The Western Science Center (WSC), formerly the Western Center for Archaeology & Paleontology, is a museum located near

Diamond Valley Lake Diamond Valley Lake is a man-made off-stream reservoir located near Hemet, California, United States. It is one of the largest reservoirs in Southern California and also one of the newest. With a capacity of , the lake nearly doubled the area's s ...

Hemet, California Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 89,833 at the 2020 census. The foundi ...

. The WSC is home to a large collection of Native American artifacts and

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

fossils that were unearthed at Diamond Valley Lake, including "Max", the largest

mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

found in the western United States, and "Xena", a Columbian

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

, as well as

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 ...

fossils recovered from

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

. Opened in 2006, the museum has been designed to provide world-class facilities for the research, curation, and presentation of the nearly one million specimens discovered during the development of Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet.

The Campus

The building was designed to be among the most eco-friendly museums in the United States. Its special environmental features include solar panels on the roof, cold-water pipelines run below the floor to reduce air conditioning, landscaping with low-irrigation native foliage, and extensive water reclamation. In 2008, it was awarded LEED Platinum Status by the

US Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

, their highest rating, and was the first museum in the United States to receive the recognition. The museum's public displays are housed in the permanent gallery, with another gallery housing temporary and traveling exhibits. The collections are held in the repository, not open to the public, which features , fully motorized compactor shelving units. The Collections Repository holds many paleontological and archaeological collections of

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Uni ...

projects.

Exhibits

The museum features a long exterior walkway that holds a life-on-Earth time line. The welcome lobby features high walls with re-created paleontological strata and reproduction fossils projecting from the walls. The tour of the permanent gallery begins with interactive exhibits on the natural history of Domenigoni and Diamond Valleys, continuing through displays on European and Native American culture and history from the area. Among the artifacts on display are pieces donated by the Domenigoni family, the original settlers of the valley, and the Soboba band of

Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of ...

Indians that inhabited the area before them. Visitors can view two movies on the construction of Diamond Valley Lake, and the fauna of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

in the Diamond and Domenigoni Valleys, shown in a 270 degree immersive theater that shakes with the movies. From there, visitors proceed to the

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

gallery, replete with fossils recovered and studied by scientists from the San Bernardino County Museum. The highlights of this gallery are the skeletons of "Max", the largest

ever discovered in the western United States, and "Xena", a

Columbian mammoth The Columbian mammoth (''Mammuthus columbi'') is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas as far north as the Northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line ...

. Also featured in the gallery is "Li'l Stevie", one of the most complete mastodons known from the western United States, who is displayed unreconstructed and still partially buried as found when it was first uncovered. The gallery also features the skeletons of a Harlan's ground sloth, and interactive displays on the disciplines of

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

and paleontology. Visitors can also visit temporary traveling exhibits in the temporary exhibit area. On August 21, 2021, the museum opened the new gallery, ''Prehistory Pathways'', which focuses on fossils found in New Mexico's

Menefee Formation The Menefee Formation is a lower Campanian geologic formation found in Colorado and New Mexico, United States. Description The Menefee Formation consists of fluvial sandstone, shale, and coal. Based on ammonite biostratigraphy, the age of the Me ...

and the museum's research there. Included is the hadrosaur ''

Ornatops ''Ornatops'' (meaning "ornate face") is a genus of brachylophosaurin saurolophine hadrosaur from the Late Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico, United States. The genus contains a single species, ''Ornatops incantatus''. Discovery and n ...

'', whose holotype is at the science centre, as well as artwork and models by the noted Brian Engh. The museum also features a full-scale simulated archaeology and paleontology dig site, which opened for its first student excavations in the spring of 2009. It is currently being used by WSC staff, in association with local K-12 schools and colleges, to teach proper excavation methodology to students. It is also open for museum visitors to view an active dig site in process.

Affiliations

In November 2008 the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

granted Affiliate status to WSC.

References

External links

* {{authority control Hemet, California Museums in Riverside County, California Archaeological museums in California Natural history museums in California Geology museums in California Paleontology in California