{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox museum | name = The Wild Center | logo = Wild center logo.png | image = Wild center main building.jpg | caption = The Wild Center viewed from Rainbow Bridge | alt = Exterior of main museum building viewed from Rainbow Bridge | map_type = | coordinates = {{coord|44.219709|-74.438543|display=inline}} | former_name = Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks | established = {{Start date|2006}} | location = Tupper Lake, New York | type = Science museum | visitors = | director = Stephanie Ratcliffe | website = {{URL|http://www.wildcenter.org/|www.wildcenter.org}} }} right|thumb|The center's previous logo thumb|Sign at main entrance to museum campus '''The Wild Center''', formerly known as the '''Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks''',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wildcenter.org/about-us/the-history-of-the-wild-center/|title=The History of The Wild Center|date=2013-06-15|work=Wild Center|access-date=2018-11-28|language=en}}</ref> is a natural history center in Tupper Lake, New York, near the center of New York state's Adirondack Park.
==Exhibits== The center mixes up the indoors and outdoors on a trail-filled {{convert|115|acre|m2|adj=on}} campus. The center opened Wild Walk in 2015, a thousand feet of bridges and platforms that rise up and eventually over the forest on the center's campus.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trb-new-york-wild-center-20150408-story.html |title=Wild Walk coming to nature museum in New York's Adirondack Park - LA Times |newspaper=Latimes.com |date=April 9, 2015 |author=Mary Forgione |accessdate=October 23, 2016}}</ref> In addition to the outdoor experiences there are five primary indoor exhibit areas, The Pataki Hall of the Adirondacks contains The Living River Trail that circles the hall with live animal exhibits and a waterfall with the center's live otters.<ref name=landi2009>{{cite web |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124449834655195657 |title=The Wild Center Celebrates Adirondack Park's Natural Wonders and History |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=June 9, 2009 |author=Ann Landi |accessdate=October 23, 2016}}</ref> There are approximately 50 species of live animals at the center, many of them in habitats in this hall. The Big Wolf Great Hall contains a lean-to and the glacial ice wall and is the site for the center's live animal encounters.<ref name=landi2009 /> The Naturalist Cabinet contains hands-on exhibits and collections. Other exhibit areas include the Flammer Panoramas Theater where films are screened, and Planet Adirondacks, an installation of the NOAA's Science on a Sphere with shows focusing on the relationship between the Adirondacks and the rest of the Earth. The center features live exhibits and live animals, including river otters, birds, amphibians and fish. Indoors, a marsh appears to flow into a real pond that laps at the outside of the building, and the calls of live owls and otters mix with the splashing cascade of a trout-filled indoor stream. High definition films in a wide-screen theater explore the region and showcase fascinating reports from field scientists researching everything from moose to loons to alpine summits.
The center also includes outdoor exhibits that take visitors into the ecosystems that surround the center. There are canoe trips available on the river that runs through its campus. Daily guided trail walks are also offered. The walks are on provided snow shoes in the winter.
==Awards== The center was named a 2015 finalist for the National Medal, the nation's highest honor for museums in service of their communities.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imls.gov/news/thirty-museums-and-libraries-tapped-finalists-national-medal |title=Thirty Museums and Libraries Tapped as Finalists for National Medal |website=www.imls.gov |access-date= October 23, 2016}}</ref> This center is the first LEED museum in New York. It earned a silver LEED award from the U.S. Green Building Council. The center has an extensive exhibit that details the LEED aspects of its facility.<ref name=landi2009 />
==Programs== The center plays a role in a range of Adirondack projects, sponsoring a community maple sugar operation, sponsoring an annual youth summit that brings college and high school students together to research climate impacts and develop campus action plans. It has partnered in this effort with the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), and Heureka Science Center in Finland.
==Design== The building and the exhibits were designed by The Office of Charles P. Reay with Fish Partners and the St. Louis architectural firm HOK. The Bio Building was designed by local architecture firm Phinney Design Group,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.phinneydesign.com/project/the-bio-building-at-the-natural-history-museum-of-the-adirondacks-commerical/ |title=The Bio Building at The Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks |website=Phinneydesign.com |accessdate= October 23, 2016}}</ref> based in Saratoga Springs. It opened on July 4, 2006.
==See also== *Adirondack Museum
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{cite web |url=http://www.wildcenter.org/ |title=Wild Center |website=Wildcenter.org |accessdate= October 23, 2016}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0901/p11s02-algn.html |title=Inside this museum, the great outdoors |newspaper=Csmonitor.com |date=September 1, 2006 |author=Clayton Collins |accessdate=October 23, 2016}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Center, The}} Category:Natural history museums in New York (state) Category:Museums in Franklin County, New York Category:Adirondacks Category:Museums established in 2006 Category:Adirondack Park Category:Nature centers in New York (state)