The unique collection at a popular Sarnia tourist attraction could be housed at the city's downtown library in the coming years.
The Stones 'N Bones Museum features over 5,000 artifacts including natural history specimens, fossils, dinosaur bones and casts, mounted animals, and rare geological materials.
Cofounder Jim Richards passed away in 2023, and his wife Allison has generously offered to donate the full collection to the County of Lambton.
She continued to operate the museum in Sarnia's downtown on reduced hours in October of 2024 and had been seeking a buyer for the Christina Street site.
County of Lambton Assistant Solicitor and Deputy Clerk Ryan Beauchamp said the negotiations for the donation are continuing, and they're working with Allison to ensure the collection has the proper designation and certificates.
He said it's important to preserve the important cultural centre, noting they have the city's support to undertake renovations at the Christina Street Library branch.
"The collection is planned to be housed on the second floor, assuming everything goes according to plan," said Beauchamp. "It's actually a bigger space than the Stones 'N Bones collection is currently housed in. That particular space would require some significant upgrades to appropriately house that collection. We want the artifacts displayed in a way that's going to engage the visitor attraction that's already there and bolster it to new heights."
Beauchamp said they're excited about the prospects.
"We think this will be a really good thing to maintain for the community," he said. "It will help bolster the community's engagement with our cultural services and the connection between this particular collection and our children's engagement section that's currently housed at the Sarnia Library."
The county is working with the City of Sarnia to establish a joint staff project committee to advance architectural design work and determine total project costs.
A public fundraising campaign will be launched to support the renovation and relocation.
That work is expected to take several years to complete once the donation of the collection is finalized and a start date has been determined.
The county expects to share further details in a public announcement planned for May, pending the finalization of agreements with the Stones ‘N Bones Museum.
