La Brea Tar Pits goes mobile, with museum on wheels that visits students around SoCal

LA PUENTE, Calif. (KABC) -- If you really want to learn about the ancient history of the L.A. area, you visit the La Brea Tar Pits and museum in the mid-city area.

Now, students can learn about the ice age discoveries without taking a field trip.

The Tar Pits Mobile Museum comes to them.

Locals and tourists are familiar with the giant tar pit, which has been the center of research into the ice age and fossil discoveries. The La Brea Tar Pit Museum has been a place for visitors to learn more about this rich history.

"Here the students are learning about the fossils that we find at the La Brea Tar Pits, what animals they represent, what the environment in Los Angeles used to be like 50,000 years ago," said Lori Bettison-Varga, president of the Natural History Museum.

The new mobile museum, funded by grants, made a stop this week at Sparks elementary school in La Puente.

"This is the first time we're able to bring this unit out here and I'm so excited because many of our students here can't travel all the way down to the real La Brea Tar Pits," said L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis. "This gives them an idea of what is there and how all of this history and climate impact, prehistoric times all the way up to today 2023."

Schools can make reservations for the mobile museum to come onto their campus online here.