In the overall Kansas City Metropolitan Area, it’s pretty slim pickings if one wants to go somewhere to see dinosaur bones. Animatronic dinosaur exhibits seem to be a staple of this area with tours going around constantly, but with no real “Natural History Museum” in the area, dino fans have to wait to be at the mercy of travelling exhibits such as SUE, Visiting Science City which only had a couple of items on display, or planning a drive to Lawrence, KS to their natural history museum. Overland Park, Kansas holds about the closest thing one can find to a full-on dinosaur exhibit in the area with the Museum at Prairie Fire. It’s not the same sort of thing as Science City, as it lacks the “playground” aspect of that and many other children’s museums, however it is a science center designed primarily for children to enjoy.

Museum at Prairie Fire; Overland Park, KS

The first thing visitors will notice is how absolutely gorgeous the museum is, even from a large distance away. The façade is covered in gorgeous window panes that feature sheets of 3M dichroic film interlayered in laminated glass. This is the same sort of material NASA developed for space helmets and is notable for showing different colors from different vantage points. The sculpture represents a controlled prairie fire burn, something that enriches the land for farming and is synonymous with the area. The firm that created the exterior design is Verner Johnson, an architectural group based out of Boston. They have specialized in Museum architecture since 1965 and have many more gorgeous works of art in their sizable portfolio. Even if the inside of the museum is not your cup of tea, just seeing the building itself can be an awe-inspiring moment.

Background:

According a page hosted for Overland Park tourism, found HERE

“At the Museum at Prairiefire, the learning begins before you walk through the door. The eye-catching exterior has become one of the most photographed places in Overland Park. Architect Jonathan Kharfen of Verner Johnson, Inc., embraced the challenge to evoke all aspects of fire in the museum’s design, including the prairie-fire burns that are an integral part of Kansas farm life. That aesthetic begins with the museum’s exterior, a vibrant mix of colors and jagged shapes that capture the energy and intensity of flames. Inside the museum, the learning continues in thoughtfully designed spaces that teach visitors through immersion and interaction. In the Great Hall, find out who discovered the first Tyrannosaurus Rex and more about Kansas’ maritime history—yes, Kansas was once home to sea life and flying reptiles! Kids will love the Discovery Room, a hands-on space designed for children ages 3-12. Reconstruct an archosaur skeleton, wear masks from cultures around the world and, if you’re feeling especially brave, hold a hissing cockroach. “

Reading(s):

With the centerpiece of the museum obviously being the gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex centered in the main entranceway, I figured that a great book to accompany this visit would be The Monster’s Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World by David K. Randall.

“In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York’s struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a privileged socialite whose reputation rests on the museum’s success, and intrepid Kansas-born fossil hunter Barnum Brown.

When Brown unearths the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils in the Montana wilderness, forever changing the world of paleontology, Osborn sees a path to save his museum from irrelevancy. With four-foot-long jaws capable of crushing the bones of its prey and hips that powered the animal to run at speeds of 25 miles per hour, the T. Rex suggests a prehistoric ecosystem more complex than anyone imagined. As the public turns out in droves to cower before this bone-chilling giant of the past and wonder at the mysteries of its disappearance, Brown and Osborn together turn dinosaurs from a biological oddity into a beloved part of culture.”

The Trip:

The main gallery is free to experience and features numerous dinosaur and other pre-historic lifeform fossils on full-display. Children will love creating their own dinosaur, reading about the history of the discovery of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and even some local history. If one chooses to pay for the upstairs science portion of the museum, there are TONS of activities that one would expect out of any children’s museum including exhibits on space, animals, fossils, geology, and ancient history. Currently, the pricing is as such, but was more expensive when I visited.

Seniors $8.00 $5.00
Adults $10.00 $5.00
Children (ages 3-12) $5.00
Veterans $0.00

While adults can enjoy the science exhibits, they are definitely tailored to children. Aside from seeing the free stuff downstairs, I would never go there by myself without taking my son as the novelty only lasts a little while. Kids, however, will have an absolute blast doing things like excavating dinosaur bones and holding hissing cockroaches. There is some kind of VR exhibit at the museum, but it was sadly closed when I attended. Perhaps I will try that out sometime and update this in the future. I’m guessing it runs on a schedule, and we missed it. I would call ahead to find out.

Conclusion:

Overall, the Museum at Prairie Fire is a unique opportunity for kids to learn about science and see some dinosaur bones close up in the Kansas City Metro Area. If the above pricing holds true, you can’t really beat the cost, and there’s plenty to do for that small fee. The museum is meant for kids, but adults will definitely get a kick out of the gorgeous architecture and some of the exhibits. If anything, at least go and look at the glass walls of the building, it will make your day!

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For more content like this, check out my History Tour page HERE