Peter Herschend to lecture at State Historical Society in Columbia
Peter Herschend , co-founder of Silver Dollar City and longtime member of Missouri’s State Board of Education, will be the featured speaker at the State Historical Society of Missouri’s annual My Missouri Lecture on Saturday, Oct. 12. The luncheon, at the Center for Missouri Studies, 605 Elm St. in Columbia, begins at noon followed by the lecture at 1 p.m.
The Herschend family business started in Branson in 1950 with a hole in the ground called Marvel Cave. To give cave visitors more to do, Peter and his brother Jack built an 1880s-style Ozarks village named Silver Dollar City. The venture proved successful in its first year of operation. The theme park drew over 125,000 visitors and a decade later, began influencing pop culture. Today, Herschend Enterprises is the nation’s largest family-owned entertainment company.
Herschend served on the State Board of Education for more than three decades and was honored with the Missouri Chamber of Commerce’s Education Supporter of the Year award in 2011. He has also been named to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame for his cycling efforts, which have helped raise more than $1.5 million for the National MS Society.