Johnston Geology Museum

 Emporia State University
Cram Science Hall
14th and Merchant St.
Emporia, Kansas 66801
(620) 341-5330

8 AM - 10 PM Monday - Friday
8 AM - noon Saturday          free
(only when the university is in session)

Johnston Geology Museum Map

Johnston Geology Museum - Hamilton Quarry Fossil Assemblage
Kansas fossil and geology attractions

In the foreground is a 9' fossil mastodon tuck found in the bank of the Cottonwood River near Emporia

The Johnston Geology Museum at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas is a little known treasure. The museum is free, and open whenever the Emporia State is in session and the building is unlocked.

Other than a couple of displays and interesting maps & posters in the hall, The Johnston Museum is all in one medium sized room. About 50 cases of geology specimens, fossil displays, and early stone Native American artifacts are squeezed into the room. The displays are well laid out and have interesting labels explaining what they are, where they were collected and putting the artifacts in context.

Most of the items exhibited in the Johnston Geology Museum were collected in Kansas, but there is also a nice display of crystals from the salt flats in northern Oklahoma. My favorite items included tusks from three different mastodons (you can touch one), a display on how Native American implements were made, and a complete 17' long mosasaur skeleton from the Cretaceous period. 

The Johnston Geology Museum is just of I-35, 1/2 mile south of exit 130. The Johnston Museum is in Cram Science Hall on the campus of Emporia State University. If the main doors of Cram Science Hall (shown below) are locked, walk to the doors at the north end of the building.

Before leaving the building, go down one floor and walk north into the Breukelman Science Hall where the Richard H. Schmidt Museum of Natural History displays 600 taxidermy mounts of Kansas birds, mammals, reptiles, and fish.

Platycarpus at Johnston Geology Museum
Platycarpus a 17 foot long mosasaur discovered in 1967 near Elkander, Kansas in Gove County

Petrified wood  in the Johnston Geology Museum
petrified wood

Mastodon bones and tusk in the Johnston Geology Museum
Mastodon bones and tusk

Johnston Geology Museum enterance
The Johnston Geology Museum is on the main floor and available
whenever the building is unlocked.

Cram Science Hall - Emporia State University
Cram Science Hall - Emporia State University

Johnston Geology Museum Map - Emporia, Kansas
Johnston Geology Museum Map

Kansas fossil and geology attractions    Johnston Geology Museum web site
Kansas Attractions  Kansas Travel & Tourism Home

copyright 2006-2021 by Keith Stokes