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1 5 0 Celebrating 150 years, the San Diego Natural History Museum is the oldest scientific institution in Southern California and the third oldest west of the Mississippi River. It was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History — not long after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species — by a group of amateur naturalists whose members wanted to be a primary source of scientific information and culture for the growing community. 2024 marks the sesquicentennial of those events, and "e Nat," as it is affectionately known, has been celebrating all year. e museum, which now includes more than eight million specimens and a world-class research and conservation arm, moved into its current home on Balboa Park's East Prado in 1933, and central to this year's celebration was the opening of a Nature Trail that now surrounds the building with a living display of the San Diego/Baja California region. BILL ABRAMS 58 NOVEMBER 2024 RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE With financial support from Ellen Browning Scripps and members of the community, the museum's permanent (and current) home was constructed in Balboa Park in 1933. Designed by William Templeton Johnson, it was intended to have four wings, but only the south and west wings were built due to funding shortfalls during the Great Depression