Museum Rooms & Exhibits
The John Hutchings Museum houses one of Utah’s finest collections of bird eggs representing a specific area. Cases are trays house 402 clutches of Utah County birds eggs with accompanying data. These include perchers, waders, seed-eaters, birds of prey, and water fowl. Many relate to species which no longer frequent the area due to changes in natural cover. Mounted specimens of some birds and animals are likewise shown.
The development of a butterfly collection has also become an active display with continual additions occurring.
Fossils are life forms preserved by a replacement or casting process and provide a window on geologic time. Utah’s West desert and surrounding states have yielded an array of beautiful specimens from fish, birds, and leaves to dinosaurs. Dinosaur bones and coprolite and a molar and piece of tusk from the wooly mammoth are just a sampling of the many life forms that take us through an intriguing slice of the geologic past.
The Museum also displays a wide variety of South Sea artifacts collected from a number of noted donors. Shells, corals, and sea urchins, as well as native hunting weapons and living amenities, add interest for individuals not familiar with this island way of life.
Termed one of the finest in the State by the Utah Mining Association, the John Hutchings collection of minerals features hundreds of specimens.
Gems such as garnets, sapphires, opals, tourmalines, topaz, amethyst, beryl, turquoise, Herkimer diamonds and kunzite from Utah, Montana, Nevada, Idaho and other areas are also found. These minerals are of great interest to the mineralogist and specimen collectors for their rarity and great variety.
Utah’s pre-historic inhabitants fascinate the world. The Anasazi people are introduced as well as the sensitively adapted Fremont-Sevier people of the basin/plateau region. Arrow and spear points, flaking tools, knives, hide scrapers and bead drills provide a look at the lifestyle of early man in the region. The large Clovis points are notable. Clay pots and reed-and-grass baskets show the artistry these early inhabitants put into their everyday utensils. The local Timpanogos Indians, as the Spanish called them, were part of the larger Ute culture. They were a part of the Shoshonean language family including Paiutes, Goshutes, and Shoshones most of Utah’s Native Americans. You will glimpse a view of their ceremonial customs, dress and shelter.
Historically, Lehi has been the scene of violent murders, flourishing speakeasies, and gambling dens. Ladies of the night have plied their wares, and a broad array of skullduggery is noted in city court records. The first jail in the Lehi Memorial Building was built in 1930; however, it was moved to it’s present location in 1957 where it remained in use until the early 1980?s. Kids love this room and can join the people already incarcerated in the cells.
Mormon pioneers made a distinctive mark on the Intermountain West. You will move from primitive tools and log cabins to exquisite serving pieces and glassware carefully carried across ocean and plains to a new home in the arid West. Imagine building with wood, creating hand-augered holes, and using wooden pins. See the candle snuffers and stagecoach foot warmer. The school slates and stoves, the curious goods once common to daily life. Pioneer firearms will fascinate with tales of Johnston’s army sent to quell the Mormon Rebellion in 1857.