The Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce booked two ribbon cuttings a week apart this month. The first was set for last Friday morning, Nov. 6, at 111 Fairgrounds Road, where the Ed Clark Museum of Missouri Geology has been closed for more than a year. The second is tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 13, from 11 a.m. to noon, at 1651 E. Lions Club Drive. That's the new Rolla Animal Shelter. Both projects have been in the works for much longer than a season. Both also come with practical details that matter for your weekday plans more than for your December weekends, which will fill up with Lichternacht, the parade, and the Christkindl Markt.
The rock museum's year in the Buehler Building
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources closed the museum starting Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, for renovations to the Buehler Building on its Rolla campus. The announcement said the closure would run into 2026 and that the work would bring an expanded museum space and some new displays. The renovation had been in DNR's plans since at least November 2024. That year, a campus redevelopment announcement listed a new Buehler Building entrance and a renovated Ed Clark Museum among the Missouri Geological Survey's plans.
DNR's museum page set the reopening for November 2026. The basics haven't changed. Admission is free, and the museum is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It's closed on weekends and holidays.
That schedule is what to know first if you're hosting family this season. A cousin who arrives Saturday for the parade can't get in that weekend. A Monday or Tuesday visit between Thanksgiving and New Year's works, as long as it isn't one of the holidays themselves.
DNR lists these as the museum's highlights:
- A meteorite found near Licking, Mo.
- A replica of Parrosaurus missouriensis, Missouri's official state dinosaur
- A mammoth tusk
- World's Fair medals and certificates
- A fluorescent minerals display
A sales counter sells Missouri geologic and topographic maps, publications, books, and rock and mineral sets, and free printed material is available to take home. If you hunt, hike, or own rural land, a topographic map of ground you already know is a useful stocking stuffer.
The shelter on Lions Club Drive, and who paid for it
The museum was closed for about a year. The new animal shelter at Highway 72 and Lions Club Drive has been several years in the making, and much of the money came from residents, nonprofits, and fundraisers.
| When | Where the shelter stood |
|---|---|
| August 2023 | The city administrator told Phelps County Focus the exterior shell was built and the project was about one-third of the way to opening |
| Feb. 24, 2025 | A city presentation said the building still needed about $450,000 to finish, and the S.A.V.E. campaign had brought in $861,661 in donations |
| April 26, 2025 | The Loving Paws Project raised more than $50,000 at a dinner for the shelter |
| Nov. 13, 2026 | Chamber ribbon cutting, 11 a.m. to noon |
The February 2025 figures are worth a closer look. With $861,661 already donated, the remaining gap was about half that amount. The city's presentation described S.A.V.E. as a capital campaign and endowment held through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and the Missouri River Regional Community Foundation. When Phelps County Focus covered the Loving Paws dinner in May 2025, it described Loving Paws as a newly founded Phelps County nonprofit set up to help finish construction. The 2023 Focus story covered the Ranney Runs, another fundraiser aimed at closing the gap.
The shelter is run through the Rolla Police Department, and the city's shelter page is the place to check details. It lists a $35 adoption fee. Owner surrenders are accepted Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Like the museum, that's a weekday window. The same page links a volunteer form and a donation page through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks for one-time or recurring gifts.
December weekends belong to downtown
Both new buildings run on weekday hours, and Rolla's holiday events land mostly on evenings and weekends. Here's the 2026 calendar:
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 12 to 14 | Red Door Gifts & Boutique Holiday Open House | Red Door Gifts & Boutique | See listing |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Rolla Technical Institute Holiday Marketplace | Rolla Middle School | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Wed., Dec. 2 | Town & Country Bank Christmas Open House | Town & Country Bank | 6 to 8 p.m. |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Lichternacht | Downtown Rolla | 5:30 to 10 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Christmas Parade | Pine Street, 6th to 11th | 10 to 11 a.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Christkindl Markt | Downtown Festival Lots, 9th and Elm, City Hall at 900 Elm St. | 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Dec. 10 to 23 and Dec. 26 | Christmas in the Park | Rolla Lions Club Park, 1061 S. Bishop Ave. | 6 to 9 p.m. |
| Fri., Dec. 11 | Missouri S&T Holiday Concert | Leach Theatre, 400 W. 10th St. | 7 p.m. |
The busiest stretch is the first weekend of December. Lichternacht fills downtown Friday evening, and Visit Rolla describes a traditional tree-lighting ceremony as part of it. On Saturday morning the Christmas Parade rolls down Pine Street with the theme "Santa's Route 66 Road Trip." Entries line up at 8:30 a.m. on Rolla Street or Main, and spectators watch along Pine between 6th and 11th. The Christkindl Markt opens at 10 a.m. the same day on the festival lots at 9th and Elm, a few blocks from the parade route. Visit Rolla describes the market as a celebration of Rolla's sister-city relationship with Sondershausen, Germany. You can watch the parade, then walk over to the market for lunch.
Starting the following Thursday, the Rolla Lions Club runs Christmas in the Park, a free drive-through light display at Lions Club Park on South Bishop Avenue. It runs Dec. 10 through 23 and again on Dec. 26, from 6 to 9 p.m. The Missouri S&T Holiday Concert at Leach Theatre on Dec. 11 is free and open to the public. It's presented by the university's department of arts, languages and philosophy.
Fitting the new buildings into a December week
Weekends and evenings go to Pine Street, the festival lots, and the lights on Bishop. Weekday daytime is the only time the museum is open, and the only time the shelter takes owner surrenders under the hours the city lists.
If guests stay through a weekday, the museum is free and close to downtown. Once the visit is done, Christmas in the Park makes an easy evening drive. If you'd like to see the shelter that Loving Paws and S.A.V.E. donors helped build, the ribbon cutting is tomorrow at 11 a.m. on Lions Club Drive. The volunteer form and donation link stay on the city's shelter page after the ceremony.
When we're out showing homes around Rolla this winter, we pass the Fairgrounds Road campus and the new building on Lions Club Drive, and we enjoy telling people what's inside them. If you're thinking about what your own Rolla home is worth heading into 2027, Erica Smith Real Estate can give you a free home valuation based on what's selling around here right now.
