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By Sara, July 18, 2010 3:50 pm

…Let the good times roll!

I know that for most of us at the museum, our minds are still on the ongoing field season and the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for our new facilities. But we’re trying to think a few months ahead as well…

We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately in regards to our annual celebration, the “Bone Soiree,” which normally takes place this time of year. We’ve switched the date up a little bit in order for our celebration to be held in our “new digs.”  

So for the first time ever, the Bone Soiree will take place in September. Not only does this give us the opportunity to host in the new facilities, but hopefully it will also aleviate some of the sweltering heat and humidity that we’ve had in past years.

Besides the date and the location of our annual fundraiser changing, another thing that’s different about this year’s event pertains to the silent auction. We’ve decided to go in a little bit of a different direction and do two raffles. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the event, and can go to either:

A 50/50: Winner takes half of the cash from tickets sold.

or:

A Bucket Raffle: Raffle tickets purchased can be placed in one of six buckets for each prize package.

We’ve got some really neat prize packages for the bucket raffle, and there’s something for everybody! You’ll definitely want to get your name into at least one of these.

• Chicago Package: Eat, Stay, and Play! Two nights at a lakefront three bedroom condo; Park Grill gift certificate, four Chicago Bulls tickets, four Chicago Cubs tickets, and other entertainment certificates; valued at $2000.
• Family Package: Golf, Play, Eat! Rockford Park District passes, golf lessons from the Rockford Country Club, a Ray Cook putter from the Forest Hills Country Club, a golf four-some from Mah-na-tee-see Country Club, and an Oscar’s pizza party; valued at $1300.
• Outdoors Package: Mow, Grow, and Enjoy! A Japanese Maple from Tyler’s Nursery, a large outdoor sculpture from Porch, a lawnmower, and more! Valued at $1200.
• Photo Party Package: Grin, Play, Create! Four hours use of a photo booth from Photo Booth Express (if you were at last year’s Bone Soiree, you’ll remember how fun this was!), and the creation of a commemorative book; valued at $1250.
• Rockford Restaurants Package: Eat, Eat Eat! Restaurant gift certificates from: Stone Eagle Tavern, Josef’s, Maria’s, Ciao Bella, Beef-a-Roo, Kiki B’s, Garrett’s, Hawk’s Nest, Marc’s Fusion, Angelo’s, and more! Valued at $500.
• Burpee Package: Dig, Explore, Play! Tuition for one Utah dig (transportation not included), children’s Night at the Museum private party, and two Family Memberships; valued at $1590.

A Sneak Peek at our brand-new Riverfront Room with Terrace!

 Though there are a few changes in the way the fundraiser is going to be this year, we’re still doing a variety of appetizers by Chef Philippe of Cliffbreaker’s and a cash bar in a casual, cocktail party style. It’s going to be a lot of fun to enjoy the evening in the Riverfront Room and on the new terrace! There’s also going to be live music by the Knee Deep Band, and carnival fun for grown-ups, including the return of the photo booth and a fortune teller!

Here’s the rundown of What You Need To Know:
–Saturday, September 11th, 2010; 6:00-11:00 PM.
–$65 per reservation before August 11; after August 11 $75 each.
–$500 for a table of eight by August 11; $600 after August 11.
–Please RSVP by September 3.
–Raffle Pacakges: 1 ticket/$10, 3/$25, 7/$50, and 15/$100.

  If you want to purchase tickets or if you have questions, give us a call at the museum at 815-965-3433.

Hope to see you there! Let the Good Times Roll!

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By Sara, September 13, 2009 4:37 pm

The first lecture featured ferrets and hedgehogs, and Critter Camp brought the animals to the museum!

"Tonto" the Ferret

Each animal was walked around the room so all the of the guests were able to pet and get close to each one. It was a great opportunity for community members to learn about different animals as pets! Guests also received information packets about the animals featured in the presentation.

We’re all now looking forward to the next presentation in the series; “Creepy Crawlies for Halloween,” which will feature bearded dragons, turtles, tortoises, and other reptiles and insects.

All presentations will be held on the second Sunday of each month at the Burpee Museum from 3:00-4:30. It’s free to attend the lectures and registration is not required.

To learn more about Critter Camp, visit their website at www.crittercamp.biz

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By Sara, September 20, 2009 5:12 pm

The Burpee Museum is getting some international representation this week.

Scott Williams, the museum’s Collections and Exhibits manager, and Josh Mathews, fossil preparator, are headed to Bristol, England for the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP). The meeting goes from October 23-26 and is being held at the University of Bristol. To learn more about SVP and the annual meeting, visit the SVP website.

Josh will be presenting a poster at the conference on the topic of our Utah site, the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry. This is the second time that he will be presenting at an SVP annual meeting. His first poster was about the “Homer” triceratops bonebed of Montana’s Hell Creek Formation, which was presented at the 2007 meeting in Austin, Texas.

This is the first time overseas for both Scott and Josh, and they’re looking forward to promoting the Burpee during the meeting, as well as taking in some of the local culture of Bristol and the rest of the UK. After the meeting ends, the two will embark on a sightseeing tour that will hopefully include major sites in London and Scotland.

Josh and Scott are ready to go!

Check back regularly for updates from Scott and Josh as they “cross the pond!”

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By Scott Williams, September 27, 2009 8:26 pm

The 69th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology has come to an end. Presentations are now finished. The days were spent attending talks; most of which were at the University of Bristol Wills Memorial Hall, and the afternoons were spent at the University of Bristol Victoria Rooms.

On Friday, I, along with two of my co-authors presented on late Cretaceous lizard skull bones that we collected in Montana. We think it may be a previously undescribed species.

On Saturday, Josh presented on the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry, which is our late Jurassic bonebed from Utah. You can read about our summer adventures out there in our previous blog entries. Both presentations were well-received and there was a lot of interest from our colleagues.

Once all the presentations were done, we did a lot of networking. The Burpee Museum has many potential projects in the works with many well known paleontologists. Some of these projects may be presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of SVP in 2010, which will be in Pittsburgh, PA.
All and all it was a very successful conference, and the Burpee has been “introduced” to the U.K. and European scientific communities. I know I’m already looking forward to next year! …of course, Josh and I still have more time in the UK to enjoy before heading home. Just because SVP has ended doesn’t mean our trip has!

After everything was wrapped up for SVP, Josh and I spent Sunday visiting more of Bristol and the town of Bath.
We visited the St. Mary’s Redcliff Cathedral, which has been a place of worship for about 800 years. We also walked the Christmas Steps, a street which was built in the mid 1600’s. Another highlight of the day was the Foster House. It was built in 1483, and later belonged to a physician to Henry VIII!

Dr. Matt Bonnan and Josh at Christmas Steps.

At the end of the day we took the train to the town of Bath. Bath has a lot of history as well. It was given city status in 1590, and is known for its antiquity. Located near the center is the Roman Bath house. It was constructed around 50-60 AD!
Next to the bathhouse is the Bath Abbey. This cathedral was originally built in 973, and was where Edgar was crowned King of England. Over the centuries it has been nearly destroyed, caught on fire, and rebuilt by the late 1400’s. Bath is another amazing English town where the past comes alive.

Bath Abbey

Tomorrow we travel to Stonehenge! Josh and I are really looking forward to seeing one of the Seven Greatest Wonders of the Medieval World.

Cheers,
Scott

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By Sara, October 16, 2009 3:01 pm

The Burpee Museum now has its own Facebook fan page!

Check it out for continuous news updates, photos, and videos! Meet other Burpee fans, or post a discussion on our forum!

Burpee Museum of Natural History

Promote Your Page Too

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By Sara, October 18, 2009 1:01 am

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the museum after dark? With recent movies like the hit Night at the Museum and its sequel, it’s definitely something we get asked about at the Burpee.

Nighttime at the museum isn’t normally anything out of the ordinary. …except, that is, around this time of year. Things definitely become a little different, a little strange…maybe…even scary.

Do you dare to explore the Haunted Museum?
On October 23, for one night only, you will have the chance to!

The Burpee Museum staff has been working on ideas for our second annual haunted house since the summer. We have lots of scary surprises lurking this year, in what we’re calling the Museum of Terror.

This event is geared for children who are over 10 years old, and we’re sure it’s going to be a scary night!

For those who don’t want to be so scared, we’re also offering an event with the Discovery Center called Night Sounds and Spooky Science. It runs on October 24 and features non-scary activities at both museums. Kids can dress up in their costumes and trick-or-treat between both places.

Here’s the facts you need for both events:

Burpee Museum Presents: Museum of Terror
October 23, 7-10 PM.
Located at Burpee Museum, 737 N. Main, St. Rockford, IL.
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Admission: $6 per person. Bring a non-perishable food item for $1 off admission.

Night Sounds and Spooky Science
October 24, 6-9 PM.
Located at both Burpee Museum and the Discovery Center Museum.
Non-scary event, suitable for all ages.
Public admission: $6 per person, Museum Members: $3 per person. Admission includes activities at both museums.

Happy Halloween!

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By Sara, November 1, 2009 12:01 am

The collections department of a museum is a fascinating place to explore. Imagine a giant room (or rooms!) filled with specimens of all kinds. Museum collections are often used by scientists for research, and due to limited exhibit space, many of these specimens never make it on display. Going through the collection of a museum isn’t something that most museums offer to all guests, so many items remain to be “undiscovered treasures.” You truly never know what you might find!

In the midst of the construction that the Burpee is currently going through, I still was able to take the time to look through the collections department of the museum. There are so many interesting pieces that have not been on display for a very long time, and some have never been featured in an exhibit at all. This isn’t uncommon for most museums, but I thought it would fascinating to give everyone a chance to see some of Burpee’s undiscovered treasures.

Every month, starting in November, we’ll launch a blog about a specimen that we’ve picked from collections to put on display for the month. You’ll be able to visit the museum and see in person the item that you may otherwise would not be able to see.

After spending lots of time in the collections department, and after plenty of research, we decided on ceremonial masks from Indonesia. These two were part of a collection of six.

Though we don’t know what these exact masks were used for, we do know that they came from Indonesia. We did a little bit of research of ceremonial masks from Indonesia to give you a basic idea of their history.

Indonesian tribes commonly used masks in ceremonies to either ward off evil spirits or to celebrate a particular occasion. It has been said that in Indonesia, the artist who created the mask would consult divine forces for guidance in the sculpting process. The result is a direct transmission of this divine force into the mask. The decor on the masks often included colorful paints as well as real animal hide or hair (the mask on the right, for example).

So come on into the museum to see our masks starting on November 2, and running through the end of the month. Tell us you saw this on the blog!

Keep checking back every month for our new Undiscovered Treasure!

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By Sara, December 1, 2009 12:37 am

December is finally here, and with several months of winter on the way, I couldn’t help but to try to think warm for this month’s “Undiscovered Treasure.” While Rockford may find itself hitting a balmy 50 degrees on
December 1st, weather like that isn’t going to stick around. I personally can’t ever find myself enjoying cold weather, so I decided to fire up the electric blanket and keep my mind on tropical temps. But what sort of item reflects that?

The fan.

Imagine it being December and you’re in some type of climate where you need to physically move air around yourself to cool off.
Sound good enough to ward off the chilly weather? I thought so.

Burpee’s Oriental collection has an interesting set of fans; including ones made of wood, silk, and feathers. In China, the earliest hand-held fans were made as early as the 2nd century BC! We are not sure how old exactly our fans at the Burpee are, but we know that this implement certainly is long-standing. …or long waving.

We’ve chosen two different fans to display this month: a silk fan and a feather fan.

So when you’re visiting the Burpee this month and you’re checking out the Undiscovered Treasures exhibit on the 3rd floor, even if it’s snowing outside, think back to the 2nd century BC, back in China, and imagine a day hot enough where you might need one of these. Those winter blues won’t last!

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By Sara, December 21, 2009 4:49 pm

As many of you already know, the Burpee Museum is undergoing a great deal of construction right now. We’re not only expanding the museum, but we’re also doing some remodels and renovations of the building. Currently, the main focus of the remodel stage is taking place in our lower level. As I type this, walls are coming down in the former paleontology viewing lab.

When the last blog entry was posted at the beginning of the month, our museum’s biology and anthropology collection were just about ready to be moved. After many late nights for the lab staff, the move has finally been completed, and our collections has a new home. The entire process, from painting the floor in the new collections room to mounting specimens on the walls, took about three weeks to complete. While our paleontology and geology collection still isn’t ready yet, it was fun to see all of the new space that will be used for research in the future.

Let’s take a look….

We have more space in the new collections, as well as a new pattern of organization to the specimens, and a workspace so that visiting researchers will have room to examine the specimens.

It’s been a long month for our staff to get this major project finished, but they have done a great job, and we’re all very excited about our new home for collections!

Happy Holidays from all of us at Burpee Museum!

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By Scott Williams, July 7, 2010 10:34 am

Plastering the Big Jacket

Well…it’s the end of the road for the 2010 Hanksville-Burpee Quarry fieldseason.  The remaining work…which is a lot and a little bit of misery; includes putting the quarry to bed and removing the last of our plaster jackets.  Over a breakneck week a few of us DIE-HARDS stuck it out in 90-100 temperatures to get everything ready.  One of the more exciting specimens was the articulated caudal (tail) section to a Barosaurus.  Barosaurus is a type of sauropods (long necked dino) that is related to Apatosaurus and Diplodocus.  The block was trenched, plastered, reinforced with 2 X 4s, trenched more, plastered more ….well you get the idea.  Many 9-10 hour days were spent getting the whole site ready.  We even had some reinforcements; Cory Schabacker (an old school friend of mine and Burpee Member) and Brad Brown (who cut his teeth at the homer site).  Without them we could not have wrapped it up as we (me, Mindy and Katie) were all walking wounded, sporting back backs, hips and fatigue. 

Flipping the Big Jacket

Then the final day came when Curtis Whipple (Hanksville Mayor) repeated his role from last year and came to the site with his forklift.  After a little situating the forks and straps….the 1000 lbs block rolled like a charm.  TEXTBOOK……if I do say so myself.  The other side was plastered and reinforced.  All the plastered bones were hauled out for storage and we can close the book on the 2010 Hanksville-Burpee Quarry season.  Now….its 10 days off and onto Montana to collect more Triceratops, Tyrannosaurs and Cretaceous Crocodiles..oh my!!….now where is my ibuprofen??

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By Scott Williams, June 26, 2010 1:57 pm

Well, our time is growing short at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  As much as I would like to stay and continue excavating bones at this amazing site, I need to get back to the museum, catch my breath and then head up to Carter County to continue our fieldwork there. I sometimes wish I could clone myself to be at both places at once.   Wrapping up a site is fairly unglorious.  It involves a lot of trenching, plastering, backfilling, lifting, sweating and so on.   Since there are only three of us left, the work gets doubled.  We will be putting the quarry to bed until next year.  One of the fun parts of this wrap up includes shaking down our new field vehicle.  Burpee acquired this “new” vehicle from one of our friends in Hanksville.  The vehicle is a 1986 GMC Sierra Classic Suburban….and it is great.  It can seat 8 people fairly comfortably and has a ton of trunk space.  Decent 8 ply tires, a trailer hitch, made of metal inside and out….just what we need.  We have nicknamed it Earl, after Earl Douglass, the famed paleontologist who discovered Dinosaur National Monument.  Anyhow, time to get back to work.

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By Scott Williams, June 21, 2010 7:48 pm

Katie Tremaine with Femur

New finds and new finds.  As usual, more well preserved dinosaur bones have been found at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  We have been focusing on a sub-adult (teenage) sauropod called Barosaurus.  Barosaurus is a relative of Apatosaurus (although not as stocky) and Diplodocus (not quite as long).  Barosaurus had an extremely long neck, four column-like legs and a whip-like tail.  An adult Barosaurus might get to 80 feet long, 15-20 feet tall and weighed (in life) about 20 tons.  This specimen is beautiful and in some places partially articulated (bones still connected).

Articulated Tail

For several days, Lab Preparator Mindy Householder has been excavating a partially articulated tail.  Near it are the hips, femora (upper leg bones), tibiae (lower leg bones), fibulae (shin bones), ribs, humeri (upper arm bones and some forearm material.  I think that we also have some neck material.  So needless to say, this is going to be a mountable dinosaur.  A rough estimate based on its 5 foot long femur would indicate this Barosaurus might have been 50-60 feet long when it died…..so a teenager??

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By Scott Williams, June 21, 2010 7:40 pm

Rain.  Rain for paleontologists can be a good and a bad thing.  Without rain, erosion does not take place.  Without erosion, new bones cannot weather out to be found.  However too much rain can obliterate a specimen over time.  So finding a good dinosaur specimen requires just the right amount of rain/weathering and good timing.  Also rain can be a good “excuse” to take a few days off.

River? Road?

When doing field work in Utah or Montana, rain can make life miserable.  The high clay content in the soils can turn roads to axle grease and make walking a near death experience.  the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry is in a basin or bowl, so another concern is flash floods….another hazard to avoid.  So when it rains, we retreat to higher ground and pavement.   This was the case last Saturday and Sunday, when after several days of 100 degree temperatures a cold front pushed in, dropped temps to the 60s and brought lots of rain.

We drove out Saturday morning to view the road only to find part of it was now a river.  We snaked our way about 2 miles in and found new rivers forming, wash rock moving and even a water fall. After getting some cool

Road? Waterfall?

pics of the Burpee Crew on one of the water falls, we decided to retreat.  More rain was coming and the bowl might fill up.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at Arches National Park and Sunday was spent in the LaSal Mountains.  So rain can be good (softens up the ground and provides much needed days off) it can also be bad (washes out roads and delays schedules).  /sigh.

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By Scott Williams, June 21, 2010 7:17 pm

Willem Dafoe with Scott & Katie

One of the added bonuses of working for Burpee Museum aside from travel has been getting to meet new people.  In this regard 2010 did not disappoint.  Not long after opening the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry, the BLM told us that a major motion picture was going to be filmed near us and for a few days on the same road we work on.  Disney-Pixar was going shoot major scenes for John Carter of Mars.  This live action meets CGI movie is based on a Edgar Rice Burroughs series of novels written in the early 1900’s.  Needles to say this excited the whole Burpee crew.  By pure luck our public tours began as filming was still in our area.  Almost immediately cast and crew began coming to the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.

Betsy Carlson tours with the crew

A couple of the visitors; Paki Smith (art director) and William Todd-Jones (actor-puppeteer) came multiple times and sent more and more crew to us for tours.  In a few days we probably had 50-60 visitors from the movie.  Katie and I made a quick trip to the Movie basecamp to pass out fliers and promote the museum.  As soon as we got there, we were mobbed by people showing us agate, petrified wood and other fossils.  We were intoduced to the Director, Andrew Stanton (he also directed Finding Nemo and Wall-E).  Andrew was very kind and interested in what we were doing and encouraged everyone to come to the quarry.  Over the next few days movie and museum crews became frequent visitors to each other’s “set”.  On Sunday, Burpee was “called” to the movie set after eager crew members were playing paleontologist and found dinosaur bones.  In between takes Burpee worked on the dinosaur bones found by the crew.

Samantha Morton with Scott & Betsy

We even got to meet actor Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Mississippi Burning, Spiderman) and actress Samantha Morton (In America, Minority Report).  Samantha had a real interest in dinosaurs and spent over an hour excavating a rib that was found.  Samantha eventually came to our quarry for a personal tour with her family.  Burpee crew even made an appearance at the wrap up of shooting.  Emails were exchanged and new Burpee Paleontology shirts were given to some of our new friends.  It was an amazing experience and now hundreds of movie professionals now know of Burpee Museum!!  ……John Carter of Mars opens in 2012!  Go see the movie so there will be a sequel and Burpee can be the “unofficial” paleontology crew!!

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By Scott Williams, June 14, 2010 4:44 pm

Volunteers!!  Finding dedicated volunteers is a staple for museums of any size.  Over the years Burpee Museum has been blessed with many good volunteers.  Burpee volunteers fill many roles from assisting with tours, helping in the collections, doing yard work, preparing fossils, moving cabinets or even working in the field.  Id like to mention one of volunteers.  Mel Jackovich from Dixon, Il has become one of our most relied on volunteers aside from assisting in the collections and preparing fossils, Mel is a bone-digging machine.  This year Mel spent 10 days working at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  In addition to excavating several bones from an Apatosaurus/Camarasaurus bone “jumble” Mel found several new bones including a partially articulated sauropod tail.  Mel even went the extra mile and transported about 400 lbs of dinosaur bones back to Burpee.  Without dedicated volunteers like Mel, Burpee could not provide the excellent services it currently does.  Thanks to Mel and all the other volunteers, Burpee can continue to do things no other museum its size does!!

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By Scott Williams, June 14, 2010 4:40 pm

More bones and bones.  The 2nd week of volunteers continues as well as every week were are out here.  Bones are found, bones are mapped and bones are excavated.  About mid-week, Burpee Expedition Veteran Joe Mongan found a beautiful tibia (lower leg bone).  It was in pristine condition.

Joe Mongin With Tibia

We are fairly certain it belongs to a sub-adult Barosaurus we have been collecting on part of the quarry we call Limb Bone Ridge.  Joe did an expert job in excavating and plastering this bone.  Interestingly, it appears that the cartilage that would have been on the top (proximal) part of the tibia had ossified while the animal was alive, meaning that this bone was done growing.  Based on the proportions of this tibia and femur found nearby, I would estimate this Barosaurus might have been 60 feet long when it died.   Considering we have front and hing limbs, hips, neck, back and tail vertebra….I am confident that we have a mountable sauropod!

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By Scott Williams, June 4, 2010 11:47 am

Mel Jackovich with tail vertebrae

Another great day, several articulated bones were found.  Burpee Volunteer Mel Jackovich found 7 articulated tail vertebra for a possible Apatosaurus.  Finding articulated material is always so cool.  It shows that although these carcasses were transported they weren’t transported very far before they were buried.  

 Also, articulated bones are just neat to see.  In addition to the articulated material we have a complete set of hips for our big Barosaurus, two new femora (upper leg bones) and I think Paul Vaitkus has some other articulated material.  

Nancy & Bob Moore

 Another great day with and endless supply of late Jurassic dinosaur bones waiting for us tomorrow.

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By Scott Williams, June 4, 2010 11:44 am

Normally, I would post about how awesome this quarry is and how we keep finding bone after bone after bone.  Of course it would be true.  However this time I really have something to crow about.  We have found and collected part of a sauropod skull.  One of the WIU students, Megan Luczak uncovered a strange bone.  

Scott Williams works on dentary

 In a short time I was able to prep off one surface and determine it was a Camarasaurus dentary (jaw) and part of the braincse.  This was exceptionally exciting as sauropod skulls are pretty rare.  They had huge bodies and relatively small skulls.  Hopefully we can find more of this skull in the near future.