Natural History Museum in Rock Springs, Wyoming

Visitors Discover Impressive Dinosaur, Fossil and Wildlife Displays

Jan 3, 2009

This self-guided tour of the Natural History Museum at Western Wyoming Community College offers visitors fun, educational activities while visiting Sweetwater County.

The Natural History Museum on the Western Wyoming Community College campus in Rock Springs contains an impressive collection of full-size dinosaur skeletons, prehistoric fossils and other natural history displays. The Weidner Wildlife Museum is also located on the WWCC campus. The museum is a great place to take children. Families can walk around the college as the entire campus is connected indoors, beating the hot summer heat or staying warm during cold Wyoming winters.

Beginning in 1989, a fund-raising project helped bring the dinosaurs back to Wyoming. The Natural History Museum now displays specimens native to Wyoming, both casts and actual fossils. According to the college, the display in Rock Springs is “the largest easily accessible collection of dinosaurs along I-80 from Chicago to San Francisco.”

Western Wyoming Community College's Natural History Museum contains full-size dinosaurs, plant fossils, art, enclave exhibits of fossils, replicas and other displays. The museum includes a full-size skeleton of:

This moai was used by a team of scientists for a NOVA special on Easter Island. The scientists, including WWCC's own professor Charlie Love, investigated how the statues were moved. The team found that once the statue was moved onto logs, it could be pulled and rolled into position.

Natural History Museum Tour

This amazing collection and tour begins with the cast of Triceratops, greeting visitors as they walk into the WWCC campus. The original fossil is located at the Museum of Natural History in New York. The Triceratops fossils were first found in eastern Wyoming in the late 1880s.

The next display on the tour is the massive Plesiosaur hanging in mid-air, posed as if it is swimming. Not considered a dinosaur but rather a marine reptile, the Plesiosaur swam in the seas covering Wyoming. The Plesiosaur has long been thought to be the ancient ancestor of the Loch Ness Monster. Scientists have now discovered that the Plesiosaur could not raise its head but rather moved its long neck side to side like a snake. The Plesiosaur fossils have been found in Wyoming.

Just past the Plesiosaur display is the Stegosaurus skeleton. The original dinosaur fossils were found in Wyoming in 1891 but are now displayed in New York. This Stegosaurus is posed in a walking position, with its front leg raised. The Stegosaurus could stand on its back legs and feed from trees.

Perhaps the most popular dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus Rex is posed in the dining area at WWCC, overlooking the city of Rock Springs. Many fossil fragments of T-rex have been found in the Rock Springs area. There are 11 Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons on display in the world, this one perhaps the most impressive, as the native skeleton overlooks the place it once roamed.

Weidner Wildlife Museum at WWCC

The Roger A. and Jeanne A. Weidner Wildlife Museum is open most days with no admission charge. The room is filled with wildlife collected worldwide. The Weidners donated their collection to the college to help educate the public about wildlife. The creatures include the giant African elephant, American buffalo, African lion, a Southern white rhino, hippo, many species of antelope, deer and elk, an African leopard, gray wolf, cougar, quail and many more, totally 125 species in all. Visitors can also view the jack-a-lope, native to Wyoming.

Directions and Hours

The museum is open everyday from 9am to 10pm. Western Wyoming Community College is located off I-80 at exit #103 at 2500 College Drive in Rock Springs. Donations are welcome.

The copyright of the article Natural History Museum in Rock Springs, Wyoming in Wyoming Travel is owned by Aurae Beidler. Permission to republish Natural History Museum in Rock Springs, Wyoming in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.