55,000 years ago, during the ice age, LA was a much different place. 

12 foot tall Columbian Mammoths lumbered through miles of sagebrush and wild lilac.  Around them, large juniper & oak trees swayed in warm breezes.  

Sloths and camels plodded across the land, munching on grass and trees.

Teratorns, with 10 foot wingspans, flew over the treetops as fast as 35 miles per hour.

And stalking them all, ferocious sabertooth tigers and dire wolves.

LA in the ice age teemed with wildlife, many of these creatures extinct today.

We wouldn’t know much about the ice age life in LA, except for one thing:  the La Brea Tar Pits.

Beneath the Wilshire/La Brea/Fairfax area lies a huge, oil field, the same underground oil field from the ice age.  The oil oozes to the surface, sticky and deadly. 

Many of these animals – large and small – stepped into these tar pits.  They became trapped, the tar far too sticky to let them go. 

And their inability to move attracted their predators, who saw them as an easy meal. 

The predators attacked and were soon also ensnared.

The tar pits trapped animals, churned more tar, then trapped more unfortunate animals.  This cycle continued for tens of thousands of years.

Their misfortune is our gain.

The La Brea Tar pits is an active excavation site for ice age mammals. 

Did you know that camels used to roam LA?  Their fossils are rare, only 36 skeletons discovered at the La Brea Tar Pits.  36 skeletons after over 55,000 years! 

The La Brea Tar Pits are part of the Natural History Museums of LA County.  The Tar Pits has 2 distinct sections.

The Park

The outside is a free park, lots of grass for kids to play or for picnics.  There are statues of giant land sloths to climb and some man made hills to roll down.

You can also see the excavation pits, which are safely enclosed with fences.  Each pit contains information about the fossils recovered from it. 

Project 23 is the current, active excavation.

You can watch the scientists working, uncovering,  examining & documenting their fossil finds.

The front of the park features the most memorable feature of La Brea Tar Pits – a sculpture of a trapped mammoth in Lake Pit, trunk in the air, bellowing for help.  Her mate & child are on the shore, shocked & helpless, their trunks trying to reach her, but she’s too far away. 

Lake Pit is directly over the underground oil field.  It’s calm, until suddenly, it isn’t.  Bursts of air shoot through the water, then ripple out across the lake, until it’s calm again.

This is the methane gas rising from the oil field below, unexpected an a constant reminder of the dangers of the area.

The Museum

The museum inside displays the fossils of the many animals that roamed the area. 

Morbid and fascinating, you can see the bones of the columbian mammoth, the now-extinct camel, an antique bison, and much more. 

Bird skeletons display in front of their alive-paintings.

One exhibit has a pipe partially the tar with a grip at the top.  Pull on this pipe and try to get it out – would you have been able to escape? You experience exactly how difficult/impossible it would have been to breakaway from the tar, once ensnared.

Another exhibit contains a timeline and photos of the recent history of the area – the last 200 years or so.  It shows how the area evolved from open land to the museum it is today.

From there, continue to the next room, which contains exhibits and games for kids, keeping them entertained and educated. 

Next to the kids’ area, scientists work in a glass bowl room. They peer into their microscopes, unperturbed by the tourists who stream by their workspaces. 

The museum rooms wrap around an outdoor mini-oasis, with benches and a stream for you to enjoy nature and peace.

All in all, the museum far exceeded my expectations.  Impressive displays both inside and out, it was a fascinating journey into the ice age.  

Have you been to the La Brea Tar Pits?  Leave a comment and let me know what you thought!

If you are visiting LA, the La Brea Tar Pit is a great area to visit, especially if you have kids. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students & seniors, $7 for children 3-12, children 2 and under are free.

Visit their web site here: https://tarpits.org/

If you want to see more of the museum, then check out my video.