The site, donated to the Culture & Heritage Museums by Jane Spratt McColl, will include about 60 acres for the museum and grounds and a 340-acre sustainable community called Kanawha.

The environmental history museum will focus on three central themes: the river, crossroads and sustainability. Visitors will learn how the site, donated to the Culture & Heritage Foundation by Jane Spratt McColl, had been an intersection of people and place thoughout history. Its setting makes the museum a prime location for exploring the dynamic relationship that have shaped our societies and our environment, and is representative of regional and global changes over time.

A new kind of museum experience will actively bring natural and cutural history together.

Housed in an ecologically sensitive building and a key part of the sustainable Kanawha community, its front door opens onto a new regional greenway, the Carolina Thread Trail. Among the experiences will be a river walk, naturalist center, planetarium, auditorium and restaurant featuring local foods. A watershed exhibit will include aquariums and aquatic life dioramas with live otters, fish and turtles. The museum programming will promote dialog and inquiry and help us think differently about the choices we make each day that affect the social, economic and environmental future of the region.