Gear galore

Published 2:18 pm Friday, November 9, 2007

When it comes to hunting, fishing and camping gear, Cabela’s is legendary.

On Friday, that legend is set to arrive in Washington when 350 employees will open the doors on a 185,000-square-foot mecca of retail in Lacey, north of Olympia.

It is not only a store.

It is an experience, a destination expected to draw at least 10,000 people on opening day and an estimated 4 million people every year, which would make it one of the top attractions in the state.

Visitors at Cabela’s stores will spend an average of 31/2 hours each visit exploring not only the gear, but also exhibits including a storewide display of taxidermy the likes of which most people in Washington have never seen.

There’s also a laser shooting gallery, a gun library, a cafe serving smoked elk sandwiches and bison bratwurst, an archery shooting lane and, impossible to miss, a two-story mountain with a river running down it and a 16,700-gallon double aquarium running through a tunnel inside it.

Cabela’s, founded by a Nebraska couple who started selling fishing flies out of their home in 1961, has always been big in terms of catalog sales.

The self-proclaimed “World’s Foremost Outfitter” distributes 76 different catalogs per year, including specialty books on archery, fly-fishing and boating, as well as 500-page master catalogs.

But with 24 retail destinations like this one already open and another nine under construction, Cabela’s is expanding westward, including new stores opening this month in Post Falls, Idaho, and Reno, Nev.

Cabela’s Lacey location, a store nearly twice the size of the REI flagship store in Seattle, will be the first on the West Coast. Until now, Washington fans of the retailer had to travel to Boise, Idaho.

Why here?

“That history of catalog sales shows us where our customers are located,” Cabela’s spokesperson John Castillo said. “Within a 100-mile radius, there’s a lot of Cabela’s customers. You couldn’t ask for a better site to build a store.”

Situated in a wooded area west of I-5, Cabela’s Lacey location, which looks like a giant lodge from the outside, is part of a 1,000-acre mixed-use development set for more businesses, single-family and multifamily housing and a town center of sorts.

“Future development will make this a premier destination,” Castillo said. “You know what the lifestyle is here. It’s full of Cabela’s customers.”

Only two other Cabela’s stores in the country — one in Hamburg, Pa., (250,000 square feet) and another in Dundee, Mich. (225,000) — are larger.

Even if you couldn’t care less about the store’s selection of 6,000 fishing rods and more than 75 types of camouflage, including a camo onesie for your baby girl, you might end up picking your jaw off the ground on your first trip here.

Walk in the door and you’re faced with an Alaska bush plane suspended from the ceiling, front propeller spinning, along with a direct view of the aforementioned crag, known as Conservation Mountain, heavily peppered with wild game under a ceiling of skylights.

On the front of the faux mountain, elk with huge racks wander the cliffs over the babbling stream. On the wintry backside, wolves go after a young bear cub in a tree, a polar bear stands on his hind legs ready to attack and a lynx digs a claw into a snow-white ptarmigan.

Upstairs, balconies offer varying views of nearly all the mountain’s 75 animals. Once you’ve had your fill of that, you can take in two huge dioramas at opposite ends of the second floor, including an African scene with a long eye-lashed elephant, a lion fighting with a Cape buffalo and a leopard snarling at a baboon, all in front of a hand-painted mural.

“We want this to be an educational experience,” Castillo said of the taxidermy, which includes donations from customers, kills from the Cabela family’s travels and routine acquisitions. “Entire families come here to spend their day looking at the animals.”

Indeed, a biology student hoping to learn the differences between the two subspecies of black-tailed deer, the Sitka and the Columbia, could visit Cabela’s for study.

If dead animals aren’t your thing, or if you’re of a more indoor-loving persuasion, Cabela’s is set to lure you into the mix too.

The General Store includes a variety of gifts as well as jams, jellies, syrups and greetings cards, along with a large fudge bar that churns out 300 pounds of fudge daily.

Nearby you’ll find the home and cabin department full of lodge decor, outdoor-themed Christmas ornaments, decorative strings of lights (including some with bulbs shaped like shotgun shells), Winchester-motif sofas and framed art.

Casual wear for women is right next door along with kids’ clothes and toys, including toy guns and a video game kiosk, featuring outdoorsy titles.

Loop around the rest of the first floor and you’ll segue into shoes for the whole family and, eventually, an angler’s heaven, including a special room dedicated to fly-fishing.

You’ll find boats displayed indoors in the marine section nearby, before you merge into the automotive department.

Upstairs, highlights include an interactive laser shooting gallery, where 50 cents will buy you 25 shots at little targets set in an Old West scene. Hitting certain targets causes a reaction, such as the flicker of a light. If you strike a target near the small game animals, they may try to spit water back at you.

Next, appropriately, you can move onto the gun department and the mahogany-trimmed, antler-chandeliered gun library, full of unusual guns you can buy.

Upstairs you’ll also find the Cascades Grill and, not far off, camping gear aplenty, including hefty coolers and multipacks of hand warmers.

Though the selection is large and certain to compete with smaller outfitters in the region, Castillo said customers needn’t be overwhelmed. Specialized customer service is a cornerstone of Cabela’s, he added.

“We can narrow it down pretty quickly and give you several good choices,” he said. “Our folks live the outdoor lifestyle.”

Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com