La Brea Tar Pits

About

The La Brea Tar Pits sit in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, where natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years. Spanish explorer Father Juan Crespí made the first written record of the site in 1769, and in 1901 Union Oil geologist W. W. Orcutt recognized that fossilized animal bones were preserved within the tar. In 1913 George Allan Hancock granted exclusive excavation rights to the Natural History Museum, and in 1924 he donated 23 acres of the site to Los Angeles County. Radiocarbon dating has placed the oldest bones and wood recovered from the pits at roughly 38,000 years old. Fossils unearthed here include dire wolves, the saber-toothed cat (California's official state fossil), Columbian mammoths, short-faced bears, American lions, and ground sloths. The George C. Page Museum, founded in 1977 as part of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, oversees ongoing fossil research and exhibits at the site, which is designated a National Natural Landmark. The museum is currently undergoing a major renovation, with indoor exhibits temporarily closed while the outdoor areas of Hancock Park remain open.