Milwaukee Public Museum

[smt126]

I've been a member of the Milwaukee Public Museum for a few years now since I've had kids. That occasional school trip to the museum always fascinated me and brought wonders of the ancient world to my mind. It's almost unchanged since I was a boy, but I find new enjoyment from watching my children learn, explore, and imagine the way I did when I was younger. This museum isn't the greatest in the nation by any means, but it's the biggest in southeastern Wisconsin. Unfortunately Milwaukee isn't the industrial city it once was, and the museum doesn't get the funds to do much updating. The updating they do is more tailored at putting in new electronics instead of real geological treasures. The museum works the same as most, moving in evolutionary time for the fossils records. Most of the museum is dedicated to the Holocene epoch(probably 90%) instead of fossils, but I'll show some pictures from the more fossil heavy areas. They also have an online learning center called the Virtual Silurian Reef which can be accessed here... https://www.mpm.edu/content/collections/learn/reef/index.html I've found a lot of useful information about the area from this page such as that quarry in Racine I posted about in the Wisconsin thread. The plesiosaur and mammoth are at the entrance by the Imax and away from the main evolutionary trail.

[smt126]

As you can see there are various displays for the different time periods. Many of the displays in the museum were painted by local artists that they would contract with during economic downturns to help stimulate the local economy. There are more fossil and dinosaur pictures that I will get to at a later time, but the 2 year old in the pictures was not cooperating with picture taking and thus I will need to look back in some older folders and shrink some files.

[smt126]

Here are 3 pictures that I took of a section that is devoted to the Silurian reef that sits under Milwaukee. There are actually a lot of cool specimens in the drawers and on display in this area. I have more pictures of the area, but the site for some reason is telling me I've hit my 3.95mb max. To be continued in the future....

[Raggedy Man]

In regards to the mammoth:

 

Found less than 30 miles from the Milwaukee Public Museum on a farm in the small town of Paris in Kenosha County, the Hebior Mammoth is among a group of important finds that help date the early presence of humans in North America.

In the early 1990's, a group from Marquette University, led by David Overstreet, was excavating a different mammoth in Kenosha County when John Hebior, a farmer living near the excavation site, approached the researchers with a large bone found on his property in 1979 that he had kept because of its unusual size.

The researchers knew on sight that what Hebior had was another mammoth bone, and they soon began excavations on Hebior's property.

Archeological Significance

The Hebior Mammoth is significant for several reasons: 85 percent of the bones are present and intact, a rarity for such a find in North America, and there are visible butchering marks apparent on some of the bones.

These marks are very important because of the age of the bones: carbon dating places the mammoth's death at 14,500 years ago, which proves man existed here 1000 years earlier than previously established by 13,000-year-old artifacts and specimens excavated elsewhere. Although the existence of older sites had always been theorized, it wasn't until the Hebior Mammoth and other sites in southeast Wisconsin were excavated that such proof was found. In summary, the Hebior Mammoth site, and the bones themselves, are among the oldest evidence of human habitation in North America.

 

Below is an additional picture of the mammoth with spearhead indent. Did you go when they had the new dinosaur exhibition? It was pretty amazing!

 

[Raggedy Man]

If you ever get a chance to see the Schoonmaker collection in the back room I'd highly suggest that you do. Here is a recent post about the worlds largest silurian reef extending from Green Bay, WI to Northern Illinois and partially into Northwest Indiana. 

 

[Raggedy Man]

ROAR!!

[smt126]

Hey Paul. Thanks for the additions. I'm guessing you're talking about the temporary exhibit with a lot of the dinosaurs from South America? I went twice lol.

[smt126]

Well now that I closed the browser and came back it's letting me add pictures again. Here's 4 more from the museum area dedicated to the reef under Milwaukee. They drilled a deep tunnel under Milwaukee due to runoff issues, and they sent a lot of the bedrock to the museum to be studied. The last picture is the area just before entering the fossil area where they have a bunch of various skeletons. I actually married my wife in this museum, so it has that option too if you are interested in getting married in a museum :P.

[Raggedy Man]

40 minutes ago, smt126 said:

Hey Paul. Thanks for the additions. I'm guessing you're talking about the temporary exhibit with a lot of the dinosaurs from South America? I went twice lol.

You betcha! My wife and I went on Easter. I was a little disappointed however, as they were all casts.

[smt126]

Here's a few pictures of the ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit for anyone who might be interested if it comes to a museum near them. I was disappointed a little too that most of it was casts, but I kind of figured anything traveling would have to be or it would be nearly impossible for them to move them around much due to the sheer weight of the fossils. It was still pretty cool seeing all the different dinosaurs in comparison to the same ones I've seen since I was little though. That is one thing that I like about the Field Museum is that according to the wall notes, that about 90% of their fossils are real and not casts. It's mind boggling to me how much work and luck that went into collecting those specimens.

[smt126]

The first 2 pictures are from a behind the scenes tour I got to go on with my daughter for a class I signed her up for at the museum. There are tons of fossils in each of those drawers, and literally boxes of Silurian fossils just sitting around. The big bone in the back of the 2nd picture is part of a t-rex. We got to see where they do their prep work. I must say it was smaller than I expected as the room was maybe 20 feet by 30 feet, with much of it being counter space. The last 2 pictures are from the children's education room. The classes at the museum are relatively inexpensive for the fun that they have doing it. I signed her up for 3 that year, and she had a blast each time. Each class has a different theme. We of course picked all the geology and dinosaur themed ones.

[deutscheben]

Thanks for the report! I visited the museum many times as a child and still have strong recollections of the life-size diorama of a Tyrannosaurus devouring a Triceratops. I will have to visit again sometime, now that my appreciation for Paleozoic fossils has grown.

[JohnBrewer]

Great report of a fantastic looking museum. Nice to see its kid friendly 

[smt126]

We were at the museum today and got to meet the paleontologist Rolf Johnson. He is the one who put together this torosaur here at mpm. I must say he was one very nice individual. I wish we could have talked to him more but he was just here visiting for a conference.