Page 125 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Southwest USA & National Parks

LAS VEGAS  123

The International Wildlife gallery
showcases mammals’ ability to
adapt and survive. Animatronic
dinosaurs include a 35-ft-
(11-m-) long Tyrannosaurus rex,
while the marine exhibit has live
sharks and eels. In the hands-on
discovery room visitors can
dig for fossils and explore the
five senses.

k Old Las Vegas
Discovery Children’s Museum, located in Symphony Park Mormon State
Historic Park
h Discovery banks, groceries, and a wind
Children’s Museum turbine; and Toddler Town, a 500 East Washington Blvd. Tel (702)
glorified desert sandpit aimed 486-3511. Open 8am–4:30pm Tue–
360 Promenade Place. Tel (702) 382- at younger kids. Changing Sat. ∑ parks.nv.gov/parks/old-las-
5437. Open 9am–4pm Tue–Fri (Jun– exhibitions cover a range of vegas-mormon-fort
Labor Day: 10am–5pm Mon–Fri), 10am– subjects from world cultures
5pm Sat, noon–5pm Sun. Closed Mon
(early Sep–late May) (except school to art and wildlife. This diminutive soft-pink adobe
holidays), Easter, Jan 1, Thanksgiving, building is the oldest in Las
Dec 25. & 7 ∑ discoverykidslv.org Vegas and all that remains of
j The Las Vegas a fort built by Mormon settlers –
Relocated in 2013 to Symphony Natural History the first non-Natives who arrived
Park, on the western edge Museum in the area – in 1855. The fort,
of Downtown, this excellent built on the banks of Las Vegas
museum remains devoted to 900 Las Vegas Blvd. N. Tel (702) Creek, was arranged around a
interactive exhibits that are fun 384-3466. Open 9am–4pm daily. 150-ft- (46-m-) long, rectangular
for both adults and children. Closed Jan 1, Thanksgiving, Dec 24 & placita (small plaza) with 14-ft-
It centers on a 12-level tower 25. & 7 ∑ lvnhm.org (4-m-) high walls, but the
known as the Summit, where settlers abandoned it three years
visitors can experiment with A popular choice with the later. It became part of a ranch
exhibits that show the families who need a break from in the 1880s and was run by Las
connections between the Strip resorts, this museum Vegas pioneer Helen Stewart
scientific concepts and real-life has an appealing range of (see p100). The City of Las Vegas
applications. Other displays exhibits. Dioramas re-create the bought the site in 1971.
include a laboratory for young African savannah and display a Today, the Visitor Center is a
inventors; a water tank variety of wildlife from leopards reconstruction of the original
designed to replicate and and cheetahs to several African adobe house with its simply
explain the Hoover Dam antelope species such furnished interior much as it
and Lake Mead; as nyalas, bush would have been when the
the Eco City, a boks, and Mormon settlers lived here.
child-sized town duikers. The building also contains an
laid out along exhibition that describes the
a boulevard Mormon missions and their
complete with impact on Las Vegas.

An animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex in roaring form at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum

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