Denver Museum Of Nature And Science

Significant Initiatives And Legislation Enacted In Colorado

In 1881 Colorado voters approved a referendum that selected as the .

Colorado was the first state in the union to enact, by voter referendum, to women. That initiative was approved by the state’s voters on November 7, 1893.

On the November 8, 1932, ballot, Colorado approved the more than a year before the was ratified.

Colorado has banned, via C.R.S. section 12-6-302, the sale of motor vehicles on Sunday since at least 1953.

In 1972 Colorado voters rejected a to fund the , which had been scheduled to be held in the state. Denver had been chosen by the as host city on May 12, 1970.

In 1992, by a margin of 53 to 47 percent, Colorado voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that would have prevented any city, town, or county in the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to recognize homosexuals or bisexuals as a . In 1996, in a 63 ruling in , the U.S. Supreme Court found that preventing protected status based upon homosexuality or did not satisfy the .

In 2006 voters passed Amendment 43, which purported to ban gay marriage in Colorado. That initiative was nullified by the ‘s 2015 decision in .

In 2012, voters amended the state constitution protecting “personal use” of marijuana for adults, establishing a framework to regulate in a manner similar to . The first recreational marijuana shops in Colorado, and by extension the United States, opened their doors on January 1, 2014.

Denver Museum Of Nature & Science

In 1868, pioneer and naturalist Edwin Carter arrived in Breckenridge, Colo., and devoted himself to his true lovethe birds and mammals of the Rocky Mountains. Carter soon assembled one of the most complete collections of Colorado fauna and displayed his specimens in his log cabin home, dubbed the Carter Museum.

As word spread of the Carter collection, the need became apparent for a larger fireproof building to preserve and display his growing natural history collection. Funds were soon raised and The Colorado Museum of Natural History was incorporated on December 6, 1900. The collections were soon enhanced with crystalline gold specimens from John F. Campion and butterflies and moths from John T. Mason.

A new building in Denvers City Park was completed and opened to the public in July 1908. Over the years the Museum has expanded with the addition of Phipps Auditorium , Gates Planetarium , an IMAX theater , a major 187,000-square-foot addition in 1987, and the Leprino Family Atrium and Anschutz Family Sky Terrace . Today the museum continues to evolve, expanding in both size and breadth of activities, as our exhibits, programs, research, and collections continue to offer opportunities for discovery. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors experience the natural wonders of Colorado, Earth, and the universe.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Next Free Night At Denver Museum Of Nature & Science On June 29 Reserve Timed Tickets Now

Our wonderful Denver Museum of Nature & Science offers families so much to see, do and explore. A visit can easily fill the entire day with wonder, knowledge and lots of fun. And, thanks to our citys Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, you can expand your mind, not your wallet on the institutions annual FREE Days. The next one is is actually a FREE night from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29. Tickets are going fast, because this is Space Night!

Museum admission is FREE for everyone.

You do need to reserve your free, timed ticket. Because of the special celebration, tickets for the morning times are going quickly.

On Space Night special guests from local aerospace industries will host space-themed activities. Watch a 60 Minutes in Space presentation to get the latest in space news or spend some time in the Space Odyssey exhibition. Explore Egypt: The Time of Pharaohs, get lost in Mazes & Brain Games, catch an IMAX show or check out the Planetarium.

Sometimes the DMNS ticketing system is fussy. So, for tickets go here.

Where it says Selected Date click on the blue box to open up the calendar and choose Wednesday, June 29. Then, available times and tickets should appear.

Additionally, separate timed tickets are required for:

• Space Odyssey
• SUE: The T-rex Experience

Tickets required for all members and guests, ages 3 and up.

Where you see the calendar in the blue box, click on it and choose June 29. Then, tickets will be available.

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Selection Of Temporary Exhibits

• Ancient Denver, a series of paintings by local artists that depict the Denver area from 300 million years ago to the present.
• Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed, a large exhibit covering art, culture, astronomy, religion, ball games and warfare, as well as potential reasons for the collapse of the Mayan empire.
• Whales: Giants of the Deep, an exhibit that originated in New Zealand, where there was a large whale-fishing industry. The exhibit includes whale skulls and skeletons, videos, cultural artifacts, and “explaration stations”.
• Traveling the Silk Road, artifacts from the ancient trade route, from Xian, the imperial city of China’s Tang Dynasty, to Istanbul.

Twin Towns Sister Cities

Denver’s relationship with , began in 1948, making it the second-oldest in the United States. In 1947, Amanda Knecht, a teacher at East High School, visited World War II-ravaged Brest. When she returned, she shared her experiences in the city with her students, and her class raised $32,000 to help rebuild the children’s wing of Brest’s hospital. The gift led to the development of the sister city program with Brest. There were serious efforts in the early 2000s, in both Denver and , , to establish sister-city ties, but the negotiations did not come to fruition.

Since then, Denver has established relationships with additional sister cities:

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North American Indian Cultures

Shelter. Food. Clothing. Tools. Experience the incredible diversity among Native American groups and the practicality and artistry of their everyday objects.We are all different, we are all the same is the thread running through this exhibition hall. Shelter, food, clothing, transportation, tools-all are basic human needs satisfied in different ways by different cultures. Among North America’s native peoples, the rich diversity in traditional and modern lifeways reflects the distinctive regional influences of environment and materials.

As you travel through the various regions you can explore authentic reconstructed dwellings, including an Inuit snow house, a Northwest Coast clan house, a Navajo hogan, and a Cheyenne tipi. Along the way, examine beautifully crafted weavings, basketry, beadwork, and pottery. Stop to listen to stories and watch videos on the major cultural groups.

Entrance Ticket Details For Denver Museum Of Nature And Science

• If you would like to explore all the facilities, then ticket prices will differ.
• Adult from $14.95 to $22.95 Junior from $9.95 to $14.95 Senior from $11.95 to $18.95.
• Admission Packages: Adult from $21.95 to $26.95 Junior from $15.95 to $19.95 Senior from $17.95 to $21.95.
• Students with a valid ID can avail a discount of 10% off general tickets.
• All military personnel with a valid ID will be allowed a free entry to museum.
• Group reservations done 10 days prior will receive a 10% discount.
• Buy tickets online to book educational tours.
• Alternatively, you can buy tickets online, over a phone or at the museum.
• Free days, where every visitor is allowed an entry without any charge. Free days for the year 2015 are January 25, March 2, April 12, April 25, May 31, June 29, July 26, August 17, September 27, October 19, November 9.

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Things To Know Before You Go

• The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is ideal for families with children and all natural science fans.

• Lockers are available for a nominal fee just outside the main entrance.

• A café on the ground floor is open 11am to 2pm with grab-and-go items available throughout museum hours.

• The museum is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers. These as well as canes are available at the information desk.

• The museum has resources for guests with autism and sensory needsask about braille maps, noise-reducing headphones, assisted listening devices, and more.

A Gnome Is Hidden Under An Escalator At The Denver Museum Of Nature And Science Jan 3 2017

Gather round, Denver, and settle on in. Today well tell you a tale of adventure a mystical quest for elusive creatures unknown.

With full bellies, literature and a camera in hand, and the twinkle of curiosity in our eyes, we set out to see something wed neer before seen.

What I mean is that we ate some Mexican food and spent an hour in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science looking for hidden elves in the displays.

If you already know about this, forgive us. You can leave, I guess, or you can stick with us for a whimsical jaunt.

We here at Denverite just learned that Kent Pendleton, the artist responsible for the backgrounds of some exhibits, painted elves into the scenery. Naturally, we wanted to go looking for them ourselves, so Kevin and I set out on the hunt.

But before we embark on this journey, lets get two things out of the way.

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Dmns Ambassador Linda Kozlowski Holds Up A Guide To Finding Hidden Gnomes Around The Museum Denver Museum Of Nature And Science Jan 3 2017

You might at first look think the clues look a little too helpful. I know we did. But trust us when we say youll be glad you have some guidance. I have perfect vision and I had a tough time spotting Pendletons creations, even with pretty explicit directions, and you dont want to be painstakingly searching the backgrounds of every single diorama.

I never really made them easy to find because I didnt want to detract from the exhibits, Pendleton said.

The little dude at the top of this story is probably the most well-known at the museum, though hes not one of Pendletons creations. As museum ambassador Drew Kieckhafur explained to us, staff hid some gnomes figurines throughout the museum to add to the game theyd created around Pendletons work.

One of the other figurines, which Kieckhafur correctly called the ugliest, is hiding on the surface of Mars. Hes hard to spot, but as with all of these, I wont ruin your fun with explicit directions.

Denver Museum Of Nature And Science Has Big Plans For Anonymous $25 Million Donation

DENVER – The Denver Museum of Nature and Science is a staple in our state and a hub for exploring and learning.This holiday season, the museum is receiving the largest donation it ever has: $25 million from an anonymous donor.

The museum’s president and CEO says they’re just amazed by this generosity and vision. The money will be used to vastly expand the museum’s capacity for collections conservation.

Ten percent of the funds, or $2.5 million will go directly to the museum for staffing, equipment and launch activities. The other 90% will establish an endowment fund.

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When The Cataclysm Struck

Sixty-six million years ago, a meteorite larger than Mount Everest slammed into Earth. This was the single worst day for life on our planet, when 75 percent of species went extinct in a geologic blink of an eye.

Obviously, the planet and living creatures rebounded. Humans are testament to the recovery of life. But how did it happen? For decades, scientists have tried to squeeze every bit of data possible out of the rocks from the first million years after the dinosaur extinction. But, the results of over 100 years of hammering away are just fragments of teeth, an occasional jaw, and an ultra-rare skull once every few decades. As a consequence, we dont know much about the mammals that survived. Until now.

The discovery of an extraordinary treasure trove of fossils near Colorado Springs by Drs. Tyler Lyson and Ian Miller reveals in striking detail how life recovered after the catastrophic asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Their new research, published in Science magazine, paints a vivid portrait of the first million years after the impact.

Morgridge Family Exploration Center And Avenir Collections Facility

In 2014, a $70 million addition was added to the museum containing the Morgridge Family Exploration Center and the Avenir Collections Center.

The Morgridge Family Exploration Center constitutes three above-ground levels that encourage visitors to learn about science and the natural world. The center includes Exploration Studios, a new temporary exhibition gallery, an atrium space, a completely-redeveloped Discovery Zone for early learners, and the outdoor, Boettcher Plaza with unique public art.

The Avenir Collections Center, part of a $70 million expansion in 2007, is a climate-controlled facility devoted to housing for nearly 1.5 million artifacts and specimens. The facility includes 63,000 square feet in two underground levels, and holds specimens such as bison from the 1870s, passenger pigeons, the last grizzly bear to be killed in Colorado in 1979, and roadkill brought in by the public. The data from these specimens is placed in online databases, and linked to public databases, like BioPortal.

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Denver Museum Of Nature And Science Jan 3 2017

It was just kind of my own little private joke, Pendleton said. The first one was so small that hardly anyone could see it, but it sort of escalated over time, I guess. Some of the museum volunteers picked up on it and it developed a life of its own.

So, first things first, we got ourselves a guide. The information desk in the entryway of the museum on the right past the ticket desks has clue sheets that tell you which exhibits are hiding elves, leprechauns and gnomes, and generally where they are within.

The Light Bulb Moment

A monumental breakthrough occurred in 2016 when Lyson and Miller concentrated their efforts in an area called Corral Bluffs. They believed this Denver Basin locale showed promise because a handful of relatively complete vertebrate fossils had been found there over the decades.

So, they set their eyes to the ground, looking for bits of bone, the way they were trained to find fossils. They came up with only fragments.

However, Lyson was convinced they werent keying in on the right material, perhaps not seeing what was right in front of their noses. He recalled his fossil hunting experience with South African colleagues in the deserts of the Karoo, where the key to finding fossils was not searching for bone fragments but for a particular kind of rock called a concretion.

So what if the team searched Corral Bluffs for concretions instead of the usual bone? It was the light bulb moment that changed the game completely.

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Denver Museum Of Nature And Science

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and sciencemuseum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The 716,000-square-foot building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials, as well as archival and library resources.

The museum is an independent, nonprofit institution with approximately 350 full-time and part-time staff, more than 1,800 volunteers, and a 25-member board of trustees. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate.

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1555 California St., Denver, CO 80202

233-6837 | 892-1505

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Please Don’t Stomp The Elf Denver Museum Of Nature And Science Jan 3 2017

Theres one more near running water, and a couple of the most fearless of these little men walk with the dinosaurs. Kieckhafur insisted that the best of Pendletons little buddies can be found in prehistoric times.

But weve exposed enough already.

You can go searching for yourselves at 2001 Colorado Blvd. any day of the week between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Admission is $11.95 for kids 3-18, $13.95 for seniors 65 and older and $16.95 for all other adults. Check this schedule for days when admission is free.

You can also find Pendletons work at the Denver Zoo, as well as visitors centers and museums around the country including the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque, the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne and the Loveland Museum Gallery here in Colorado.

And, yes, he says you can find his artistic signature in some of those places, too.

Heres an especially tough one for practice:

Denver Museum Of Nature And Science And Its Collection

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver , Colorado . It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The 716,000-square-foot building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials, as well as archival and library resources. The museum is an independent, nonprofit institution with approximately 350 full-time and part-time staff, more than 1,800 volunteers, and a 25-member board of trustees. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate .

Nature & Natural History

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