The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles will shut its doors on July 6 for a two-year renovation project aimed at modernizing the museum and expanding scientific displays, officials announced.
Staff members are currently packing 3.5 million fragile Ice Age fossils into custom foam shells and crates ahead of the closure.
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The Hancock Park museum is scheduled to reopen in summer 2028 as the centerpiece of the new Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research.
The upgraded facility will occupy the current building's footprint but will optimize interior layout for exhibits, storage, research, and educational programs.
Beloved local features such as the rolling grassy hills, interactive tar pulls, and outdoor mammoth family sculptures will remain part of the grounds.
Unique Fossil Repository
Paleobotanist and curator Regan Dunn explained that the site has served as a natural repository for prehistoric life over tens of thousands of years.
"No city anywhere has anything that's comparable," Dunn said.
Dunn noted that the site functioned as a trap that collected Los Angeles life for the last 60,000 years.
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The museum will also phase out older, anatomically inaccurate exhibits like the Pepper's Ghost optical illusion of a saber-toothed cat.
Lori Bettison-Varga, president of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, highlighted the global scientific relevance of the fossil collection regarding environmental changes.
"The story [at the Tar Pits] is critical to our understanding not just of Los Angeles, but of what's happening in the world," she said.
Bettison-Varga emphasized that themes of extinction and resilience tied to ecological shifts remain highly relevant to modern audiences.
The renovated interior will feature updated displays on ancient plants and insects, alongside four new mounted mammal skeletons including a complete Columbian mammoth named Zed.
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While the indoor museum remains closed to the public until 2028, ongoing excavations at the active outdoor pits and fossil conservation work will continue throughout the two-year renovation period.
