We move on to the Regional History gallery, where aquariums and terrariums showcase bass, crappie, turtles and snakes. There’s also an Ice Age woolly mammoth and a hologram of a mythical figure recounting Native American legends and beliefs. Brett wants his picture taken with a lifelike Indian statue who’s capturing a deer in a net. Now on the second level, we find the Native Americans gallery, which displays more arrowheads than we can count. (I might have had more fun sliding down it than the kids!) This gallery also has stations on sight and smell, a building area with thousands of Keva blocks, and a 48-foot sculpture of a human whose leg doubles as a super steep, surprisingly fast giant slide. The boys practically take off running when they spot the Children’s Exploration gallery, where they promptly soak their T-shirts playing with balls in the Water Works geysers and whirlpools (bring an extra shirt if your kids love water play). A working replica of the Gutenberg printing press and a Brenkert projector from the early cinema days are nearby.īryce and I take a virtual trip through the universe at the Starship Theater, which has a 160-degree dome screen that gives you the opportunity to launch a spaceship from earth and steer it through planets and stars. Bryce and Brett look through an interactive telescope and push every button they see, waiting to hear commentary about our universe. The first thing to catch my eye is a meteorite that fell near the city of Nantan, China, in 1516. We board the escalator to the third floor, where we enter the Science, Space & Technology gallery. Clearly, I asked a question common among first-time visitors. “Start at the top and work your way down,” she advises with a knowing smile. “I’m already overwhelmed,” I admit to the lady at the ticket counter. There will be time to explore souvenirs later. I get our tickets as my husband coaxes the boys away from the adjacent gift shop, overflowing with toys, books, games and trinkets. As we enter the main building, we’re greeted by a fierce-looking grizzly bear. The multistory main building is surrounded by smaller structures, including an 1800s settlement of log cabins, a century-old church, gristmill, six full-size train cars, firehouse, barber shop, drugstore, gardens and an antique tractor mill, just to name a few. SEE MORE: Discovery Park of America video Literally built out of a cornfield, the extraordinary white structure reminds me of the unforgettable Field of Dreams quote: “If you build it, they will come.” That’s certainly true at the Discovery Park of America – the parking lot was filled with vehicles from all over Tennessee and beyond. We arrived at the Discovery Park at noon, and we were impressed by the building’s architecture before we even entered. My husband and I loaded up our boys – Bryce, 6, and Brett, 5 – and headed for Union City early on a Sunday morning. So I was thrilled when my editor assigned me a feature story focusing on the unusual attraction. I’m a writer from Nashville, and with two young boys of my own, I’d been looking for an excuse to make the three-hour drive to Union City to see the Discovery Park for myself after hearing friends rave about it. It’s a feast for the senses – a place where children and adults learn without even realizing they are being taught. ![]() ![]() The Kirklands hope the $100 million, 50-acre attraction will educate and entertain visitors of all ages, allowing them to see amazing things they might otherwise never get to see in a rural town. That’s pretty great for this little part of the world.”Ī gift to the community from Obion County residents Robert and Jenny Kirkland (who made their fortune with Kirkland’s home furnishing stores), the 100,000-square-foot museum has 10 different themed galleries, an earthquake simulator, interactive Starship Theater, a $2 million dinosaur bones display, a 48-foot human statue with a giant slide, and a 120-foot tower with two glass floor panels. Instead, we are on target to hit 300,000. “We hoped to have 150,000 visitors in our first year. It could have been placed in New York, Chicago, Atlanta or anywhere,” says Mary Nita Bondurant, marketing director at the Discovery Park of America. ![]() “The Discovery Park of America is world class.
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