NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada's newest state park wants to take visitors back in time to the time of mammoths and dire wolves.
This week, Ice Age Fossils State Park is scheduled to open to the public. The project was first announced in January 2017 as part of then-Gov. Brian Sandoval's "Explore Your Nevada Initiative".
"This park has been nearly seven years in the making," Bob Mergell, Nevada State Parks Administrator, said. "Throughout the project, we encountered numerous challenges, such as funding constraints, pandemic-related setbacks, and hurdles in sourcing building materials. Thanks to the unwavering commitment of our staff, the efforts of dedicated contractors and contributions from private funding sources, we are elated to announce that we are ready to open Ice Age Fossils State Park."
The 315-acre park is located at 8660 North Decatur Boulevard.
According to the park's website, thousands of fossils have been found in the area, which Columbian mammoths, American lions, camels, dire wolves, and ground sloths once called home.
There will be several natural history exhibits in the visitor center as well as several trails that run through the Las Vegas Wash and historic Trench K site. You can also see art created by Las Vegas native Tahoe Mack who said she can't wait for the public to see her "Monumental Mammoth" sculpture, which has also appeared at places like Burning Man and the Life Is Beautiful festival.
"It's so exciting! Today's the day," Mack said. "Everything that they were aiming to protect touched my heart, just thinking about all these fossils out here waiting to be discovered, needing to be protected."
In the future, state park officials said they want to build a paleontology facility at the park.
"A place where you can see a paleontologist in action, cleaning fossils, talking about discoveries throughout our state and a repository where we can house these collections as well,"Garrett Fehner, the Ice Age Fossils State Park supervisor, said.
The park is projected to open to the public on Saturday and the entry fee is $3. Children 12 and under are free.
