marvels of nature.

In 1928, John L. Cook of Decatur started what grew to become Cook’s Pest Control in six states. Secondgeneration John R. Cook Sr. in the 1960s had a large insect collection in a company warehouse.

Amazing exhibits await discovery around every corner of the Cook Museum. Kids build mounds of kinetic sand that, with the help of laser lights, turn into lavaflowing volcanoes. Elsewhere, they get an introduction to space. A 15,000-gallon salt water aquarium offers a view of life under the water. The $32 million facility will mark its first full year this June.

A couple of girls dare to play with a replica alligator in an area dedicated to rivers and streams. In the background is a beaver lodge you can crawl inside. Another area allows you to explore a forest, including crossing a swinging bridge to the inside of the canopy of “Big Tree.” Below, an Arctic fox chases Arctic hares.

If you visit ...

Re-opened July 8 to the general public, the museum is limiting capacity and using time-slot ticketing among other coronavirus safety measures. Call to reserve tickets or purchase online. Located at 133 4th Ave NE in Decatur, Cook Museum of Natural Science is open 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets (without tax) are $20 ages 15 and older, $15, free 2 and under; military and seniors are $17; groups of 15 and more are $17 adults, $13 children.

A shop and cafe are in the building. For more info and special events, such as animal feedings: cookmuseum.org.; 256-351-4505.

“The community caught wind of it, and the family let people come in to see it,” says marketing manager Mike Taylor.

It proved so popular that in 1980 John Sr. built a separate building for the collection, which drew 750,000 visitors through 2016. At that point, the family closed it and began planning today’s museum.

It opened June 2019 and in less than two months drew 40,000 visitors – not including school field trips and such.

That’s a lot of people discovering how fun and amazing life and natural science can be. On top of all that fun, a visit to Cook museum turns out to be extremely educational.

Good Life Magazine