Hundreds gathered for the "Last Dance at La Brea Tar Pits" event, which featured music, dancing, food and drinks as guests bid farewell to the museum before it undergoes a sweeping transformation, according to the museum. Attendees were encouraged to wear 1970s attire for a costume contest.
Guests were able to freely wander through the exhibits. Some even had a cocktail with the mammoths, mastodons, and sabertooth cats before they go into hibernation for a couple of years.
"Come visit now. Last day July 6, and then, of course, when we reopen, we look forward to telling the La Brea Tar Pits story in a way that people understand -- past, present and future, what it means," said Lori Bettison-Varga, the president and director of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County announced earlier this year that the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits will close to the public on July 7 for what officials describe as the most extensive renovation in the museum's nearly 50-year history.
The surrounding park will remain open during the approximately two-year construction project.
The $240 million renovation will modernize the museum, which opened in 1977, with new exhibition galleries, visible research laboratories, expanded collections storage, a theater and a rooftop terrace overlooking the tar pits and surrounding park, officials said.
The project will also preserve the museum's historic atrium and iconic exterior while improving accessibility throughout the building.
Plans also call for construction of the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research, which will bring fossil preparation and scientific research into public view.
Although the museum building will close, paleontologists and researchers will continue excavating fossils, caring for the collection and conducting scientific research throughout the project.
Educational programs also will continue, including behind-the-scenes tours, presentations and visits by the La Brea Tar Pits Mobile Museum to schools and community events across Los Angeles County.
Museum officials expect the reimagined campus, including the new Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research, to reopen in 2028 ahead of the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games.
City News Service contributed to this report.