Discovery Park sees big turnout for 2014, plans upcoming year

UNION CITY, Tenn. — Discovery Park of America saw a higher turnout than expected in 2014, and leaders will soon release the schedule for the upcoming year.

The park and museum opened in November 2013.

“Before we started building Discovery Park in 2008, we did an analysis of the area,” CEO Jim Rippey said in a release.

“We decided to proceed with the expectation of around 150,000 visitors a year,” Rippey said. “In our first 12 months we had closer to 300,000. We believe we will have around 200,000-plus visitors in 2015.”

The 2015 calendar of events will be posted Jan. 2 on the park’s website, according to the release.

Among the 2015 plans for the museum is the first traveling exhibit, slated to open Jan. 31, according to the release. Titanic, The Artifacts Exhibition features about 200 items recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic.

The Titanic Exhibition will be open Tuesday through Sunday until May 2. The cost is $7 for non-members, $6 for members and groups of 20 or more and $5 for student field trip groups, according to the release.

Discovery Park is located at 830 Everett Boulevard in Union City. The park is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the park including a calendar of events, visit www.discoveryparkofamerica.com.