David DeMille

ddemille@thespectrum.com

ST. GEORGE – With an estimated 22,000 children ages 5 to 14 living in Washington County, managers were anticipating plenty of visitors when they opened the St. George Children’s Museum last November.

They just weren’t expecting quite so many.

The museum has had more than 150,000 visits since its opening, outpacing expectations and becoming one of the area’s more popular spots for families.

“I think it’s great. It’s a really fun idea and the kids could just play here all day,” said Jessica Evans, a 32-year-old mother of four who visited the museum on Thursday.

Aimed at children ages 3 to 11, the museum has been a hit, parents said, adding that they’ve been pleased about how the museum combines fun with education.

Housed in a historic building at 86 S. Main Street, the museum sits in what was once the home of what is now Dixie State University. Planners said the museum maintains that educational tradition - although this time it comes with a mock airport, mini tornadoes, bubble blowers and other kid-friendly, hands-on exhibits.

“It’s nice because the kids can kind of roam free, just explore and let their imaginations run wild, but at the same time they’re picking little things up,” said Meagan Leightman, 51, who brought two of her grandchildren to the museum.

As Emma, 5, and Jason, 3, romped from one exhibit featuring a faux farm to another with a supermarket, Jason started taking some of the vegetables from the farm and adding them to his shopping basket.

“That’s one of those fun connections,” Leightman said. “Here’s what grows on the farm, and here it is now in the store.”

School buses regularly pull up to the museum full of children on field trips, and educators have enjoyed the accessibility of hands-on learning that the museum offers, said Pam Graf, foundation director at the Washington County School District.

“Interactive learning just promotes creativity and imagination in people, and I think that’s what happening with the kids,” Graf said.

The museum features a huge set of exhibits, worth more than $1 million, purchased for $30,000 in what was essentially a donation from the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum in Las Vegas,

A team of volunteer designers and educators have worked to give the site a distinctly Southern Utah feel, though, and Gail Bunker, chairwoman of the museum board, said the goal is to continue coming up with new additions.

“We want to have it so it’s continually new, continually vibrant,” Bunker said.

On Friday, the museum is opening its latest feature — the “Frozen Wonderland,” a large seasonal exhibit that fits in with the holiday season and should tap into the popularity of the popular Disney movie “Frozen.”

The museum continues to operate largely on donations, with visitors asked if they would like to contribute — the suggested amount is $3 per person — but never pressured to pay, Bunker said.

“It’s been working pretty well,” she said. “We have some people who don’t pay, and that’s fine, but we also have some who pay more, because they recognize there is a cost to keeping things running.”

Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille.

St. George Children’s Museum

Located at 86 S. Main Street in St. George, the St. George Children’s Museum is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and admission is free. This week the museum is closed Wednesday and Thursday for Thanksgiving. On Friday, the museum will reopen along with a new addition, the “Frozen Wonderland.”

For more information, visitwww.sgchildrensmuseum.org, search Facebook for St. George Children’s Museum, or call (435) 986-4000.