THUNDER BAY - The city of Thunder Bay and surrounding area has a rich history, from Indigenous people who lived here for thousands of years, to the fur trade, to the many contributions during the First and Second World War. But there is a lot more to the story, one that has been billions of years in the making and includes massive creatures that can bring anyone’s imagination to life.
“Dinosaurs and fossils are awesome for any age,” said Jason Feller, the assistant archivist with the Thunder Bay Museum. “No matter what age you are, you have to love dinosaurs, even a little bit.”
The Thunder Bay Museum unveiled its new and improved Dinosaur Exhibit, which includes everyone’s favourite Albertosaurus, Albert, but now also features local fossils from the Precambrian era to the Cenozoic.
“You can follow and go through sort of like a time machine from 2 billion years ago up to around 10,000 and 500 years ago to the early settlements in the Thunder Bay area,” Feller said.
“The exhibit was a little bit barebones before but I really wanted to take the exhibit and turn it into a whole time scale. It also gives people a context that there are other relevant things in this area that they may not think of.”
The exhibit, which was two months in the making, includes nearly 200 artifacts and fossils, a substantial increase from the 15 or so that were on display previously. It also includes interactive elements, including a fossil dig for kids to uncover their own fossils and learn about what they have discovered.
Feller said many people do not realize just how much from the prehistoric world can be found right in our own back yard. Some of the fossils on display at the exhibit are the oldest to ever be found on earth and include corals from when the entire area was under a prehistoric ocean, stromatolite fossils, a vertebra from a Mosasaur, a 15-foot predatory reptile found in northern Manitoba, mammoth tusks, and more recently, arrowheads and stone tools used by ancient peoples.
“I really wanted to make an area where both kids and adults can learn more about not just Thunder Bay’s recent local history, but our ancient history as well,” Feller said. “We used to have the oldest fossils in the world until the early 90s with our stromatolite from ancient seas.”
Michael deJong, a curator and archivist with the museum, said the expanded exhibit really helps put one of the museum’s most popular attractions into context.
“Albert has always been an immensely popular facet of our museum, but the challenge for us has always been to be able to interpret it in the context of our mandate, which is to talk about the history of this area,” he said.
“This puts him in the context of the timeframe of human and natural history and relates it to aspects of the local area.”
The exhibit will be on display until December. DeJong said it will be a cyclical exhibit, but he hopes it will become a permanent fixture of the museum.