The Daily Memphian (Geoff Calkins): Can BVO Help Save Mud Island?

by Geoff Calkins, Nov. 2025

Daily Memphian

In a richly detailed column, The Daily Memphian’s Geoff Calkins traces the remarkable journey of BVO CEO Jee Vahn Knight - from preserving Titanic artifacts and restoring the Saturn V rocket to landing in Memphis and taking on the challenge of transforming the former Mississippi River Museum. Calkins examines how Baron Von Opperbean & the River of Time may become a spark of imagination and possibility on Mud Island.

The article recounts the Vahn Knight family’s 39-day road trip that unexpectedly led them to Memphis, where they found themselves drawn to the city’s energy and musical soul. Calkins contrasts that serendipitous arrival with the long-standing struggles of Mud Island, framing BVO as a bold, community-driven effort to revitalize a neglected civic asset.

He highlights Jee’s unusual background - from artifact conservation work on the RMS Titanic, to preservation projects on the Saturn V rocket, to shaping immersive experiences at Meow Wolf - and how that path equipped her to lead a project as imaginative and ambitious as BVO.

Calkins also delves into the funding challenge, Memphis’s “hope fatigue,” and the urgency of moving quickly toward BVO’s March 7 opening of its first 8,000-sq-ft phase. While acknowledging skepticism, he celebrates the optimism of “a gang of pirates” determined to build something Memphis hasn’t seen before.

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