Full Story From Our Print Edition – Photos By Danielle D’Aquila
An experience 66 million years in the making is now available to everyone, right in our own backyard, as Rowan University’s Edelman Fossil Park & Museum has opened in Mantua Township.
Tucked inconspicuously in the woods between a Target department store and a Lowe’s home improvement center, the educational facility is creating a buzz that its creators believe will reach far beyond South Jersey.
“This museum will attract people from around the country and around the globe to the Garden State, and it will do wonders for our local economy,” said Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, during a ribbon cutting ceremony about a week before the official opening. “It will become a point of pride for all New Jerseyans and there’s so much to be proud of.”
Lacovara, the founding executive director of the museum, noted the long history of important dinosaur discoveries over the years in South Jersey as a way of underscoring the significance of the new fossil park’s location.
“The world’s first nearly-complete dinosaur skeleton was found in 1858, 11 miles from here,” Lacovara said, in reference to the Hadrosaurus and its discovery in Haddonfield, Camden County. “The world’s first Tyrannosaur (the Dryptosaurus) wasn’t found in Patagonia or Montana or the Gobi Desert. It was found here, in Mantua Township in 1866.”
The fossil park’s features include reconstructions of dinosaurs, fossil displays, live animal exhibits and interactive experiences all aimed at furthering both knowledge of and curiosity about the prehistoric discoveries made in that very location.
The new museum sits beside a pit from a former marl mine, where Lacovara and other scientists have discovered a treasure trove of prehistoric remnants over the years.
“We have found over 100,000 fossils representing over 100 extinct species that provide the world the best window into the pivotal, calamitous last days of the dinosaurs – the moment that really made the modern world as we know it. And the best place on the planet we can see that, is right there,” he said, gesturing to the fossil pit just outside the new museum building. “It’s amazing.”
Along with enjoying the museum’s many displays, attractions and activities inside, visitors to the park will be able to play paleontologist for the day and hunt for fossils in the still-active dig site. That experience comes at an additional cost and is weather dependent.
Plans to develop the fossil-laden site into an educational experience open to the public has been underway for nearly a decade, while the scientific exploration there began several years before that.
In 2016, the site was in danger of being sold and developed for other purposes, and Lacovara, seeking to preserve it, began his partnership with Rowan University to pursue its conservation.
Lacovara also helped start Rowan’s School of Earth & Environment since joining the college, and he recalled the meeting with Dr. Ali A. Houshmand, the university’s visionary president, that got the ball rolling on the museum plan.
“We had breakfast at Angelo’s Diner in Glassboro, because it’s New Jersey and that’s how you get things done here,” Lacovara said. “And he started to dream with me.”
Houshmand, during that same ribbon cutting, echoed Lacovara’s belief that the museum they’ve helped create will have far-reaching impacts.
“This is going to be a national place,” Houshmand said. “People from all over the world want to come and see this place – a place where so many young minds will come in here and get excited about science.”
In a press release about the museum opening, Houshmand went further.
“It fills me with great pride to see the profound impact we’ll have on the sciences, education and future generations of curious students,” he said. “We’ve opened more than a museum; we’ve opened a wondrous window to the past that will inspire tomorrow’s scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists and more.”
During that celabratory event, Lacovara, Houshmand and other Rowan leaders were joined by local and state officials, including New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.
“Rowan is a Jersey gem, let there be no doubt about it,” Murphy said.
Murphy thanked everyone who made the museum’s creation possible, singling out the $25 million donation from Jean and Ric Edelman that helped fund the project.
“I’m not aware in the past decade of a whole lot of gifts to any institution of any kind in New Jersey that comes close to what you all have done for Rowan,” Murphy said.
The Edelmans, namesakes of the museum, are both Rowan University alumni who have donated generously for projects at their alma mater.
“For all the memories that we’re going to create, and all the children and all the parents and grandparents, and all the moments with families together being happy, that just fills our hearts,” said Jean Edelman, during the ribbon cutting event.
The museum’s motto is “Discover the past, Protect the future,” and its stated mission is to examine past extinction events in the planet’s history as a way to understand the challenges and threats we may face today. Ric Edelman, in his comments during that event, stressed the importance of those goals.
“We need to understand how the dinosaurs lived, and most importantly, how they died,” Edelman said. “It offers incredible lessons for us in the preservation of our planet and the sustainability of our own species.”
But Edelman also believes the investment the philanthropic couple has made in education is also an investment in protecting the future of our country.
“We recognize the incredible importance of creating excitement among our youth to engage in the sciences – engineering, mathematics – as a career for themselves.” Edelman said. “If we’re going to maintain our economic leadership on the world stage, we need to produce more of all of those.”
Lacovara thanked the Edelmans for the donation that led the way to the creation of the fossil park. The cost of the museum was a reported $75 million. The Edelmans’ contribution – a full third of that price – kicked off the funding necessary to set the plan in motion.
“This project, this beautiful museum, would not have come to be without their incredible generosity,” Lacovara said. “Yes they gave us a transformative financial gift, but they gave us something else of even greater value, and that is that they believed in us.
Lacovara continued in his praise of the Edelmans and their dedication to funding education, and in his belief that the project he’s been involved with for so long can become a significant experience for generations to come.
“Museums last for hundreds of years,” he said. “Think of the generations of children whose lives will be enriched because of this museum. Think of the economic impact – hundreds of millions over a decade, but billions over the lifetime of the museum.
“Think of the lives touched – every scientist, every engineer has an origin story, and so often that story involves a museum. I have heard so many times from scientists, ‘oh when I was a kid, I used to spend my Saturdays at this museum or that museum.’ Well now this is that place for generations of South Jersey children.
“This is the place that will inspire dreams. This is the place that will launch careers. This is the place that will bind the community in the pride of having something special and world class in the place where they live.”
If You Go:
Edelman Fossil Park & Museum
Address: 66 Million Mosasaur Way Mantua, NJ (Sewell) 08080
Phone: (856) 284-DINO (3466)
Hours: Open Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets: Adults – $29 | Kids 3 to 12 – $24 | Children 2 and Under – Free
Additionally Fees for Fossil Dig and VR Experiences
Visit Online – www.efm.org