Denver Museum of Nature and Science

On the eastern edge of City Park stands the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, incorporated on December sixth, nineteen hundred, and opened to the public in nineteen oh eight. Its origins trace to Edwin Carter, a naturalist who spent decades in Breckenridge collecting Rocky Mountain wildlife specimens until his log cabin could hold no more. Today the museum spans about seven hundred sixteen thousand square feet and holds more than one million objects covering natural history, anthropology, and science.

The centerpiece of the paleontology floor is Prehistoric Journey, opened in nineteen ninety-five, tracing the evolution of life on Earth with skeletons of Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, and other ancient animals. The Gates Planetarium seats one hundred twenty-five people under a fifty-six-foot dome tilted twenty-five degrees. There is also the Infinity Theater, a giant-screen cinema seating four hundred forty people.

The museum draws more than a million visitors a year, ranking among the most visited natural history museums in the country. Step outside onto the broad front steps on a clear day and the downtown skyline lines up nearly perfectly with the mountain peaks behind it, one of the most photographed views in Denver.