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Museum of Natural History
updated: Dec 04, 2010, 8:45 AM
By the Dedicated Staff
Tucked into a scenic spot in Mission Canyon, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is a favorite of families and a common spot for grade-school field trips.
But the Museum offers lots of things to appeal to adults too; especially those interested in art and science, and it hosts a variety of special events each year.
If you're visiting, you might want to make it a trifecta and stop by the Mission and the Rose Garden on the way. Afterward, you're in a great spot to cruise up to the Botanic Garden if you really want to make a full day of seeing local sights.
Here are our five favorite reasons to visit the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for teens, and $6 for children. For hours of operations see website
Great special events. There's a lot going on at the Museum. This weekend, it's the 25th annual Folk and Tribal Arts Marketplace, a great place to find unique holiday gifts. The marketplace will be open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On a regular basis, the museum is the location for astronomy nights hosted by the local Astronomical Unit. They're a great way to learn about the stars in our night sky. Check the museum's event calendar for the events and special exhibits that will be happening around your visit. In December, there's a snow play day that's especially popular with younger kids.
Its cool backyard. Locals walk, jog, and take their dogs through the scenic trails behind the museum every day. From the museum parking lot, you can access this creek side wonderland that's completely shaded by live oaks. Nasturtiums and other plants grow here, and in the rainy season, Mission Creek can be roaring as it picks up speed and heads for the ocean. The museum has formalized some activities in the backyard for kids, who can build forts and act out plays on a makeshift stage. (For details: link here)
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Chad the whale is back. To great fanfare, Chad the Blue Whale was reinstalled in front of the Museum after extensive restoration in November 2010. Edhat subscribers chronicled his homecoming, snapping photos at the beginning, middle and end of the extensive project. Even if you get the chance to see a whale from a whale watching boat, it is hard to realize how big these creatures are. The skeleton illustrates that size in a powerful way. For kids who are into dinosaurs and other big creatures, the whale skeleton can be an especially fascinating experience. Even big kids appreciate it. "It's SOOO big!" exclaimed one senior admiring the skeleton during our recent trip.
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Chumash exhibit. The museum is home to a small but poignant collection of authentic woven Chumash baskets and other artifacts from the days before Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in Central California. It feels a bit wrong for thousands of years of Native American history (the population of Chumash was about 15,000 when Spanish explorers arrived in California in the 1500s) to be reduced to one room in a museum, but a glimmer of hope - the archives of ethnographer John P. Harrington, who worked extensively with local Chumash and produced hundreds of thousands of pages of documents - are still being studied. The exhibits at the museum are the result of Harrington's work, and one display indicates his scattered documentation of early Native American life is still being studied.
The history of birds. The museum started as an ornithology-focused institution back in 1916, and the strength of that early work is evident in the Dennis M. Power Bird Hall, where everything from the hummingbird to the condor is on display. The mounts were meticulously restored several years ago by Peter Gaede, after being originally prepared by Egmont Z. Rett in the 1930s. Don't miss the display cases in the center of the hall, showcasing the egg and nests collected by William Leon Dawson. They are beautiful enough to be considered art. Behind the scenes in the museum, Dawson's collection of eggs is housed in rows of cupboards with hundreds of tiny drawers.
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