Ridgecrest's Maturango Museum highlights desert's
natural history
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| The Maturango Museum focuses on the natural
history of the Northern Mojave Desert. |
Since the area around
Ridgecrest, Calif., grew up much more recently than many of the neighboring mining towns,
the focus at the Maturango Museum centers on cultural history, natural history and
geology of the Northern Mojave Desert emphasizing the Indian Wells Valley.
The hills around Ridgecrest and the China Lake Naval
Weapons Center are rich with the rock art of prehistoric man. Detailed photographs of
these petroglyphs and pictographs play a large part in the museum's displays.
Featured in the lobby's historical society cabinets is an
exhibit on local character Francis Marion "Shady" Myrick. The display features
information on his mines, i ncluding his tunnel home, as well as his colorful life.
Also part of the Maturango Museum's offerings are
dioramas of the desert area's wildlife, including wood rats, California quail and the
endangered prairie falcon. The museum is very child-oriented, and so a few of the stuffed
wildlife specimens are out in the open where they may be touched.
For kids are a number of touch-and-identify drawers, into
which children put their hands and attempt to name objects of the natural world by using
only their sense of touch.
There are regularly changing exhibits on cultural and
natural history, as well as a monthly art show.
A well-stocked gift shop is also part of the museum. Found
here are out-of-the-ordinary items pertaining to Indian rock art, as well as a variety of
books on the Ridgecrest area in particular and the Kern County region in general.
The Maturango Museum is open from The Museum is open from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day (except major holidays) Admission is $1 per person.. It is
located at 100 East Las Flores, Ridgecrest, and can be called at (760) 375-6900). Visit
the museum web site at http://www.maturango.org. |
