Cambridge, IL, is welcoming a new museum this Saturday, and the curator is a nine-year-old boy who loves paleontology.
Anderson Taylor has been working over the last two years to realize his dream of running his own museum.
"We [family] went to the Isle of Sky; we went to the Staffin [Dinosaur] museum, which is like a small...very small one-room museum, and that got me started," Taylor said in a phone interview with WVIK Wednesday.
Taylor says he's been interested in fossils since he was three.
"Just like the abundance and amount there are and how cool they are," Taylor said.
For a school project, he portrayed Barnum Brown, the paleontologist who discovered the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and he sees himself working in the same field.
"I'd say a professor of paleontology and a paleontologist, even though I'm already finding fossils," Taylor said.
The Cambridge Natural History Museum will showcase a collection of fossils, minerals, and Native American artifacts. Taylor wants to visit Mazon Creek in Illinois near Morris to excavate the creek's fossil beds and hopefully add more fossils to the museum's collection.
Taylor says families can expect interactive exhibits.
"This little sandbox where they can find their own fossils and geodes," Taylor said.
He is still working on regular hours, thinking the musuem will be open on holidays and special occasions.
In a press release sent to WVIK, Taylor says, "Opening the museum has been a lot of work, and I would not be able to do this without help from family, friends, the community, and support from the Village of Cambridge. Much of what you see at the museum has been generously donated by friends, family, and strangers.”
The opening celebration is Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm at 132 W. Center Street in Cambridge.
