It’s my belief that people can basically be divided into two groups: “museum people” and “not museum people.” “Not museum people” are folks who race through museums at a dead run, apparently challenging themselves to get in and out in under a minute flat. “Museum people” are those who pretty much take up residence among the exhibits, to the point that they practically qualify as docents by the end of the day. Steve and I are definitely among the latter, so we’re always thrilled to find a new-to-us museum and we recently did just that when we found the Onslow County Museum in Richlands, NC.
I was searching online, specifically looking for something to do in the Beulaville area, when I ran across the museum’s website. Now, any museum would have piqued my interest, but this one had something irresistible — a dedicated “fossil find” area in the museum’s backyard, consisting of material brought in from a phosphate mine near Aurora (in NC’s Beaufort County); visitors are welcome to sort through the material and take home any fossils they find. Naturally, this area is tailored to kids, but that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm in the least. When it comes to searching for rocks, minerals, or fossils, I am a kid. As far as I’m concerned, it’s every man, woman and five-year-old child for themselves in a situation involving a hunt for anything geology-related.
When we arrived at the museum, we paid our entrance fee (a mere $2.14 per adult; kids pay just $1.07 each) — and I made a beeline for the fossil-hunt area. My “official” reason for doing so was that I would spend a while outside baking in the hot sun, looking for fossils, and then I could enjoy the indoor exhibits while also cooling off. Really, though, I just couldn’t wait to get to the fossils. Turns out, I didn’t have to elbow any five-year-olds out of the way; I had the fossil-find area to myself (Steve started out with me but lasted no longer than the 21 seconds it took to shoot my video for the Tribune Facebook page, before he beat a path back inside).
The museum provides small, plastic, slotted shovels for sifting through the fossil-containing material and plastic sandwich bags to hold your finds, so it was easy to jump right in and get started. The fossil-containing material at the museum has been there a long time, and lots of little fingers have plundered through it over the years, so I didn’t expect any big finds, but that’s never the point. I mean, don’t get me wrong: It’s always fun and exciting to find something really cool, but I’ll settle for a tiny morsel or two; for me, it’s really all about the Zen-like process of looking. (By the way, Museum Director Lisa Whitman-Grice assured me that the museum’s maintenance folks do a good job of “turning” the material from time to time, which helps stir it up, hopefully bringing some goodies back to the surface. They do not “salt,” or bring in extra fossils to enhance the material; it’s all natural from the mine.)
I’d say I spent a good 40 minutes, maybe more, looking, and ended up with a dozen keepers, mostly very small shark teeth. In fact, most were so small they’d almost certainly be missed by anyone who’s not used to searching for them. That said, it shouldn’t discourage anyone else from going and having a look — there are plenty of big pieces of coral to be had, and who knows when a good stir by the maintenance crew might bring a real jewel to the surface. Also, adjacent to the fossil-find area is a large picnic area with plenty of tables, so it’s a nice place for a family outing. I would caution, though, that this is in full sun, so a nice fall day might be the perfect time for a visit.
Inside the museum, there’s another great kids’ space; it’s home to two different exhibits over the course of the year. The current one is Dino Daze, and, as you’d expect, it’s set up with opportunities for both learning and playing.
So, what’s here for the adults? The museum’s long-term exhibit, “The Water & The Wood,” tells the story of Onslow County’s history dating all the way back 100 million years.
Now, even though Steve and I are both “museum people,” we differ in how we approach a visit. Steve will read almost every single word on every single display, whereas I tend to hone in on a few displays and spend more time closely studying those. For example, I’m usually drawn to anything related to women’s issues, education, or the environment. On the other hand, I usually don’t spend much time looking at old tools. But this visit was different. When I ran across a display case filled with tools used in the naval stores industry, like a turpentine scraper and a turpentine scorer, I stopped in my tracks. A week earlier, I had attended the annual Four Oaks Acorn Festival and watched an in-depth demonstration by Bryan Avery showing the old-timey method of producing tar, pitch, and turpentine, so all of a sudden I had an interest in these items.
What’s more, this display taught me something new. I had always associated slave labor with crops such as cotton and tobacco, and had never before heard or read about plantations using enslaved people to produce naval stores. According to this exhibit (which credited the information to A Historian’s Coast by David Cecelski), enslaved men who were forced to work for their owners’ turpentine interests, traveled singularly or in pairs, throughout hundreds of woodland acres, camping remotely, thus escaping the constant scrutiny most enslaved people endured. Still, the demanding work, insufferable heat, and biting insects made the work all but unbearable. They received a small amount of money for their work, which they were permitted to spend at the overseer’s store.
I came to this museum fully expecting to enjoy hunting for fossils, which I did. But then I was also met with a total surprise by getting to continue my naval stores education from the Acorn Festival. And that’s just one more reason, I’m a “museum person” — because whether it’s the expected or the unexpected, I’m seldom disappointed in what I find.
Next week: three ways I passed the time during a 10-hour road trip (one will really surprise you!)
