Major Donor Brings Butterfly Palace Closer

Five Cities Gazette
June 5, 2001
Story by Bob Behme

A major donor with a healthy six-figure donation has brought a $300 million "dream" complex closer to reality. Called the Daniel Boone Butterfly Palace, the project would provide a base for the study and conservation of rare butterflies and would include a public museum, according to Sheila Boone, the project's director. Boone said the Palace could become a prime destination for central coast tourists. The donation will be used as a down payment for 290 acres on the outskirts of Nipomo.

"The donor wants to remain anonymous," Boone said, "But with the help of the money we are close to closing a deal on the land."

Currently Boone and her lawyers are negotiating for land known as the Canada West property north of Sandyvale Drive and west of U.S. 101. Boone said the landowners have refused other offers including one from the Lucia Mar School Unified District preferring the concept of a public center. "They don't want to see their land filled with tract housing," she explained.

Created by Morris Architects, an internationally famous Texas-based design firm, the building's unique design will include a touch of history. Built of glass it will include elements of the "Crystal Palace", a monumental structure erected in London in 1851, as well as parts of the  Moody Gardens, a present-day butterfly preserve and public gardens in Texas.

According to a study by Dr. Michael Weisman, an expert on butterflies, Nipomo's microclimate is well suited to both the growing of rare plants and for supporting unique butterfly habitats.

"We have a magnificent opportunity here," Boone told members of the Nipomo Chamber of Commerce at a recent meting, "We now have the tourists. The Butterfly Palace would add the scientific community."

Boone is a fifth generation descendant of Daniel Boone and has named the center in his honor. The building will house a library, study area, research offices, museum wing and a series of special display gardens. While the Palace will eventually be self-supporting, development and construction stages will be supported by donations.

Perhaps Dr. Kingston Leong, an expert on the Monarch butterfly and a member of Cal Poly's Biological Sciences Department, has put the project in perspective. Leong believes it is wrong to consider Sheila Boone's grand plan only grand dream. "Miss Boone has already accomplished some remarkable things," Leong said, "It would be wrong to think she can't do this."

 
S. Boone Productions