In case you did not know it, I have a part-time job.

I still am the managing editor at the Faribault County Register, but I also moonlight as the president of the board of directors of the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History. You might have already known that, given the amount of time I spend trying to promote the museum. The job doesn’t really pay anything, just the satisfaction of doing something to promote the museum and the community.

The museum has only been open on Saturdays since last September, but that does not mean that it has been idle. The board of directors has been busy making plans for this summer, when the museum will go from being open only on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to being open every day of the week from 1 to 4 p.m. In case you are curious, the museum has had visitors almost every single Saturday all fall and winter long. Sometimes as many as 15 people come to visit.

I will give you a sneak preview of some of those things that are in the works at what is affectionately known as the Dino Museum.

First off, in late April, a man named Walter is going to take a lot of the bison bones the museum owns and build a skeleton of a 7,000-year-old bison. And the exciting part? He is going to do it right inside the museum.

The museum has long had a bison bone display, now it will soon have a full size one to see. The bones came from a dig in Anoka, Minnesota, and the story behind them is truly fascinating.

That is not the only thing in the works.

The museum is also building two fossil prep work stations. These will be booths where kids (and maybe adults) can learn how to take a rough fossil and carve the material around it until it is just the fossil.

Plus, the museum plans to have an expert named Mike Payne come to the museum to teach selected kids how to do this.

There are museums where you can watch experts do this kind of work, and universities where adult paleontologists are trained, but this might be the only museum in the country where a 10 to 16 year old kid can learn how in a hands on class.

There are new displays at the museum. If you have not been there lately, there is always something new to see. There is a fascinating collection of ancient, very colorful dyes. There is a large, complete fossilized tortoise, with one of his feet apparently bitten off. And more to come.

Another special event coming up is that the museum is participating in the BIC Wine Walk this year. That is on the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend, May 9. We think the museum might have some special Dino-Mite Wine for participants to try.

This year the museum has been selected as the recipient of the proceeds from the Wine Walk and the board is very appreciative of that support.

In fact, the museum board is very appreciative of all the support from the community. It is a non-profit, and entrance is free. So it relies solely on donations in order to continue to operate and to continue to have new items on display.

In the world of dinosaurs, fossils, minerals and other items, nothing is cheap, so it seems. There are very few “bargains” out in the museum world anymore.

Or in our day to day lives for that matter.

Other things going on at the museum are plans to do to a lot of promoting this spring and summer. Soon you might notice a new sign on Interstate 90 that promotes the museum. And new dino fliers at rest stops, ads in area publications like the soon to be published Blue Earth Visitors Guide and other publications.

And of course, our almost famous videos that are on Facebook and TikTok and other social media platforms are getting a lot of response. Especially on TikTok where there are a lot of followers from all over who are really liking what we are putting on there. There are more of those coming, and a few might just be a little bit humorous, considering they promote a serious museum. Others will show how a bison skeleton is constructed.

And sometimes folks just stumble onto the museum by accident. Like a family from out of town who just drove by it one dark Friday night recently and noticed what they thought was a giant dinosaur skeleton inside. They Googled why a dinosaur skeleton would be inside a business building in downtown Blue Earth and the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History popped up.

They came back the next day, Saturday, and had a wonderful visit. They thought this was the highlight of the day.

You can see it too. Any Saturday right now. Any day of the week this summer.

See you there.