Note: This column was published in the Barrow Journal on August 21, 2013.

The Tellus Science Museum must be one of Georgia’s best kept secrets. I was surprised when I found out there was such a cool science museum in Cartersville, Georgia. My family decided to check it out last weekend. It took us one and a half hours to drive there, but we weren’t disappointed.

We like it better than the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta. Beautifully sculpted grounds surround the Tellus Museum. There are trees lining the driveway, and the building is modern but attractive. Parking was free and easy, and I’m impressed that someone thought to put a bathroom on the building with a door facing the parking lot. Also next to the parking lot is a heavy machinery exhibit that most little boys are going to love.

Inside the museum, there’s a life-size cast of an Apatosaurus, and surrounding it are the four main exhibit halls: the Weinman Mineral Gallery, the Fossil Gallery, Science in Motion, and the Collins Family My Big Backyard Exhibit, which is full of hands-on science activities for children. There’s also a planetarium, and shows start every 45 minutes. Another theater at the museum is used during special events.

The Weinman Mineral Gallery is quite breathtaking, especially if you have an interest in geology. I was quite taken with the periodic table, which covers a wall, and each element has a small window so that you can see a visual representation of it.  According to their website, the Tellus Museum is an expansion of the old Weinman Mineral Museum.

The fossil gallery isn’t huge, but it’s attractive, and the boys loved to see the life-size casts of several of their favorite prehistoric animals, including a T-rex, elasmosaurus, and the reconstruction of a megalodon’s mouth using real teeth.  The museum owns at least one real bone from each creature, and it was displayed next to the cast in a glass case.  There were also many smaller, real fossils on display that captivated my husband and me.

The Science in Motion gallery showcases “100 years worth of changes in transportation technology.” My favorite part was a life-size replica of the Wright Brother’s first airplane. There are old cars, parts of aircraft, spacecraft and models of the NASA space rockets, which was fun for my six-year-old to see since he made a model of the Saturn V this past year.

The museum has several impressive paintings of moon landings, shuttle take-offs and other science-related artwork that I thought was a nice touch.

You could easily explore the whole museum in an afternoon, but since we had small children and weren’t familiar with the area, we only went to these four main exhibits and toured a solar house, which is on display outside. We missed the opportunity to let our kids dig for fossils and pan for gems, but we’ll definitely go back someday, and we also hope to see a planetarium show.

If this isn’t enough, there’s also an observatory with a 20” telescope, which visitors can tour during special events!

If you go, we can recommend stopping at John Boy’s Home Cooking, which is located at 904 Joe Frank Harris Parkway in Cartersville. It has an all-you-can-eat country buffet, and we even found a few items that our picky children would eat.

If you’re not familiar with the area, I suggest you spend a little time on Google maps getting the lay of the land. The museum is located right off I-75 North. We took exit 293 to go to the museum, but after spending too much time driving around, we discovered there are more restaurant options off the two exits before that.

The Tellus Science Museum is located at 100 Tellus Drive, Cartersville, Georgia 30120. General admission is $14 per adult and $10 for children ages 3-17. A planetarium show is $3.50.  See tellusmuseum.org for more information.

Have you been to this museum? What was your experience like?