The Morro Bay State Park Museum of Natural History 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. ...

Morro Bay State Park Morro Bay State Park is a state park on the Morro Bay lagoon, in western San Luis Obispo County, on the Central Coast of California. On the lagoon's northeastern and eastern edges in the park, there are saltwater and brackish marshes that supp ...

Morro Bay, California Morro Bay (''Morro'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Hill") is a seaside city in San Luis Obispo County, California. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, the city population was 10,757 as of the 2020 United St ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, opened in 1962. The museum sits on a hill overlooking the Morro Bay estuary, midway between

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, with a view of

Morro Rock Morro Rock (Salinan: ''Le'samo; ''Chumash: ''Lisamu; Spanish: ''El Morro'') is a volcanic plug in Morro Bay, California, on the Pacific Coast at the entrance to Morro Bay harbor. A causeway connects it with the shore, making it a tied is ...

. It is the only

in the

California State Park The California Department of Parks and Recreation, more commonly known as California State Parks, manages the California state parks system. The system administers 279 separate park units on 1.4 million acres (570,000 hectares), with over 280 ...

system. From 1993 through 2002, the museum was remodeled in a three phase modernization project, with exhibits by Exhibitgroup Giltspur, which has also created exhibits for the Smithsonian and J. Paul Getty museums. Interactive displays focus on the ecology of the Morro Bay estuary, including building a

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

, operating the

hydrologic cycle The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on Earth remains fairly const ...

and creating

food chains A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), de ...

References

External links

Morro Bay
- Central Coast State Parks Association
California State Parks of the San Luis Obispo Coast: official Morro Bay State Park Museum of Natural History website
{{authority control Morro Bay Natural history museums in California Museums in San Luis Obispo County, California