Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City (must see)

The Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City stands as a premier institution dedicated to showcasing the natural history of Utah and the broader Intermountain West. Established in 1963 as the Utah Museum of Natural History, the museum is part of the University of Utah and houses over 1.65 million objects across various disciplines, ranging from paleontology to botany and mineralogy. Initially located in the George Thomas Library, the museum moved to the Rio Tinto Center in the University of Utah’s Research Park in 2011, gaining a striking 163,000-square-foot building designed by Ennead Architects and GSBS with exhibits by Ralph Appelbaum Associates.

The museum has a rich history tied to notable scientific projects. In the 1960s and 1970s, paleontologists James Henry Madsen Jr. and William Lee Stokes led the "University of Utah Cooperative Dinosaur Project," excavating thousands of fossils, especially Allosaurus remains, from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. This effort resulted in the museum’s extraordinary dinosaur collection, which includes the world’s largest display of Allosaurus skeletons.

The museum’s extensive collections are invaluable for research, supporting studies in geology, biology, cultural history, and the diversity of living systems within Utah. With a mission to illuminate the natural world and humanity’s place within it, the Natural History Museum of Utah offers educational and research opportunities to visitors and scholars from around the globe.