Future visitors to the nature center being built along the Des Moines River in downtown Fort Dodge will be immersed in the water of Iowa.

Not literally, of course. No one will be getting soaking wet. But they will be immersed in detailed, colorful displays full of information about lakes and rivers.

The place will be called the River’s Edge Discovery Center. It will be owned and operated by Webster County Conservation.

Construction of the center is starting to make visible progress. The crews from Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, have the foundation walls well underway and may be putting up the building’s steel framework by the end of this month.

After the center opens next spring, generations of children and adults will learn fascinating and valuable information about a resource that is vital to life. Based on drawings that have been released, some of the center’s exhibits will be just plain cool to see. The center promises to be an asset for the Fort Dodge region.

It is, of course, not cheap to create an asset of this magnitude. The construction contract alone is $6.7 million.

Matt Cosgrove, the director of Webster County Conservation, and his staff have done a fine job securing grants to help pay for the project. The latest grant, awarded last fall, totals $4 million and comes from the state government’s Destination Iowa program. That grant requires $500,000 in matching funds. So far, about $300,000 in matching funds has been raised.

Folks throughout Webster County have a chance to help raise the remaining $200,000, and they don’t have to have deep pockets to do so.

A Call of the Wild Fundraiser will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. April 22 at Lizard Creek Ranch to support the cause. Tickets cost $30 per person, $50 per couple, or if you want to bring the whole gang, $200 for a table of eight.

For that money, people will enjoy a smoked pork chop dinner and hear about an explorer from Iowa all while supporting the construction of our community’s new River’s Edge Discovery Center.

Tickets can be purchased by writing to conservation@webstercountyia.org or by calling (515) 576-4258.

We encourage people to go to the Call of the Wild Fundraiser. It will be a fun night and the end result will be a facility we can all be proud of.