Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

My Cost: FREE!

5801 Wilshire Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90036

www.tarpits.org

By taking advantage of the free Tuesday, (first Tuesday of each month,) we completed our summer trilogy of LA County Natural History Museums! (See my previous blog posts on the William S. Hart Museum, and the Natural History Museum.) 

The top of the museum peaks out above the mound that surrounds it on three sides. A walk around the top will give you a peek inside the central atrium of the museum, but you have to go inside to see all the bones!

The entrance is below ground level at the bottom of a long ramp - giving the feeling
one is "sinking" into the past, to see the remains of animals that weren't able to free themselves.

While a lot of the places we've been going lately are totally new to me, the Page Museum is actually one that I visited some years ago. I think it was back in 2007, but I can't remember for sure. (What is more memorable is the time in 2008 when my college roommate and her husband came for a visit and we decided to kick it at Hancock Park for a bit. We got a little silly and spent a while rolling down the grassy hills pictured above, and somehow I totally and completely lost my car keys, never to be seen again... Had to have a locksmith come and make a whole new key using the tumbler that was stashed in the car by the manufacturer.)

Harlan's Ground Sloth is the first skeleton you see, and he's sort of the mascot of the museum.
You can't tell the scale from the picture, but this guy is over six feet tall!

For those who have never heard of the Page Museum, or the La Brea Tarpits, it's a museum of Ice Age fossils that were retrieved from the area's asphalt deposits. Here's a quick rundown:

The land where the Page sits is oozing with asphalt deposits, which have come to be known as "tar pits." Although now hemmed in on all sides by urban development, this was once an enormous tract (4,400 acres,) known as Rancho La Brea, that was handed over by the Mexican government to Antonio Jose Rocha in 1828. A provision of this grant was that the native residents of the pueblo be allowed to use as much of this "pitch" or asphalt as they wanted, such as for waterproofing roofs. 

While people had noticed the remains of animals in the asphalt deposits, they assumed the bones to be of livestock or wild animals who had met their demise fairly recently. The first published mention of ancient fossils being present in the asphalt was in 1875 by a man named William Denton. This mention went fairly unnoticed, but then in 1901 another man, prominent geologist W.W. Orcutt, became interested in the fossils, and spent a few years with a partner intermittently investigating. Finally, the fossil load they found in 1905 was enough to interest a U.C. Berkeley professor, J.C. Merriam. 

From 1905 to 1915, large-scale fossil excavation took place by scientists from foreign and domestic institutions, plus a lot of amateur investigating. By this time, Rancho La Brea had been parceled up and sold, and George Allan Hancock had become the owner of the property where the deposits were located. In 1924, Hancock donated 23 acres to the County of Los Angeles to be used as a park, as long as the land was preserved and the fossils were exhibited.

The on-site museum was built thanks to the efforts and financial contributions of California shipping magnate George C. Page, and bears his name in tribute. Construction began in 1975, and the museum opened in 1977. Page didn't want the fossils to have to be transported to the Natural History Museum to be investigated, so today visitors can watch staff and volunteers prepare fossils in a Fish Bowl Lab inside the museum.  It currently houses a collection of more than three million Ice Age specimens, with fossils on display from deposits that are 10,000 to 40,000 years old.

The specimens come from deposits found all around the park, not just in the park itself. Contractors from those building projects have cooperated with the efforts to preserve the fossils. The current big project - Project 23, that includes a near-complete Columbian Mammoth - was unearthed when LACMA was building its underground parking structure.

So, wandering through the museum you can see lots of skeletons retrieved from the asphalt. Here are some I snapped pictures of:

This wooly mammoth skeleton is really awesome in size!

There were a lot more bones that I didn't take pictures of, unfortunately. But I did get some pictures of their two very cool animatronic displays. I don't remember them being here the first time I visited, so I think they are fairly new. Vivi kept going back, over and over, and was less and less scared of them as she began to realize they weren't dangerous.

The mammoth model rocks back and forth.

The saber-toothed tiger makes an attack on a ground sloth.
(Notice Vivi is taking a turn sitting in Alex's baby carrier that he has almost outgrown himself. Lol!)

There are also lots of pictorial exhibits showing the history of the land, the ancestry of different species, the anthropological history of the area, etc. And a film plays regularly in a small auditorium.

Another nice feature of this museum is that it is built around a lovely atrium. There is water running through the atrium, including a waterfall and a bridge, and several lovely seating spaces. It can be accessed by two doors, and there's a third door that is exit-only.  There are some steps that weren't stroller friendly for us, but it was still pretty. And turtles in the water! Everywhere we visit with an outdoor water feature seems to have turtles!

Looking up to the sky, and the windows look out from the gift shop that arches into the atrium. 

The turtles and koi!

Looking at the turtles with grandpa!

Now, even though this is a fairly small, one-story museum, your visit doesn't have to stop once you exit the building. There are all the related sections of Hancock Park to visit. Here they are on a map:

All the blue areas are Page-related: Lake Pit, Pleistocene Garden, Pits 3, 4, 61, 67, the Pit 91 Excavation, the Project 23 boxes, Pit 9, Pit 13, and the Observation Pit.

Not on the map are some life-sized statues of the Ice Age animals in the park.

Mammoth replicas in the Lake Pit evoke an earlier time, but the traffic and buildings in the background sort of spoil the illusion...

The Pit 91 Excavation Viewing Station is open daily from 10am to 4pm.
Did you ever see the episode of "Dirty Jobs" from season 5 where Mike Rowe was in the pit slinging buckets of goop?

Looking into the excavation, but no one was working today.

And, as our final bonus for the day, we went and walked, (well, Vivi sort of ran,) under Levitated Mass, LACMA's new "Big Rock" installation. If you don't remember the 105-mile trip the rock made from Riverside to LACMA last February/March, you can read a recap on the LA Times Blog here, including live tweets and behind-the-scenes photos from the first night of the 11-day trip.

It was not crowded at all on a weekday. I wonder if skateboards are prohibited?

Vivi really got a good lead - and lost her drink bottle, which rolled down the ramp.

Coming up the other side, I was wondering what my father-in-law thought of the installation,
or if he thought it was a waste of footsteps, lol! 

William S. Hart Museum & Hart Park

Saturday, September 8, 2012

My Cost: FREE!

24151 Newhall Ave

Newhall, CA 91321

www.hartmuseum.org

After Tuesday's visit to the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park, I learned that there is a family of museums that includes the Natural History Museum, the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, and the William S. Hart Museum in Newhall. I have been to the Tar Pits a fair number of times, and I have also been inside the Page Museum, but I had never heard of the William S. Hart museum. So I had to do some investigating online.

The entrance off of Newhall Avenue.

First, you should know that everything on the property - the former ranch of silent film actor William S. Hart (1864-1946) - is free to the public per instructions in Mr. Hart's will when gifting the land to Los Angeles County. He wanted to thank all the people that came to see his films and made him a success. Here is a description taken from the LA County Parks website: "William S. Hart, also known as 'Two Gun Bill', was the first cowboy movie star during the silent film era. He made almost 70 silent movies from 1914 to 1925, and donated his sprawling ranch for the public to enjoy. The park features Hart’s home which is now a museum filled with his personal effects and movie paraphernalia, along with Native American artifacts and Western American art."

A painting of Bill Hart, astride his horse Fritz, that hangs in the museum.
The artist was James Montgomery Flagg, of "I Want You for the U.S. Army" poster fame.

There were a few other things on the website that piqued my interest (besides the fact that everything is free.) One was that the Hart Ranch, which is now Hart Park, has a herd of bison. I had heard about a park up in the Santa Clarita Valley area that had bison, so now I knew which one it was!

Also, I was excited to see that the Hart Museum has a temporary display, (until mid-September,) called Taking to the Skies: Famous Aviators at the Hart. Apparently Bill Hart, (as the tour guide called him,) was friends with Amelia Earhart, and the display description promised, "To commemorate... the 75th anniversary of Amelia's disappearance," with, "a new temporary display on famous aviators." Omar is a pilot and loves all things aviation. Honestly, he would rather be flying for a living. So I thought he would really like the Taking to the Skies display.

So, per my suggestion, we decided to go! We packed the kids in the car after Vivi woke up from her nap, and we headed up highway 14 into the hills. The park is not hard to find, it's just off of Newhall Avenue, but the Museum is a different story. There were all kinds of buildings and signs as we entered the park. Hart Hall, the animal barnyard, the gifts shop and the Ranch House are all very close together and near the entrance, so I assumed the museum wouldn't be far away. Boy, was I wrong!

A woman sitting outside of the gift shop pointed us to the trail head that went uphill to the Museum, (which is the Hart Mansion, now converted into a museum.) I was to find out later that she possibly was having some fun at our expense sending us up a trail with a stroller. Read on to find out more...

At the start of the Museum trail.

Our hike up the hill was a truly comical affair. First of all, it's important to note that Omar didn't even want to do anything out of doors today because of the heat, which was upper 90s, or possibly even triple digits. I had promised him that we would mainly be going to the museum to see aviator stuff, and we would be out of the heat as much as possible. We definitely did not anticipate a hike up to the museum! Second of all, we had the kids in a fairly heavy double stroller, and the trail is not paved. In fact, not only is it not paved, it's got a lot of big rocks that came close to breaking my stroller wheels, it's got some patches of sand that we got hung up in, and it's got some steps built out of railroad ties that took a team effort to lift the stroller up and over.

We were taking our time and taking plenty of breaks in the shade, but we were both still breathing heavy, and I for one was sweating more profusely than I have all year! So let me save you some trouble - if you have a stroller, do not take the trail! There is a nice paved road to the museum that the volunteers and other authorized personnel are allowed to drive up, and though it is a longer distance than the trail, it will be much easier with a stroller. It's to the west of the trail head, between the Ranch House and the picnic area.

The view from partway up the hill down towards the barnyard area, etc.

This bunk house is about halfway up. I, of course, had thought it was the mansion
and was terribly disappointed to learn we still had a ways to go.

Looking back down at the trails we had climbed while pushing a stroller.

On our way back down the paved road I snapped a photo of what some of the railroad tie steps were like.
Makes me tired just looking at it!

But, despite the unexpected difficulty, we did make it to the top in one piece, (or, four pieces actually - Omar, Vivi, Alex and myself,) and the museum is quite lovely, as is the view!

Almost at the top, you can see Vivi was ready to make a break for it!
(And Omar looking good in his aviation-themed Hawaiian shirt!)

Finally free from the stroller, Vivi did a few laps in front of the building.

The Hart Museum (formerly Hart Mansion,) was built in the 1920s with super sturdy construction. They cut into the hillside so it's on a solid foundation. It was not damaged at all during the Northridge earthquake of 1994 that took down whole malls in North Hollywood.

From the vantage point of the museum you can see down the south side of the hill to where the bison are kept.

Up above the house are some restroom facilities and another trail.

Daddy and daughter coming down from the back of the house.

Museum tours are offered every half hour, so we had to wait about 15 minutes to get inside. (If you have  a large group, you have to make reservations in advance.) The docent-led tour was very informative, but they are also very careful about preserving the house. So much of it is original, that they really don't want you touching anything - not even walls - so that makes it not so kid-friendly. Thankfully, they did install railings and carpet to keep the tours on the right "path" through the house, so I didn't have to worry about Vivi touching everything, mostly just the walls and a few larger display pieces.

The rooms are still furnished as they were left.

I'm sure many meals were cooked on this stove.

Alex and I in the dining room. The floor is made of wood blocks (mahogany? I don't remember the variety,) that were simply laid together in a staggered pattern, and then the floor was covered in water so the blocks would swell and make a tight seal. Pretty ingenious method of doing a floor!

Horseshoe tributes to each of Hart's horses.

Painted beams are just some of the fine touches of decoration.

The beautiful entryway. Note there are two bannisters and two rails - the original was at a height that just wouldn't protect today's tall people!

The upstairs great room has a bear skin rug!

One of the temporary aviator displays.
There were only about three cases like this, so not nearly as much as I had anticipated.

The view into the dogs' bedroom.
 (It had been Bill Hart's bedroom, until a new addition was completed. Then he gave it to his dogs.)

This wheelchair belonged to Bill Hart's sister, who lived with him in the house. Beyond that is her bedroom.

The desk inside William Hart's bedroom. It reminds me of my maternal grandfather, who always had a very neat desk.

Enlarged photos of William S. Hart at work.

He was said to be the "good bad man."

After our tour of the museum, we were ready to get back in the air conditioned van and head home, but I did take a peek inside the original 1910 Ranch House at the bottom of the hill. It is open for self-guided tours, (unlike the mansion,) and the park website explains it contains, "Hart's tack and saddle collection, personal furnishings, and additional Hollywood mementos. It was too dark for pictures inside.

A description of the Ranch House and how it was used by Hart.

There also is a barnyard, that Vivi and I did a loop through. There was a pig and a cow, and a lot of birds (chickens, geese, etc.) Here are some pictures:

Virginia Avenue Park in Santa Monica

Sunday, September 2, 2012

My Cost: FREE!

2200 Virginia Ave

Santa Monica, CA 90404
www.smgov.net

After breakfast and some morning naps for the kids, we were trying to decide where to go for the afternoon. Now there are plenty of days - today included - where I would love to stay at home being lazy and watching Redbox movies, (although there is plenty to be done around here in the dishes and laundry departments, and cooking, and de-cluttering...) But with the little ones, that just doesn't feel like an option anymore. Vivi will get restless, she'll end up somehow tormenting her brother for entertainment, someone will end up crying, and it won't be relaxing. Plus, it's way too hot in North Hollywood these days. So it's easier - and quieter - to go somewhere.

I considered just staying close and going to Woodbridge Park, which I blogged about previously (August 18th,) but we both thought a longer drive would be nice. (Kids asleep in car seats = quiet time!) Also, south of the "hill," (i.e. the Santa Monica Mountains,) it is almost ten degrees cooler. So we headed towards Santa Monica, because, in the course of my places-to-go research, I had read about a park there with a great splash pad.

We packed some towels and a small picnic of PB&J. (I also always bring the fully stocked diaper bag, including extra clothes and jackets, and bottles of water. And I keep certain things in the van at all times for outings: folding chairs, a picnic blanket, my hat, and sunscreen.) Then we just headed towards Santa Monica. Thank goodness for smart phones with web searches, and for GPS navigation! I didn't remember the name of the park, so I just searched the GPS for the parks in Santa Monica, and I searched Google to see if any of those parks came up when I searched "Santa Monica splash pad." I quickly found just the place I was looking for: Virginia Avenue Park.

There are two parking lots - one on the southeast corner nearer the lawn (it was being used for soccer,) and basketball courts, and the other on the northwest corner near the splash pad and playgrounds. We stuck to the playground area, but I did notice that these basketball courts are a nicer surface than asphalt, and would be great for a pickup game.

The parking lot closest to the playgrounds also provides access to three other Santa Monica Community buildings: the Patio, the Thelma Terry Building, and The Park Center. The Patio is a building that houses restrooms, (including a Family restroom!) the plumbing for the splash pad, and a space that is used for children's programs, cultural arts, and can be reserved for celebrations. (Today it was being used for a birthday party, and it looked like a nice space for a small group!) The Thelma Terry Building is used for child development and after school programs, and the Park Center is for meetings, fitness (dance, yoga, martial arts,) employment services, etc. Also, on the corner of Pico and 21st street is the Park Center's 2101 building that houses the Teen Center with art, computers, and even a recording studio!

The Thelma Terry Building

The Park Center

There are plans to build a Pico branch of the Santa Monica library adjacent to the Thelma Terry Building. It's projected to open sometime next year.

There is a Farmer's Market every Saturday from 8:00am to 1:00pm.

The playgrounds are nice, but the splash pad is really the star of the show here. It's got all kinds of rotating water jets and the kids can chase around to wherever the water squirts out next. Also nice is there is a good amount of shade around the perimeter, and low walls serve as benches for parents.

Note the shade and the wall seating! Water sprays from the ground, and even three jets out of the wall to the right. 

Vivi was very wary of the water. She didn't really want to play in it.

She eventually got hit by an unexpected stream (because the water rotates through the different jets.)

But she was mostly content to watch the other kids get wet.

Hours 9:00am to 7:00pm daily. Call 310-458-8501 if it's not working.

The play equipment is separated into two areas. The toddler area includes two bucket swings. The older kids' area has mostly climbing toys. I wondered about the choice not to have any shade coverings over either set of equipment. Maybe because it's Santa Monica and the ocean breeze keeps it from ever getting too blisteringly hot. But the direct sun was pretty glaring.

The toddler equipment

Vivi loves the swings - she'll swing every day if she gets the chance!

A view of the older kids' play equipment with the splash pad and Patio, (to the right,) in the background.

I have to say, though, that the most fun Omar and I had today was just laying in the shade on the grass and enjoying the cooler weather and ocean breeze.

The good life!