July's Featured Business
.jpg)
The museum is a place to see fossils, live animals, a bee observation hive and our newest exhibit, a rare blue tree frog! Before you go out to explore tidepools or the forest, stop in to the Museum to learn more about our diversity of life in Humboldt County.
Some exhibit highlights of the Museum are the Birds of the Redwood Forest displaying common birds of the redwoods in a setting of well known plants of the coastal redwood forest; local bees and insects and north coast seashells. Also see local marine fossils from the Eel River Valley and from the cliffs of Cranell Junction and Biobulletins, currently featuring “The Last Wild Horse: Returning the Takhi to Mongolia.”
There are many hands-on exhibits, fossils to dig, puzzles to ponder and discovery boxes to explore.
The HSU Natural History Museum was created in 1986 after the University purchased a collection of world-class fossils from fossil brokers Hilda and Tom Maloney. The Maloneys wanted their collection to be displayed and used for educational purposes, not simply stored for research, as larger museums had proposed. The Museum was opened to the public on April 26, 1989. Subsequent exhibits focusing on local natural history have been added (approximately two per year) to the 2000 + fossil specimens Overall visitation is approximately 20,000 visitors each year.
Admission is free for members, $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and children; ages 2 and under are free. The Museum is open 10-5, Tuesday-Saturday.