When meeting guests want to explore the Branson area, two attractions that are sister properties of Big Cedar Lodge are logical choices.
One is the original Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, the brainchild of Big Cedar owner and Missouri native Johnny Morris.
In 1972, Morris founded his first outdoor sportsman shop in the corner of his father’s Springfield, Mo., liquor store. The Bass Pro Shop catalog followed.
The flagship megastore in Springfield attracts more than 4 million people annually. Packed with wares, it is as large as seven football fields — minus end zones. It also holds 200,000 gallons of freshwater and salt water in fish tanks, water features, ducks, snakes and even a resident alligator. There’s a putting green, and gun and archery ranges.
Groups can dine in Hemingway’s Blue Water Cafe or in Uncle Buck’s Auditorium, which can serve as a private banquet room. The auditorium’s aquarium wall is so large that a diver can feed the fish while diners watch. Bass Pro also has a location in Branson on Lake Taneycomo next to then Wonders of Wildlife hunting and fishing museum.
Big Cedar’s other sister attraction, 2,200-acre Dogwood Canyon Nature Park, is about a 20-minute drive from the resort.
“We provide team-building activities there, as well as a Wildlife Tram and trout fishing,” said Jodie King, senior sales manager of Big Cedar. “It’s beautiful, and there have been some upgrades to it.”
The park is accessible to people with disabilities. As far as Big Cedar is concerned, guests can’t be too close to nature.
