This month you can read all about how Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s new exhibits were designed and produced in the free Harper’s Ferry Center (HFC) newsletter, HFC on Media. HFC provides exhibit design services and other interpretive support to units throughout the National Park Service. They are currently involved in design for a new park brochure and wayside exhibits for the Fossil Beds.
The new exhibits would not be up without the huge amount of work put in by Jeff Wolin, as well as the invaluable assistance of park volunteers in fabrication and installation. Many different talents went into making these exhibits a reality.
Download the September 2007 issue of HFC on Media (PDF).
Photo: Melissa Barton
The Fall 2007 newsletter has just gone to the printer. Highlights include
- Friends 20th Anniversary Celebration
- Fagopsis longifolia, a fossil of an extinct beech relative
- Paleontology news from the park
- An interview with Dr. Richard Beidleman, Professor Emeritus at Colorado College, on T.D.A. Cockerell
- Memories of Crystal Peak from a former intern
- An article by Arthur Lakes from 1895 about the Florissant petrified forest
- More Friends history questions (and answers to last issue’s questions)
- And more news and articles
The Friends Newsletter has changed a lot since the first issue of Volume 1 in 1990: from a bimonthly 1-2 page schedule of park events with one feature article, the newsletter has grown to a substantial quarterly publication (the last issue weighed in at 15 pages; this one at 18) full of news about the park and illustrated feature articles on history and science. Anyone can contribute photographs or articles–you can use your talents to help make future newsletters informative and exciting (guidelines).
-Melissa Barton
The Colorado Springs Gazette’s R. Scott Rappold wrote an article about Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s need for a new Visitor Center–read it in the September 4 Gazette.
One important point not covered in the article is that a new Visitor Center with a larger collections area will also give the park’s paleontology division room for expanding the collections and research program. This will benefit the public by providing new specimens to be displayed. New research will also support education programs and exhibits.
Note: The Cenozoic Era does span 65 million years ago to the present, so the buildings and fossils are both Cenozoic.
-Melissa Barton
The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Friends of the Park group supporting