A new education center in southwest Missouri’s Branson is opening Thursday. The Shepherd of the Hills Conservation Education Center includes room for two classrooms, a 7,500-gallon indoor aquarium, and new exhibits.
Education Regional Supervisor, Warren Rose, told Show Me Today that it quickly outgrew its location decades ago.
“For 40-plus years, it was heavily visited,” said Rose. “In fact, we’ve seen nearly 8-and-a-half billion visitors in that time. So, it’s by far MDC’s most visited facility. But we actually had outgrown that since day one.”
The center is more than double the size of the previous building and is adjacent to the Department of Conservation’s fish hatchery, where 1 million trout are raised each year.
“We’re very excited to teach people about Missouri’s fish and wildlife resources, in particular, of course, the rainbow and the brown trout that we raise here that go all over the state, not only in Lake Taneycomo, but to the state parks where we have fishing, such as Montauk, Roaring River and Bennett Spring,” he said.
One reason you should visit is to see its world-famous slithering resident.
“Probably the head of our exhibit is Tiger Lilly, which is a two-headed western black rat snake,” Rose said. “That snake’s been seen and viewed around the world. It’s a great opportunity to teach people about snakes and their importance here in the natural world.”
The cost of the new center totaled $7 million.
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