Senior Trip to Tellus Museum

Thursday, April 13, 2017

The Seniors group of Mableton First Baptist made a day trip to the Tellus Museum in Cartersville. It is an outstanding museum. I liked the fact that there were many groups of school children touring it in groups and being taught about the exhibits.

Most of our group gathered in front of this 160-foot-long apatosaurus skeleton. Starting at left is Barbara Porter and behind her are her neighbors, Joe and Sandra . Then Carol Durand, Betty Davis , Brenda Nave, Joyce McWaters, Corky Brooks, Kathryn Cain, Phyllis McWilliams, Joyce Square, Jim McWilliams, Sara Stipe, Kelley Brandon, Doug Brandon, Bill Stipe. Not shown are Bud Durand who drove the bus for us, Neal and Gayle Hunter, and Jon and Elyse Rowland.

It was great to see all the school groups taking advantage of this excellent museum. We saw a dozen or more school groups trooping around the museum with their teachers, and there were lots of sessions like this one with the dinosaur where museum personnel told the story of the exhibit.

While the dinosaur was the first big attraction when the school kids walked in the door, we saw columns of school children moving through all parts of the large museum.

Our group had fun spreading out over the entire museum. Brenda came back telling me about the outstanding sound exhibit. Bill and Sara Stipe enjoy the exhibit which told about the hearing of different animals.

Kathryn Cain, Sara Stipe and Joyce McWaters enjoy the outstanding exhibit of early automobiles.

I had heard that the mineral exhibit at Tellus was outstanding, but I was still surprised at its excellence. It certainly rivals the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC, with which it is afiliated. Jon and Elyse Rowland examine an exhibit which is labeled "Quartz", but that is because it is quartz that has replaced the material inside a log. So the petrified log is made of quartz.

I spent most of my time exploring and photographing the mineral exhibit, hoping to add to my collection of mineral descriptions. This sample of malachite is an old favorite of mine. It is a carbonate mineral of copper.

Along with our exploration of the excellent museum, it was a good time of fellowship and time for converstion. Here Carol Durand, Betty Davis and Elyse Rowland take a break near the big dinosaur.

Shortly after noon, we left the beautifully landscaped grounds of Tellus Museum and drove down to Doug's Place restaurant in Emerson for lunch.