Rowan University’s Edelman Fossil Park in Mantua Township has seen quite a few changes over the years. What began as a quarry, it turned into an open archeological dig over the last two decades, where members of the community could dig up fossils. And now it has gone a step further and is home to a new museum dedicated to dinosaurs and marine life that lived in the region millions of years ago.

Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara first got involved in the property in 2003 and helped convert it into an archaeological site and tourist destination for dinosaur lovers.

“I raised a little bit of money to rent a corner of the quarry so that we were able to map and excavate methodically,” he said. “Once we started to do that, I saw that we had something really important here, something that needed to be saved.”

Rowan University bought the land in 2015, and broke ground on the museum about three and a half years ago. Lacovara said the museum, which opened in March, and the Fossil Park aim to inspire its visitors, including continued community dig days in May,

“When you go down there and you find the fossil with your own hands, you’re seeing something that no human has ever seen before. It’s a legitimate discovery and that really excites them,” Lacovara said. “That little fossil that they find, a clam or a shark tooth, that becomes more important to them than all the T-Rex is in all the museums of the world.”