Cal Poly Humboldt Natural History Museum is a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

Arcata, California Arcata (; Wiyot language, Wiyot: ''Goudi’ni''; Yurok language, Yurok: ''Oket'oh'') is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, Humboldt County, Californ ...

in the United States.

History

Wells Fargo Bank Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and inter ...

donated the original location of the museum to Humboldt State University (HSU). Around 2010, the university was unable to continue to fund the operations of the museum. The museum closed. Eventually, the Humboldt Science Mathematics Center/Redwood Science Project took over the management and the museum reopened. Jeffrey White became the Executive Director and Julie Van Sickle the Manager. Museum administrators sought grants and public support in order to sustain itself. In 2013, it was announced that the museum would move from its original location into the location where it is currently located. The new building was donated by Redwood Capital Bank. It is 2,700 square feet in size. The museum's former building is now a Redwood Capital Bank branch location.

Collections

The museum has over 2,000 natural history objects. Collections include Native American cultural objects. They have a large

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

collection, called the Maloney Fossil Collection, including

sand dollar Sand dollars (also known as a sea cookie or snapper biscuit in New Zealand, or pansy shell in South Africa) are species of flat, burrowing sea urchins belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Some species within the order, not quite as flat, are ...

s and ''

Busycon contrarium ''Sinistrofulgur contrarium'' is a fossil snail species of the busycon whelks in the family Busyconidae. There has been some confusion about the correct taxonomy of this species, which has been confused with the extant species ''Sinistrofulgur si ...

'' from the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Chlamys The chlamys (Ancient Greek: χλαμύς : chlamýs, genitive: χλαμύδος : chlamydos) was a type of an ancient Greek cloak.

'' from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

Exhibitions

Students from CPH assist in the design and curation of exhibitions at the museum. Many exhibits are interactive. Visitors can touch a

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

, fossils, and

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

bone casts. Most of the exhibitions focus on the natural history of the region surrounding the museum.

References

{{authority control Natural history museums in California Arcata, California Natural history of Humboldt County, California Museums in Humboldt County, California California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt Paleontology in California University museums in California