Places to Go: Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center

Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center

Coming in from the cold

With proper planning, the outdoors in winter has much to offer, but if a person is looking to come in from the cold, Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center (CNC) has plenty to help visitors connect with nature while remaining warm indoors.

Located on nearly 80 acres on the city’s northwest edge, Cape Girardeau CNC has approximately 20,000 square feet of exhibition, activity, and auditorium space dedicated to keeping people in touch with the outdoors, said Cape Girardeau CNC Manager Laci Prucinsky.

“When a lot of our exhibits were set up, they looked at the natural and cultural history of southeast Missouri,” Prucinsky said. “So, there are things like Native American artifacts, 1900s trappers’ cabins, a crawl-through beaver lodge, and a host of interactive exhibits about the different things that you can do outdoors — hunting, fishing, birdwatching, and things like that.”

On those warmer winter days, the center offers approximately 3 miles of trails, including a trip around Wood Duck Swamp, which was constructed from previous sewage lagoons to illustrate a swamp habitat, she said.

“It shows that highly altered landscapes can be transformed back into something natural that supports a variety of species on land and in the water,” she said.