Road Trip Idea: Visit the Stonerose Interpretive Center!

If you’re looking for something to do over the upcoming weekend, a road trip may come to mind. While deciding on your destination, consider taking a trip to the Stonerose Interpretive Center in Republic, Washington. This 5-1/2 hour drive from Seattle is well worth your time. Stonerose has breathtaking fossils and an Eocene fossil bed where you can search for fossils yourself!

While preparing for the Burke Museum’s Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway exhibit, paleontologist Kirk Johnson and artist Ray Troll took their own road trip to the Stonerose Interpretive Center. In the video below, Kirk shows some of the amazing fossils at Stonerose and discusses the importance of the collaboration between science and art.





Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway closes on May 31st, so make a stop at the Burke before you hit the road to check out some fossils from the Republic area. You may even discover some interesting places to stop and search for Washington’s prehistoric past like Ray and Kirk did along the way.

Before you head off on your own fossil adventure, be sure to double check the visitor information section of Stonerose’s website for holiday availability and fossil excavation rules. Happy fossil hunting!

Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications

Road trip idea: Visit the Ginkgo Petrified Forest!

The weather in Washington is slowly but surely getting nice again, so maybe it's time to start thinking about interesting places to visit for a weekend road trip. Here's an idea: head out to Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park near Vantage, WA to visit this fossilized ancient forest!

When paleontologist Kirk Johnson and artist Ray Troll were preparing for the Burke Museum exhibit Cruisin the Fossil Freeway, they visited a number of fossil sites in WA State, including the Ginkgo Petrified Forest. In this video, Kirk talks about the history of the Ginkgo Petrified Forest and the process of petrification.



It's just over a 2 hour drive out to Vantage from Seattle so pack up the car and visit one of the most interesting geological sites in the state!

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

"Rocking Out" on the Fossil Freeway

If you have visited the exhibit Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway in recent weekends, you may have encountered UW students hanging out in the gallery, showing off fossils and talking to museum visitors. These students are part of a group called Rocking Out – they focus on presenting hands-on outreach programs in the earth sciences, and they’ve been kind enough to lend their time to the Burke Museum so that visitors have the opportunity to touch real fossils and ask questions about what they see on exhibit.

So what motivates these students to volunteer their time to talk to museum visitors?

Rocking Out member Shelly Donohue describes why she loves volunteering at the museum:

For me, the best part about volunteering in the Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway exhibit is giving kids the opportunity to hold and touch some of the specimens. I am studying science because of educators in my past that took me exploring on field trips, let me hold a snake at the zoo, and energetically answered any question I could think of. These people fed my curiosity and opened me up to how interesting and exciting science can be. When I volunteer, I love giving kids a specimen they can hold, such as a dinosaur vertebra or a fossil shark tooth, and asking them to guess what it is. Some of them get that same excited sparkle in their eyes that I used to get in mine, and it’s great that now I can be the one inspiring curiosity and showing these kids that learning can be fun… or at least to give them bragging rights over their friends about getting to hold a dinosaur bone.

Earth and Space Sciences graduate student Karl Lang discusses his personal favorite fossil – “Jefferson’s Chesapeake Scallop":

This past Thursday was Free First Thursday at the Burke and that evening I was chatting with visitors to the Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway exhibit when I ran into an old friend: Chesapecten jeffersonius. Oh the memories! You see “jeff” and I go way back, at least five million years to the early Pliocene. We originally met in the Yorktown formation, a soft sandy coquina forming large bluffs along the York River in the Virginia coastal plain. Growing up in Virginia, I spent many lazy summer afternoons crawling over these bluffs pulling out handful after handful of Chesapecten jeffersonius.

These shells are the fossilized remnants of a scallop-like creature that dominated the shallow marine seas off the east coast of North America for about five million years in the late Miocene to early Pliocene. The shell is known as an “index fossil” because it is so plentiful over only a short segment of the stratigraphic record, characteristic of a very specific piece of geologic history. Chesapecten jeffersonius has found its way into American history as well. It was the first fossil described in North America by English colonists, and remains the state fossil of Virginia. The Burke museum has a fantastic collection of fossils actively used in research, including this very special scallop. Be sure to stop by the Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway exhibit to say hello and meet the remarkable Chesapecten jeffersonius.

Visit Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway this Saturday from 10 am – 2 pm to meet the members of Rocking Out and try hands-on activities in the gallery.

For all the fossil lovers

This Valentine's Day weekend, dedicate your love of fossils to Ray Troll and the Burke Museum and visit the exhibit Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway!

Hamburgers and Fossils... Hold the Mayo

What are hamburgers doing in a museum gallery? Do the "Kidd Valley Hamburger Hunt" at the Burke Museum and find out the connection between hamburgers and paleontology.*

Now through March 20, 2010, all intrepid hamburger scavengers able to locate the correct number of hamburgers in the current exhibit Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, will receive a gift from Kidd Valley and the Burke Museum. So stop in and satisfy your hamburger curiosity!

Photo of hamburger cast on display in the Cruisin' exhibit. Approximately 14-15 years old, Ray collected it in Ketchikan, Alaska.

*Yes, there is a connection: artist Ray Troll, has a love of hamburgers and has imbedded an abundance of burgers throughout his artwork in the Cruisin the Fossil Freeway exhibit for a little irreverent fun.

Posted By: MaryAnn Barron Wagner, Communications

On air: Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson spread the paleo-love

Whenever I walk into the Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway exhibit gallery, my first thought is “wow, fossils are cool!” I’ve heard that same sentiment expressed by kids and adults alike who are visiting this new Burke exhibit. But I’ve never heard two people more enthusiastic about fossils and what they tell us about the past than Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson, authors of the book Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway and co-curators of this exhibit.

This morning, KUOW aired an interview with Ray and Kirk talking passionately about their love of fossils. It’s hard not to get excited about paleontology when you listen to these two chat with Weekday host Steve Scher. Listen to the interview here and I dare you to not find yourself caught up in their infectious enthusiasm for studying prehistoric times.

Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway is at the Burke Museum until May 31. Don’t miss the chance to see some of the best fossils from the Burke Museum’s collections, including saber-toothed cats, killer pigs, and ammonites, paired with the colorful, whimsical art of Ray Troll.

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

Paleontology meets art

A couple of weeks ago, we posted this video showcasing Ray Troll’s artistic process as he prepared for the new Burke exhibit, Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, which opens this Saturday. Ray collaborated with Kirk Johnson, curator of paleontology at the Denver National History Museum, and the staff at the Burke, to organize this exhibit about evolution, extinction, and early life on Earth. In the video about Ray, he discusses how science influences his art, so it seemed fitting to get Kirk’s perspective, as a scientist, on why art and science are complementary. He has some interesting points about how this collaboration helps us all understand the past. Take a look:



The video was filmed this summer during a road trip Ray and Kirk took around Washington, exploring the fossilized prehistory of this state. To view other videos of their trip as well as Ray Troll’s discussion of science and art, click here.

See for yourself how science and art influence each other at the opening day of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway this Saturday. Tours of the exhibit will start at 10:30 and happen on the hour throughout the day.

Posted by: Andrea Barber, Communications

The Science of Art

If you read our blog regularly or follow the Burke Museum in the news, you most likely have heard about our upcoming exhibit, Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway. The exhibit, opening on December 19th, features the collaboration of paleontology and art and includes fossils from the Burke’s collections that will be on public view for the first time. Intriguingly familiar, artist Ray Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson see the past as a continuous process that shapes the world today.

For a sneak peek at some of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway’s artwork, and to hear Ray Troll’s comments about his artistic process throughout the exhibit’s development, watch the video below.



There are also several other videos of Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll as they explore the prehistoric past of Washington State. To view them, click here.

Stay tuned to our blog for more previews and information on our newest exhibit, and don’t forget to come see it for yourself!

Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications

Behind the scenes with Ray Troll

Ever painted a giant T-Rex onto a wall? I have! With expert instruction from celebrated Alaskan artist Ray Troll, a group of volunteers came together this week in a make-shift studio down in Magnuson Park to paint five large wall murals for the upcoming Burke exhibit Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, featuring Troll’s latest work.

Troll has hunkered down in Seattle for the past two weeks to create these murals showcasing some of his favorite subjects: dinosaurs, killer pigs, hamburgers, and giant ammonites. The fantastical murals will ultimately hang in the gallery alongside dozens of actual fossils from the Burke’s own paleontology collections beginning December 19th --when the exhibit opens.

The Burke Museum is partnering with Ray Troll and Seattle-born paleontologist Kirk Johnson (who together wrote a book called Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway) to present this new exhibit exploring the abundance of fossils in our midst - and specifically in Washington State - and how fossils shed light on Earth’s past.

As you can see, Ray Troll’s recent “art happening” was both fun and productive:

Ray's team of friends and volunteers worked tirelessly to produce large mural reproductions, such as "Sleeping with the Ichthyosaurs"

Ray Troll grabs a paintbrush for some detail work on "Night of the Ammonites"

Once finished, these murals will hang in the Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway gallery alongside real fossils

I'm not the only one who learned to paint with Ray. Burke Museum director Julie Stein also jumped at the chance to pick up a paint brush. When I asked her how it went, she told me, "My friend Edie and I were afraid we would paint outside the lines. Ray showed us how he adds highlights and we discussed how he comes up with these ideas (he dreams about them!). This was very fun!"

P.S. - Mark your calendars for opening day of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway Saturday, December 19, when Ray will be on hand to give tours of the exhibit.

Posted by: MaryAnn Barron Wagner, Communications

Saber teeth, killer pigs, ancient fish, oh my!

Although it doesn't open for another four months, many of us here at the Burke are already quite busy preparing for the next major exhibition, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway. Read all about the exhibition, which combines whimsical artwork by Ray Troll with real fossils from the Burke's collection to answer (and ask!) questions about evolution, extinction, and geologic time.

I'm quite excited about the fact that several of the fossil specimens that will be on display in this exhibit have never before been exhibited to the public. Some of these fossils are among the best in our entire paleontology collection! For example:

Hoplophoneus, an Oligocene-era saber-toothed cat

Entelodont, an omnivorous pig-like mammal, also from the Oligocene

Many ancient fish, like this one, millions of years old

I realize its not every job that requires you to set up a fossil photo shoot, but really, it was just another day at the natural history museum!

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications