The full article first appeared in Travel Awaits on Jan. 17, 2022.
My interest
was first piqued by photos of replica mammoths rising from a black lake. I could
not believe how an urban location like Los Angeles could be host to La
Brea Tar Pits, where
huge extinct mammoths to tiny remnants of plants and animals had been fossilized
and are still being actively excavated today. I had to see it to believe it.
Oil was
formed from marine plankton deposited in an ocean basin 5-25 million years ago where Los Angeles is now.
It has been seeping to the surface throughout the grounds. The gooey, heavy, and viscous substance is called
asphalt or more commonly tar, the lowest grade of crude oil. When warm, it
becomes very sticky, trapping animals that came into contact with it like
flies on flypaper
The Lake Pit
I looked for
those mastodons coming out of the dark lake first. Indeed, three life-sized
mammoths are cavorting in what is called the Lake Pit. But, there’s no need to worry:
they are just concrete recreations of the scene, depicting how creatures got
trapped, became fossilized, and preserved in the asphalt.
Lake Pit was
formed from what was left of asphalt mining operations in the late 1800s when
rain and groundwater collected above the sticky substance over the
deep underground Salt Lake Oil Field. Bubbling and exuding a
distinctive odor, the Lake Pit sits right in front of the Museum, wire-fenced
for the safety of visitors. A hike around the perimeter gave me great
pictures of the mastodons with various backdrops: the amphitheater on one side,
an LA skyscraper on another, or the Museum in the middle.
The Museum
When you
step inside the Museum, you will see some of the most spectacular and yet most
common fossils like huge ground sloths, towering mammoths, and saber-toothed
cats. There is a Fossil Lab where you may see scientists preparing specimens to
be put on display in the many galleries. The collection is the world’s most complete record of what
life was like at the end of the Ice Age. At last count, there were over 3.5
million specimens among 60 plus species of mammals. The collection of fossil
birds is also one of the largest in the world.
Project 23
Beside La
Brea Tar Pits is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
(LACMA). In 2006
work was begun on its new underground parking garage. During construction, 16
new fossil deposits were uncovered. Twenty-three large wooden boxes were built around
each deposit, and they were moved to their present location at La Brea Tar Pits
which came to be called “Project 23.” This project will keep the
scientists busy for years; when completed, it may double the size of the
present collection. One of the biggest discoveries is an 80% complete skeleton
of a Columbian mammoth nicknamed “Zed” whose 10-foot-long tusks are now at the Museum.
The Pits
All the excavations
made between July 1913 and September 1915 began to be called “pits.” They
started with over 100 but more than 50 proved to be totally unproductive.
However, more than ten yielded many outstanding specimens. We visited Pit 91, considered Number 1 among all the pits, where
thousands of bones are jumbled together in pools of sticky asphalt from which paleontologists
carefully extract the true fossils. Excavations started in 1915 and are still going on actively.
There is
also an Observation Pit, designed and built over Pit 101 to give visitors the
actual feel of entering a fossil pit. First
opened to the public in 1952, it was closed in the mid1990s and served as the
first museum on the grounds. It was reopened to the public in 2014.
The Amphitheater
At the
Amphitheater, the documentary called “Titans of the Ice Age” plays for only $6
per person (or free for members of La Brea). Narrated by Christopher Plummer, the3D
feature film takes you
to a world, 10,000 years before modern civilization, hidden in ice and dominated by giants; a frozen world that was
already on the brink of extinction when majestic creatures lived on the same tundra
as humans.
The Pleistocene Garden
Los Angeles
was not yet lined with palm trees during that period; rather, it was an oasis
of pine, sage, and buckwheat. This
vegetation, based on the research gathered from Pit 91 for 35 years, is recreated
in La Brea’s pretty Pleistocene Garden divided into four ecological systems:
Coastal Sage, Riparian, Mixed Evergreen/Redwood Forest, and Chaparral.
Hancock Park
La Brea Tar
Pits is a favorite place to visit for families and schools so the park has also
been converted into a fun community resource for any type of boot camp training, for kids to play next to
super-sized Ice Age mammals, and for residents and tourists to stroll among the many paths around the pits, and
picnic under the trees.
Pro Tip: We
did not know that the two sites we wanted to visit, the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art (LACMA) and La Brea Tar Pits, are sitting next to each other. If you
would like to do this, we suggest that you use either parking lot and simply
walk to the other on a great two-site, one-day visit. You’ll save one of
the parking fees. And, since both are on Wilshire Boulevard, the area has many
nearby restaurants and food trucks offering outdoor dining or take-out food.
Consider grabbing your favorite dish(es) and having a picnic in Hancock Park or
at LACMA during this sight-seeing day.
