WHY WE ARE CONTACTING YOU:  Orange County is the only county in Southern California that does not have a Natural History Museum.  However, there is an opportunity NOW to have land set aside for that purpose.  The O.C. Great Park Board of Directors are making decisions about what to put in the 240-acre Cultural Terrace at the Orange County Great Park.  Available land in Orange County is scarce.  We have this window of opportunity to ask them to set aside land for a Cultural and Natural History Museum complex and a botanical garden.

The County has millions of fossils, and thousands of artifacts, in storage and they are not available to the public.  This rich history of fossils and artifacts, perhaps one of the most important fossil-bearing areas in North America, if not the world, needs to be curated and displayed.  Additionally, the “stories” and history of our County’s people, from all over the world, needs to be told.

The Orange County Great Park’s Board of Directors are asking for input from the public as to the possible uses for land in its’ Cultural Terrace

WHAT CAN YOU DO:  Express your endorsement of this project to the Board of Directors of the County Great Park…Please write a letter or email and call them. You may even know some of them personally.

DID YOU KNOW:

-        A county ordinance, and Federal preservation laws require that fossils, mostly uncovered by construction, be saved and kept in the county they were found, for the “benefit and inspiration of the public”. And yet for want of a Natural History Museum, our county’s rich store of fossils and artifacts cannot be displayed, and are warehoused out of sight of the public.

-        An Orange County Cultural and Natural History Museum would include a Native American wing featuring the stories of the Juaneno/Acjachemen and Gabrielino/Tongva, a science and fossil wing, and a history wing.

-        The world famous and mysterious, “Cogged Stones”, are only found here in Orange County, but hardly anyone can see them now.

-        Teachers have to go to other Counties in order to provide enrichment for their students, even though our County is very rich in material.

-        An Orange County Museum would provide us, our children and grand-children with educational experiences, enrichment activities and opportunities for participation and “Lifelong Learning” programs and facilities.

- Working archaeological, anthropological facilities would have “windows” into the labs  that would showcase the curation and preparation of displays and exhibits by paleontologists and other scientists. The Natural History wing would display rare fossils that date back 180 million years.

Please contact the:

Great Park Board of Directors

Irvine City Hall

1 Civic Center Plaza

Irvine, CA  92606