Looking for fossils behind the Lowe's: A dinosaur museum rises in an unlikely place

Correction & clarification: A prior version of this story misstated the title of Charles Darwin’s book. 

MANTUA, N.J. − Kenneth Lacovara's career in paleontology has taken him around the world: He's explored the Gobi Desert, led expeditions in Egypt and found massive dinosaur bones in Patagonia.

But one of the biggest troves of prehistoric fossil finds he's excavated isn't far from where he grew up − a quarry pit just off an access road next to a major highway, behind a nondescript suburban shopping center with a Lowe's, Chick-Fil-A and PetSmart.

On March 29, the world will get to see what professional and amateur diggers have discovered at the 65-acre site when the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum at Rowan University officially opens. Visitors can also get interactive lessons in prehistoric life, evolution, the climate and biodiversity crises, conservation and scientific methods.

"It's 16 years of research," Lacovara said, from the road leading down from the newly paved parking area to the bottom of the former quarry. Looking up toward the main museum building, visitors can see layers of sediment, their different colors indicating eras that have already yielded 100,000 fossils of more than 100 species, spanning back to the final days of the dinosaurs.

"This is one of the most amazing fossil finds in the country," Lacovara said.

And the interactive part of the museum isn't limited to the exhibits inside.

"Anyone can dig and take home a 66-million-year-old fossil of their own," the scientist said. "They can put their hands on something no human has ever touched before, and at that moment, they become explorers, too."

Prehistory, history and humanity

In a state that's proud of its place in history, from the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribe to George Washington crossing the Delaware River, from Harriet Tubman ferrying enslaved people to freedom to Alice Paul fighting for women's suffrage, this isn't the first big prehistoric find.

Hadrosaurs, a Cretaceous Period herbivore, was the first dinosaur to be discovered and described in North America. First uncovered in 1838 about 15 miles away in Haddonfield, it was partially unearthed by John Estaugh Hopkins, who displayed the bones at his house. In 1858, William Parker Foulke, seeing the bones at Hopkins' home, realized a more thorough dig might reveal more bones − and he was right. A more complete skeleton was found, and what is now the Hadrosaurus foulkii Leidy site is a National Historic Landmark.

There's a model of Hadrosaurus in the museum's Cretaceous galleries, but this is not an ordinary dinosaur museum. Sure, there are skeletal representations and renderings of what Earth was like millions of years ago. But Lacovara wanted to present as realistic a view of what is now the Eastern United States as possible.

These dinosaur models, made by famed paleosculptor Gary Staab, are big and bad, fighting for survival with each other and their surroundings. Plant models are true to what scientists found in the region.

There are diversions for younger kids, such as eye-level dioramas for toddlers and fossil identification games for older kids. An alcove off the gift shop pays tribute to Charles Darwin, with cubbies for little kids and walls decorated with photos Lacovara took himself at the "On the Origin of Species" author's home in Downe, England.

Attractions inside and outside

Lacovara is an in-demand speaker and leveraged his role as TED lecturer to work the educational nonprofit's programming into presentations at the museum.

He and his team would host public digs at the quarry site for years before the museum's construction, and people of all ages would come to dig, sift and show what they'd found. They could take home their finds, as well − just like they'll be able to do once the park opens and the ground thaws.

Lacovara, a first-generation high school graduate, grew up near the Jersey shore in Linwood. He attended Rowan (then called Glassboro State College) as an undergraduate and, grateful to his alma mater, founded its School of Earth and Environment.

The park features a dinosaur-themed playground, nature trails, community gardens and a field station that will show educational films. Inside, visitors can walk through galleries showcasing dinosaurs, evolution, climate change, biodiversity and extinct and endangered species. A virtual reality room allows visitors to immerse themselves in the Cretaceous Period. They can meet live animal ambassadors in Critter Cove and have a snack in the Quarry Grounds Cafe, which has a veranda that overlooks the quarry.

'No fossil fuels in the fossil park'

Among Smithsonian Magazine's Most Anticipated Museums, the Edelman Fossil Park and Museum has another feature that makes Lacovara proud: He worked with architects, planners, vendors and builders to make it as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible.

Bird-safe glass helps protect the 75 species of birds living in wooded areas surrounding the park. Items at the gift shop and cafe are sustainably sourced wherever possible. Electric vehicle chargers line the first row of the parking area. Geothermal climate control and architectural features like a hidden first floor, low wall-to-window ratios and the orientation of the veranda to maximize sunlight all help fulfill Lacovara's first request to its architects: "No fossil fuels at the fossil park."

"This will be one of, if not the, largest carbon-zero buildings in the state," Lacovara said.

The Hall of Extinction and Hope offers visitors a sense of what is happening to our world − but also ways they can help, as individuals and in cooperation with others. Short films highlight climate activists around the world.

"Our secret weapons are awe and wonder," Lacovara said. The museum and park aim to help people appreciate the whole of Earth's history and where humans fit into it: A film depicts Earth as a 1,000-page book, one in which humans don't appear until the last sentence.

"People love what they know, and they will protect what they love," he said. "We're trying to get people to fall in love with this planet, and to realize how we've won the cosmic lottery to even exist."

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