Hall of Geology Exhibit at MDC Getting Facelift
BY MARIE TOLONEN MESABI TRIBUNE. This article is from the Mesabi Tribune Newspaper.
CHISHOLM—Preliminary work has begun for what officials say is a much needed update to one of the original exhibits at Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm.
The Hall of Geology dates back nearly 50 years to when the museum was introduced as the Iron Range Interpretive Center, and contains specimens of some of the oldest rocks in the world.
“It’s a great permanent exhibit, surrounding the topic of geology, but it was constructed in 1977,” John Westgaard, Paleontologist at MDC said.
In recent years the Hall of Geology has served as a teaching tool and is the focus of special events, Rock Hounds Abound and Fossils, Fossils, Fossils. The exhibit had its own area in the museum, accessible to visitors during hours of operation.
Share that history and the iron range is particularly unique with its geology and natural history.
“We’re excited to be working with our curator on a process to renovate the exhibit and create new interactive exhibits and add a new robust paleontology component with John Westgaard,” Jordan Metsa, MDC Development & Marketing Director.
Metsa said he has no doubt that the final exhibit will be a quality product, noting that Allyse Freeman, MDC Museum Curator won a national award for another MDC exhibit called Blue Collar Battleground.
A team at MDC including Freeman, Metsa, Westgaard, and MDC Education Director Anya Kircher is working on the new exhibit with input from a variety of experts, including their contacts at the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and others to ensure the science is up to date.
“It’s not just two or three of us ‘driving the bus,” Westgaard said. “It’s a big undertaking.”
Freeman shared a vision of what the final product will look like.
“Overall, we’re envisioning an exhibit that is a little more hands-on than the previous one was, and we want to interpret modern day standards,” Freeman said.
Samples found in the original exhibit include a variety of rock specimens, fossils and minerals from the Iron Range, a mining core sample display, a timeline of the earth, and topographical maps of Minnesota.
All three iron ranges: Mesabi Range, Vermillion Range, and Cuyuna Range are represented with samples contained in the exhibit.
Freeman assured that many of the samples from the existing exhibit will be incorporated in the new interactive display.
Metsa said some of the samples that are not a good fit for the new exhibit would possible be used in MDC’s educational department.
Since the old exhibit was created, nearly 50 years ago, there have been updates in science.
“Geology has become a little bit more understood—how the earth moves, and how things go here and all of that,” Westgaard said.
Freman agreed, adding that in the old exhibit, plate tectonics is referred to as a newer theory.
With new evidence since then, plate tectonics is now a stronger evidence on how the earth works, she said.
Updating the exhibit with information containing up to date science makes it more useful to school groups and others visiting the museum.
The Hill Annex Paleontology Project is a working group and it was named after the Hill Annex State Park in Calumet, because it was one of the first sites where a lot of work was being done, Westgaard said.
It was started in 2014 and since 2021 has been based out of MDC, with new fossil material being curated there.
“We actually have seven different locations across Mesabi Range where we collect fossils and try to expand that every year,” he noted. “The project itself is responsible for finding just the second dinosaur bone in Minnesota found in 2015.”
Westgaard said all of the specimens in the Hall of Geology are roughly the same age, and were deposited on the Range nearly 90 million years ago, when a big seaway bisected North America into two Great Plains.
“It was the last time we had oceanfront property,” Westgaard said.
Westgaard said the new space at MDC will emphasize the paleontology project a little more.
“Eventually it’d be wonderful expanded gallery space lots of mounted fossils, more surrounded paleontology topics and how they tie to the Minnesota story, and specifically the Iron Range,” he said.
Freeman said some of the paleontology Cretaceous age fossils included in MDC’s display come from stockpiles exposed in mining.
“So, none of that would have been easily accessible without previous mining endeavors,” she said.
This spring MDC plans to apply for a $100,000 grant from the Minnesota Historical Society to help cover the cost of renovating the Hall of Geology and updating its exhibits. If approved, MDC would have one year to complete the work, which could be as early as late fall or early winter 2025, according to Freeman.
