Indiana State Museum located in White River State Park

Overview

ADMISSION
$13-$17

The Indiana State Museum, located in White River State Park, brings the best of the museum world to Indiana. Spanning three floors of permanent and changing galleries, the museum tells the story of the Hoosier state, and features a year-round calendar of exhibits, events and educational programs for all ages. Here you can engage with the past and connect it to the present, carrying your newfound knowledge and experiences with you long after you leave. In addition to exhibits, the museum houses an IMAX movie theater, the Indiana Store, The Farmers Market Café, and the L.S. Ayres Tea Room, open to the public during the holiday season and available for private dining throughout the year.

Permanent galleries include:

• Frozen Reign: A State of Change
  Feel the tooth of a saber tooth cat, explore a subglacial ice tunnel, and wind your way through replicas of caves that house the bones of many now-extinct animals that previously roamed Indiana, including jaguars, dire wolves and more. Plus, see a parade of the Ice Age giants, with skeletons of mammoths, mastodons and other larger animals. Learn about environmental change and how it continues to affect us today, and about the ongoing work that museum staff do out in the field. Frozen Reign covers the timeframe from about 5 million years ago up to about 12,000 years ago.
• The R.B. Annis Naturalist’s Lab
  R.B. Annis Naturalist’s Lab invites you to explore Indiana’s natural history through your senses. Touch artifacts and specimens like rocks and minerals, animals and plants. Use the tools of a naturalist and engage with on-staff scientists and historical Hoosiers, as well as from other experts in the state, to discover the world around you. This is a place for hands-on exploration of different sciences, including paleobiology, archaeology, geology and more.
• First Nations: The Story of Indiana's Founding People
  You’ll discover how Pre-Columbian Native Americans developed successful, strong communities. View artifacts from the museum’s archaeology collection including a Clovis point from 10,000 years ago, 2,000-year-old ceramic pottery, jewelry and more. Hear a Potawatomi storyteller share about the bear that lost its tail, telling the story of the constellation Ursa Major, and see how the Potawatomi used stars for navigation. Touch a 3D-printed mud daub and feel where the hands of these native people once were, view a life-size projection of Native Americans using ordinary objects like chunky stones and ceramic pots in their daily lives, and participate in an interactive station featuring hands-on activities for families. First Nations covers history that occurred from approximately 12,000 years ago up to 300 years ago.