Eons of natural history on display at new Utah museum - MSNBC
Opening this week, the fabulous Natural History Museum of Utah. We are officially lousey with museums so get out and enjoy what they have to offer.
Utah will soon have a first-rate museum to exhibit the state’s impressive cultural and geographical history. On November 18, the Natural History Museum of Utah will open its $102.5 million Rio Tinto Center, which includes 10 permanent galleries spread over 34,000 square feet of exhibit space.
The new center, which makes the museum one of the most prominent natural history destinations in the American West, focuses on the state’s ancient ecosystems, biogeography, native peoples and how climate change and population growth are expected to shape the state in the future.
The museum mimics the contours of the nearby sandstone and limestone mountains in shape and with its construction materials. It is built into terraces in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, which emerged approximately 15 million years ago. Copper from the Bingham Canyon mine across the Salt Lake Valley and sandstone excavated from the site itself were used as building materials.
