Once Upon A Time In Austin, Texas

Once upon a time in Austin, Texas, maybe in the Spring of 1955, a little tow-headed baby girl was visiting the Texas Memorial Museum with her parents. As they entered the building, the little girl looked up, pointed, and blurted out “PISH!” Her startled daddy and pregnant mother followed their little girl’s pointing finger and saw a large, framed fossil of a fish mounted over the doorway to an exhibit room. The baby girl only knew to say a few words and they didn’t realize that fish was one of them. This incident became a family story that her parent’s would tell over and over throughout the years, much to the little girl’s delight.

A few years after, maybe 1962 or 1963, the little girl’s elementary school class visited this same place and she saw the fish fossil with new eyes. And her new eyes saw many other delightful sights.

Beautiful Windows Grace The Main Entry Floor-Second Floor (seen as you enter museum)

Pterosaur Replica Flying Overhead (cast from bone fossils found in Big Bend, Texas)

She marveled at the flying dinosaur over head and was a bit unnerved by the large Tyrannosaurus skeleton across the room. The guide said that it also had been cast from fossil bones found at Big Bend. She knew her parents had been to Big Bend because they talked about that place a lot. Maybe some day she would go there and see where these dinosaurs had roamed.

From this floor her class crowded into a hallway and one by one went down the steps to the first floor.

Staircase To Exhibits

Oh My! So much to see here! Meteorites from outer space… fossils and bones galore…

Star Fish Fossils

Label reads:

Starfish

Crateraster mccarteri

Skeletons in Slab

Cretaceous

Travis County, Texas

These had been found right here in her own county! The guide asked them to see if they could find the four legged starfish amongst all the five legged starfish.

Four Legged Star Fish Amongst Five Legged Star Fish

Sea Lily Fossil

The little girl didn’t know what a sea lily was, but she knew they must have been pretty. She remembered all the fossils she had collected on family hikes in the area…mostly snail looking critters that lived millions of years ago. It was hard to get her mind on how far back that was.

Around the corner was more…

Glyptodon

She had seen armadillos before, but never one that was as big as a small car.

Long-nosed Peccary Skeleton (Pleistocene, Bexar Co.)

And nearby was a giant that used to swim in Onion Creek. Scary to think of…the little girl had been to Onion Creek and seen little fish and frogs…things this creature might eat…this one was big enough to eat her.

Onion Creek Mosasaur (Cretaceous)

Mosasaur and Large Mammal For Size Comparison

Then the little girl and her class trekked up the stairs to the Third Floor. There were animals here that she recognized and knew were still around.

One Of Many Dioramas Depicting Texas Wildlife

Beetles, Butterflies, Moths

The little girl would remember this class field trip as one of the best ever fieldtrips. Better than the bakery where they got to sample fresh baked bread and better than the Coca Cola bottling plant.

Years later, when the little girl became a grown woman, she took her own little girl to visit the museum. She showed her the fish fossil and told the story.

Now the woman is an old woman. She recently visited the newly refurbished, repaired and reopened museum. Now, it is called The Texas Science And Natural History Museum. Some of it has changed. There is no longer a framed fish fossil over a doorway. But, much has stayed the same. During this visit she did not take the stairs. She and her husband chose the elevator.

Decoration Inside The Elevator (circa 1930’s)

She knew the building was old, but didn’t realize that it was built during the Roosevelt administration and that many of the fossils were found during excavations under WPA (Works Projects Administration) sponsorship. Thank You FDR!

The woman hopes everyone gets to visit this small, but mighty museum that tells some of the story of the natural history of Texas.

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*If you are in Austin on Sunday September 22nd you can visit the museum for free on Austin Museum Day. There is a parking garage adjacent to the museum.

Museum website:

sciencemuseum.utexas.edu

*Photos by B. McCreary

*some info from museum Visitor Guide and some internet surfing