Lots of dinosaurs on display in the Discovery Park of America.

(Union City, TN – November 1, 2013) – The long anticipated Discovery Park of America opened with flags and brass fanfare. In a ceremony crafted down to the minute, the ribbon was cut and 5000 visitors streamed into the newest tourist attraction in far western Tennessee.

Six years ago, according to a story written by Glenda Caudle in a newspaper given out on opening day, there was a fifty acre field and nothing else.  Caudle writes that the founder of Union City had a homestead tucked in the corner of the land, but by 2007, no sign of activity could be seen. Then Robert and Jenny Kirkland purchased the land and publicly announced that they had “headline making news” for the site.

Union City and Obion Countians had reason to believe that the Kirklands could make big ideas to life. Robert Kirkland is a man known to have a keen sense of what works in business, according to one source. The Kirklands own Dixie Gun Works, a long established business.

The Kirklands invited interested citizens to meet to plan something exciting for the site. Kirkland and his friend Jim Rippy had their own ideas, but they wanted to hear what their community wanted to do.  Answering the call, over 200 volunteers added their vision and work to the Kirklands and came up with a breathtaking site that spans the history of the area.

Volunteer committees dreamed big. From the trains on the south end of the site to the village on the north, the Park is dominated by a three story museum of history and science, complete with restaurant inside. There’s a Japanese garden, a grape arbor, a covered bridge, water wheel, a Reelfoot Lake aquarium, a simulated earthquake and more, more, more.

The founders hired Verner Johnson Museum Design Architects of Boston and Thine Design of New York to bring the Park to life.

The Park, only fifteen miles from the Kentucky border, is both an education facility and a recreation park. One of the volunteers, Jim Bondurant, said that as volunteer chair of the Natural History Gallery, he got to work with archeologists and to help select fossils for the museum. Bondurant said he got an archeology education traveling around obtaining display items.

At the opening, Rippy told the waiting visitors that it’s “quite a venue for Obion County and he urged them to “celebrate bringing an event to rural America.”

Larry Snyder, director of development at the Park, said estimates of yearly visitors range around 100,000, the bulk coming in summer. The Park has plans to host school groups and is advertising heavily in a circle of cities around Union City. Snyder said that six million people live within driving distance of the Park. The urban centers of St. Louis, Nashville, and Memphis, are all within a day’s drive of the Park.

The Park will offer lesson plans in science and history for teachers through the Park website. The Park is working on plans that conform to common core national standards. The University of Tennessee at Martin is taking a role in sending grad students to the Park.  Ongoing research in history and science will be part of the Park’s mission.

It’s not all work and no play at the Park. The 30 foot high twisted metal man is actually a slide. A children’s play room is full of toys and a bathtub full of a playdohlike substance that can be molded into various shapes without ruining the child visitor’s clothes.

Locals are already buying season passes. For $50, a ticket holder is issued a photo ID, allowing them access throughout the year. Waiting in line to get into the museum, Terry and Judy Howard of Union City said that “everyone is emailing and facebooking friends to get them to come.”

Judy Howard said, “if it depends on word of mouth, this place will be a success.”

Both rural residents marveled that this sort of facility could be located so far from the urban center. The Howards said they don’t have internet access where they live and have one spot in the yard with good cell service.

Snyder said that the Park had set aside three million dollars to add to and improve the exhibits, keeping the displays fresh.

The Park, funded privately, has benefited from assistance from local government. Road improvements and the highway lighting were provided by Union City.

One source said that Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam was kept apprised of the project’s progress. Visualizing the Park was insufficient. When he came down to Union City from Nashville a week or so before the ribbon cutting for a private showing, he marveled that “I had no idea.”

Union City, Tennessee suffered the loss of the Goodyear Tire factory a few years ago, losing over 1000 jobs. It is slowly rebuilding its economic base, adding small factories along the way. A smaller tire operation now sits in the Goodyear plant. It doesn’t come close to filling up the space.

The Discovery Park of America is seen as an economic driver for attracting tourist dollars and new businesses.

Snyder told Kentucky reporters, “We don’t want this to be just a Tennessee thing. This is for the whole region.”

The Discovery Park of America is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and for special events.

For more information, visit their website at www.discoveryparkofamerica.com