The museum holds the largest collection of fossils from the Diamond Valley Lake area, which resulted from one of the largest salvage paleontology projects in North American history.
Max, the American mastodon skeleton on display, is the largest mastodon ever found in the Western United States.
The museum building is located in the Diamond Valley region, once a lush grassland inhabited by mammoths, mastodons, and saber-toothed cats.
The facility maintains a climate-controlled repository that protects specimens in perpetuity as part of federal mitigation requirements.
The museum staff actively curates specimens that are part of the 'Valley of the Mastodons' scientific study.
The site was constructed to prevent the loss of paleontological resources during the massive reservoir excavation project in the 1990s.
The Western Science Center is a museum and research facility located in Hemet, California, built directly atop the site of the Diamond Valley Lake excavations. It serves as a repository for millions of specimens recovered during the construction of the Diamond Valley Lake reservoir. The museum's centerpiece is a state-of-the-art climate-controlled laboratory and exhibit hall focused on Ice Age fossils found in the local San Jacinto Valley. Exhibits highlight mastodons, mammoths, and other Pleistocene megafauna indigenous to Southern California. The facility acts as the official repository for the federal collections from the reservoir project. Scientific research is conducted on-site, allowing visitors to view fossil preparation and curation processes. The architecture is designed to reflect the region's geological history through its structural integration with the landscape. It houses the most significant collection of Pleistocene fossils in the inland region.
In front of the prominent mastodon fossil skeleton display in the main exhibition hall.
Check the museum's calendar for scheduled 'Behind the Scenes' tours to view the vast repository collections.
Combine your visit with a trip to the adjacent Diamond Valley Lake visitor area to see the geography where the fossils were unearthed.
Allow extra time to observe the fossil laboratory windows, as curators are frequently working on new discoveries.
Treating the museum like a typical children's play area; this is an active research and curation facility.
Closed on Mondays and major holidays; often hosts special educational events on weekends.
Maintain quiet voices near laboratory viewing windows; do not touch glass displays or artifacts.
