The Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary
Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary
Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary
Alpena, Michigan
The Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary is a 500 acre preserve inside the Alpena city limits composed mainly of wetlands created by a downstream dam on the Thunder Bay River built in 1863. Visitors to the sanctuary can hike on trails and explore the water in kayaks and canoes. This exhibit, installed in space at NOAA’s National Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, is the first step in an effort to establish a full-fledged visitor center. It is expected to acquaint visitors, both local and out-of-town, with the sanctuary.
The exhibit occupies a gallery about 700 square feet in area. It is organized into three areas. The first provides a transition from the adjacent exhibits via a boardwalk and mural feature which includes graphic panels introducing the sanctuary, it’s history, and reasons for visiting.
A theater features video programming showing travel through the sanctuary in different seasons taken from kayaks and cross country skis on a 12’ wide projection screen. “Framers of the Sanctuary,” the 3rd section, focuses on the powers of nature that have made the sanctuary what it is, and which continue to change it. A large, high resolution, aerial image at the end of the gallery shows the expanse of the Thunder Bay River watershed.
Hutchinson Studios provided exhibit development, design, project management, production and installation services.
2014
