Ithaca Museum Could Become Extinct

A large mastodon skeleton stands on display in a museum, with informational signs and a painted landscape mural.
The Hyde Park Mastodon skeleton is on display at a museum, illustrating a story about the future of local museums.

An Ithaca Museum faces extinction.

The Museum of the Earth, one of the last natural history museums in Upstate New York, faces the threat of foreclosure after a group of donors failed to fulfill a $30 million pledge.Top of Form The museum has been in default on its mortgage for “more than a year and a half.

The museum opened in 2003.

The Ithaca Voice. com reports more than 7 million specimens are housed in the collection, each gathered from sites around the world over the past 150 years. Scientists travel to Ithaca to use the collection in their research, as many specimens came from sites that are now inaccessible or no longer exist.

Stay Informed: Finger Lakes news, delivered to your inbox every morning.