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

• Exhibit assembly progress
• Gazette highlights park need for new Visitor Center
• New exhibits featured in Harper’s Ferry Center newsletter
• Friends announce partnership with Peruvian conservation group

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

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.

Upright Panels

The printed backgrounds for the upright panels are attached to foamcore board, which had to be glued to the wooden panels themselves. Many of the upright panels also have fossils mounted on them.

The fossils have to be positioned against the panel. Then a hole is drilled and the fossil mount is screwed in. This wall case panel is protected by a sheet of plexiglass. These cases are both more dustproof and easier to clean and access than the old exhibit cases.

The completed display! Like the old “What is a fossil?” display, this exhibit explains different kinds of fossilization processes.

It uses specimens and photographs of Florissant fossils to illustrate the types of fossilization found in the park, as well as a few types of fossils not found at the park (such as amber, tar pits, and dinosaurs). The old exhibit contained an assortment of fossils from a variety of places, so we’re excited about the new display being more specific to the park.

What’s Next?

The exhibit from last summer’s nature photography seminar, up since September, has finally been taken down (somewhat the worse for weather). A large panel showing an artist’s reconstruction of ancient Lake Florissant will replace it. Inside, the upright panels for the cabinets still need to be installed, as well as puzzles for children.

-Melissa Barton

Photo Credits: Melissa Barton