Fossil Discovery Center of Madera County — Attraction in Chowchilla

My son wanted to visit a museum for his birthday. I came across Fossil Discovery Center online. We went on a Thursday at about 1p. We had just missed a couple school trips that had gone on the same day..so when we arrived there were no other visitors there except us. We had the place to ourselves!😁 The two employees who where their (i forgot their names..bad memory😊)..a nice gentleman and a nice lady were very informative..fun and helpful.

The museum was clean. A lot of fossils from the animals that lived during the ice age right in our area. We saw a short video about just that. Then got turned loose to explore. After exploring the museum our boys were ready to do the fossil dig (you pay extra for this). My boys had fun digging and trying to identify the fossils they found.

It was pretty hot out and although the fossil dig area was a covered area outdoors...we got pretty hot so then we went inside to buy couple $1 drinks..and the kiddos got distracted by their little gift shop. Aside from drinks, We bought our boys a little something from the gift shop..a little pricey but then again what gift shop isn't right?

Then finally we finished off our visit by walking out back and walking by their little pond. The boys enjoyed seeing the dragonflies flying around and all the many tadpoles and frogs hanging around and in the pond.

Please note: since fossils are very fragile..a lot of..if not perhaps most..of the fossils found at the museum are replicas..but still very fun to look at and think about what wonderful and huge animals roamed these areas way back then. Whats more important..that the kiddos had fun and liked their visit.

We ended up staying about two hours! Time flew by pretty quick on this (our first, but not last) visit to Fossil Discovery Center. 😁

Keep up the great work and customer service Fossil...

I want to tell everyone that our family dog killer was the real first one to find the fossils for months my dad Domingo Garza let our dog dig this big big big whole until one day he's dragging out this huge bone I didn't know what it was so I yelled for my dad he too was amazed at what killer found it was in the summer of 1991 my dad knew his animals very well on the farm but never seen anything this big so we carried it to my uncle" smily" Ismael Hernandez mobile home we knocked on his door he too didn't ever see anything like this we were all puzzled by the bone but did know what it was we lived on sycamore ave our area always filled with water during rain season so our dirt wasn't very hard for our dog to dig a big hole our dog knew there was something under that dirt he always smelled the ground and tried to get us to dig we thought it was funny but didn't know why now we know I happen to tell my family over and over of this story one day I decided to research what I found and discovered the museum was built wow amazing the only person alive is myself and my uncle smily to tell this true story so I hate to break it to everyone they found it...

The Fossil Discovery Center's initial fossil discovery was located less than a mile from one of my prior residences. The fossilized bones, tusks and other pre-historic remains were encountered during an excavation. An observant earth-moving equipment operator brought the fossilized Mammoth tusk to the attention of the land owner. That information was passed along resulting in an extensive investigation. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Center includes a variety of fossils in a nicely done museum and grounds. Having this interesting display of Natural History centrally located in California allows, for example grade school field trips and other groups to learn about the California Central Valley's geologic formation and its early day flora and fauna.

The fossilized skeletal remains are exhibited and used for creating dioramas that depict the interpreted physical setting at the time these animals and plants were living.

I'm not sure of their operating hours, so check them out...