The Schiele Museum of Natural History takes visitors on a spectacular journey through thousands of years of history, from the Stone Age Heritage Site, with its standing stones, stone circles, burial mounds, and petroglyphs, to the 18th-century Backcountry Farm that provides living history presentations on the life of early settlers. Several environments contain live animals, vegetation, and land formations, and showcase North American birds, mammals, and reptiles, while the Catawba Indian Village includes a prehistoric bark-covered house.
The Museum also houses the Halls of Earth and Man, North American Wildlife, and the American Indian, which feature exhibits on the customs and lifestyles of the peoples of the region, as well as artifacts, tools, and weapons. Visitors should take a stroll on the Natural History Nature Trail, a one-mile trek through pine and hardwood forests. No day at the Museum is complete without a trip to the Planetarium, which offers a fantastic experience of planets, moons, galaxies, comets, and black holes, as well as images captured by the Hubble Telescope.
