on visitors have passed through its halls gazing at the looming skeletons of mastodons, the reconstructions of woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, and the dioramas. Page figures he has spent more than $5 million on his gift to Los Angeles.
While Los Angeles residents of the early 1800s once used the tar found in the pits to cover their roofs and grease their carreta wheels, the La Brea story really begins in 1875. It was then that William Denton visited Henry Hancock and his brother, John, who had purchased the Rancho La Brea in 1860. They had been shipping asphalt from the giant pit to San Francisco to pave the city's streets.
Denton recognized that many of the bones scattered in the tar were fossils. By 1906, John C. Merriam of the University of California, Berkeley and his students were excavating the pits. They made a momentous discovery. The animals and birds deposited here were 10,000 to 38,000 years old, dating from the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age.
1 Million Specimens
Since 1906, more than 1 million prehistoric specimens have been recovered from the La Brea deposits. Among the skeletons are the imperial mammoth, dire wolf, saber-toothed cat, American mastodon, ground sloth and a variety of extinct birds. Bones of more than 3,000 dire wolves have been recovered, making them the most abundant mammals found in the locality. Apparently, whole packs became mired when they tried to feed on animals stuck in the tar.
The museum's displays include reconstructed skeletons of saber-toothed cats, mammoths, wolves and other animals. There is a glass-walled laboratory where visitors can watch scientists and volunteers cleaning, sorting and identifying fossils.
The search for the fossils is a continuing project. One of the most important finds was made 10 years ago while Page was supervising the digging of the museum's foundation. The site appeared to have been a shallow tar pond near a stream. Here, instead of mixed bones, were articulated skeletons--with bones still joined together. Two saber-toothed cats, a dire wolf and two bison were uncovered. Other remains are still being identified. By microscopically studying the sediment and asphalt surrounding the bones, scientists were able to identify pollen, seeds and insects--providing a key to what those life forms were like thousands of years ago.
County's First Murder?
One curiosity of the La Brea discoveries is the remains of one human. The skull, jawbone and left femur of a young Chumash Indian-like woman were unearthed in 1914. Her death was apparently caused by a blunt instrument that crushed her skull. The remains were radiocarbon dated at 9,000 years old. The skull of her pet dog was found beside her.
Museum curators have created an interesting illusion from the La Brea woman, as she is called. Visitors peer through a glass at a cast of her remains which, with a slight shift of the eyes, become an Indian girl with long black hair clothed in a leather skirt. Was she the county's first murder victim? Evidence of the blow negates the possibility that, like the animals, she fell into the pit.
During the birthday celebration Friday from 10 to 11 a.m., Page will serve as a guide, fielding questions from the first group of schoolchildren scheduled to arrive by bus. Inevitably, they ask, "Were any dinosaurs found here?"
No. Dinosaurs were 65 million years extinct by the time the entrapment record began at the pits. Dinosaurs were reptiles, and Los Angeles was submerged beneath ocean waters when they existed. The fossils found in the pits are primarily mammals and birds.
Page, 85, watched on a recent Tuesday morning as people passed through the museum front door.
"I've been a museum buff all my life," he said, smiling. "I see buses lining the street bringing schoolchildren here. They also come to Los Angeles by chartered planes. It's a must for foreign tourists. People keep returning, bringing their friends. There is no letup in sight. This museum is living up to my fondest expectations."
The museum is at 5801 Wilshire Blvd., two blocks east of Fairfax Avenue. Hours are 10 