Conservation center opens at Cape park

For Margie Huber of Pocahontas, Saturday's grand opening of the Cape Girardeau conservation center was a back-to-nature experience.

Following in the wake of several children, she was the human knapsack, carrying a token wildflower in a paper cup, animal track rub-offs on paper and various pamphlets and information sheets picked up by her crew.

She joined many others Saturday as the $4.75 million center marked its opening with special presentations and displays, which continue today.

Krista Kovach, the statewide conservation exhibit coordinator, has said what makes the Cape Girardeau center at Cape County Park North different from other conservation facilities around the state is that it's based on outdoor skills.

For instance, the fish exhibits along one wall have drawers under the displays. Inside the drawer are the types of lures fishermen would use to catch those kinds of fish.

"This one is activity-based," Kovach said. "The others around the state are mostly about habitat."

The 20,000-square-foot building -- always free to the public -- houses an interactive beaver lodge, an American Indian artifact and primitive tool display, a trapper cabin replica, three classrooms, a 160-seat auditorium, and scientific research laboratory. Regular hours at the center will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and closed Monday.

On Saturday, indoor displays mixed with outdoor activities, including fishing, bowmaking, bird banding and a walking trail.

Paul Corbin, who's been excavating artifacts from south Bollinger and north Stoddard counties for at least 40 years, discussed his donated artifact collection with passers-by. His favorite is No. 10, the great horned owl effigy, appraised at $2,000.

"I feel reasonably sure it was a ceremonial piece," Corbin said.

Most of the items salvaged were from land being used for irrigation purposes.

Corbin's collection, valued at more than $25,000, was excavated in the 1950s. Now part of the center's permanent collection, it is the first time the artifacts have been on public display.

Staff writer Bob Miller contributed to this story.

cpagano@semissourian.com

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