Lake McConaughy Visitor/Water Interpretive Center - Helping to understand a finite resource
Less than a year after a fire that caused nearly $900,000 in damage, the visitor area of the $2.5 million Lake McConaughy Visitor/Water Interpretive Center has reopened.
In addition to serving as the lake’s headquarters for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, the center was built to tell the importance of Nebraska’s most precious resource: water.
Service at the 9,000-square-foot facility is back to normal, except for the 2,500-square-foot exhibits wing where smoke, soot and heat wrecked the interpretive displays.
The administrative wing was not damaged and opened two days after the May 22, 2008, fire, but the lobby area where park entry permits and fishing licenses are sold was scorched. Automatic fire doors and prompt action from six volunteer fire departments prevented more severe damage.
Though scorched, the integrity of the structure was intact.
A gift shop just off the lobby and 50-seat theater also escaped damage.
According to the State Fire Marshal’s office, an accidental electrical problem caused the blaze. There were no injuries.
Even before the fire, the Visitor Center ranked among the top 50 attractions listed by the Division of Travel and Tourism. With more than 800,000 visitors annually, McConaughy ranks fourth in the state in visitations and is the only Top 10 attraction outside the Omaha-Lincoln metro area.
Boasting a panoramic view of Nebraska’s largest lake, the center is located eight miles northeast of Ogallala and a quarter mile south of Kingsley Dam. Tom Plummer of Ogallala was chairman of the Game and Parks Commission when groundbreaking took place in Dec. 11, 1999. The building was dedicated on May 17, 2002.
Originally planned as an administrative building for the Game and Parks Commission at the Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area, Plummer proposed building a major water center.
“The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission really needed a new, larger administration building at Lake McConaughy to accommodate the area’s increased visitation,” Plummer said. “Secondly, I felt our state needed a place where people could be educated about the need to protect and preserve Nebraska’s great natural resource.
“And where better to locate such a facility than right next to the Ogallala/High Plains Aquifer and Lake McConaughy, our state’s largest surface and groundwater resources?”
Regional Parks Manager Jim Carney, a 35-year veteran of the Game and Parks Commission, called the center, “A living educational facility” that will include changing displays by school children as well as professionally prepared exhibits.
According to Carney, the exhibits in the water interpretive center illustrate the center’s recurring theme: “Our water is a finite resource serving an infinite number of meritorious needs and must continue to be managed wisely in ways that use and reuse this vital resource.”
The exhibits describe the interrelationships between precipitation, surface water and groundwater.
Carney said approximately $400,000 will be required to restore and complete the exhibits in the interpretive wing. The building, including two murals by Lincoln, Neb., artist Dave Reiser valued at $42,000, was insured, but the contents (exhibits) were not.
A historic diving bell and air pump built in 1946 to inspect the outlet structures at Kingsley Dam suffered minor damage, according to Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area Superintendent Ty Grafford.
Grafford said equipment arrived the last week in April for an aquarium that was scorched in the fire. Grafford said the aquarium and lobby area “should be in good shape by Memorial Day weekend” when Game and Parks Commissioners are scheduled to meet in the building.
A fourth-generation farmer in western Nebraska, Plummer headed up a “Friends of Big Mac” committee which raised $2,500,000 to build the facility. He called it “a public-private collaborative effort” involving not only the Game and Parks Commission but also The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, trusts, foundations, civic organizations and individuals, as well as in-kind gifts.
Major grants for the building were received from the Travel and Tourism Division of the Department of Economic Development (DED) and the Nebraska Environmental Trust.
Game and Parks fees provided $300,000 in park-fee funds for the building and The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, headquartered at Holdrege, Neb., donated a 10-acre site and 35-acre buffer zone and $100,000 for a community meeting room.
Nebraska Public Power District provided $300,000 for the keystone exhibit, “Balancing Unlimited Needs,” which explains the unlimited needs and the management and the flow of Nebraska’s water resources.
In a 12-minute video, former State Senator David Landis portrays George William Norris, who served as U.S. senator from Nebraska from 1913–1934 and is considered the father of public power in the state. A 24-foot topographic map, fiber optic lighting and the audio narrative help summarize the scale of water use in the three-state Platte River Basin.
Water center facilities include:
*A $100,000 Big Mac Community Meeting Room contributed by The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District.
*A $230,000 fresh-water aquarium donated by Cabela’s of Sidney, Neb., known as the world’s foremost outfitter of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear.
*An $80,000 50-seat state-of-the-art computerized theater funded by the Ethel S. Abbott Charitable Foundation.
*Offices for the Game and Parks Commission and The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District.
*A reception desk, gift shop and public restrooms.
*Bob Eihusen, CEO and owner of Chief Industries of Grand Island, Neb., contributed a bronze sculpture of an eagle made by Nebraska sculptor Fred Hoppe of Malcolm and three flagpoles.
The Nebraska Department of Roads provided $137,500 in recreational road funds for the paved parking lot.
Architectural services were provided by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
The Nebraska Well Drillers Association drilled heat pump holes for the center’s heating and cooling system and well drillers from the University of Nebraska Conservation and Survey Division drilled a 200-foot stock well in front of the center.
Plummer said the project would not have been completed without the commitment of Game and Parks Director Rex Amack, Assistant Director Roger Kuhn and Regional Parks Manager Jim Carney.
In addition to the state entities, Plummer said others who helped on the project included then-state Sen. Jerry Matzke of Sidney, Central District Public Information Officer Tim Anderson and former NPPD board chairman Ralph Holzfaster. He said the Buckley Trust of Chappell provided $40,000.
In addition to Plummer, members of the Friends of the Big Mac Committee included Chad Adams, treasurer; Jack Pollock, vice chairman; Doug Teaford; Gayle Verbeck; Barbara Krajewski and Marty O’Haus. O’Haus, who at the time served as executive director of the West Central Nebraska Development District, wrote the grant proposals.
Related Story
The Nebraska Water Center Foundation
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