The La Brea tar pits may have given rise to the very first cry of "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"
Active excavation at the La Brea Tar Pits. Photo copyright 2015 Anna Boudinot.
Though The Wizard of Oz was filmed a few miles west on the MGM lot in 1939, it was 1905 when scientists at the La Brea Tar Pits recognized the breadth of animal species that once roamed the Los Angeles area. This included not just saber-toothed cats and short-faced bears, but ground sloths, camels, mammoths, and dire wolves. More on that in a minute.
First things first: there is no tar at the La Brea Tar Pits. It's asphalt, a semi-solid form of petroleum. Because asphalt is very sticky, it's been really easy for all sorts of animals to get stuck in there and die, making the La Brea "Tar" Pits the only fossil-rich deposits in the world located in a large urban area. In the past 100 years, over 100 excavation pits have been built on the site. The La Brea Tar Pits Museum has been there since 1952 and the "tar," well, it's been there forever. The first time it was noticed by white people was in the late 18th century. It was then that a team of Spanish surveyors noticed an area at the base of the Santa Monica mountains where the Tongva collected a sticky black substance to waterproof their homes. In 1828, a Portuguese man named Antonio Jose Rocha gained ownership of the area through a land grand from the Mexican government (remember, Los Angeles was Mexico then) and he called it "Rancho La Brea." "La brea" basically means "hard tar with dirt stuck in it," and I wonder if the founders of La Brea Bakery realized that when they set up shop selling delicious and fragrant breads.
Rancho La Brea was later purchased by a Los Angeles attorney named Henry Hancock, and today this part of Los Angeles is still known as Hancock Park. Mr. Hancock developed an asphalt quarry there from which the asphalt was used, among other things, to pave the roads of San Francisco. Yet Rancho La Brea went unrecognized as "one of the world's richest and most diverse late Pleistocene terrestrial assemblages" (translation: awesome pit of fossils) until 1905, when a geologist hired by the Hancocks sent some bones found in the asphalt to a paleontologist at UC Berkeley. From 1905 to 1915, several different institutions sent representatives to excavate the La Brea Tar Pits, though the "largest and best documented collections" were made by what is known today as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. From 1913 to 1915, the Natural History Museum collected over 750,000 fossilized specimens of plants and animals from a total of 96 excavation sites. And excavations are still occurring! Excavations have been ongoing in Pit 91 for over 40 years, and when the neighboring LACMA built a new parking garage in 2006, sixteen new fossil deposits were discovered. Visitors can get a glimpse of current excavations throughout the grounds.
Dramatic re-enactment of an emotional moment for a mammoth family. Photo copyright 2015 by Anna Boudinot
Many folks make the mistake of assuming the bubbling, murky pond near the entrance of the museum is "the tar pits." It is, after all, replete with a pathetic fiberglass mammoth family crying out for their loved one who has gotten stuck in the "tar." Yet this is probably the least interesting part of the tar pits. During my recent visit, what fascinated me most were Pit 91 and the fossils inside the museum. The museum website offers a detailed map along with suggested itineraries for full exploration of the area.
Over 1 million bones have been excavated from the tar pits. These bones range between 10,000 and 50,000 years old and cover over 700 different species. A massive timeline on the wall inside the museum gives profound perspective on the duration of human history compared to the history of the animal species that thrived and then died in the thousands of years prior. Most of the fossils that have been recovered are from species that are now extinct, such as the aforementioned land sloths, camels, and saber-toothed cats. You can watch researchers in action clean and categorize fossils in the museum's fossil lab, and large composite skeletons throughout the museum give you an idea of what these animals looked like in the flesh. One particularly interesting display is a huge glass case filled with 404 wall-mounted dire wolf skulls. A couple cheezy, animatronic displays seem to be left over from the 1970s or something, but they make for good Instagram posts.
Dire wolf skulls in the La Brea Tar Pits Museum. Photo copyright 2015 by Anna Boudinot
Getting to the La Brea Tar Pits is easy via the 10 freeway or via Wilshire Boulevard. Parking can be tricky in the neighborhood; read signs very closely if you opt to park on the street. Your best bet is probably to park in the museum's lot at Curson and 6th, though be prepared to spend $12. Museum admission is $12 for adults, $9 for seniors, and $5 for kids. Two to three hours will probably give you enough time to fully explore. If you want to make a day of it, there is plenty to see at LACMA next door.
Overall the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum provide an captivating overview of prehistoric times, which can lead to something Los Angeles isn't exactly known for: an introspection of the triviality of human existence. If that's too deep for you, you can always gaze into the tar pits and try to figure out whether or not Leonardo DiCaprio dropped his Oscar statuette in there.
Looking for more to do? Visit the Petersen Automotive Museum and the Berlin Wall while you're in the neighborhood.