Off the banks of the great Mississippi River in Memphis towers a 32 story pyramid. At the base is a rustic hunting lodge facade that lures in visitors seeking hunting gear, fishing equipment, and more as this pyramid is in fact home to a Bass Pro Shops. I’m not a fishing our hunting girl by any means, but it was just too strange not to visit!

The pyramid was built in 1991 for the University of Memphis basketball team and to serve as a venue for concerts. However, its dark and imposing nature, combined with terrible sound quality for performances made it less than ideal and it shuttered in the mid-2000s. But just want to do with it was the question. Enter Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shop founder. He and his friends were fishing along the Mississippi and made a deal that if any of them were to catch a 30 pound catfish, they would open a Bass Pro Shops inside the pyramid. Then, near the shadow of the pyramid, Jack, one of the fishing buddies, landed himself a 34 pound catfish! Over $200 million in renovations later, Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid opened in 2015.

Walking into the pyramid is something akin to Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Tall faux cypress loom in the dark space, with various bridges crossing ponds, and the perimeter is scattered with swamp shacks. A waterfall cascades down near one of the staircases, and various taxidermied animals gaze at shoppers. Of course the store has everything you’d expect from Bass Pro Shops, but this one offers a lot more! Including a hotel, restaurants (yes, plural, including one at the top with a terrace that overlooks the city), shooting gallery, archery range, pistol range, aquarium with native Tennessee fish, plus alligators, and the Ducks Unlimited Waterfowling Heritage Center, which is dedicated to learning about wetlands and waterfowl. Sadly, the Heritage Center was closed during our visit, but we had fun exploring the faux swamp, looking at the the unexpected amount of neon signs, and waving to the alligators.

There are also bizarre rumors of a crystal skull found at the top inside a box, said to have been put their by the Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett when he thought of opening a location there. The removal of which is said to have caused a curse to befall the location, leading to failure of the early ventures. However Bass Pro Shops seems to have beaten the curse, with their variety of offerings and becoming a unique tourist destination even for people like me who wouldn’t normally go into a Bass Pro Shop!

Wander through the over 500,000 square foot faux swamp inside the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid at 1 Bass Pro Drive in Memphis.

Sources
“Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid” Big Cypress Lodge
Falcon, Russell. “What’s the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis?” News Channel 3 WREG Memphis, 19 August 2023.