Can’t figure out what to do with the kids during summer vacation? Take them to Museum Village in Monroe and watch their jaws drop.
Sure, the Natural History Museum in New York has had movies made about it, but it’s far and there’s traffic, and once you’ve seen one fossil you’ve seen ‘em all.
Museum Village has all the excitement that an energetic and inquisitive child can handle in a day plus ample space, people making things with their hands, and let’s not forget the elephant in the room—mastodon, that is.
How the Museum Got Harry
Not many counties, or countries for that matter, can boast having a complete fossilized mastodon skeleton. Named Harry, because he was unearthed a few miles from Harriman, N.Y., in 1952, he lives, in the broadest sense of the word, in the deceptively small Natural History Building in Museum Village. Harry is rare because he is one of only three complete specimens of mastodon in the world.
Smaller than a woolly mammoth and bigger than an elephant, Harry roamed in Orange County until one day when he went to have a drink in a very low stream. He got stuck in the mud and stayed there until 1955 when he was excavated and put on display in Museum Village, where he still stands today surrounded by the story of his discovery and, on many days, lots of wide-eyed school kids.
The part about the very low lying stream came from George Gardianos, show chairman of the Orange County Mineral Society New York who met with Epoch Times at Museum Village to show us around.
