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Cabela’s is everything about outdoors

August 11, 2005 /

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Classifying the new 175,000-square-foot Cabela’s store near Point of the Mountain isn’t easy.

Is it Utah’s largest log cabin? A tourist attraction? Or a big box store with better landscaping and more personality? Or is it a combination museum-restaurant-aquarium-sporting goods store? It opens Aug. 25.

However you characterize the store, and if company projections and past experience hold true, it will draw more than 4 million visitors its first year. That would surpass the 2.7 million visitors to Zion National Park, the 1.8 million who see Lake Powell and the 1.1 million who play at Lagoon each year.

Only Temple Square in Salt Lake City would be more popular. It draws an estimated 5 to 7 million visitors each year, according to the Utah Travel Council’s Dave Williams.

The Lehi Cabela’s is the 13th retail outlet in a chain that began in 1961 as a small fly-fishing catalog company started by Chappell, Neb., resident Dick Cabela. Cabela and his wife Mary mailed out fliers with a catalog of other outdoor products.

By Tom Wharton
The Salt Lake Tribune

Full Story: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_2931995