CuriOdyssey, San Mateo
Near San Francisco, California
The science museum and wildlife center at Coyote Point in San Mateo started life in nineteen fifty-four as the San Mateo County Junior Museum, housed in a Quonset hut on the bay shore. For decades it focused on natural history and environmental education, growing into a proper building that opened in nineteen eighty-one. Live animal exhibits were added in nineteen ninety-one, featuring native California wildlife that cannot survive in the wild.
The museum has gone through several name changes over the years, becoming Coyote Point Museum in nineteen seventy-four and finally CuriOdyssey in twenty eleven to reflect its expanded focus on hands-on science for children. Today it houses nearly one hundred rescued animals alongside interactive science exhibits, all within the Coyote Point Recreation Area with its views across San Francisco Bay. It is one of the quietly beloved family institutions of the Peninsula, more than seventy years in the making.
