Ed Clark Museum of Missouri Geology

Operated by the Missouri Geological Survey and named in honor of one of the state's past geologists, this museum showcases Missouri's geological history through a variety of exhibits and collections. It is located in the Missouri Department of Natural Resources building and admission to the museum is free. Highlights include a meteorite discovered close to the town of Licking, a replica of the state's official dinosaur, a mammoth tusk, and a fluorescent display of minerals. A unique feature of this museum is that visitors can bring in rocks and other geological specimens and the staff will identify them.

The Missouri Geological Survey operates the museum among a variety of services and information to the state's mineral industry such as visits to mines, identifying rocks, minerals, and fossils, analyzing sandstone particles, creating stratigraphic maps, performing geological investigations at active and potential mine sites, facilitating geochemical analyses, identifying the presence of faults or karst features that could interfere with surface mining operations, and measuring the potential amount of groundwater inflow into proposed mines. The museum includes medals won by the Missouri Geological Survey at World’s Fairs and Expositions in 1893, 1904, and 1915.

The state has four official state symbols. The state fossil is the crinoid (an invertebrate animal that lived 490 million years ago); the state dinosaur is the plant-eating Hypsibema missouriensis; the state mineral is a type of lead called galena, and the state rock is a type of chert called Mozarkite that's only found in Missouri.

"Ed Clark Museum of Missouri Geology." Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://dnr.mo.gov/land-geology/what-were-doing/ed-clark-museum-missouri-geology.

"Industrial Mineral Resources Support - PUB3023." Missouri Geological Survey. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://dnr.mo.gov/document-search/industrial-mineral-resources-support-pub3023.

"State Geologic Symbols." Missouri Geological Survey. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://dnr.mo.gov/land-geology/geology/rocks-minerals-fossils/state-geologic-symbols.