Where: City of Page, along Highway 89 next to National Park Service Administration
Headquarters. Access to over 2.5 million visitors annually.
Mission: A non-profit organization committed to the creative display and interpretation of nearby paleontological discoveries from the surrounding Colorado Plateau geologic formations. The Page Paleontological Science Center is committed to public education with unique sensory-based interpretive experiences, multi-discipline displays and collaborate field research. The Center’s goals are:
Background:
The landscape around Page is one of great contradiction. What now is a visually barren desert, was once host to a variety of terrifying sea creatures, a rich assemblage of dinosaurs and ice age ecosystems that supported mega-fauna such as the Wooly Mammoth, Saber-toothed Tigers, Condors and Giant Sloths.
The geologic formations around Page represent one the richest paleontological collections in the world and yet, very little of the resource has even been catalogued, let alone, researched and excavated. At the same time, public fascination for paleontology and ancient ecosystems has grown exponentially following the likes of Jurassic Park, the popularization of the K-T Impact Extinction Theory and the Discovery Channel specials "Walking with Dinosaurs" and "Raising the Mammoth" to name just a few.
The Glen Canyon National Recreational Area holds one of the world's most remarkable deposits (300 square meters) of fossilized Mammoth dung.
The nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (20 miles from
Page) "has generated the most comprehensive and continuous Late Cretaceous fossil
record of land animals in our hemisphere and possibly the world. In the future, this
region will be the global reference for life on land for much of the Cretaceous."
(Jim Kirkland, Utah Geologic Survey Notes, January 2001)
Key Components to Successful Operation:
Highway 98 access.
Imaginative Exhibits and Interactive Displays.
Motion Simulation Rides to increase visitation and revenues are a key component to
success.
Proceeds used to sponsor field research and educational activities.
Collaboration with other institutions and organizations.
Building Components: