• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, June 7, 2007

L.L. Bean--the Maine-based retailer best known for canoes, fly-fishing gear and signature duck boots--is starting a new adventure: The company plans to open a 700-acre outdoor education theme park near its flagship store in Freeport.

The park would offer visitors the opportunity to learn more about a wide variety of outdoor passions, from snowshoeing and cross-country skiing to kayaking, orienteering and skeet shooting.

The company has started looking for potential development partners, and Carolyn Beem, a spokesperson, says the new facility could open as soon as 2010. She sys the company sees the new adventure center as the logical next step to its Outdoor Discovery Schools, which have long offered shoppers the opportunity to join walk-on programs for everything from novice paddling to expert fly-fishing.

While the new facility may include lodging and restaurants, Beem says not to expect rides or a carnival atmosphere: "Anything we do will be in keeping with our ideas of outdoor education," she says.

Bean has long been considered a leader in hands-on shopping. More than 3 million people each year visit the Maine flagship, which is open 365 days, 24 hours a day. (In fact, there aren't even locks on store doors.) Kids can ooh and aah at the giant Bean Boot, clamber on the climbing wall in the children's clothing section or check out the trout in its indoor ponds.

But its announcement comes at a time when one of its major competitors is creeping into its own backyard. Cabela's, the Nebraska-based hunting outfitter, has plans to open a 125,000-square-foot store in nearby Scarborough, Maine, in a retail complex that includes a hotel, restaurants and a bank.

Bean, which is privately held, says its sales in fiscal 2006, hit $1.54 billion, a 4.6 % increase from the previous year, and that its Web site--which had a sales increase of 13%--attracted 73 million visitors. It has previously announced a $40 million retail parking development for its flagship and recently donated $1 million to develop a park, including skating ponds and warming sheds, in the village of Freeport.