I’ve been to TRECPI (Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle) several times in the past, but on all my previous visits, I’ve only seen the permanent exhibits. Don’t get me wrong, the permanent exhibits are great and I love how interactive they are, and the gift shop is quite nice, too, not to mention the Big Green Screen, but it is nice to see something different. So, even if you’ve already been to TRECPI once, twice, or a dozen times in the past, it’s worth another visit to see The Ice Ages Natural History exhibit.
Although some of the skeletons are recreated casts, they’re still impressive as they are exact replicas of the originals that exist in an exhibit elsewhere. It didn’t really matter to me that they weren’t the actual bones (although some of the exhibits were authentic). It was still just as impressive to see pieces and parts of prehistoric animals.
Here’s just a small sampling of what I saw*:
A woolly rhinoceros – were it not for my crappy photography, you would be able to see that the front edge of his horn is flat. This is apparently because he used his horn as a snowbrush to clear the snow out of his way to get to the moss underneath, which was his sustenance.
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. This is the head of the saber cat. You can’t tell from the picture, but it’s really quite large. The feet are very interesting, too, as you can see the retractable claws.
Fifty million years old. How cool is that?
This is one of the “newer” pieces in the exhibit – it’s the skull of a domestic dog. It’s only several hundred years old. Woof, woof.
Of course, no trip to TRECPI is complete without a walk to the top of the observation tower to look out over the lake. And yes, that’s part of the Ravine Flyer II rollercoaster you see there.
The exhibit will be on display at TRECPI through November 20th. Perhaps you could combine it with another reason to visit: There’s TREC or Treat on October 31st or the Presque Isle Geocache Bash on October 24th. Or perhaps you can take a walk through the exhibit before or after a movie.
TRECPI is open seven days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and admission, which includes the Ice Ages exhibit, is absolutely free.
*Forgive the crappy photography… this visit to TECPI was a spur of the moment decision, so the only camera I had with me was my iPhone.
We are so pleased that you enjoyed the exhibit enough to spread the word. Mercyhurst College, which has staged this exhibit annually for four years, is grateful to Michael and Barbara Sincak, who have generously donated these casts and fossils to Mercyhurst so that we might share them with the Erie community. We'd also like to thank Scott McKenzie, curator of the Sincak collection at Mercyhurst, for all the work he does to make this exhibit possible.