(Okoboji)– Some new exhibits are on display at the Dickinson County Nature Center. Community Relations Coordinator Kiley Roth says one of them pertains to the wingspan of birds…
“We chose some birds that you can see in Kenue Park during different seasons including our trumpeter swans, the osprey that nest here during the summertime, great horned owl, mallards that like our wetland, a robin and a hummingbird. So they have wingspans ranging all the way from 79 inches all the way down to three tiny little inches for the hummingbird. So people can stand in front of it and see how their wingspan is compared to some of these birds. It’s a lot of fun just to give you a really great aspect ratio of how big some of these birds are.”
Roth says the other exhibit consists of artifacts from the Abbie Gardner Sharp cabin and Museum…
“So we partner with the State Historical Society of Iowa which owns the Abbie Gardner Sharp Cabin and Museum in Arnolds Park. We staff it each summer through the Conservation Board. It’s closed this time of year but we thought it would be fun to utilize our traveling exhibit display area in the library area of the nature center to house some of the artifacts from the museum so that people can learn about it even when that historic site is closed during the off season, so if you come in we have a few different artifacts on native americans, like arrow heads, some beaded moccasins, a piece of pipe stone, and then we have some pioneer artifacts from that area as well and then we have all the interpretations from the cabin so you can learn more about the history of some of the native americans in the area, what lead up to the Spirit Lake Massacre in 1857, Abbie Gardner’s experience during that massacre and her capture, and kind of her life afterwards.”
Roth says the Abbie Gardner Sharp artifacts and interpretative material will be on display through April while the wingspan exhibit will be a permanent display.
The Dickinson County Nature Center is open to the public 10:00 am until 4:00 pm Tuesday through Saturday.
