Cincinnati Museum Center

Dire wolves and mastodons will once again prowl the halls of Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC). After extensive updates, the beloved Ice Age Gallery will emerge from its hibernation and transport guests back in time 15,000 years to the Pleistocene on July 1. The updated gallery will use the past to inform the present, blending scientific analysis with awe-inspiring displays of prehistoric beasts and immersive landscapes. 

Drawing on the strengths of its paleontology collections, CMC’s Ice Age Gallery will immerse guests in the Pleistocene, surrounding them with its sights and sounds. The chilly ice cave and trail populated by giant bison, saber-toothed cats, the Jefferson ground sloth and the iconic dire wolves return with Ice Age plants, updated lighting and soundscape and new projections that illustrate how giant glaciers scoured and shaped the Miami Valley.

During the Ice Age, the Greater Cincinnati region was a crossroads for megafauna drawn to natural salt deposits in the area. As mastodons, mammoths, giant bison and towering ground sloths grazed on the plains, dire wolves and saber-toothed cats prowled the forests. Human hunters, too, stalked the massive beasts. These movements, the stampede of hooves, paws and feet, carved the trails followed by early pioneers and settlers and, eventually, modern roadways. The evidence of the clashes between predator and prey are scattered along creek beds and buried under rocks throughout the region.

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