Park Ranger Continues Discussion On Outdoor Education & The Diversity Of The Missouri Landscape At Travel South Confab
Finding a way to preserve the natural order of life is sometimes difficult but to keep an area of land pristine and restore it to its full potential without impacting its natural state is a feat. Johnny Morris, the entrepreneur behind many successful enterprises, most notably Bass Pro Shop is a native Missourian with a love of the outdoors as shown in his brand. In 1990, his bought 10,000 acres on the border of what would become the Dogwood Canyon Nature Preserve. In the 2nd Part of 2 Part Interview, Chad Phillips, the park manager, sits down with MRV: The Buzz Editor In Chief Tim Wassberg at the park to discuss education and the texture of nature.
The Buzz: You do have the segways...you do have the tram...but I see a lot of people jogging through here. It's something for locals, too.
CP: Our season pass holders...those numbers keep going up every year. We started off those a number of years ago. It was because we found a lot of people from the counties in this part of the country here were like “Oh, we're not very far away. We'll go out there.” And people in Branson and the surrounding areas that are within 45 minutes or less, some of them get off work and come out here, and, like you said, they jog and hike, bring their bikes, their dogs, or make a day of it and come out weekly.
The Buzz: Now, from there, were you more into history? Were you more into science? Because it blends when you become a type of ranger.
CP: Here's the thing...when I came on -- like I said, the fishing drew me in because I have extensive knowledge of fly fishing, but I went to college for sports medicine and athletic training. That was my career path, and I went to Shawnee State University, which is an NAI Division School in southwest Ohio. I came out here by chance to help my dad. His business was in automotive, and I helped him for one summer. And then he retired while I was out here. And instead of going into the training field, where I was going to be a trainer -- my goal was to go into professional sports and tape ankles. That's what I was doing. I did an internship at a doctor's office. So I find myself at a doctor's office and then someone's saying they're going to pay me to take people fishing, meet all these celebrities, and all these people and I was like, "I think I'll stay here a little while." So but it still wasn't my career path. I said I'm going to have fun for a couple of years out of college and do this. And I still have not put to use my college [background]...I put use to all my knowledge of the outdoors, of hunting and fishing, which I've had a passion for since I was a young child and my dad instilled in me...just like Johnny Morris did with his uncle and his dad. And me and Mr. Morris hit it off. We've always been pretty good buds. And he's a great guy. He really is. He's a genuine person. His massive success and growth hasn't changed him. He's still a pretty down-to-earth Ozark guy that loves The Ozarks. And I love that about him. And he's very simple about how he looks at things and how he wants basically everyone, at any of his properties, to enjoy themselves. That's his number one concern. He's always asking, "What did they think about it? Did they not like this? And what was it? Did they like this? And what was it?" He feeds on that.
The Buzz: But it's also the balance of educating youth, who are so stuck to their phones...
CP: That's why we've started down this road. I know he's big on getting people unplugged from electronics, and getting them outside, and learning about birds, streams, fish. We have bald eagles out here. I mean, there's so much to see and learn. And getting back to the kids, that's the big goal of Mr. Morris: to funnel as many kids in here, so they can learn about all these things and get excited at a younger age. We have a lot of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders coming here this year We have probably less high school kids, but we're starting at that young age and working our way up with our classes.
The Buzz: That leads to my last question...I mean the evolution of the park is one thing, but the evolution of you from fishing to now encompassing doing this, administrating this park but also understanding what it is and how to grow it is so important. Can you tell us about that journey from your perspective?
CP: When I started, I'd never thought in a million years I'd be doing what I'm doing, running this kind of facility with these many folks and all these different fields. We have a full restaurant now which is new this last year. And we've got a lot of opportunities to do more. We actually started with not really knowing, besides taking people fishing and touring the Ozarks, what we were doing. But I grew with it, with a passion for it, and I love it. And it shows with a lot of the people that we have here, too. We hire people that want to be working in the outdoors that really want to work with guests. Because the thing is...we're wanting people to come here and have a good time, but also sneak in a little education, and learn along the way. I've learnt a lot. I've done a lot of my research and my own studies learning more about this native part of the country because I didn't grow up here as a kid. I grew up in Ohio and Michigan. Totally different from Michigan to Southern Missouri.
The Buzz: Was it mostly Native American culture?
CP: Learning about their culture and their wildlife. The wildlife's a little bit different here. Obviously, we have white-tailed deer, and some of that is in Michigan and Ohio, but there's some things that we've learned -- we didn't have armadillos. I'd never seen really live armadillos till I moved to Missouri. The populations of those have grown. But we also otter, and mink, and beaver, and a lot of animals that you just don't see on a daily basis. And it's because of the streams. The stream is drawing a lot of animals. I've seen a black bear here. Bobcats. There's been a lot of mountain lion spottings. I've never seen one myself, but some of the security guys here have seen them. So there's a great diversity of wildlife that passes through the Ozark. Some of them live here year round. And it's been a great learning [process] for me.
The Buzz: So the streams are the life vein of this area.
CP: That water's all spring fed. We've had a hydrologist guy here recently, named Tom Haley who studied a lot of this, and he did the groundwater studies. They talk on the tour about the karst topography and having the losing streams, where -- you'll see gravel, but the water's still there. And so that's what forms all the caves in the Ozarks. That system purifies the water, and keeps it cold and filters it. That is amazing to me because we had kind of muddy water up in Michigan, and we didn't have all these groundwater streams. Not that we didn't have some caves, but that is prevalent here – the Ozarks has tons of caves, and we found about 20 out here [on this property]. And we're considering anything over 30, 40 feet deep a cave...and some of them are a lot larger than that. Top of the Rock's got a drive-through cave that Mr. Morris' got up there. Our owner's a big cave buff. We've cleaned off a lot of areas that had been overgrown in caves -- covered up, like trees that fell. And we've cleaned up debris and found caves that just over time were caused by degradation of the land. But we've preserved the land in a way that people can enjoy it. We try to make this place -- it's a park, but we try to make it as native as possible. We're not planting non-native things here. We're trying to plant native plants, and trees, and keep things the way they were. We try to keep the beauty natural.
Tim Wassberg
A graduate of New York University's Tisch School Of The Arts with degrees in Film/TV Production & Film Criticism, Tim has written for magazines such as Moviemaker, Moving Pictures, Conde Nast Traveler UK and Casino Player. He enjoys traveling and distinct craft beers among other things.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Oak Grove RV Park, which is a quiet park full of shady oak trees with campgrounds in Branson, Missouri and has been a Branson favorite for over 50 years. Located just 3/4 mile from the 76 Strip and close enough to not miss any of the Branson excitement and entertainment.
Destinations, Education, Features, History, Industry Edge, Outdoors