History

The owner, John L. Morris, began his career in sporting goods with a fishing section in the back of a Brown Derby liquor store owned by his dad, located in Springfield on the road to Table Rock Lake and Branson, Missouri. That small fishing department sold homemade bait and worms, proving popular enough that Bass Pro Shops incorporated in 1972. These homemade baits were so popular that many people wanted the opportunity to buy these when they had returned home. Thus began the Bass Pro Shops catalog first mailed in 1974. Soon, it became the world's largest mail order sporting goods store.

Bass Pro Shops today isn’t just fishing. It is an outdoor retail leader in hunting, camping, nature gifts, outdoor cooking, and much more.

From that simple beginning, Bass Pro Shops has become one of America’s premier outdoor retailers with destination outdoor retail stores across America and Canada, erving over 75 million sportsmen a year. Each store is unique and offers a truly unforgettable shopping experience - as close to the Great Outdoors as you can get indoors!

Resources:
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPageC?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&appID=659
http://companies.jrank.org/pages/489/Bass-Pro-Shops-Inc.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Pro_Shops