Conservation Room brings outdoors in

The Poplar Bluff Museum has tales about us, our family and our history. I want to tell you some of those tales found within the museum walls.

If you can’t make it to the nature centers this weekend at Sam A. Baker Park, Wappapello Lake or the Mingo Wildlife Refuge, come to the Poplar Bluff Museum. The U.S. Forest Service Missouri Conservation Commission has built a Conservation Room at the museum filled with local wildlife preserved for everyone to enjoy. There are coyotes, foxes, bobcats, beavers, raccoons, otters, armadillos, mink, deer, turkeys, eagles, pheasants, owls, ducks, geese and fish on display. Take a picture with Smokey the Bear. He will greet you at the door. There are educational exhibits of wildlife conservation, habitat improvement, squatter infringement and fire prevention. The history of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Mingo Job Corps are told.

The Conservation Room is the most spectacular exhibit in the Museum. Along with wildlife jumping out at you at every turn, the walls are lined with weathered Missouri barn wood. You truly feel outside in the wild. The wood was generously donated by Fredda Lee Norden, Ted and Winnie Hillis, Steve and Patty Boyers, Harry and Jewel Nelson and Richard and Vida Rogers.

Come shake hands with Smokey and remember, only you can prevent forest fires. The Museum is handicap accessible and open every Sunday free of charge from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 1010 Main Street, Poplar Bluff (formerly the Old Mark Twain School). Tell them Mike sent you!

Mike Shane is a veteran, Poplar Bluff resident and board member for the Poplar Bluff Museum.