Natural History on Interstate 85: The Schiele Museum

Story and Photographs
by Tom Straka

Only a couple of miles off of Interstate 85, near Charlotte, in Gastonia, is a wonderful museum: The Schiele Museum of Natural History. It is the perfect way to take an Interstate break, with the only problem being it takes several hours minimum for an adequate visit.

The focus of the Schiele Museum is inspiring curiosity and understanding of science and the natural world, with natural history indoor galleries (including North American wildlife and wildlife habitats, North Carolina natural history, dinosaurs and paleontology, gems and minerals, native live animals, and a planetarium) complemented by immersive outdoor learning spaces (including the farm, Catawba Native American village, nature trail, and gardens). PBS Charlotte produced a half-hour overview of the museum.

The museum dates to 1961 when Bud and Lily Schiele founded the Gaston County Museum of Natural History (three years later it gained its current name). The couple donated many of the early collections from their collection of wildlife, gems and minerals, and Native American pottery and jewelry. Starting in a small building, by 2001 it had earned Smithsonian Affiliate designation. From that small building it has grown into a major museum with 60,000 square feet inside the museum and a natural trail that is nearly three-quarters of a mile long.

There is a large group of "animal ambassadors," many who came from rehabilitation facilities and could not be released back into the wild. The museum cares for them and allows them to serve as ambassadors-interacting with visitors to promote understanding about their species and their habitats in the natural world. The ambassadors include Cha Cha the corn snake, Noodle the Virginia opossum, Bella the Barbados blackbelly sheep, Hedwig the eastern screech owl, Flapjack the eastern spiny softshell turtle, Mike and Lucky the mini-Hereford steers, Albert the eastern collared lizard, and Spike the alligator snapping turtle.

While most of the exhibits obviously stress natural history, to me the American Indian exhibit was most interesting and will be described in the most detail. The Planetarium is one of the largest in North Carolina and operates on a schedule that precluded including it as part of this "tour" of the museum.

Henry Hall of the American Indian

The North American Indian exhibit depicts the major tribal groups in the new world and colonies of North America. It includes artifacts, weapons, ornaments, tools, and detailed replicas of traditional dwellings and structures, illustrating the various cultures of the North American Native. One of the most impressive of the aspects of the exhibit is full-scale display figures (museum mannequins) of important Native Americans from different Indian cultures. Five of my favorites are below.   

From left to right, are Tecumseh, Osceola, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, and Ishi.

Tecumseh (1768-1813) was a Shawnee warrior. His family was driven west after the American Revolution. He tried to unify political and military strategy among Native American tribes from the Great Lakes to the Southeast. With the outbreak of war in 1812, he became a British General and led Shawnee and Miami warriors on raids in Michigan and Ohio. He died fighting Americans in Canada in 1813.

Osceola (ca. 1802-1837) was a Seminole warrior known for his involvement in the Second Seminole War. As settlers spread across the Southeast, he allied with other Seminole chiefs and resisted the many treaties proposed by the U.S. government. During the Second Seminole War from 1835-1842, Osceola and his warriors attacked and evaded the government for years. Under a flag of truce, he was lured from hiding and imprisoned, dying in capacity three months later.

Geronimo (1829-1909) was an Apache warrior, leader, and legend. He is known for Apache raids in Arizona and Mexico, and as the last Native American leader to surrender to the U.S. army.

Crazy Horse (1841-1877) was a brilliant leader in the desperate struggle of the Lakota to resist the loss of lands and the buffalo culture of the Northern Great Plains tribes. He was celebrated as a selfless protector of his people and a military leader, fighting against U.S. government efforts to force his people on to reservations. One of those efforts was the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Ishi (1841-1916) was the last Yahi. He lived nearly alone in the mountains of Northern California after his people, the Yahi, were massacred by settlers in the 1860s. He became a national sensation as the last of his kind when he wandered into Oroville, California starving and alone in 1911. The anthropology department of the University of California took responsibility for Ishi's welfare, and he spent his remaining days helping others understand the culture of his lost people.

The Ojibwa (Chippawa) and Ottawa (Adawa) lived along the Great Lakes. Their wigwams of bent birch saplings were covered by reed mats, skins, or birch bark. In summer, they lived in large villages where they fished and occasionally grew corn. In autumn, they departed for their winter hunting grounds where they remained until spring fishing brought them together again.

The museum is noted for its Catawba pottery collection.

The museum has one of the largest collections of Catawba pottery in the world with over 700 pieces. The Catawba lived in the Piedmont section of South Carolina, North Carolina, and southern Virgina, centered on the Catawba River Valley. The Catawba people have a pottery making tradition that goes back to prehistoric times. A variety of clays are dug from the banks of the Catawba River, formed without a potter-'s wheel, using the ancient coiling method, and fired in hot coals. The final piece is neither painted nor glazed but polished to a beautiful shine.

 Diorama of a Southwestern Native American structure.

There are many displays of Native American artifacts, covering all North America.

While not part of this exhibit, the Catawba Indian Village is certainly related to it. Rather than review it as part of the Nature Trail, it will be discussed in this section. The Catawba Indian Village is part of the Schiele Museum-'s Aboriginal Studies Program complex and is a registered historical/educational/experimental archaeology site. It includes reconstructed and simulated structures representing a sequence of Catawba Indian architectural traditions and lifeways from the mid-1500s to the turn of the twentieth century.  

Entering the Catawba Indian Village, showing the town house and bark house. 

Bark houses like this were commonly found along the East Coast of North America, from the Carolina Piedmont region to New England. These innovative houses were often constructed using the bark of the tulip popular tree to provide protection from the elements. The Catawba and other Piedmont Siouan tribes were likely living in homes similar to this when the first Europeans arrived in the mid-17^th century. According to historical accounts, they continued living in bark houses until the 18^th century when log homes began to gain popularity.

 According to historical accounts from the 17^th and 18^th centuries, town houses like this one stood as the governmental, social, and spiritual centers of many Eastern Woodland villages, including the Catawba. Here, the council made important decisions and visitors were housed and entertained.

 Early log houses reflect the rapid change that the Catawba lifestyle was undergoing throughout the Scots-Irish and German settlements of their region in the 18^th century. This house is a native adaption of the log cabins being built by those settlers. The first Catawba cabins were built of unhewn logs with shingle roofs and a central smoke hole. These smoke holes began being replaced with chimneys of stone and logs in the mid-1700s.

Weakened by disease, broken treaties, and the loss of tribal lands to European settlers, many Catawba people moved westward into the North Carolina mountains where they were greatly influenced by their Cherokee neighbors. This cabin (ca. 1860) reflects that time period. It reflects the continued assimilation of the Catawba People into European settler culture and is similar to many 19^th century homes found in non-native settlements of the mountains and piedmont.  

The Catawba Nation continues to be a force in the region. In the 1990s, their status as a federally-recognized tribe was reinstated after being terminated in the 1950s. They won a major court battle over the loss of land suffered as a result of the Treaty of Nations Ford in 1840. The Catawba reservation, located near Rock Hill, South Carolina, is situated along the banks of the Catawba River, on the Nation-'s ancestorial lands. It is the center of Catawba governmental, cultural, and economic activities.  

Dinosafari

Dinosafari is an interactive journey through the Mesozoic Era. Visitors walk among full-bodied dinosaur models, including a charging Triceratops and a stalking Deinonychus. The exhibit includes actual dinosaur fossils and casts from the museum's collection that connect the life-sized models to the science of paleontology, and educational clips from dinosaur documentaries. Not open when I visited, but soon to open is a museum expansion debuting the massive Elizabeth Williams Robinson Hall of Dinosaurs featuring 4,200 square feet of full-scale skeletons, authentic fossils, and interactive elements.

There are plenty of actual fossils in the exhibit.

North American Wildlife and Habitats

This is a massive exhibit that covers all of North America. Both wildlife and wildlife habitat are included. The visitor goes toe to claw, nose to gill, finger to stinger, and eye to shank with wildlife at its finest! Dioramas give a true perspective on the size and scope of North America-'s bears, bison, moose, and elk along with other mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. Visitors experience the wonders of our ocean floors, the Everglades, the Sonoran Desert, and the mighty Alaskan tundra. Both children and adults leave with an appreciation for the majesty and diversity of life in our North American homeland.

Adapting to the cold. The caribou is the only deer where both the male and female have antlers. Living in a herd creates competition among members for food. In winter, when the female is pregnant food is scarce, the males shed their antlers giving the females an advantage over the males in gathering food. The females shed their antlers in the spring.

Arctic landscape above the permafrost.

The black bear has the widest range of any North American bear. It is found across the continent, primarily living in forests, swamps, and wooded mountains. It is a powerful swimmer and skilled tree climber.   

Although commonly found in Alaska and western Canada, the grizzly bear has a limited range in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. Grizzlies prefer open country in the mountain areas and often forage along streams and rivers.   

Well camouflaged to blend in with the ice and snow, the polar bear ranges across the far extreme north of Canada, Alaska, and the islands of the Arctic Circle.  

Eastern coral snake. Red and yellow kill a fellow.

Horns and antlers of North America.

Tundra Muskox and Dall Sheep, creatures of the subarctic.

The Southeastern United States, the Everglades.

A closer look at the Everglades.

The Southwest, Sonoran Desert.

Of course, there were buffalo (bison) roaming.

Mountain Goat and Timber Wolf.

Plenty of birds were in the exhibit.

Even insects were included.

Cats Untamed

Lion.

Canadian Lynx.

Bobcat.

Jaguar.

Smilodon.

Bengal Tiger.

On a smaller scale than the huge North American exhibit is the North Carolina Hall of Natural History. It covers the regions of North Carolina in terms of landscapes and wildlife. It includes a cave diorama and many of the animal ambassadors. In a sense it is more interesting than the North American exhibit in that it is more local, and all the landscapes are nearby.

The North Carolina Piedmont.

The North Carolina Coastal Plain.

The North Carolina Coastline.    

The Nature Trail and the Farm

The nature trail, as you-'d expect, is about plants, animals, and ecological communities; and there are plenty of interpretive signs to draw attention to those aspects. But along the trail are other interesting things, like a gazebo, grist mill, or stones. There is even a maze! The Catawba Indian Village and the Farm are along the trail. It is hard to say which is more interesting, inside the museum or outside the museum.

A map to outdoor adventure.

Along the trail is a gazebo.

The Grist Mill. Water power, widely available from rivers and streams, invited industry to the Carolina Piedmont. This mill is reminiscent of the many local gristmills common during the 1800s and early 1900s. Running water turned the water wheel that then turned the mill inside. Corn was ground into corn meal and grits; wheat was ground into flour. Water also powered sawmills, iron furnaces and forges, and the first textile mills. There is a gemstone mining educational program, mainly for the kids, where a running-water sluice is used to mine for gemstones. This occurs near the grist mill. The gemstones are identified and the finders get to keep their treasures.

There is a Stone Age Heritage Site along the trail. The stone age is that time in our history when all people used stone tools as the basis of their technology. It began more than 2.5 million years ago and came to an end with he development of metal tools just a few thousand years ago.      

The Farm is just that, an outdoor farm exhibit by the nature trail. For thousands of years, humans have nurtured crops and relied on animals for assistance, transportation, food, clothing, companionship, and recreation. All of the plants and animals found on our farms were once wild, and the story of their domestication is part of the history of our civilization. Farming has changed dramatically over time in the Piedmont, and The Farm experience explores the natural, ever-changing relationships between people, plants, and animals on local farms across the history of the region. The main draw is live animals. Visit with chickens, goats, pigs, sheep, bunnies, bees, and miniature Hereford steers. Gardens showcase a variety of plants that thrive in the Piedmont. Agricultural equipment, past and present, demonstrates how technology on the farm has changed over time.

A farm within a natural history museum sets the tone for this adventure. It is an unusual combination of inside and outside activities for a high-quality museum. This is a superb opportunity right off the Interstate. The downside is that a short Interstate stop for a rest won-'t do it; there-'s a whole day-'s worth of adventure.  One way or the other, it-'s worth a stop.

Author/Photographer. Tom Straka is a professor emeritus of forestry at Clemson University in South Carolina. He has an interest in history, forestry and natural resources, natural history, and the American West.

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