Reviews of University of Wisconsin Geology Museum (Tourist Attraction)

Ben Payne

An excellent museum for young scientists! With a large number of rock and mineral samples, some exotic fossils, and even a meteorite from mars, it's well worth a Saturday morning trek downtown to learn. And it's free!

Julia Craven

This place is so great. It’s free, educational, and highly entertaining for kids. I’m glad they are still open, and I can enjoy it as an adult the same way I did as a kid. Definitely worth a visit if you need an activity in the winter.

Michael Cardiff

A true treasure near downtown madison. Free, open weekdays and saturdays, and an amazing collection given the small location. Includes dinosaur fossils, mineral samples, views to a fossil preparation lab, and excellent guided tours (if booked in advance)

Madison Heim-Otting

Worth the visit

William First

A true "gem" in Madison's crown. The museum is free and the hours of operation very reasonable. Most tours are self-guided, though groups can arrange for an attendant. The collection is curated to be accessible for young visitors, while still engaging for adults. Meteorites, fossils, and phosphorescent minerals are the star attractions. The Geology Museum definitely ranks among Madison's must see attractions.

Nell E

This museum is a part of the UW Madison campus so parking is obviously challenging. It was easy to find and well marked. It as free admission as it runs on donations. They had a wide variety of specimens. Everything was well marked and beautifully displayed. Well worth the time spent there.

Donna Hatzinger

Lots to learn.

Kimberly Gushikuma

Small museum but very cool. Came just after opening on a Saturday, found street parking right across the street.

Jessica Elizabeth Owens

Great little museum, free to walk through too! While it doesn't change drastically between visits, it's very nice for a drop in walk through. We have been several times.

Grace Gabagaya

A learning experience about everything to do with rocks, stones and fossils. It is great to take kids here to see things practically.

Erik Saynisch

This is an excellent place to explore the physical history of the Earth. The displays are well made, the specimens are top-notch, and there are several FULL SIZED DINOSAUR SKELETONS!!! A favorite place to visit in the downtown Madison area.

Nikki Dandurand

It's free and has a lot packed into a small space. Pretty rock specimens, window into a lab, a demo on florescent rocks, tiny walk- through cave and a bun ch of fossils!!! A great way to pass an hour - or half an hour if your kids can't read and run ahead to gawk at a t-rex skull.

Dominic Rohrbach

It "Rocks" well its not just rocks, they have fossils and my son found alligator poop on display. Lots of history in a small museum.

Thomas Zwinger

This place is free and has some very interesting rocks and fossils. Would recommend.

Jacky Rojas

Good place I just wish it was bigger

Shannon Hermanson

What a cool "small" museum on campus! (They have two full sized skeletons of prehistoric creatures...so it's not that "small") My son (he's 4) LOVES rocks and so this place is pretty much his dream. There's SO many cool rocks displayed and you can even peek in on researchers in the lab! I'm seriously impressed!

Adam Inzelberg

Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pun intended

Ana Miranda

Came here with my sons 4k class. Although the space is small, it was so cool.

Benjamin Winninger

Small, free, easy to navigate and a great collection.

Sally Ropicky

Very inspirational and interesting.

Leonor Dohmen

Though it be small, it be mighty. A carefully curated collection of gems and minerals. Wonderful interactive displays. Impressive display at the end my kids couldn't stop talking about on the way home.

Saad Alam

Great museum and kids loved it. I'm glad we found out about it while researching things to go in u wisc.

Carla Vivar

Great place to take your kids.

gregory reid

The workers where very knowledgeable about their information , very patient with the students.

Melody Pond

I love you guys

Lebra 679

This place is awsome but it's not that big

Giselbert Parkhurst

Nice self guided museum. A few nice dino skeltons, and other prehistoric animals. Great rocks and meteorites too. A good diversion for both young and old.Who knew this gem (*wink wink*) of a museum was lurking on campus? Well, I did, actually, but I somehow never managed to get myself here until eleven years after I graduated.

Sara Villarreal

Great time with the kids

Felipe Hernandez

Loved the Geology Museum! It's pretty small, but there's lots of cool stuff from a wide range of areas. Admission is free. Donations welcomed.

Nick King

Place is small, free, and fun. Great place for a family visiting students.

Eric Salas

The University of Wisconsin Geology Museum is a small museum inside the UW campus, yet it is full of interesting display. Depending on how interested you are in geology, you can go through everything in an hour or so.

Joset Garcia

It really does have pretty rocks

Elizabeth Anderson

Very cool little museum on campus! Donation based. Really cool stuff, lots of fossils. Took our time going thru and took about an hour. Had a 7 year old with us and they had a great time too.

Jon Stewart

Not a great or large museum but much better than what one would expect from Madison. Want great way to spend 30 minutes to an hour.

Kevin Timm

Amazing place to get a self guided tour and plenty to see

陳逸涵

It is definitely worth visiting!

Sarad Aryal

Must see when you are visiting uw madison

Jack Jack Geo

This free museum, although small, is nice and all of the staff are very friendly and knowledgable.

Haseeb afghan

Best education system

Benjamin Heinle

Great place to bring kids. Awesome mineral collection.

Brianna Walczak

The museum is interesting but there is no parking around the museum. It is all street parking that is full and the public lot near it is full by 11am.

Irene Margitich

Delightful and educational museum on the campus. No entrance fee. So much to see and learn

Tobey Marsceill

A good little museum on the university campus. Has a decent amount of rocks and gems as well as bones from extinct species.

Dean Slucey

The best free museum I've seen. Decent size with a lot of great displays, some of which are interactive

Shannon Korpela

A great little museum, and it’s free admission. It’s small, but the exhibits were really well done. You can easily spend over an hour here.

Jacob Woten

A nice selection of fossils and gemstones. Definitely worth a look.

MIGUEL HERNANDEZ-BOLANOS

Hi, This museum is fun and the best part is that it’s free! You can see rocks that glow under black light and the skeletons of dinosaurs. When you see the big spinning globe you’ll know you found it.

Sarah Murphy

Really cool place, its small but there's a lot to see!

Laura Drennan

Amazing! Definitely small but their collection is GREAT!

Allison Perrone

Small, but very informative. Loved the full size replica of the trex skull and the complete mosasaur! Extensive rock samples, very cool to see.

Lisa Morrison

The museum is very interesting and the staff are very, very helpful.

Jake V.

Some good minerals

Deb Aniol

Yes this place was small...but so entertaining! The grandkids were totally entertained by the exhibits....the dinosaurs were a huge hit and both of them loved the earths geological history...the smells, the cave, the rocks, and the black light room was major excitement! We will be back. We all took home souvenir rocks from the gift 'shop'! Thank you so much for this delightful but hugely entertaining museum!

Key -Keyline Kekemo Johnson

Great place to go to . To learn about Wisconsin geology

John Incha

Great museum!! It's free which makes it even better!

Laurel Noack

Free and fun!

robo dragon

Nice place exept it hectic parking and it's busy most of the time

Jeff Palka

Free! Hard to find parking! Kids loved it!

Dan Hodel

Bigger than ever before

Tom Bale

Very nice exhibit..and free...as to admission price

David Uselmann

This museum is amazing. It has a lot cool crystals. It even has a large meteorite. It is also free administration.

Jess Sims

Great free family outing. Educational and fun for everyone

백선혜

(Translated by Google) It's great to watch it with your family in light attire. (Original) 가벼운 복장으로 가족과 함께 관람하기 참 좋아요

Christopher Schrader

What a place, so much to see, just beautiful displays and it's FREE. Can't wait to take the kids.

Steve Marks

Nice but small museum, some nice exhibits. Our kids loved seeing the dinosaur and mastadon skeletons. There's no admission but donations welcomed. Parking was difficult so expect to be walking, unless the parking garage down the street has room.

Seanna Williams

Very interesting tour. Good place to visit. Lots of cool things to see and learn about.

Lauren Carr

This museum was bigger than I expected and it's free. I loved exploring it, they have a large variety of gems/minerals in surrounding to summer fossils. It took me over an hour to go through the whole place. Their glow in the dark exhibit is awesome and is better than ones at paid museums I've been to. It's a great way to spend an hour or two in Madison.

Fritz 73

Very interesting place to spend a morning or afternoon at.

Camille Speck

What a treat to find this museum! Excellent interpretive signage accompanies a small but FANTASTIC collection. I only wish we had given ourselves more than hour to see the exhibit. As a bivalve biologist I was particularly taken by the clam and oyster fossils. And it's FREE!

Georgia Siler

Small, but cool. Great with kids who may not have the wherewithal for a full day type of museum.

Scott Hartman

There's no better place in Madison to explore Earth's history, and no better subject than fossils to get kids excited about science.

trevor cone

Very cool

Christopher McAllester

Nice little museum with both geological and paleontological sections. The fluorescence exhibit is especially nice.

Mohammad Farhan Akhtar

Good place to see fossils

Emmanuel Rivas Postel

This is a really fun museum

Marian Hargrove

Fun place with much more to explore than you expect from it's unassuming outside. Great place to spend a rainy afternoon, or any free hour or two, learning a lot about our planet and her history. The price was right, too! Enjoy!

Jenn Drake

Great museum to explore rocks and fossils. Bonus that it is free. Parking can be tough but it's a great way to spend an hour or two with or without kids.

Matthew Selm

This was a great place to spend with my family for an afternoon. My daughter loved seeing all of the fossils and other displays.

Jessica Henry

Cool rocks and dinosaur bones.

Sarah G

Dinos!

Melissa Heinemann

Excellent, small museum with a wonderful dinosaur exhibit! Can’t beat it for a free museum, and the curators/researchers are very welcoming and knowledgeable.

Kenneth Swadley

Lots of cool stuff packed in to their spot.

Leslie Eshelby

This small museum on the second floor of the geology building (a couple blocks from Camp Randall Stadium) provides a fascinating look at the rocks underneath your feet. It starts with a small exhibit on meteors and meteorites - including video of the 2010 meteor that exploded over southern Wisconsin and several examples of meteorites from that strike as well as a general discussion of the various types of meteors with again examples of the resulting meteorites from around the world. Next is an extensive display of minerals including many beautiful crystals, colors, etc. - indeed the example of pyrite "suns" naturally grown in a slab of black slate looks more like modern art than a natural specimen. Visitors are next led into a room equipped with a black light to show a wall full of examples minerals that glow in UV light - very 1960s. This room leads to another small room modeled after a cave to illustrate the difference between stalactites and stalagmites.

Teri Ann Barman

My son loved it

Kevin Carlson

Great price.

Christina Constantinidou

Nice

Cynthia Albrecht

My grandson loved our visit

Vaibhav Anand

Great place to visit for a short visit. Kid friendly.

Bri Hime

I love this place. I have such a thirst for learning, and coming here really satisfies it. My favorite area is the flourescent rocks and being able to smell different places. (Horrible funk by the way lol)

Louis Khor

Only came here for Bubbles Doubles

Mark Talbot

Free to see. Great place for kids. Wonderful florescent displays.

Chunfen Zhou

Solid exhibitions that progress relaxedly from inanimate rocks and minerals to the origin of life to prehistoric mammals. There are few fancy dioramas here but that is to be expected in a university museum. Some text-heavy exhibits (e.g. cave) may benefit from more visuals to illustrate the scientific terms.

Brett Dimmer

Wide variety of exhibits, great stop with the kids (it's pretty small and easy to navigate), and it's free!

Joel Pollen

Free museum with lots of great exhibits. Good for kids and adults!

Khairiyatun Akhiruddin

A surprising find with lots of educational and amazing rock collection. Well maintained too. A must visit for the budding geologist

Michael Arnold

Only museum of it's kind in Madison area that I know of.... Free... Small but interesting.

Shelby Hoffman

Great size and number of exhibits for a free museum. Lots of interesting artifacts and information. Great for kids. Spent about an hour there, but you could easily spend longer if you read everything. Will go again.

Edgar Chavez

GreT place

Brendan Engels

It was really interesting.

Iris Vane

Not big but decently sized and a good variety of Crystals, rocks , and fossils. My son enjoyed it.

Timothy Paneitz

Great free place for kids and adults alike

Chris Kenty

Fabulous museum with a wonderful collection of gems and really important rocks and fossils. Good for kids, too.

Allyce Zim

Wow what a hidden treasure. This is a small museum. It is amazing though. There is great rocks. There is a wide variety. Go outside and use the map to figure out where rocks are located in an outdoor little, peaceful area. Best: free! Bring cash if you want to buy a small rock souvenir.

Jeremiah Paradise

Was a wonderful experience learned some new things

Squadron S the minecrafter

It had some nice pieces

Maria Lefever

Wish they sold more stones.

Doug Bray

Small, but a great place. You can touch a +4 billion year old meteorite.

Patrick Jost

It is a wonderful place to visit if you are 5 or you are 95. It gives you a good sense of Wisconsin Geology and other materials feom around the world! Plus they even have something 4.4 billion years old from outer space!

Andrea Stanek

What a great place right here in Madison! I was teaching the kids about dinosaurs and right in the center of Madison is a FREE museum!! The kids loved it!

Maggi ES

Great free activity for families. Love this museum!

Madelaine Tempas

It was my first time there, and I was impressed with the many rock displays. Also the room with the replicas of the dinosaurs was cool too.

Claude Lee

Small but exceptionally impressive collection!

Spencer Ray

Beautiful displays and wide variety of fossils. LOTS of rocks and minerals.

Grace Vils

Was helped out when my family and I found a strange looking bone on a sand bar a couple years back. I believe the women that helped us went by Elizabeth... she was very nice and showed us a lot of cool things... Turned out the bone was from cattle but the trip was well worth the drive!! (This was about 5 years ago)

D and K H

Great museum. Small & intreresting enough to keep kids happy and plenty to see if you are older and want to read and learn about rocks & dinosaurs . Free for all, donation requested, but not required!

Alnedo Bravo

(Translated by Google) It's a nice place, no entrance fee (Original) Es un bonito lugar, no se paga entrada

S Bana

This was a pleasant surprise to find that there were dinosaur artifacts here. Just just happened to be passing through the area, and saw the sign. My son is into these creatures and was astonished to find that there was dino history here. What a treat, and the best part is that it was free admission.

Jenn Herron

I love the geology museum. It is free to enter and you can see and learn about about the earth's past. There are minerals, fossils, mounted skeletons, and even a dark room for florescent specimens. Take a look at earth's bounty and learn, it will be worth your time.

Orlando Irby

Great place cool rocks

Stephanie Wahlen

We just happened to be walking by and saw their Open House sign--spent a fun, enlightening hour looking at cool exhibits, and even bought some quartz and fossils!

Srdjan Milosavljevic

Super fun to take your little ones to explore the time before time. Lots of fun neat things to see. I would recommend going. Best part, it's free! But you can also contribute or donate to this awesome historic adventure.

Cabo Cittadino

I got to take home several rocks from the gift shop that I enjoy looking at. Wonderful exhibits and great people.

James Winston

A huge eye-popping collection of rocks minerals and fossils, very well displayed and curated in an educational fashion. Free admission. There are no parking facilities, though, so consider public transportation if street parking a half mile away is a problem for you.

Jesse Pollock

Great for free

Sky Val

Cool rocks

Tina Koziol

Very nice

Ken Czaplewski

A hidden gem. Free museum through the university that has interesting exhibits. Good for an hour or two visit if you like rocks.

Katrina Boyd

This is a wonderful resource and interesting too!

Autumn Walker

I love looking at the rocks and fossils, I have gone to the Museum since I was 4.

Eric Jacobs

Great place to kill some time with the kids or alone. Small museum but plenty to look at. The Dino's are pretty awesome too.

Walker Weyland

A small museum but it had some great specimens and was well curated. Definitely worth a visit.

Rowan Micah

For a free museum on a college campus it is great! There are some beautiful gem and mineral displays and a good collection of fossils. This is fun for kids and adults.

Drew Z

Staff is passionate and friendly. The enthusiasm is contagious!

Ray Saunders

Nice displays of rocks and fossils and it's free. Seriously... Free. You can donate if you want and there are some rocks and fossils for purchase.

Christopher Hull

A great place to visit with the family. A learning experience with fossils, minerals, and all for the price of a donation. A must see while in Madison.

Heather Cirone Ellington

Very small