Imagine finding the fully re-constructed skeleton of a huge, twelve-foot tall mastodon that lived during the Ice Age. Then imagine climbing up inside a giant tree trunk and being able to look the mastodon right in the eye – or, rather - the eye socket.

Well, you’ve imagined yourself to be at the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum this fall when we unveil our latest exhibit, featuring the famous Hyde Park Mastodon.

The Hyde Park Mastodon will be the centerpiece of an all-new exhibit that will give visitors the chance to become explorers of paleontology, geology, climatology and ecology. Our museum educators have worked with subject specialists Jill Schneiderman and Tom Lake to develop an exhibit theme that focuses on the mastodon’s habitat. The exhibit recreates a three-dimensional ice age setting with assorted tactile and sensory enhancements. Exhibit activities will be centered around a giant slide, a climbing-tree, a fossil dig site, an interactive timeline and replica sediment core samples.

“To appreciate today’s concerns about climate change and the effects on the regional habitat, people need to understand changes that have been occurring naturally throughout time,” states Ed Glisson, executive director. “This exhibit will be a direct means through which children and parents can open the discussion about climate changes that have occurred since the ice age of 14,000 years ago and the impact climate change continues to have on plant and animal life today.”

The perfectly preserved skeleton of the Hyde Park Mastodon was found just three miles up the road from the Museum in Hyde Park. Dr. Warren Allmon, from the Paleontological Research Institute in Ithaca, NY, led a team of scientists and scholars in excavating nearly all of the beast’s 300 bones. World-renowned paleontologist and mastodon expert Dr. Dan Fisher from the University of Michigan worked at the site and later cast exact copies of each of the mastodon’s bones for our exhibit.

The Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum graciously thanks the supporters who have allowed us to produce this first dramatic piece of a planned series of exhibits that will highlight the changing Hudson River habitat. The Dyson Foundation generously donated funds for the mastodon casting, assemblage and presentation. Major funding from New York State/DEC Estuary Program, together with funding from the Hudson River Foundation, supported the production of the surrounding exhibit environment and interpretive activities.