Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A touch of history

Today was my day off. That means, generally, I either sleep, do laundry, or shop. But this week, we went into town with the intention of exploring some, especially a little history museum that we had passed on a previous trip. It was a classic small town history museum; walking in felt about like exploring your grandparents attic because of all of the random stuff that was lying around, and yet most of it is really interesting in some way. Seriously. It looked like everyone in town donated the contents of their attics. Below are some examples of the randomness.

 Most museums that I have been to out west have to start their history a little more recent than ours in the East. They weren't generally settled with anyone writing down history before the pioneers.
Wood. Before and after petrification.
The one little bit of natural history in the museum. It includes a poorly preserved mammoth tooth, and no mention of Ashfall Fossil beds or the past excavations in Nebraska. That being said, they have fliers for our park in the lobby. I guess that counts for something.
 TRAINS! I think I found the fate of all toy trains in the area. But there were so many pictures of people playing with them before they were donated, it was a really sweet exhibit.
Apparently, this used to be the home of the fifth largest roller coaster in the U.S. It was torn down during the depression. I've been on many larger than this, it is weird to think how times have changed.
 My roommate about to get eaten by a therapod in the kids zone. This further supports my opinion that paleontologists are just kids who went through the dinosaur phase and never grew up. After all, we poked around in that room for a fair bit.
 Ellen also found her favorite thing: a MICROSCOPE! She has really taken an interest in micropaleontology since we have been here, particularly diatoms. Those are small organisms that tell us a lot about the environment at the time and apparently look like little Christmas tree ornaments under the 'scope. They are cool, and pretty important, though personally things with vertebrae make a lot more sense to me.


Beyond that, it was a lot of really interesting stuff. Basically, if someone from this town did something really cool (such as fly an airplane, be a doctor, or host a T.V. show), something of theirs was donated in loving memory. I would love to know all of the stories behind the things that just had a name next to them. I feel like they must have a good story to have been there. Regardless, it was great learning a little bit more about the region we are in. Hopefully I will come across another such place in other towns we visit.






As we were in Norfolk and in a place where things were really ugly with a bunch of tornadoes recently, I feel obligated to say one more thing. 

The valley that my cabin is in has only seen one tornado in the past 15 years. We are well protected.
However, please be praying for the people that did get hit. There was a double tornado that killed two adults and one child, and left several others in critical condition. The church, school, post office, and most other things in that town (only 300 people) were demolished. Most survivors did have family nearby to take them in and the National Guard is apparently out there taking care of clean up.
Please, please be praying for these people.

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My Story (Very briefly...)

Lots of people claim that they wanted to be paleontologists at the age of 3. So did I. The problem is, I never really grew out of it. My third birthday party had dinosaurs. Everywhere. I grew up digging in fossil dirt from Aurora, NC, looking for coral and shark teeth. I practically lived at my local science museums (and still do, only now I get to do research, fossil preparation, and work in collections!) When local paleontologists discovered a dinosaur with a "fossilized heart" (no longer considered such) when I was little, I got to meet the man who led the work. And then, years later a dinosaur bone with soft tissue turned up. I was officially hooked.
No longer was I dreaming about dinosaurs. I was actively pursuing the science behind prehistoric creatures. I didn't want to read about it, I wanted in on the action. So I started working at the museum, and finally going on my own adventures. And thus, I needed a place to share them and maybe inspire others the way I was inspired. I have gone from watching fossils be prepared from one side of the glass at the museum to working on them on the inside of the glass. I am a student working toward my goal. I can finally start to call myself a paleontologist.