Pastimes

If the recent gray skies, rain, wind, and cold have you not quite ready to venture outdoors on a Saturday afternoon, the basement of the Akin Free Library in Pawling holds a secret. A collection of natural history wonders, representing the lifetime collection of Olive Mason Gunnison, sits waiting to be explored.

The Olive Gunnison Museum of Natural History is special because of the uniqueness of the collection, and the welcome lack of the pretentiousness common in so many other museums. It educates by first piquing your curiosity with its eclectic, and sometimes slightly macabre, items.

To get there from the intersection of Routes 22 and 311 in Patterson, make a slight right up the hill just a few feet north of the intersection onto South Quaker Hill Road. Go 2.8 miles and make a left onto Old Quaker Hill Road/Mizzentop Road. Go about 2 miles and you will see the Akin Free Library on the right hand side, just after the intersection with Kirby Hill Road. There is no parking lot, so park alongside the road.

The Akin Library actually houses three separate attractions—the library on the main floor, the Quaker Hill Historical Society Museum on the second floor, and the natural history museum in the basement. The library includes extensive info on local history, including memorabilia regarding Quaker Hill resident and two-time presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey. The Historical Society Museum contains historic artifacts on local Quaker Hill history and a period costume display. All are worthy of a visit, but the natural history museum was my family’s favorite.

As you descend the stairs to the basement, you are greeted by an alligator (or crocodile?) on a windowsill, and two gazelle heads hanging on the wall. At the base of the stairs there is a cast of an egg from the extinct wingless moa. The musty smell of the basement fills your nose—and to me is part of the charm of the museum. From there, it just gets better.

As you walk through the rooms, the displays include taxidermic samples of birds and animals, bird eggs, beetles, butterflies, rocks and minerals, Native American arrowheads and tools, seashells, and even a real shrunken human head.

A few samples of the more exotic items include a uranium ore sample, a jar of metal objects that were surgically removed from a woman’s stomach, a small jar of gallstones removed from a 16-year-old girl, and a kitten with two perfectly formed bodies that died hours after birth. A few of the other biological samples are not for the faint of heart.

My kids loved this place. My 7-yearold son even broke out his note pad to take notes. My daughter couldn’t get over the giant turtle shell. My wife and I talked about our visit for days, and every time the topic of cool-placesto visit comes up, the museum in the basement gets mentioned.

The Olive Gunnison Natural History Museum, Akin Free Library, and Quaker Hill Historical Museum have limited hours. Their phone recording says they are currently open only on Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm. Before heading up there, call them at 914- 855-5099. When I was there in the fall, there was no specific admission charge but the suggested donation was $2 for adults and $1 for children and seniors—pretty reasonable by today’s standards. The Oblong Meeting House, which was the topic of a previous article, is about a mile away if you want to combine two trips.

Steven Mattson has been a resident of Brewster for over 10 years. He is on the board of the Putnam County Land Trust, and is currently writing a book about family-oriented things to do in and around Putnam County. He can be reached at stvnmattson@yahoo.com.