Missouri’s the only place in the region where you can dive with sharks, at the 350,000-square-foot Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium in Springfield. Now, St. Louis is getting its own larger-than-life aquatic showcase—and so are Branson and possibly Kansas City.
Branson’s Aquarium at the Boardwalk
Discover fun things to do with the family
Subscribe to the St. Louis Family newsletter for family-friendly things to do and news for local parents, sent every Monday.
A trip to Branson could soon involve more than a day at Silver Dollar City and White Water. Next summer, a whimsical 58-foot stainless steel octopus will greet visitors to the city’s entertainment district as part of the forthcoming Aquarium at the Boardwalk, designed by PGAV, the architecture firm spearheading St. Louis’ aquarium. The 46,000-square-foot attraction will house more than 400,000 gallons of water and more than 250 species of fish and invertebrates, including sharks, rays, jellyfish, seahorses, eels, guitarfish, and octopuses—including a giant Pacific octopus, Aquarius, who inspired the aforementioned sculpture. Guests can get up close and personal with Aquarius and Finn (a golden puffer fish) on the Submarine Voyage, a 4D experience. Other hot spots include the Jellyfish Infinity Room, where “guests will feel like they are in the center of a jellyfish bloom,” says Aileen Stein of Kuvera Partners, which owns the aquarium. In Journey Through the Waters, visitors will walk through a tunnel through an aquarium holding sharks and other critters. In the Mermaid Palace, mermaids, seahorses, and tropical fish will swim past the palace windows. There will be an underwater animal observation station, a 24-foot-high Kelp Forest for guests to climb through, touch pools filled with such critters as rays and sea anemones, and a coral reef. The facility—the first phase of the new Branson Boardwalk—will also offer dining and shopping options for tourists and locals alike.
In the City of Fountains, already home to the Sea Life Aquarium, the Kansas City Zoo has proposed a $75 million, 750,000-gallon saltwater aquarium addition. Once approved, it could open within four years. The zoo’s CEO, Randy Wisthoff, cites Kansas City’s distance from the coasts as one reason that a saltwater aquarium could be a popular attraction. “In the Midwest, a lot of these kids will never get to see the ocean,” Wisthoff says. The proposed aquarium would house sharks, octopuses, jellyfish, and possibly sea otters. At press time, the zoo had was exploring funding options and a location.
