Provided by Southwest Franklin County Historical Society

The Rodney Eakin Natural History Collection, sponsored by the Southwest Franklin County Historical Society, offers free admission and free parking. Normal museum hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to noon.

The exhibit will also be open during Arts in the Alley, Sept. 19-21. Special hours for that weekend will be Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Featured items will include a clay cast of a Bigfoot discovered by a deputy sheriff in Washington State, a petrified dinosaur egg from China, Mayan-Peruvian culture items, along with Adena and Hopewell artifacts from Ohio’s indigenous people.

Tropical insects, a giant Asian moth, African spear points, a wide array of minerals, ancient tools and tropical ocean shells are also included.

The month-long exhibit is a sampling of thousands of items Rodney Eakin has collected since the age of six when he began collecting butterflies as a hobby. A graduate of Grove City High School and the Ohio State University with a degree in landscape horticulture and a minor in geology, he has blended his work with his extensive hobby of collecting natural artifacts from around the world.

Eakin has agreed to set aside one day where people can bring a variety of items and artifacts from private collections for him to examine and identify.

“I haven’t been stumped yet about anything I’ve seen but there is always a first time,” he joked.

“This exhibit will be like going to the Smithsonian only in a smaller version,” Eakin said as he discussed the Grove City exhibit. He owns Golden Earth Landscaping LLC based in Grove City.

Photographs at the exhibit are allowed. For additional information, email grovecityhistory@gmail.com or go to www.swfchs.org.