La Brea Tar Pits
George Allan Hancock
Los Angeles, California
1916
Currently Owned and Operated by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Foundation
Photos by Zaneta Hong

Captain George Allan Hancock donated 23 acres of Hancock Park to Los Angeles County in 1916 to preserve and exhibit the fossils exhumed from Rancho La Brea, one of the world’s most famous fossil localities. It is recognized for having the largest and most diverse assemblage of extinct Ice Age plants and animals in the world. This display, dating back to between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, is where asphalt has entombed and trapped animals such as saber-toothed cats, mammoths, and ground sloths that roamed the Los Angeles Basin. This asphalt has been seeping out of the ground for the past 40,000 years.