EUGENE–There’s a good chance you’ll discover something unusual or really surprising about Oregon at the Museum of Natural History’s Discovery Day on Saturday, April 21.

Formerly known as Identification Day, this annual event at the University of Oregon will add new demonstrations of traditional technologies, backpack archaeology, more raffle items and food to its original lineup of science experts, on hand to identify artifacts, rocks and fossils.

From noon until 3 p.m., adults, teenagers and children of all ages are invited to bring their curiosity about Oregon’s natural and cultural past, as well as objects for identification, to the courtyard of the museum, 1680 E. 15th Ave. on the UO campus. Scientists, traditional artists and naturalists will give demonstrations and answer questions.

The event costs $3 per person or $6 per family. Any additional donations are tax deductible. The Friends of the Museum sponsor Discovery Day as a fundraiser for museum public programs.

The event will include a 2:30 p.m. drawing for more than 25 prizes. Donated items include a rock water fountain, a metal garden sculpture, amethyst bookends, a 350-million-year-old fossil and framed endangered-species stamps from three countries, as well as books and gift certificates. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5. Visitors do not need to be present to win.

Hot dogs and drinks from Tim’s Bad Dawgs and Indian fry bread also will be available for purchase.

Sixteen experts–from archivists to archaeologists, moth to moss specialists, flint-knappers to frontier historians–will be available to talk about their area of interest, identify mystery objects and answer visitors’ questions.

Three UO archaeologists will answer questions about early Oregon inhabitants and the objects they left behind. They are Mel Aikens, an Oregon archaeologist and the museum’s director; Tom Connolly, a prehistoric basketry expert and the museum’s research director; and Guy Tasa, a human and animal bone expert.

Local experts will demonstrate the traditional technologies of Oregon’s Native people throughout the afternoon. These include flint-knapping with Jim Long, beading with Wilma Crowe, cedar-bark basketmaking with Donna Sakamoto Crispin, and tule basketmaking with Sheila Tasker. Aimee Yogi will demonstrate tapa clothmaking.

Bill Orr will answer more questions about Oregon’s past–the very, very distant past. He is a UO geology professor emeritus, director of the state of Oregon’s fossil repository and the author, with his wife Elizabeth, of "The Geology of the Pacific Northwest" and other books.

Fossils, gemstones and rocks also are the specialty of two other experts. Howard Elementary School teacher Chris Evans is a fossil photographer. Rock shop owner Jim Nelson "The Rocky Feller" knows all about mineralogy and geology.

For questions about the more recent past, visitors may go to Quinton Barton and Paul Wellborn of the Lane County Historical Society. Bert and Lori Dotson, who own Dotson’s Coburg Antiques, also will be on hand to look at historical items and attic treasures.

Those with old fabrics, weavings and clothing from all over the world can ask textile expert Hattie Mae Nixon about them.

Visitors who are interested in the plant and animal wildlife of the area may talk to ornithologist Dan Gleason, who heads up the UO biology teaching lab; entomologist and moth expert Ronald Hodges; and Willamette Valley plant and moss expert David Wagner.

Louise Shimmel of the Cascade Raptor Care Center will bring orphaned or injured birds of prey that have been rescued by the Eugene animal shelter.

Visitors who would like to find out how to research these subjects further or how to organize their own collections may talk to Christine Sundt, a UO librarian and Internet research specialist, and to James Fox, the UO Library System’s director of special collections and archives.

The younger crowd will explore the world of archaeological "digs" using backpacks and trash containers. They also will put together bone puzzles, examine weird teeth, create geometric drawings of crystals and make sidewalk art pictographs with chalk.

Discovery Day is designed to educate and inform. Neither dollar appraisals nor sales advice will be given.

Museum of Natural History exhibits and the museum store are open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday on the UO campus near the corner of East 15th Avenue and Agate Street, behind the Knight Law Center. Free parking is available in front of the museum with a permit from the front desk. Regular admission is by $2 donation, with UO students and museum members admitted free.

For information about Discovery Day, visit <http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/> on the Web, call (541) 346-3024, or send e-mail to <mnh@oregon.uoregon.edu>. For a 24-hours-a-day taped message about museum exhibits and activities, call GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone, 485-2000, ext. 3447.

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