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| - Who knew this gem (*wink wink*) of a museum was lurking on campus? Well, I did, actually, but I somehow never managed to get myself here until eleven years after I graduated.
The museum is a decent size for being in a campus building and is set up for a self-guided tour. There's basically one main path that makes a winding loop through the space, and you can access a tour book through their website to enrich your experience. If you can get a group together, the museum offers guided tours for $2 per person that you can set up ahead of time.
The basic setup is you start with minerals and gemstones, wind into a dark area that showcases fluorescent and phosphorescent samples, then you emerge into fossils. There's a somewhat interactive exhibit where you can smell the past (hint: it doesn't smell great), and you can also peer into the fossil lab through a picture window and catch students prepping dino bones during the week. Finally, you exit into the main event, the dinosaur room.
The Boaz Mastodon is probably the most famous dino skeleton you'll see in the display, found here in Wisconsin in the 1800s. There's also a pterodon, skulls from a T. Rex & triceratops, and few others whose names escape me.
On your way out in the hallway there's a small display case with items for purchase that help support the free museum. Parking is on the street and can admittedly be a bit of a pain; during the week it's pretty parked up with staff and students, but on a Saturday morning I was able to park without issue in a two-hour zone. The engineering and Union South lots aren't too far away, but those can fill quickly as well during the week. If you can walk, bus, or bike, that's probably the ideal way to get there.
Depending on how in depth you want to go it could take anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes to explore everything, so it can be both a great way to kill a few minutes on campus or a destination for those who dig dinos, gems, and fossils.
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