Stones N’ Bones, the one-of-a-kind natural history museum in downtown Sarnia has reopened its doors to the public. Even though large “For Sale” signs are posted in its windows, visitors are welcomed back Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Owner Allison Richards says the decision was made in response to popular demand.
The museum, which had operated since 1994, closed its doors when Allison’s husband and partner Jim Richards passed away last year at the age of 82. The remarkable contents of the museum were all part of his personal collection. 6,000 artifacts fill two floors of galleries and include fossils, dinosaur bones, taxidermy, preserved butterflies, gems, and rare rocks.
The building and nearly all of its contents are being sold for less than 2 million dollars. “That is a fire sale price,” says Kevin Bly, a member of the Sarnia Rock and Fossil Club. He is a friend of the Richards and a long-time visitor to the museum, and he volunteers his time to act as a guide to the exhibits at Stones N’ Bones. He knows the contents of the museum almost as well as the late Jim Richards did.
Bly believes it will not be long before someone snatches up this local treasure, though the museum's fate is up in the air. “If you care about this place, you should visit soon,” he told us.
Stones N’ Bones is a unique experience. The many artifacts are not displayed individually or in isolation, but in very close quarters, offering a profusion of interesting sights to take in all at once. There are few plaques and little information to go with the displays as that was almost always imparted to visitors through Jim Richards’ storytelling or from other volunteers. It breaks the rules of curation, Bly tells us, “but this is all part of its charm.”
Children go from gallery to gallery with smiles on their faces and wide eyes. One 5-year-old visitor named Theo, there for the first time, says his favourite things are the dinosaur bones and “the fishies,” referring to the display of taxidermy fish.
The building and contents are being sold together in the hopes that any new owner will continue to run the museum. Allison Richards says that if that does not happen then the building and the collection could be sold separately, though she “is not quite ready to do that at this time.”
Allison Richards was always in charge of the Stones N’ Bones gift shop and she hopes to sell off much of her inventory now that the museum is open again. The gift shop stocks unique items for collectors and lovers of natural history including rare rocks and minerals, and bats, insects, and arachnids preserved in resin.
The number of people returning to visit the museum and the positive reactions from visitors, old and new, have been a delight for Allison Richards. Despite being closed for almost a year, the museum continues to rank as the number one thing to do in Sarnia on the travel site TripAdvisor.
The museum has always run as a not-for-profit venture, and all with no government funding. The cost of admission remains unchanged at $7 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under.