Southern Vermont Natural History Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1996 |
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| Location | 7599 VT Route 9 Marlboro, Vermont, USA |
| Type | Natural history |
The Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is a cool place to learn about nature. It's a natural history museum located on Hogback Mountain in West Marlboro, Vermont. The museum is surrounded by a huge protected forest called the Hogback Mountain Conservation Area. This area is over 600 acres of land, and from there, you can see views of three different states!
The museum first opened in 1996. It was built around a special collection of animals gathered by Luman Ranger Nelson. This collection is one of the biggest of its kind in the northeastern United States. It features about 250 different types of native birds and mammals.
Ed Metcalfe started the museum to help teach people about nature. He wanted it to be a great learning spot for both local people and visitors. The museum has many exhibits, including a large collection of taxidermy (preserved animals). There are also fun, hands-on exhibits for kids, a display of cool rocks and minerals, and even live animals native to the area. The museum also offers programs about natural history and environmental science across New England and New York.
Meet the Live Animals
The museum started bringing in live animals in 1998. They first created a small center for raptors (birds of prey) that needed help. They also added a live trout tank and an exhibit for painted turtles. Over time, more animal exhibits were added. In 2013, a large home was built for bald eagles, and the first eagle moved in.
Most of the live animals at the museum were injured. Because of their injuries, they cannot go back to living in the wild. As of 2015, the museum had many different animals. These included a bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk, American kestrel, and several types of owls like the screech owl, Northern saw-whet owl, and barred owl.
They also had various reptiles, such as a king snake, corn snake, black rat snake, painted turtle, wood turtle, box turtle, and snapping turtle. Other creatures included a wood frog, a tarantula, hissing cockroaches, and different kinds of fish like trout. Some animals, like a raven and a domestic rabbit, live off-site but are part of the museum's educational programs.
The Amazing Collection
The museum's main collection of natural history items comes from Luman Ranger Nelson. He was a naturalist and taxidermist who lived in the early 1900s. His collection includes almost 250 different kinds of birds and mammals found in the northeastern United States. There are over 600 individual preserved animals in total. This is the largest collection of its kind in Vermont and one of the biggest in the entire region.
The collection even has some threatened and endangered species. It also features many albino animals, which are very rare. Plus, there are three types of birds that used to live in the Northeast but are now extinct.
Nelson was born in 1874 in Bernardston, Massachusetts. He lived in Winchester, New Hampshire until he passed away in 1966. He put together most of his collection of birds and mammals in the 1920s and 1930s. Back then, there were not many rules about hunting wild animals. Today, it would be very hard to create a collection like this because of strict wildlife protection laws. Nelson eventually got special permits to finish his collection.
See also
- List of historical societies in Vermont
