La Brea Tar Pits observation pit reopens after 2 decades

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- La Brea Tar Pits has reopened its observation pit to the public after nearly two decades.

"It closed about 20 years ago because we decided to focus on excavators, rather than the stuff in the ground," said John Harris, chief curator of the La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum.

Since 1913, 5 million fossils have been excavated on the 23-acre property. The observation pit first opened to the public in 1952.

A skull of a saber tooth tiger, fossils from a ground sloth and a mastodon, a distant cousin of the elephant, are all embedded in tar and can be seen at the museum.

"When people come here, they can see what the excavators see. They can see the fossils as they occur in the ground," Harris said.

Ryan Flora, of Modesto, said he's never seen a sabre tooth tiger skull before.

"It's really cool because I've never seen anything like this in my life," Flora said.

The observation pit was also closed due to a lack of manpower to safeguard the fossils. Scientist say some of the fossils in the observation pit are 50,000 years old and worth lots of money.

"On the open market now, the saber tooth cat skull fetches around $250,000. So we can only open this pit up when we have the resources to look after it and make sure the fossils are safe guarded," Harris said.

The observation pit will be open for public tours June 28th.