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My visit to the Museum of the Earth

By Franklyn Gallup of WoodFloorist.com

My mother lives in Trumansburg, NY and has passed the Museum of the Earth many times on her trip from Trumansburg to Ithaca on Route 96. She has wanted to visit sometime but never had anyone to go with her.

On my recent visit we made visiting the museum one of our planned activities. It was much larger than my mother thought as most of the Museum is below ground level.

The parking lot was on a hill and had stone laid in layers to look similar to geological strata. As we walked in the front door the first thing we noticed was a very old printing press. It had been very well restored. At first I was a little confused as to what this press had to do with earth science or Paleontology. As I read the plaque on the press I began to realize it's importance. (See Picture 2 below)

Gilert Harris, the founder of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), used the press from 1895 to 1950 to print scientific journals. Gilbert Harris began printing the journals, "Bulletins of American Paleontology" and "Palaeontogtaphicia Americana", in McGraw Hall at Cornell University. Legend holds that the noisy press rattled the building's floorboards. In the late 1930's Harris moved the press from Cornell to the first PRI building. Through the generosity of the late Robert Allan, Daniel Marvin restore the press to working order in 1999.

The next thing that caught our attention was a huge whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. This skeleton was from a female North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) This species is the rarest large whale species in the world. Fewer than 350 individuals remain. There are so few that every one is known individually, given a number, and identified by marks (callosities) on it's head and fins.

This was number 2030. She is 44 feet long and was about 19 years old when she died. She weighed about 16 tons at the end of her life but may have weighed twice as much when she was healthy.

This animal died a tragic death tangled in fishing gear in early October 1999 of the coast of New Jersey. She became tangled in April or May and several unsuccessful attempts were made to free her.

Museum staff and volunteers cut the flesh from her skeleton, loaded her on a flatbed truck and brought her to Ithaca. She was buried in horse manure in PRI's backyard for a year. The bacteria and beetles in the manure cleaned the remaining flesh and oil from her bones. She was hung in the museum while it was under construction in 2002. (See pictures 3-5 below)

Once we got downstairs we saw a map the museum called, "Crusin the Fossil Freeway" because of the enormous amount of fossil remains found in the northwestern United States and lower Canada.

My mother and I agreed that there was a lot of information downstairs and we could easily spend a week looking at it all. I perhaps will cover each section in future Intels. This museum is used by school children in the area who are studying about the earth and it's changes through time.

If you would like to know more visit Museum of the Earth

Helping the do it yourself person get professional results with their wood floor project.

The sign our front of the Museum of the Earth which is associated with the Paleontological Research Institution

This printing press was the first thing we saw when we entered the museum

Sketon of a Right Whale #2030 at the Museum of the Earth

Close up of the side of the whale skeleton

Picture of the whale skeleton from the bottom floor

This map shows animals identified by fossil remains in the Northwested part of the United States and lower Canada.

The museum had this map and showed a lot of examples of animals and plant life of many of these time periods

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Museum of The Earth should be mandatory for all persons wanting to extract or otherwise destroy any of Mother Earth's finite natural resources. Thanks for Intel.

My mother said we could have spent several days there and not seen everything.

Hmmm, It looks like an intresting museum, although it appears to be offering theory as fact. (pic 7) For another scientific view and a great museum please look at creationmuseum.org. I highly reccomend this museum.

Most of the education system today teaches theory as fact so I wasn't surprised. creationmuseum.org looks like a good place to get some info for a new Intel. Maybe next time I go to Kentucky I'll stop by.

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