Simplified: The Outdoor Campus is adding a $7.1 million expansion to its Sioux Falls location to keep up with increasing demand for its free classes and programs aimed at connecting people with outdoor activities. Here's a look at what's to come.

Why it matters

  • The Outdoor Campus, run by the state Game, Fish and Parks Department, has been offering free programming for 26 years to help people – primarily kids – learn skills to help them appreciate the outdoors, including fishing, hunting and more.
  • The expansion will come in two phases, the first of which broke ground late last week. That'll include a 60-yard outdoor archery range with 10 lanes, ADA accessibility and the ability to shoot the same types of bows used in actual hunting.
  • The second phase, which doesn't yet have a set time frame, will include expanding the indoor classroom space, adding an indoor archery range and adding outdoor learning space for classes on processing and cooking hunted game.
"I often hear people say the Outdoor Campus is a hidden gem," Director David Parker said. "My hope is that we lose the 'hidden' piece. I want people to know what we do and get excited about the classes."

Tell me more about what's coming

The first phase – construction of the outdoor archery range – is expected to be completed yet this year.

  • The plan is to also make that range available to the public to use at no cost whenever there aren't scheduled classes going on.

The existing archery program only allows participants to shoot smaller, 20-pound bows, which are more geared toward youth and aren't necessarily powerful enough to use for hunting, say, a deer, Parker said.

  • With the new range, that's changing. People will be able to use larger, stronger bows – exactly the same weapons that'd be used in bow hunting.

In the second phase, the focus will be on expanding the campus's indoor classroom space.

  • Existing classrooms will be combined to create space for cooking classes.
  • The addition will involve three more classrooms, which can also be combined to create one large classroom.
  • In addition to indoor classrooms, there'll be more patio space for education on processing game as well as outdoor cooking, grilling and smoking meats.

The second phase will also include the addition of a 20 to 30-yard indoor archery and BB gun range.

  • That'll also include a mezzanine for practice shooting from a lofted area – similar to hunting from a deer stand.

What happens next?

The Outdoor Campus is still fundraising get to phase two. Right now they're at $2.7 million of their $3 million goal.

  • The rest of the funding for the $7.1 million expansion will come from federal dollars earned from an excise tax on hunting and shooting sports.

The outdoor range is expected to be completed yet this year, and there's no set timeline for phase two.