Dubuque is home to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.

More than 150,000 people visit each year to learn how the mighty Mississippi shapes the Midwest.

Let's take a look inside.

♪♪ We are here with Emily Adlfinger here at the River Museum.

This is a great backdrop.

Tell us where we are.

Yeah.

So right now we are in our Rivers to the Sea exhibit in the National River Center.

And this is our Gulf of Mexico aquarium.

It's 15 feet deep and 45,000 gallons of water.

And as you can see, lots of fish behind us, as well.

And this museum is really kind of cut up into two separate, smaller museums that have different purposes, right?

Adlfinger: In the other building is our freshwater building.

That tells the history of the Mississippi River.

That's where you'll see our North American river otters, the alligator.

You'll see more of that history side.

Over in this building, we kind of focus on the saltwater life and kind of that connection that the Mississippi has beyond Iowa and just the Mississippi River that we see here.

So, this talks about our species down in the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California.

So, it really tells a broader story.

And both buildings work together to connect that story.

Okay.

What would we see over here?

Yes.

Because there's a lot.

Adlfinger: So, in our Rivers to the Sea exhibit, which is one of our newest renovated exhibits, we have the lionfish, we have seahorses, corals.

You can do a tide-pool touch tank and touch sea stars and sea anemones.

There's so much to explore here.

And it's animals and sea life that you wouldn't normally see when you come to Iowa.

People from really all over have gotten to experience this, and it's something really special for Dubuque and the tri-state area.

I see a lot of people having fun, a lot of kids exploring here.

But you also have a message, a mission, right?

Yes.

At the museum.

So our mission is to inspire stewardship through educational experiences where history and rivers come alive.

And that's really that experience that we're trying to sell when you come to the River Museum.

You can experience the history side.

You know, you can take hours and read all the signs and all the exhibits here to learn something new.

But everything does come alive.

You have the ability to touch in different aspects.

You can get on a boat out in the harbor.

That's one of the really cool aspects that we have here, too.

So, there's a way that you can connect with history and really experience it in a new way.

♪♪ We're here with Maia at the Stingray Touch Tank.

I am really excited to hear about this because it's kind of unexpected to find stingrays in Iowa, right?

Absolutely.

Yes.

This is our Delta exhibit, which is home to our cow-nose stingrays.

So, that's these guys that are here in front of us.

They are considered more of a social animal.

They do hang out in groups.

They do come up to people to kind of interact and explore what is going on as people are reaching in and touching them.

Okay, so tell us a little more about the stingray.

So, this is the cow-nose stingray.

They are found in the Gulf of Mexico area and then up along the Atlantic coast.

One of the things is that we are trying to focus on connections and connecting people to the oceans in different areas.

So, people who are here in Dubuque, if you look outside, you see the beautiful Mississippi River.

That river leads down to the Gulf of Mexico.

So, things that are happening up here in Dubuque are impacting these adorable cow-nose stingrays down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, I'm excited.

So we get to feed and pet the stingray.

Is that right?

Absolutely.

Okay, so should we start?

Show me... You rinsed off your hands.

So, what you'll do is just put your hand in there just with two fingers, and then you can touch them as they come up to you.

Okay.

So, the stingrays do have a choice.

If they're not interested, they won't come up to you.

But usually they seem a little bit interested in what's going on here and what we're doing.

So they're pretty social.

Okay.

Is it weird that I'm scared?

No.

Absolutely not.

So, you just kind of touch them back.

So, here's one right there.

Oh.

Hi!

Oh, wow.

And they really do kind of let you have access to them.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's really cool.

Okay, so next we get to feed them.

Is that right?

Okay.

How does this work?

So, I will give you a cup of food.

Okay, this is the real deal.

And what you're going to do is just put it in between your two fingers like this and put your hand flat against the surface, and they will actually come up and suck it right off.

So if you just hold it flat, go all the way down, they'll come up and they'll suck it off.

Okay.

Here you go.

[ Both laugh ] So, you don't have to worry about getting bit because they are going to suck it in first.

What they're going to be eating is stuff that's on the bottom.

Their mouth is on the bottom.

That indicates where they're getting their food from.

Here we go!

Oh, I see someone coming.

Ah!

Okay, I think I got it.

That was perfect.

Okay.

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