There Is a Free Natural History Museum on the ULM Campus. I Finally Went.

I went on the last day of Mystery Monday, which turned out to be the best possible day to go. The museum had opened every room in its collection for a summer scavenger hunt, and more people were walking through it that morning than probably any Monday in recent memory. I showed up with a camera and an hour to spare.

What the ULM Museum of Natural History Actually Is

The museum is in Hanna Hall at 708 University Ave on the ULM campus. It is free, open to visitors ages four and up, and run by the Biology Department. It is the kind of place that exists at a lot of college towns and gets overlooked because it does not advertise much and the entrance does not announce itself.

Inside it is a different story. The collection covers several rooms: fossils and prehistoric specimens, Louisiana wildlife taxidermy, a live fish room with coral reef and freshwater tanks, a bird and world geography room, and displays on local paleontology. Plan for about an hour to walk through everything at a comfortable pace. Admission is free.

Mystery Monday Was a Scavenger Hunt Through Every Room

For three Mondays in June 2026, the museum hosted Mystery Monday. You picked up a detective sheet at the front desk and the questions sent you through every exhibit room looking for answers. Each Monday had a different mystery, so you could come back all three times and get a completely different experience. There were also harder questions for older kids.

I was walking around taking photos rather than solving the mystery myself, but watching other visitors work through the clues gave me a good reason to slow down in every room. The organizer who runs the whole program told me they recently started opening all their collections for this, not just one wing as they had done before.

What You Will See Inside the ULM Natural History Museum

The main fossil and specimen hall has the big pieces. The centerpiece is a Columbian mammoth skull with full curved tusks, flanked by shark jaws and an alligator taxidermy specimen stretched out flat beneath a glass case. A pair of elephant ivory tusks arch over each other in a glass cabinet along one wall.

That T-rex skull has a label worth stopping to read. It is a cast of "Sue," named after Sue Hendrickson, who discovered the fossil in Faith, South Dakota in 1990. The skull is almost 5 feet long. The complete skeleton, over 42 feet and more than 90% intact, is one of only two T-rex specimens ever recovered with front arms. The original is at the Field Museum in Chicago. ULM has the cast.

There is a corner with an Apatosaurus femur that has a sign reading ONE BIG DINOSAUR BONE in capital letters, which is exactly the right level of enthusiasm for a bone that size. The label explains the scale: this single femur represents the upper leg of one of the largest animals that ever lived on Earth.

The bird and world geography room has mounted North American bird specimens along the walls and a large world map at the back. From there, the live fish room has a large coral reef aquarium and several freshwater tanks with Louisiana species, including local gar. The walls are lined with mounted sport fish, sailfish and mahi-mahi, giving the whole room the feeling of a very serious fishing cabin that also happens to have working tanks.

Plan Your Visit to the ULM Museum of Natural History

The museum closes in July 2026 for routine maintenance. Group visits of 10 or more can book for the fall starting August 24 by emailing the museum directly. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for any new programming in the fall. If you are making a day of free Monroe attractions, the full list of free things to do in Monroe has seven more worth your time.

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