Mines Museum of Earth Science — Attraction in Golden

The Mines Museum of Earth Science is a great place to visit while you are in Golden, Colorado. Located on the the Colorado School of Mines the museum has an extensive collections of gems and minerals. The collection is organized by regions in Colorado, then the world and finally outer space. You can not help but have the inner rock hound come out while you are here, wanting to go and explore the world to look for samples like these.

The museum is staffed by students from the School of Mines who I found very interesting and knowledgable about the different rocks. Be sure to ask any questions that you might have, as you will be able to learn even more about what you are seeing. I learned that most of these samples were found underground, which makes feel better that I am not missing these kinds of rocks while I am out hiking.

Be sure to go in the mine on the lower level and see the florissant rock exhibit. This is an interesting display that you would not know what you might be missing when you look at these samples. The gift shop also has a interesting collection of items that would please any scientist in your family, or the kids.

If you have the slightest interest in geology, rocks, gems or minerals then this is a...

I found a parking space with a meter and paid $2 per hour. There are only about 10 such spots, and otherwise you must park in the garage for $!0. I didn't like the big murals showing enslaved workers in Egyptian and other times doing the hard mine work and getting beaten. It is ancient reality but is depressing. I asked a young woman at the desk if she knew where a rock was that my friend donated, and she looked on a list on the computer, and said he wasn't on that list. A manager later told me they have no such lists, I have to talk to the curator, so the young woman had lied to me. The three young people working here looked compleletly uninterested in their jobs. The bookstore displays book "All My Friends are Dead," which I paged through which was depressing. It is a Dark Comedy, but I never laughed or even smiled once; it was sick. It is poor that they stock and show a title like this to people. The entire museum is very poorly organized, by country, and some special exhibits. The basement has meteorites, a moon rock, and dinosaur bones, which were the only memorable items. I hoped to actually learn something, but instead just saw pretty colors. I was very disappointed with...

Free museum that takes donations. It’s 2 floors and I thought, “Ok, not too big,” but it is dense! I’ve been to other exhibits at larger museums that feature minerals/geology, but this one was my favorite. The rocks are labeled with chemical compositions, which made other concepts clearer. For a lay person like me, I can start recognizing patterns and start forming hypotheses to research about the interaction of chemistry and physics in the formation of different structures and colors. I also learned about the Davy lamp for more safely detecting methane in mines?! Very cool discovery and invention. There is an exhibit on hydraulic fracturing that is definitely framed as “this is a good thing” and negates research critical of the practice outright without at least exploring the risks of not done with the most care. But it does ask for survey input which allows you to see how different demographics think about the future of hydrocarbon usage.

Overall, lots to think about and great entry point for non-geologists to engage the science of rocks. If I had come here when I was younger, I would have dove...