{"id":2593896,"date":"2022-08-10T04:00:01","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/?p=2593896"},"modified":"2022-08-10T09:28:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T15:28:57","slug":"bass-pro-shops-pyramid-memphis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/culture\/essays-culture\/bass-pro-shops-pyramid-memphis\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid Became a Memphis Icon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Partway up a blacktop driveway leading to a hotel called Big Cypress Lodge<\/a>, you pass under an archway that says: \u201cWelcome to Sportsman\u2019s Paradise.\u201d A coil of interstate on-ramps looms overhead, which, given the architecture just beyond, brings to mind a nest of mythically proportioned snakes protecting an unholy monument.<\/p>\n

The generic-sounding name of the 103-room lodge doesn\u2019t match the eccentric setting. The hotel exists inside a huge, black, stainless-steel pyramid that rises 321 feet above the flat landscape of Memphis, Tennessee, a city known far and wide for Elvis, Stax Records<\/a>, barbecued pork\u2014and this bold architectural statement.<\/p>\n

For this pyramid, sheer size is not the real superlative; Vegas, after all, has its own, even larger tetrahedral hotel. What sets it apart is the fact that its cavernous interior has been converted into an outlet of Bass Pro Shops<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest hunting-and-fishing retailer, and the hotel rooms\u2014set in the ring-shaped interior balconies that make up the pyramid\u2019s two upper levels\u2014overlook the store\u2019s floor space. On the exterior of the pyramid, a 78-foot-tall re-creation of the company\u2019s\u00a0logo, featuring the eponymous fish in mid-leap, glows green above the Mississippi River at night.<\/p>\n

The stature of this landmark is suggested by the fact that it\u2019s a rare retail store\u2014the only one, so far as I can tell\u2014to appear on a U.S. driver\u2019s license. When Tennessee officials designed a collage of iconic architecture<\/a> to use as the background of state I.D. cards, they thought: What could represent Memphis better than this inexplicable shrine?<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought there\u2019d be a more famous Memphis building than Graceland,\u201d says Ryan Hailey, a local video editor and a self-described YouTube Ambassador<\/a> for the city. \u201cAnd I sure never thought that building would be a pyramid-shaped tackle shop. But here we are. And for some reason, as a Memphian, that makes me very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex McDaniel, managing editor of the USA Today<\/em> sports website For the Win<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0moved to Memphis in 1994, when she was seven. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget crossing the Mississippi River bridge into the city and seeing the pyramid for the first time,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was gaudy and gorgeous, and I had no idea what it was used for, but to this day, when I go back for a visit and see that pyramid, I know I\u2019m home.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Memphians who are allured by this building. I know a couple who live two hours south of the city, in rural Mississippi, and drive up once a month or so for the sole purpose of visiting the pyramid, because the place is a kind of Disneyland, a fine way to entertain and tucker out the kids. Stopping in to buy a discount-bin trucker hat\u2014and taking an Instagram selfie<\/a>\u2014has become a road-trip rite of passage.<\/p>\n

But the building\u2019s true grandeur can only be seen once you step inside. Beyond the gabled entrance portico, a massive timber structure meant to suggest an Adirondack lodge, lies a wilderness\u2014or at least its shopping-mall simulacrum. The decor is heavy on fake rock and flowing water and taxidermy<\/a>, with an emphasis on regional\u00a0fauna: bears and feral pigs and white-tailed deer, scattered amid replica cypress trees.<\/p>\n

\"A
A mounted white-tailed deer, gazing at the merch<\/span> (Photo: Boyce Upholt)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Michael Rinehart, the store\u2019s assistant general manager, the pyramid boasts the world\u2019s largest stock of duck-hunting<\/a> gear. The guest rooms\u00a0are outfitted with furnishings that would fit well in the backwoods manor of a Gilded Age robber baron. The rooms\u2019 standout feature, though, are simple \u201cback porches\u201d (so called by the company) that overlook the ground-floor shopping expanse, which is designed to look like a swamp, complete with moss, waterways, and a host of stuffed and living creatures.\u00a0With two restaurants and three bars, a bowling alley<\/a>, a steamboat-themed arcade shooting gallery, and a spa\u2014just the thing for weary spouses with little interest in hunting and fishing\u2014a family could camp out within this 535,000-square-foot playground for days, perhaps whole seasons.<\/p>\n

For my own expedition, I figured a single night would suffice. I\u2019m not a hunter\u2014just a writer who likes to spend time outside\u2014but I\u2019ve always felt drawn to this place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2015, billionaire entrepreneur Johnny Morris opened a hunting-and-fishing store that doubled as a theme park: multiple bars and restaurants, a luxury lodge, and an entire swampland forest decorated with taxidermy\u2014all shoved inside a replica Egyptian monument. We sent one writer on a 24-hour mission to explore this exotic modern wilderness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44696,"featured_media":2594092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"uuid":"934f04d6c255daca680c87144f0a9a2e","footnotes":""},"categories":[2579],"tags":[3250,2697,2689,2917],"byline":[2390],"ad_cat":[],"legacy-category":[],"class_list":["post-2593896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays-culture","tag-fishing","tag-hunting","tag-outside-features","tag-tennessee","byline-boyce-upholt"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"How the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid Became a Memphis Icon","url":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/culture\/essays-culture\/bass-pro-shops-pyramid-memphis\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/culture\/essays-culture\/bass-pro-shops-pyramid-memphis\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/bass-pro-pyramid-memphis-night_h.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/bass-pro-pyramid-memphis-night_h.jpg"},"articleSection":"Essays","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"jversteegh"}],"creator":["jversteegh"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online","logo":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/favicon-194x194-1.png"},"keywords":["fishing","hunting","long reads","tennessee"],"dateCreated":"2022-08-10T10:00:01Z","datePublished":"2022-08-10T10:00:01Z","dateModified":"2022-08-10T15:28:57Z"},"rendered":"