The museum has been here since 1893, perhaps making it the oldest continuous exhibit in Columbus. It is in the equally ancient Orton Hall, the home of tOSU's School of Earth Science. The building sits on the south side of the Oval, and is found easily by its stony walls and collegian turret. It is named after Edward Orton Sr--the perfect name for a geologist--the initial president of the university.
The museum is behind the set of doors past the ornate, cathedral looking lobby. The space is small but full of interesting items of the natural history, geology, and biology of prehistoric Earth. On entrance one is threaten by the lunging skeleton of a giant sloth, an extinct beast that once roamed South America, some as large as elephants. Beyond is the massive head of a T-Rex, his fossilized bones fitted together to reveal the long powerful jaw, menacing teeth, and dark elliptic eye-sockets.
As attention grabbing as those pieces are it is the smaller items that impress the mind. Full of examples and information, one learn much from walking its space. Maps of different time periods and the rocks found in different areas of Ohio, small imprints of animals million of years gone, exhibits of minerals and forged sediments, meteorites and the rocks created in the inferno of their collision, tiny insects caught in sludge and frozen in time, primordial plants that made impressions on sea floors, and weird geometric crystals all are shown with educational explanations. They also showcase the difference between pseudo-fossils and the real thing.
It takes about an hour to see it all. It is free but they have a box to take donations. They have a small gift area but there was no one mending the register the afternoon I visited. Sometimes someone is there to do tours, but you can roams around solo if not.
Rocks had never been my thing; but the enormity of time, and the incredible history of the Earth, as well as the human mind to fish out evidence of it strikes me spellbound. I came here often as a student, for research and inspiration. Even today the emotions, the value, of museums like this still occur to me. Ones temporal concerns and worries shrink to such unimportant trivia when confronted by the monuments of a past, a 100-million, some even a billion, years in the making. This is the true reason one should come. It is sublime. read more