- [Narrator] You are about to embark upon the tale of an adventurer, a man who traveled the world, collecting specimens in an effort to educate the public and to fulfill his lifelong passion for harvesting and collecting some of the world's most prized game.

(adventurous music) His findings would one day contribute to a collection of artifacts, an African savanna with over 100 African animals, prehistoric exhibits, cave-dwelling creatures, and even Egyptian mummies, more than 2000 years old.

This is the harrowing tale of Mr. John B. Lagarde, and what became the Anniston Museum of Natural History.

(adventurous music) - Well, this museum has been here for 90 years.

It's been a very important legacy, not only to Anniston, but the whole Calhoun County and Northeast Alabama altogether.

It is an incredible learning resource that generations have enjoyed for 90 years that it's been here.

- You cannot go anywhere and go and see what you can see here at the Anniston Museum of Natural History.

As an educational institution, we are way up there with libraries, schools.

We're just part of a package.

- We have permanent and temporary galleries at the Anniston Museum of Natural History, and it starts with our dynamic earth.

And we talked about the foundings of the development of this planet through the prehistoric era, the development of the caves, as well as the largest collection of mounted birds of the North American continent.

The collection that we have from Ancient Egypt sets us apart, as well as our very, very vast exhibit of Africa, and all of the animals on the African safari that we have here in this museum.

- John B. Lagarde was the most important figure in the community, in relation to this museum.

He wanted the people to see it, to enjoy it, to learn from them.

And that was his final vision of this museum.

It would be an educational institution.

(upbeat music) - John B. Lagarde became passionate about hunting at a very young age; it was his grandfather that introduced him.

They would spend the bulk of their time outdoors together.

- [Narrator] In 1910, John began to show an interest in hunting.

And so at the age of six, John's grandfather granted his wish and gifted him a small caliber rifle.

- They would go hunting.

They would go fishing.

If you needed to know where he was, he was outside.

- [Narrator] Even as a young boy, John showed a keen awareness and appreciation for the wilderness that surrounded him.

And his passion for the outdoors grew even further.

Day by day, John became increasingly enamored with history and adventure, and when he wasn't in the woods fishing or exploring, he was spending a good portion of his time with his aunt Elizabeth Noble, where they would sit and read adventure stories for hours on end.

When Lagarde was 11 years old, his father decided that he should attend Marion Military Academy, a military junior college in Marion, Alabama.

- They lived at Crown Cottage here in Anniston.

He went to Marion Military Institute as a young man, and while he was there, he got very popular with the teachers because they knew that he hunted and they would let him get out of class and go and shoot rabbits and squirrels to bring in for their dinner.

So he really liked doing that.

- [Narrator] Though John was great at physics and did exceptionally well in history, there was just too much regulation and confinement to keep his attention.

His only interest was life outdoors, hunting, fishing, mechanics, and building.

All he wanted to do was explore and be one with the wilderness.

(adventurous music) In 1941, his father bought a large farm located two miles west of Alexandria.

Now old enough to go out on his own, John had mastered the hunter's art.

The farm had everything John needed to simulate his passion for wildlife.

(adventurous music) He would spend his summers there on the farm and from sunup to sundown, he immersed himself in the outdoors.

(adventurous music) John would continue to sharpen his skills, exploring Alabama with his rifle at his side.

As time passed, John would travel the world and become a major contributor to wildlife conservation and education in Anniston.

But the story of the Anniston Museum of Natural History began way back in 1915, when a man by the name of H. Severn Regar began exhibiting his personal collection of historical and biological objects.

- In 1929, H. Severn Regar was in Pennsylvania.

He had a collection of birds and mummies, and he decided to donate it to the City of Anniston.

There were a few contingencies.

The city of Anniston had to pay for the shipping costs to bring a collection of about 500 birds and 2,000-plus year old mummies to Anniston, Alabama.

But it was a good price to pay.

- [Narrator] Regar was indeed a true entrepreneur.

However, business wasn't his only interest.

Deep down was a burning passion for wildlife and natural history.

This led Regar to pursue a certificate in taxidermy.

From there, he would seek out new and impressive natural history displays.

Among these were a selection of exotic birds collected by a man named William H. Werner.

- Now, when it arrived at Anniston, it went to the Carnegie Library and it lived there for several years.

Now, there were talks of taking down the library and building a new one.

To do that, the collection had to be stored somewhere and it was taken to the Calhoun County War Memorial.

- But the War Memorial building was very small.

It's a very small little building, had tiny little office space, and it really was not sufficient to be able to show this collection decent, in any decent form.

And it was just kind of warehoused there until something better could be done.

- [Narrator] Determined to share his findings with the community, H. Severn Regar donated his personal collection of over 1,800 historical objects to the City of Anniston.

Included were both extinct and endangered biological specimens.

This remarkable exhibit now features more than 400 North American birds and their habitats, forming the cornerstone of the museum's, Birds of the Americans Exhibit Hall.

- John B. Lagarde created his business from the ground up and it was a huge success.

He was a true entrepreneur.

He owned a concrete business in Piedmont, Alabama.

- My grandfather initially started off as a contractor.

He had always a need for sand and gravel.

His father-in-law was an architect and engineer, and he got started on some small jobs.

He did a terminal down in Talladega.

They had to move dirt on a wagon with the slats.

And then what they would do is when they get over to where they needed the dirt, they turned the slats and let the dirt drop down.

And that's the way they would handle materials at the time, they didn't have end-loaders or the mechanical machines.

As that need grew, he found some deposits of sand and gravel here in Anniston.

Also on his hunting, he found several areas to where he had potential places to accumulate sand and gravel to produce concrete, 'cause he needed concrete.

- He was very sharp businessman.

I used to spend quite a bit of time going to the plant.

He had the Lagarde Ready-Mix Concrete in Anniston.

Granddad discovered some white sand on the property that he had his concrete plant.

And he was able to develop that using it in concrete block and in his ready-mix concrete.

It was quite a novelty to find white sand, of course, in this part of the country.

And I think it very much added to his success in the early days of the concrete business.

- He started building his own concrete trucks.

He invented the first hydraulic block machine to make concrete blocks.

- He pretty much had all the concrete business in this area until he sold his plant.

- I've heard he made a million and lost it and made another million and lost it.

But then the third time, it stuck.

He did not have everything handed to him.

He had to work very hard and... but there were times that's why the hunting was important, it actually put food on the table.

- A lot of his success came from hiring good people.

He rewarded them very well, then that way he was able to go on hunts.

He started hunting in all of North America.

- Fueled by the passion Lagarde's grandfather had instilled in him at such a young age and now the financial support of a successful business, Lagarde began traveling all over the world on several safaris.

- Hello, I'm Pete Conroy, Curator of Natural History at the Anniston Museum of Natural History in Anniston, Alabama.

I'd like to welcome you to the John B. Lagarde Safari Series.

Today, our travels will take us to Canada in 1951.

When I found that box of 16 millimeter reels, you know, I got curious, "What is this?"

And I remember cranking up a 16 millimeter projector and worrying that everything would burn up, 'cause even then that was antiquated equipment.

But started to watch it and click, click, click, click, click, click, click of the projector, shot these phenomenal, I mean, history making images.

(dramatic music) He had recorded things that had never been recorded.

And even though the technology was a little bit iffy, I just knew that the time was right to do something, to take it to the next level.

- [Narrator] Lagarde began his journey as a big game hunter in 1946, when he and his wife, Betty, traveled to Quebec on the search for caribou and moose.

Together, they would make several trips to British Columbia, where they, along with a guide, horse wrangler and a cook would explore the vast and often treacherous lands for months documenting their journey along the way.

- He had a deep appreciation for all of nature.

When he would go on hunts before he would go on a hunt, he would study the area of the country.

Every place he went, he would do an area study that allowed him to know a lot of what he did.

And when they came back and would show you the films, he was just amazing on what he remembered and could add to the conversation of where he was, and what they did and everything about the country and the species where he was hunting.

- [Narrator] In 1950, John and Betty traveled up the inland passage from Vancouver to Alaska, where they boarded a small riverboat for a three-day trip to Telegraph Creek.

Though, their quest didn't come without obstacles, their determination along with a bit of luck, helped carry them to victory.

They each collected the grizzly bear, black bear, moose, mountain goat, stone sheep, and mountain caribou.

- People spend money on the things they like.

Some people like fast cars, fancy clothes.

He wanted more bullets (laughs) and to go hunting.

So he enjoyed the outdoors, he enjoyed nature.

- Betty Lagarde loved to go on safari with John B. and their early years of marriage, she went almost every time.

She was a hunter herself.

She actually told me this, that when they went to Canada, he had gone out.

He was hunting for moose.

She didn't go out that morning.

She was still at camp.

It was early.

And the guide came running and saying, "Miss Betty, Miss Betty!"

He says, "Moose, moose!"

So she still had her hair in curlers and everything.

And she went tearing... grabbed her gun and went tearing off and got this huge moose.

It is like world-class size.

She loved going as well.

- [Narrator] Travel to these locations where no walk in the park.

To the contrary, these pack trips were indeed quite dangerous and oftentimes they faced what seemed to be insurmountable challenges.

- And we started out and this is what we see.

The truck goes ahead of us early that morning.

And this was about 50 miles out of town.

He gets over too far on the side of the road, tries to pull back and that's what happens.

That's our truck with all of our equipment.

Our boys were scattered on the track.

I had a broken arm and the skinner, he had a broken arm.

The other boys are hurt and skint up pretty bad.

Our equipment was all messed up.

We're trying to get the thing ready to turn over.

This was Claude's Mercedes truck, which he was just crazy about it.

It was a nice old truck.

That's the, I think the little gasoline engine.

Well, there's Dan's suitcase.

(laughs) That's got my clothes, his clothes, all of the day before on it.

And Dan is ready to leave.

- [Narrator] Undeterred, John with the aid of his guides, would overcome each obstacle to bear witness to, record, and collect artifacts from some of the world's most exclusive natural habitats from all over the world.

Now obsessed with his life as an adventurer, John, along with his wife, Betty, scoured the globe from one country to the next, with a deep desire to learn as much as possible about the ecology, native species, and cultures of the place they visited.

While John found his explorations to be victorious and gratifying, John's aspirations to venture into Africa only grew stronger.

(adventurous music) And in 1954, the opportunity had come.

After several trips to nearly every other country in the world, John and Betty would finally make their first trip to Kenya.

(jungle music) - [Edith Kennedy] I've always been fascinated with Africa and I know a lot about it just from talking to him.

- [John B. Lagarde] The strange thing about this desert and these animals, these oryx, during the height of the dry season, you see that grass, it's a form of... it looks a little like some of our Bermuda grass, and it, believe it or not, but it has roots that go down like kudzu, 25 feet or more.

And during the heights of the dry season, these are oryx come in... to graze on this.

They do not have to have water.

They can go for weeks without water.

- Africa is beautiful.

In the evenings hearing the hyenas and a lion roaring.

You knew you were out in the wild.

(laughs) It was a lovely place to be.

(herd running) - [Narrator] The quest was an experienced unlike anything John could have ever imagined.

Both John and Betty fell in love with the country and its people.

And in his own words, he would describe the journey as simply, "Wonderful."

- I think he went to most of the countries throughout Africa and he enjoyed collections, he enjoyed the hunt.

One of the things he enjoyed more than anything else, was the philanthropy associated with distributing meat after a kill.

- [Narrator] While there, John and his team collected over 25 different species of animals.

- He would make certain that those who were involved in the hunt or the safari, would get the meat from the animal collected.

And he, with a big smile on his face, would point out the long lines of individuals coming to get tenderloins and whatever it might be.

- [Narrator] From barren rock filled deserts to regaled snow covered mountains, the vast beauty of each country began to inspire Lagarde in a way that would soon lead him to contribute to a purpose much bigger than even he ever imagined.

(dramatic music) - Humankind has hunted animals since the early days for food, sustenance.

A lot of people have a feeling about hunting that it's bad, but it actually, for example, take the white tailed deer.

A lot of the predators out there had been wiped out, be honest, like the cougar.

It was the prime hunter of the white tailed deer.

And without hunting today, the population of white tailed deer would exceed its carrying capacity and they would die a worse death of starvation, overpopulation and their numbers would probably plummet.

So hunting, for one, sustains some populations because habitat destruction is the number one thing that destroys species.

It's not taking an individual animal out of the population, but it's protecting the habitat.

And of course, hunters, legal hunters want to protect that habitat so they can have their wildlife, their game there.

They don't want it to destroy it.

You know, everything's connected as a web.

So, when they preserve that habitat for one thing, so many other animals would benefit.

- A lot of people don't realize that care for the animals in the states comes from the resources and revenue from selling licenses.

The states do not have a line item to fund protection of animals or whatever is needed to protect wildlife; that comes directly from the sales of licenses.

- Conservation is funded almost exclusively by hunters.

If there were no hunters, there would be no conservation.

If there were no conservation, there would be no animals.

So the conservation efforts of hunters supply the funds in the United States for habitat, for restoration, for setting limits on how many animals are taken each year, this is done state by state, by game biologists, to determine the size of the herd, the reproduction of those animals, how many of that particular species can be taken out and still have a viable population.

In Africa, hunting is providing the funds for anti-poaching over there.

That's one of the biggest things that, that has come out of a lot of the projects over in Africa is the anti-poaching efforts.

(gentle guitar music) - He believed in fair chase.

He knew hunting was a tool to help perpetuate a species.

And instead of it being over populated, a lot of the African animals, a lot of the meat would go to the natives and they'd get probably some of the prime cuts like the backstraps and the tenderloins while they were on safari.

He had a deep appreciation for all of nature.

When he would go on hunts, before he would go on a hunt, he would study the area of the country, the economics, a lot of the history, what type of manufacturing and raw materials they had there.

He'd looked at all the different areas and the landmarks and learn as much as he could.

(melancholic music) It was fantastic.

- I love being out at the farm that Granddad had in Piedmont.

He started out looking for some property to have a cabin to go on the weekends, but he wanted a place that had water on it.

So he found about 50 acres out there, a friend had found it for him.

And he bought it and he put in the lake that's out there now, it's about a 40 acre lake.

And he put that lake in with some of the people in that area.

It was called lay-by time, which meant they were laid off doing their crop work.

So they came in with mules and oxen and cut the trees down and snaked them out with their mules and oxen.

It's a spring-fed lake, so then it was able...

It ended up being a spring-fed 40 acre lake.

- So he was running actually a three-phase operation.

He was raising cattle, had a feed lot system to grow crops, and brew cattle operation out of a three-phase operation.

- He actually had one of the only feed lots in the Southeast where he fed cattle out.

- They had a very successful cattle operation for a while.

He'd always wanted to do that.

The cabin is there that had a fireplace in a kitchen, small kitchen, but then as things got better with his businesses, then he was able to add on.

And as he needed more space to show the animals that he had collected, he kept adding on to the, what we call the farm.

- [Narrator] By now, John had amassed an impressive collection from his years of traveling the world.

Highly respected by both hunters and conservationists, his reputation as a veteran outdoorsman was solidified In 1963, John B. Lagarde was awarded one of the most prestigious and desired hunting awards in the world, the Weatherby International Big Game Hunting Trophy.

(applause) (violin music) - [Pete Conroy] Maybe the highlight of John B. Lagarde's safari career was his receipt of the Weatherby Award.

- The Weatherby Award is an annual reward given for remarkable achievements in hunting and conservation.

- An international award given to only the top safari hunters from around the world.

It was a conservation award and he was the recipient, the proud recipient in 1963.

- There's only one winner of the Weatherby Award and that is for sportsmanship hunting and environmental achievements, it's not just for hunting.

- [Connie Durham] I mean, still to this day, it's a huge honor for any hunter.

- [Narrator] This was considered the Nobel Prize of hunting and the pinnacle of a long and successful hunting career.

- He also was very proud because he had the number three, Weatherby rifle and Roy Weatherby actually tried to buy it back from John B. Lagarde, but John B. said, "No, I want to keep the number three."

It was a huge event and it honored his accomplishments in hunting and conservation and it was presented by Robert Taylor, who any Turner classic movie buffs will certainly know who Robert Taylor is in people that are old enough to know his movies.

He was a huge movie star at that time.

And he was also an avid hunter himself.

And so it was just quite an event, the pictures on the wall there at the farm with John B. and Robert Taylor.

- [Narrator] Later Lagarde would go on to win the President's People to People Award and Anniston's Man of the Year Award, as well as being inducted into Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the International Hunting Hall of Fame.

This was indeed an amazing time in his life.

- He was one of the first board members in the sixties, in the War Memorial building where the birds were housed.

And he later became in 72, the Chairman of the Anniston Museum of Natural History, which wasn't the name yet.

It was still Lagarde Museum of Natural History.

- I first got to know John B. Lagarde as Chairman of the Board of Directors for, at that time, the Lagarde Museum.

And that board, every member of the board was fascinating.

And they all had areas of expertise.

- [Narrator] John B. Lagarde along with the members of the board were determined to get the incredible bird collection that was once on display out of storage in order to make it available to the public once more.

As the museum's popularity grew, so did community interest in the museum's educational offerings.

- Inspired by the need for a new home for the Regar collection, John B. Lagarde offered to donate his African animal collection from his numerous successful safaris, if enough funds could be raised to create a true museum.

- He was, at that time, the chairman, when they decided to start the campaign to raise funds and build this new museum.

I've never seen a board that worked any harder to accomplish something.

- He was a man with a passion and he was able to go out in the community.

He was very well known, well liked.

He was a person that could make things happen and it seemed to happen very quick, I mean, 72, he becomes the chairman of the board.

They raise money to hire Arthur Von Settlemyre to come in.

He was able to go in the community and convince them, but he had clout, they knew he was a man of his word and he was going to make it happen.

- I was very fascinated during all of the board meetings because I learned so much from getting to sit in and hear all these people talk about, "Well, we should do this, or we should do this and who should we approach to help us with this?"

- [Sarah Burke] To bring this to fruition in 1974, a major fundraising effort had to happen.

This would take the support of the board of trustees, the community, and the city of Anniston working together for this common goal.

- The city knew that what they had was a treasure and what John B. Lagarde did was work on that foundation, say, "Hey, we can go higher.

We can do something even better."

- [Narrator] 1976, Lagarde, with the help of many others, finally convinced the city and raised over $800,000 to help fund the construction of a new museum.

This museum would be named the Anniston Museum of Natural History.

- Raising the money was just the first step.

We now had to find a permanent home for the new museum.

(suspenseful music) - I was fortunate in getting to work at the old War Memorial building and was in on then writing the application or the proposal to the federal government to get the land that the museum and the nature trails is located on, get that declared government surplus property.

And it was donated to the city of Anniston so that we could build this new facility here, a and John B. Lagarde could donate his whole collection to be on display here.

- [Sarah Burke] We wrote a federal grant to obtain 185 acres.

This land became the future home of the new museum.

- We were holding our breath, but it all came about.

The government approved it and we got to get started.

(dramatic music) - Thanks to the success of Lagarde's African safari hunts and concrete business, he was able to, literally and figuratively lay the foundation for the museum.

(dramatic music) - The ability to get this much acreage this near town was just wonderful.

I know that John B. Lagarde had been very close with generals and various people who were in charge here at Fort McClellan, because this land was originally part of Fort McClellan.

It was an impact area where they used to practice with shooting artillery.

(bombs blasting) - When I first came to the Anniston Museum of Natural History to interview, it was an odd day for me.

I had a suit, which is something that I rarely wore, had a briefcase, something I rarely carried, And I was looking good coming in for my interview.

Walking in, I hear a machine gun fire, I hear bombs blowing up out in the woods.

Honestly, I ran back to my car to turn on the local news.

There were no cell phones with updates.

I turned on the radio, it was music.

I think, My God, what is happening here?"

It was later in the day, I realized that Fort McClellan was nearby and that they were the sounds of everyday life in Anniston, Alabama.

- They hired the architects.

John B. of course, with the concrete plant, he was able to donate a large portion of the concrete at his cost.

There's huge blocks that were put together and assembled to build the museum.

And I think it's still a very interesting architectural building.

- I'm just traveling through Anniston, Alabama because I had some friends here.

So I would travel through here from Southern Mississippi.

And I came here, heard about all the excitement as they were building their new museum.

And I spent the night with them on my way to Tennessee to go to grad school.

And the next morning I had to retrieve my portfolio, which had been brought out to the museum for their board meeting.

When I came out to the museum, met everyone on the board, they were wrapping up a meeting and they offered me a job.

The next week I had a job.

I turned course, made Anniston my home, and that was over 40 years ago.

They would meet every week, every month, pour over drawings, designs, ideas.

There was something to plan, something to build, something to do every day.

So I joined the team, went in the studio and we began information panels, designing the habitats.

Now the dioramas were here, but to put them in new cases or encasement and information panels and silk screen.

Mr. Lagarde would come through.

I mean, he was an important element, not just in the collection, but he was interested in every element, how we presented the information, helped us some with the accuracy.

- The teams we had, I thought it was remarkable.

These were lot of young people and a very talented and working together.

I thought that was just something, a highlight of this whole experience for me.

And you had the constant influence, very quiet, subtle implements of John B. Lagarde.

He was in and out.

I never heard him lecture anyone or raise his voice or anything.

He had a very quiet, gentlemanly way of expressing himself.

- [Narrator] The single most important objective in the first few years of the new Anniston Museum of Natural History, was the construction of new exhibits planned, designed, and constructed in-house by museum staff.

The first two exhibits completed were the African and bird halls.

- Both the elephant and the baobab are really team efforts.

Each project had several teams.

There were at least three teams of people working on the baobab.

And there were six or seven experienced taxidermists working with Von Settlemyre, who was the director and a taxidermist.

When they mounted the elephant, it was my responsibility to try to bring the rough construction work to a surface that reflected a realism and least added a touch of an artistic kind of element into the finish that was put on both the tree and the elephant.

They were still doing taxidermy and I was working with the tree crews, and you had people that were welders and mason, another group that built the infrastructure of the rebar.

And then with plaster gave a rough general shape according to the overall concept.

- As the collection started moving to the museum, we would have areas designated and spaces, so we knew how we were led to design the desert scene or the hippo pool, those sort of spaces.

- I worked in the exhibition department.

There were probably seven or eight full time people, the exhibit designer, we had the fabricators, I worked with those guys.

When I started working in 81, they hadn't even built the cave and that was what I worked on.

So you needed a lot of people to do that.

(contemporary music) - But there was a tremendous leadership at that time.

It was not unusual to see a board member out here first thing in the morning on their way to work and another one on their way home, they were all involved.

- [Narrator] To help market the new attraction, the museum was built in such a way that the public could stop and watch while the 185 acre construction was underway.

As word spread, the construction drew the attention of the media.

The news of the new museum, presenting its rare and spectacular displays, spread well beyond the city and became a popular soon-to-be attraction for both locals and visitors, eagerly awaiting the museum's completion.

- There was so much unity, it was electric.

They were building a beautiful museum.

- [Narrator] Finally in 1999, after 23 years of hard work and dedication, Lagarde's vision for the new Anniston Museum of Natural History was complete.

Today with over 2,000 items on public display, an African savanna and North American wilderness, wildlife garden, space exhibits, fossils, dinosaurs, and mummies.

The Anniston Museum has become a global attraction garnering visitors from around the world.

- It's very rare for a city to own a museum like this and own a museum collection.

A lot of times it's owned by a foundation or they're private or whatever, but for a city of this size to own a collection of this magnitude is very, very unique.

There have been places that would love to have some of these exhibits, but Anniston's fortunate that they are here.

- This is one of the greatest things that could happen to Anniston as far as the citizens and the school system.

I don't know how you make a lesson plan and not include the museum, especially in the grade schools.

It was a way for students to hands-on activities and give them a chance to view things that they wouldn't view.

You could talk about a rock.

There's a lesson about a rock from the museum.

It's not the rock that you pick up out there.

- Museums are different from the classroom.

We have actual objects, artifacts, specimens that they can see up close, and it's different than seeing something in a book.

And that's what...

Museums have been around since Alexander the Great, who started the Alexandria Library, libraries and museums back in Egypt.

And it's a place where people can... take in so much that you can't get anywhere else.

What a better place to learn than in a museum.

There's nothing like it.

- It was already hotspot for ecotourism, it was already a great place for education, but to see constant steady improvements, as it relates to the educational messaging, the conservation practices associated with collections care and then just the build-out of the facility.

It's been a remarkable path and I'm really proud to have been part of it.

But one of the things that makes me most proud is to have people from this community and people just popping up all over the place saying, "I remember going to the Anniston Museum when I was a kid, and now I'm a herpetologist, or now I'm an aviarist, or now I'm an oceanographer."

And they site their visit here for their career paths.

And to me, that's a powerful thing.

(adventurous music) - Hello, I'm Pete Conroy, Curator of Natural History at the Anniston Museum of Natural History in Anniston, Alabama.

Today, our travels will take us to Kenya in 1971.

During this safari, you will see many of Kenya's interesting creatures, such as the vervet monkey, hartebeest, zebra and eland.

You will also tour wondrous places, such as Portugal, Thompson's Falls and Mongolia.

Now let's join Mr. Lagarde as he narrates this conservation based safari to the wild lands of Kenya.

(adventurous music) - In 1971, Johnny, my grandson, Betty and I, went to Kenya to collect animals for the museum.

- He had this plan of going back to Kenya to have a safari there, where his initial safari started off in 1954.

So we got special permits to go into some of the hunting blocks.

- [Pete Conroy] How much weight could a camel support?

- [John B. Lagarde] About 400 pounds.

- [Pete Conroy] That's a lot of weight.

- So you could either walk in or ride camels, and then you collect your game and then you had to get it out with the camel.

- [John B. Lagarde] It's pretty, it's pretty dry air.

It's way up in the Northern part of Kenya.

- [Pete Conroy] How do you like riding camels?

- [John B. Lagarde] It wasn't too bad.

It's kind of, makes a swaying motion.

It's pretty high, you're sitting pretty high and should worry about falling off.

(laughs) - We were coming back one evening and we were on camels.

A rhino had had charged at us and it's surprising on how fast the camel can be (laughs) with a rhino.

I know my grandfather was really impressed on how fast those camels could move.

- So the idea for the John B. Lagarde Safari Series really did begin with the 16 millimeter films.

And after reviewing them, it wasn't just about the wildlife.

It was about the sociology of these various countries.

It was about even changing political environments in these countries.

Some of the country's names have since changed, some of these countries, you could never get permits to visit again in the way he had visited them.

- They told us the trip was canceled by a guy, John Fulton.

And he said, "That man over that is the equivalent of your secretary of state."

And I said, "That's the man we want to see."

So we went over, Dan and I went over and then he said, "Would you go if you had a security officer?"

We said, "Yes, sir," we'd go.

"We have nothing to hide and it'd be fine."

So that's the way we got our security officer, on account of the proximity to China and India.

That was right in a very hotspot of the world and they would not let us go any farther.

- What was fascinating was the interaction between the people, the Lagardes themselves, the natives.

It was just an amazing array of almost every discipline you could imagine is touched on in these 16 millimeter films.

And so one by one, we would go through them.

And I would simply just ask John B. Lagarde to recall as much as he could, but he did all the work.

And he remembered vividly all of the various occasions in the over 20 different films.

- I really wished I had spent more time asking him about his travels in Africa, but he did...

In the summertime, us grandkids would be there and we'd been in the pool all day.

And of course we were tired and we would eat kind of late and then we'd have to go sit.

And he had, I believe it was an eight millimeter camera, those ones that drone on and on, and you hear, that link went round and round (laughs) and we'd all sit on the couch, we'd be sunburnt, tired.

And he would drone on, in a monotone, about his trips.

And he charged each one of us a dollar if we fell asleep on the couch, I do remember that distinctly.

But my cousin, Johnny and I, we're just a year apart.

We were really close growing up and got into a lot of trouble up there.

But if he was falling asleep or I was falling asleep, he'd do this and the other person would come back to life.

(adventurous music) - Mr. Lagarde was an outstanding businessman, community later.

He got the big picture, that without his vision, that this needed to happen, it was important.

It was important, not just for himself or his collection, it was important to the community.

He helped rally, be a part of the funding, the donating of the collection and rolling up the sleeves.

I mean, helping build the structure.

How much more could someone give?

- I think the future of the museum here, you've got a wonderful base with these irreplaceable collections.

People in the future will not be able to duplicate what is here, so he important thing to do is preserve this.

- No matter how far technology advances, you're always going to have this experience here at the Anniston Museum of Natural History.

You can't replace it.

You can't replace it with things on your phone, with the technology that you have.

This is permanent.

You're always going to have museum artifacts.

- This is a perfect example of how a small town can get it done, irrespective of the limited resources and the distance point on a map it might be.

Many people had said, "This place is never going to work.

This is just not gonna happen."

But because of local donors and visionaries, it has happened.

And as best I can tell, it's never going away.

- And it was important that these people are honored and recognized because there are people out there today that can do this, that need to do this.

And I think honoring those who have, who have made their community better, what a great example we have.

We're very, very blessed to have had him in our community.

- John B. and my father met each other in probably 1940 at Fort McClellan.

I don't really know how they met, but when those two old southern gentlemen got together, the friendship just clicked.

(gentle music) He was just a delight, but they became very close friends, 'cause my father loved to fish.

He was out there every weekend, (laughs) every moment that John B. wasn't busy and my father wasn't busy, they'd jump in the car and go out there and fish.

In 1942, my father was supposed to be on the ship with General Patton, going to fight in North Africa.

A family cannot continue living in Army quarters when the officer's not there.

So we had to go somewhere.

But John B. Lagarde said, "Why don't you move into town?

I'll give you a three bedroom apartment and you can later decide where you want to go."

We never left.

He was so generous.

So generous.

He really was.

And of course through the friendship, we had so many mutual connections of friends and church.

Everybody had to like John B., you had to like him the minute you met him.

He just had such a pleasant countenance that you just liked him immediately.

- I think that's what it added to the museum of, from the old museum, and then being able to have a place.

I think they've done a fantastic job up here with the research they've done and great educational tool.

He wanted what he loved and he didn't want it to go to waste if it just set up in a lodge and just a few people...

But this way, it's open to the public now.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] In 1999, John B. Lagarde passed away at the age of 95.

His legacy of adventure and education will forever live on in the permanent displays at the Anniston Museum of Natural History.

(upbeat music) - [Woman] Hey honey, it's Mom.

Just wanted to call and check in and see how everything's going.

You'll probably say not to worry and everything is great, but we just... We miss you.

I'll call you back later.

(phone dialing) Hey!

How are you?

- Mom.

- How's Everything?

- Everything's great.

I love it here.