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By Madeleine Osberger
Sun Staff Writer
A prime retail space that is as lifeless as a fossil will soon be transformed into a temporary museum for the Snowmass Ice Age discoveries.
The exhibit, which will start out modestly, will feature one three-dimensional wooden skeleton of a mammoth, informational boards about the Ziegler Reservoir discovery, a looping video produced by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, plus tables and activities for children.
“Don't expect millions of animals,” said Susan Hamley, the director of Snowmass Tourism. In remarks Feb. 3 to the town's marketing board, Hamley said there will also be at least one hands-on specimen, likely a tooth, as “people need to touch and feel things.”
Children will enjoy hands-on mammoth model building, not unlike what was offered during last fall's Denver Museum of Nature & Science open house at the Base Village conference center. More activities are expected to be in place in time for spring break.
The mall space, located next to Gene Taylor's on the Snowmass Mall (it was actually once part of the sports store until morphing into a now-shuttered sales office) is being offered to the town rent free until next October, thanks to a recommendation by Related WestPac's Dwayne Romero and Matt Foley to their New York bosses.
While the rent is free for now, Hamley told the board that the price tag for this center and the initial mammoth marketing comes in at around $40,000, but “we're still working on bringing it down.”
Outgoing chair of the marketing board, Robert Sinko, asked if there were any other available sources of revenue to support this project. That's one of the topics of discussion that will hit the table when the town's Ice Age Tusk Force convenes for the first time on Feb. 9.
Also set to be discussed is the possibility of the town arranging limited tours to the dig site this spring as well as helping to provide security for the reservoir. As expenditures on marketing funds are restricted, that money may have to come out of the town's general fund, said Town Manager Russ Forrest. He added, “We're looking at what's the long-range plan for this.”
On Oct. 14, 2010, a crew that was working on expanding the former Ziegler Pond into a reservoir for water storage for Snowmass Village un-earthed part of a tusk of a juvenile Columbian mammoth. It was hidden about 8 feet below the earth's surface in a layer of peat. Not unlike the discovery of silver and gold in the late 1800s, this find created a huge “bone rush,” that attracted paleontologists and archeologists from Colorado and well beyond.
Owners of the land, the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District, leaned on the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to help investigate. They provided a tent to cover what was eventually found to be almost an entire skeleton of a juvenile mammoth. Less than two weeks later, the teeth and tusk of a mastodon were found and what appeared to be an isolated find suddenly assumed mammoth proportions.
While scientists will return this spring to continue a limited dig, the mystery and lore created by the Ice Age finds will live on in perpetuity and in the imaginations of Snowmass Village locals and guests for eons to come.
mosberger@snowmasssun.com
Sun Staff Writer
A prime retail space that is as lifeless as a fossil will soon be transformed into a temporary museum for the Snowmass Ice Age discoveries.
The exhibit, which will start out modestly, will feature one three-dimensional wooden skeleton of a mammoth, informational boards about the Ziegler Reservoir discovery, a looping video produced by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, plus tables and activities for children.
“Don't expect millions of animals,” said Susan Hamley, the director of Snowmass Tourism. In remarks Feb. 3 to the town's marketing board, Hamley said there will also be at least one hands-on specimen, likely a tooth, as “people need to touch and feel things.”
Children will enjoy hands-on mammoth model building, not unlike what was offered during last fall's Denver Museum of Nature & Science open house at the Base Village conference center. More activities are expected to be in place in time for spring break.
The mall space, located next to Gene Taylor's on the Snowmass Mall (it was actually once part of the sports store until morphing into a now-shuttered sales office) is being offered to the town rent free until next October, thanks to a recommendation by Related WestPac's Dwayne Romero and Matt Foley to their New York bosses.
While the rent is free for now, Hamley told the board that the price tag for this center and the initial mammoth marketing comes in at around $40,000, but “we're still working on bringing it down.”
Outgoing chair of the marketing board, Robert Sinko, asked if there were any other available sources of revenue to support this project. That's one of the topics of discussion that will hit the table when the town's Ice Age Tusk Force convenes for the first time on Feb. 9.
Also set to be discussed is the possibility of the town arranging limited tours to the dig site this spring as well as helping to provide security for the reservoir. As expenditures on marketing funds are restricted, that money may have to come out of the town's general fund, said Town Manager Russ Forrest. He added, “We're looking at what's the long-range plan for this.”
On Oct. 14, 2010, a crew that was working on expanding the former Ziegler Pond into a reservoir for water storage for Snowmass Village un-earthed part of a tusk of a juvenile Columbian mammoth. It was hidden about 8 feet below the earth's surface in a layer of peat. Not unlike the discovery of silver and gold in the late 1800s, this find created a huge “bone rush,” that attracted paleontologists and archeologists from Colorado and well beyond.
Owners of the land, the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District, leaned on the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to help investigate. They provided a tent to cover what was eventually found to be almost an entire skeleton of a juvenile mammoth. Less than two weeks later, the teeth and tusk of a mastodon were found and what appeared to be an isolated find suddenly assumed mammoth proportions.
While scientists will return this spring to continue a limited dig, the mystery and lore created by the Ice Age finds will live on in perpetuity and in the imaginations of Snowmass Village locals and guests for eons to come.
mosberger@snowmasssun.com
