Cabela's: Dead Animals in Big Store
Owatonna, Minnesota
The huge physical outgrowth of mail-order outfitter Cabela's poaches the best aspects of the classic wildlife museum, and doesn't charge you a penny. Except if you buy something -- this is, after all, a store. But it's the kind of store that includes a live bait room, a gun library, a 53,000-gallon aquarium filled with Minnesota fish, and hundreds of dead animals in action poses. A good place to stop, especially if you need a camouflaged six-pack cooler.
On an African savannah setting, a mounted elephant uses its trunk to grab leaves from an artificial tree. Nearby, a lion leaps onto the back of a zebra. In the center of the store stands a multistory mountainside display (complete with waterfalls) titled "Tribute to Sportsman." At its base, menacing bears surround and maul an elk.
In fact, many of the dioramas at Cabela's depict perfectly natural scenes of animals attacking other animals. The message is clear. If we didn't shoot 'em, they'd just kill each other anyway.