The Calkins Nature Center is home to a nearly 2,000 square foot Native American and Natural History Museum that explores the story of Hardin County's ecological and cultural past.
A question that one may ask is "why would a nature center have exhibits about human history?" It is because humans are and have always been a part of nature. Human activities over the past 13,000 years have had a tremendous impact on the processes that shape our natural environments.
Expanded Museum Space
Our museum space was expanded in 2015 and was recently furnished with new displays designed and built four our center. Now complete, the museum has one room primarily dedicated to displaying Native American artifacts ranging from stone tools of the Clovis people (the first inhabitants of North America which are approximately 13,000 years old) all the way up to bone, leather and beaded artifacts from the era of written history which started at the time of European settlement.