What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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Glamping In Memphis Big Cypress a unique blend of history, entrepreneurship A massive circular 10,000-gallon catfish aquarium commands the middle of the The Lookout restaurant on the top level of the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Memphis. (Courtesy Photos) King rooms overlooking the giant Bass Pro Shop in the Memphis Pyramid are among the unique "glamping" opportunities at Big Cypress Lodge. The fly fishing lodges weigh in at 1,318 square feet each, accommodate up to seven guests and feature a king bed downstairs and a spiral staircase that leads guests to the open loft with queen bunk beds. SEPTEMBER 27-OCTOBER 3, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 39 ROAD TRIP BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette I f you've been to Big Cedar Lodge in Branson and you love it, but you're looking for something new, there's a sister property in Memphis that Nail Task wants you to know about. Like Big Cedar, Big Cypress Lodge is also the brainchild of Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, but it incorporates widely disparate segments of the history of the Tennessee border city. It's located in the 32-story "Great American Pyramid" on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. And it includes a cypress swamp with 100-foot-tall replica cypress trees, dozens of ponds and aquariums teeming with fish, live alligators and much more. The Memphis Pyramid, originally known as the Great American Pyramid and now sometimes called the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid, was built in the 1990s as a sports complex that also hosted several groundbreaking art and history exhibits like "Ramesses The Great." Conceived by Memphis artist Mark C. Hartz, the complex was intended to include three pyramids, the largest scaled at two-thirds the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Only one structure, sometimes measured as the 10th tallest pyramid in the world, was ever completed. The Pyramid went dark after losing money hosting the Memphis Grizzlies basketball team in 2002. It wasn't until 2015 that it reopened as Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid — attracting a million visitors in the first three months. "A fish tale in the making, Johnny Morris contemplated the project while fishing in the shadow of the Pyramid with longtime friend, world-famous fisherman and local Memphian Bill Dance, as well as Bass Pro Shops' first fishing manager, the late Jack Emmitt," Task, the general manager of Big Cypress Lodge, begins the story. "Johnny Morris said if they caught a catfish weighing 30 pounds or heavier See Glamping Page 40 GO ONLINE! Big Cypress Lodge big-cypress.com