Idaho Museum of Natural History displays some of its rarely seen objects
“Exposed: Never Before Seen Wonders” is the newest exhibit on display at Idaho’s Museum of Natural History in Pocatello.
“In this exhibit, we have a little bit of everything,” said Curt Schmitz, the museum’s exhibits manager.
From shrunken heads of South America to personal artifacts from historians, the “Exposed” exhibit showcases a wide variety of objects.
Schmitz said the objects are from the museum’s own collection. He said they’re items that aren’t often on display. Some of the objects have never been seen on display.
“Museums inherently, if they’ve been around for awhile like we’ve been around for over 80 years now, will collect some, let’s say, interesting stuff during the course of their time around,” Schmitz said. “This exhibit kind of showcases a lot of that more interesting stuff in our collections that you don’t normally see. So it kind of tells the story of the museum from beginning to end.”
Much of the exhibit relates back to Idaho, with most of the pieces being found in parts of the state. There are opium fragments from the 1870s gold rush that were found in the Snake River Canyon. Some of the biggest attractions are also from Idaho – the fossils. The exhibit features bison skulls found near the Pocatello airport around 1970. The most recent fossils are the mammoth fossil remains which were found in the American Falls reservoir in Oct. 2014.
Though it’s not from Idaho, there is one more big fossil that’s a popular attraction. It’s Harley, the T-Rex.
“He’s actually kind of one of the original one-off casts from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History,” Schmitz said. “This is actually kind of the first one when they were starting to make some of the molds to make the first Jurassic Park.”
So whether it’s large fossils or ancient Halloween-themed masks, the museum’s latest exhibit has a little something for everyone.
The exhibit will be open through January. In January, a new traveling exhibit tree houses will take its place.
For more information on hours and admission to the museum, visit the museum’s website.
