Discovering Dinosaurs and Moon Rocks: A Journey Through Lufkin's Naranjo Museum of Natural History | Ken Hulsey

Recently, my wife and I decided to travel west from our home in central Louisiana and cross the border into Texas to visit the city of Lufkin. Although Lufkin is a smaller city, with a population of 34,074, it boasts many attractions, including several top-notch museums. After considering our options, we chose to spend our afternoon at the Naranjo Museum of Natural History.

We were pleasantly surprised by the size and quality of the exhibits. The Naranjo Museum features everything from a full-size Tyrannosaurus rex to pieces of the ancient Roman Coliseum, as well as items that have actually traveled to the moon. As history buffs, my wife and I were in absolute heaven.

From the museum website:

They roamed the Earth for 165 million years, they were larger than life and dominated the landscape, then in a flash they were gone.

Though they became extinct more than 65 million years ago, dinosaurs – their habits, their size and their power continue to fascinate us.
Unfortunately their history is hidden by physical elements and often remains buried, but their story is one that needs to be told and shared.

In 1960, Dr. Neal Naranjo began a lifelong quest to find and preserve dinosaur bones. Each new fossil he collected laid the foundation for the Naranjo Museum of Natural History.

Today the Naranjo collection contains several thousand fossils and is as comprehensive as it is diverse. It includes a 26-foot tall Hadrosaur and a four-inch long Coelacanth; a nurturing Einosaur mother with her child and ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex life-size replica; a fully-grown Woolly Mammoth and multiple unhatched dinosaur eggs.
With a meticulous eye for rare finds, the Naranjo Family has built a collection that rivals most urban museums.

It's incredible to think that all of this is one man's personal collection.

I've visited the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and this collection rivals it, even if it is on a slightly smaller scale.

I highly recommend visiting this 'Jurassic Park' in the lovely city of Lufkin. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as we did.

Map:

Here are some of my photos:
 

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