The last of the new Visitor Center exhibits at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument have been installed. They include a diagram of a stratigraphic column showing the different types of rocks in the park, touchable samples of rock and fossil wood, and an changing board showcasing currently research at the park and partnership projects like the conservation of the Sexi Petrified Forest in Peru.
These exhibits greatly enhance the park’s ability to educate visitors, and display some of the park’s most spectacular fossil specimens along with hands-on activities for kids. The free Junior Ranger Program is a great complement to the new exhibits.
-Melissa Barton
Related Stories
The Petrified Forest Loop winds through this mountain meadow, past several petrified redwood stumps, the Scudder Pit Interpretive Site, and a great view of the Hornbek Homestead and Crystal Peak.This summer
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument obtained matching federal funds for a fund established by Dr. Hugo G. Rodeck, former director of the
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and father of Jean Rodeck, former superintendent of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Dr. Rodeck gave the money for to the
National Parks Foundation to invest with the intent of commemorating the paleontology of national parks.
Dr. Rodeck’s donation and the matching federal funds amount to $75,000 for designing and installing wayside panels along the Petrified Forest Loop (which includes the Big Stump and the Scudder Pit Interpretive Site), one of the park’s most popular trails. Jean Rodeck and Lead Interpretive Ranger Jeff Wolin will both be involved in designing the exhibits, which the park hopes will be installed by summer of 2009.
-Melissa Barton
Photo Credit: Melissa Barton
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
Yesterday, with the assistance of Intermountain Regional museum curator Matt Wilson and Jennifer Fish Kashay, the lead exhibit designer, a team of staff, volunteers, and interns had an all-day exhibit assembly party. While the new exhibits aren’t complete yet, we made a lot of progress, and you’ll see more changes in the Visitor Center over the next few months.
Exhibit Cabinets
Over the last few weeks, Lead Interpretive Ranger Jeff Wolin and several volunteers assembled the drawers for the three new exhibit cabinets, which are now installed in the Visitor Center.
The drawers contain carefully selected fossils from Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s museum collections and a loan from Waynesburg College, as well as photographs of microscopic fossils and exceptional specimens at other institutions and casts of fossil mammal jaws.
This cabinet stands next to the door to the new theatre, where the park’s film plays three times an hour. Step-stools are provided so children can view the fossils. Drawers hold fossils carefully nestled in Ethafoam&tm; cutouts to protect them from jostling when the drawers are pulled out.
Fossil Mounting
Yesterday, Wilson taught a group of interns and volunteers how to mount fossils in brass mounts. After trimming the brass arms, pounding the tips flat, and rounding them with a file, the mounts are carefully bent around the fossil block so as not to touch the surface of the fossil impression itself. These fossils will be screwed into upright panels, to be installed on top of the cabinets and in a wall display.
(more…)
The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Friends of the Park group supporting