JONESBORO -- A skeleton of probably the largest animal ever stalked in our hunter-happy corner of the world greets visitors to the Arkansas State University Museum.
It's a North American mastodon, a species whose males stood up to 10 feet high and weighed as much as 6 tons. Hunted by our prehistoric ancestors, this precursor of today's elephants went extinct 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.
The imposing skeleton dominates the museum's lower lobby on ASU's main campus in Jonesboro. It inspires wonder that early humans evidently pursued these behemoths wielding nothing deadlier than stone-tipped spears. A plaque notes that this specimen is named Mona, honoring a retired museum worker.
A replica molded from bones excavated at several of 20 fossil sites in Arkansas, Mona whets visitors' curiosity for the array of intriguing objects in the second-floor main galleries.
Open since 1936, the museum aims for "exhibits that entertain and inform, giving visitors and residents alike a taste of the rich cultural and natural history of Crowley's Ridge and the Mississippi Delta."
The collection is eclectic to a degree almost dizzying. There's something to capture virtually any visitor's attention, including a temporary exhibit on nanotechnology: the study and making of extremely tiny objects.
Albinism -- the absence of coloring pigments -- is the theme of a taxidermy display showing all-white examples of 11 species including deer, possum, skunk, raccoon and rabbit.
The obsessive thrills of collecting are incarnate in the troves passed along by Mary E. Stack. An Army dietitian from the area, she accumulated eye-popping hoards of thimbles, lace-making bobbins, hat pins and snuff boxes.
An area labeled "Arkansas Main Streets, 1880-1920" offers tableaux of a dozen local businesses from that era. The offices include a pharmacy, a bank, a barbershop and a jeweler. It's perhaps the most evocative such presentation at any Arkansas museum.
Stuffed animals and birds occupy a prominent place among the exhibits. Particularly thorough is the panoply of ducks and other waterfowl. They're a common target of 21st century hunters, who can have only dreams -- or perhaps nightmares -- about going up against a mastodon.
Live as well as stuffed creatures are featured at another worthwhile attraction, Forrest L. Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center on Jonesboro's southern outskirts. This is one of four such facilities built by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Rattlesnakes, snapping turtles and young alligators occupy enclosures along one wall. A sizable aquarium contains channel catfish, short-nose gar, black bullheads, red sunfish and other denizens of Arkansas waters.
There's even a sound-and-light show, as thunder roars and artificial lightning flashes in a two-story diorama demonstrating rainfall runoff and the persistent reshaping of Crowley's Ridge by erosion.
Behind the center, a quarter-mile trail complete with a wildlife-viewing blind circles Willow Pond. It's a refreshing stroll on a sunny winter day.
Arkansas State University Museum, in the Dean B. Ellis Library complex, ASU, Jonesboro, is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday and Wednesday-Saturday , 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday. Call (870) 972-2074 or visit astate.edu/museum.
Forrest L. Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center, 600 E. Lawson Road (on the southern outskirts of Jonesboro), is open 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Call (870) 933-6787 or visit crowleysridge.org.
A good choice for lunch in downtown Jonesboro is Godsey's Grill, 226 S. Main St. For something different and delicious, try the Cowboy Special sandwich: smoked bologna, fried egg, bacon, tomato and mayonnaise.
Weekend on 01/22/2015