Box Elder Natural History Museum

Update: The Box Elder Museum of Natural History is moving locations. This location that we visited is closed. Some of their exhibits can be viewed at the Brigham City Museum of Art and History. When they open their new location, we will share and update this post! 

This last week we visited a free museum in Brigham City called the Box Elder Natural History Museum. This small museum is all about fossils, rocks, and minerals. It’s not a new interactive museum, but they have some really cool samples.

The museum is housed in an old elementary school, and it is really cool just to stroll through the old school before you start the tour. There are 5 or 6 rooms that house different artifacts. One room is dedicated to mining in the area, another has marine fossils that are remnants of old Lake Bonneville. There is a room with massive geodes, and when I say massive, I mean rocks that are 4 feet tall and have been cut in half to reveal beautiful purple crystals. Another room has dinosaur tracks and fossils. There is also a cool mineral room that has really unique samples. I think our favorite room was the black-light room, which used a black light on certain minerals to highlight certain colors.

A walk through this museum will only take about a half hour, and if your kids aren’t good at walking and looking without touching, they won’t do very well in this museum. But our boys really enjoyed it. It was a great spot to break up our long drive!

The Box Elder Natural History Museum is located at 641 E 200 N in Brigham City. Take 100 North east to 600 E because 200 N is not a straight shot to the museum. 200 N runs into a park, so to avoid driving around the park, use 100 North. The museum is open M-Th from 8 am-5 pm (closed from 12-1 pm for lunch), and Friday from 8 am -12 pm.