Los Angeles is home to many world-famous attractions, but few are as unusual as a place where ancient fossils are still being pulled out of the ground in the middle of a modern city. One of those rare sites is now heading for a long pause.
The La Brea Tar Pits will close its museum on July 6, 2026 for a massive upgrade expected to last about two years. The project is aimed at modernizing the facility ahead of the 2028 Olympics. Officials say the museum has simply run out of space, as its collection has grown to more than 2 million fossils and specimens.
The renovation will expand storage areas, upgrade exhibition spaces, and add new research facilities. It will also introduce updated displays designed to help visitors better understand how scientists work directly with discoveries from the site.
While the main building is closed, the outdoor park and excavation pits will remain open, allowing the public to continue watching active fossil digs in real time.
Museum history and why it matters
The La Brea Tar Pits have been a key scientific site in the city for over 100 years. Natural asphalt seeps trapped animals during the Ice Age, preserving their bones in remarkable detail.
Scientists have recovered fossils of saber-toothed cats, mammoths, dire wolves, and many other extinct species. These discoveries have helped researchers piece together what SoCal looked like tens of thousands of years ago.
The museum opened in 1977 to showcase these ongoing discoveries and to highlight that excavation work. Unlike most museums, this is a living dig site where new fossils continue to be uncovered.
