Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum

09/06/2026

In celebration of National Read a Book Day, why not stop by our gift shop? We have a great selection of books for all ages about dinosaurs and more!

08/25/2026

The Utah Field House Lecture Series returns! Join us this Thursday (August 27th, 2026) at 7:00PM for Rudolf Hummel's “A Tale of Two Rivers: Mammoths, Math, and Mysteries at Waco Mammoth National Monument”. This is a free event at the Utah Field House 496 E. Main St., Vernal, UT.

Waco Mammoth and Dinosaur National Monuments have a lot in common, but one of their key differences is how their animals were killed and buried. At Waco Mammoth, these questions have yet to be answered. In fact, paleontologists are not even certain which river - the paleo-Bosque or the paleo-Brazos - buried the skeletons. Rudolph Hummel will discuss a recent study using bone orientation, statistics, and geology to explore the direction of paleocurrent flow at the time the skeletons were buried, a process similar to one used at Dinosaur National Monument in years past. Come find out what paleocurrents can tell us about the Waco Mammoths and their final resting place!

Rudolph Hummel is an early-career paleontologist with a mind for museums and mammals. He has a BS in earth science from Montana State and an MS from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where he studied the origins of grassland ecosystems in North America during the Age of Mammals. Past jobs have taken him from four fossil-based National Monuments (including Waco Mammoth National Monument) to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He is currently a seasonal paleontology technician at Dinosaur National Monument.

07/20/2026

Job Description
Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum
496 E. Main
Vernal, UT. 84078
Park Ranger Aide

The museum is seeking an individual (part-time employment; 14-29 hours per week) for our front desk area to greet visitors and collect fees and handle retail sales. The job requires giving details about the museum and its exhibits to the visitors, as well as answering questions about the local area, including detailed information about attractions located on public lands.

The successful applicant will also assist with the museum store tasks, including stocking, pricing merchandise, and cleaning. Applicants must be able to operate credit card machines and computerized cash registers, process money, be able to close out
cash register each night and work out problems if overage or shortages appear and help with physical inventory.

Additional tasks include (but not limited too):
• Filling brochure rack.
• Daily cleaning: sweep floors, empty trash, clean glass doors and counters, vacuum if needed.
• Other duties as assigned.

The job requires working weekends and holidays, a basic knowledge of computers, the ability to follow verbal and written instructions, and correctly count cash change back to customers. The successful applicant must pass a criminal history background check before you can start working.

YOU MUST PICK UP A DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES APPLICATION FROM THE MUSEUM, COMPLETE IT AND BRING IT BACK. THOSE WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS POSITION.

Send a message to learn more

07/06/2026

Join us tomorrow for a surprise round of the Utah Field House Lecture Series! Tuesday (not Thursday!) July, 7th, 2026 at 7:00PM Come see Kristen Watmore's "Ecological Investigations of Mammals during the Age of Dinosaurs: Body Mass and Diet". This is a free event at the Utah Field House 496 E. Main St., Vernal, UT.

Kristin Watmore is a PhD student in paleontology at the University of Southern California and an associate of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. She is visiting us while studying the mammals of the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation from more than 150 million years ago.

07/01/2026

Bounce Back Passes will be available at the Utah Field House on July 4th and accepted August 3rd-6th, 2026!

TWO state park visits for the price of ONE? Let’s bounce! 💪💪

This 4th of July, Utah State Parks is giving you the ultimate holiday perk. If you visit any Utah State Park this Saturday, you’ll score a FREE Bounce Back Pass at the gate!

Here’s how it works:
* Grab your pass at a staffed entrance gate on July 4,
* Use it for a FREE return trip to any state park between August 3-6, 2026!
* (Valid at all parks except golf courses. One Bounce Back Pass per vehicle.)

While you’re out enjoying the water and trails this weekend, please help us keep Utah green! Stage 2 fire restrictions are in full effect, so let’s keep the celebrations strictly fire-free.

Which park are you heading to this weekend?!

06/23/2026

Many thanks to Nichole Shaw, the Outreach Programs Specialist at the Utah Field House of Natural History, for visiting the Duchesne Branch Library and teaching the kids about fossils for their summer reading activity! We had many delighted future paleontologists in attendance.

06/18/2026

Anyone else having fun cooling off in their pools during this warm weather?

While we don't actually have a pool to swim in, we have been screen washing some sediments collected from one of our dig sites. To do this we divide the sample between these frames with wire mesh lining the bottom. We then soak them in a tank of water to wash away the dirt and clay in the hopes of finding very tiny fossils in the bits that remain.

06/05/2026

A new exhibit in the Untermann Gallery: Pathways.
"From your usual commute to fun adventures, there are many different kinds of pathways to take that can lead to new or familiar places."
Come and see some of the different trails, roads, and waterways painted by "Artist of the Uintas" Ernest Untermann Sr. Paintings are on display on the second floor.

06/04/2026

Talk by Dr. Jaelyn J. Eberle is tonight!

The Utah Field House Lecture Series returns! Join us next Thursday (June 4th, 2026) at 7:00PM for Dr. Jaelyn J. Eberle's "Fossil mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs in northern Alaska". This is a free event at the Utah Field House 496 E. Main St., Vernal, UT.

During the Late Cretaceous Period (ca. 73 million years ago), Alaska was inhabited by a diversity of vertebrates including dinosaurs, birds, fishes, and mammals. In this talk, Jaelyn will discuss the northern-most mammals that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. They include tiny opossum-like animals that are distant relatives to today’s marsupials, multituberculates (an extinct group with unusual blade like and many-cusped teeth), and tiny insectivores related to today’s placental mammals, some of which may have looked and behaved like shrews. These new fossil mammals from Alaska indicate this region was both a faunal cross-road between Asia and North America and a cradle of mammal evolution.

Jaelyn Eberle is a paleontologist originally from Saskatchewan, Canada. She is Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and Professor in the Department of Earth Science at CU Boulder. Jaelyn’s research focuses on the study of fossil mammals during past intervals of climate change as well as the recovery and evolution of mammals following the mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary that sealed the fate of the dinosaurs. Her field research takes her all over the Rocky Mountain Region as well as to northern Alaska and Canada's High Arctic. Jaelyn teaches classes in vertebrate paleontology at CU Boulder.

06/02/2026

Alert: Sidewalk and inside fire panel replacement is ongoing until June 5th. Please use our main entrance on the south side of the building entering from the parking lot.