Beech Tree News Network

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History opened its new exhibition, “From These Lands: Sharing Our Natural and Cultural Heritage” on Thursday, with Kentucky artifacts among those featured. Stretching across 5,000 square feet, the exhibition invites visitors to celebrate and reflect on the nation’s rich natural and cultural heritage through more than 600 specimens and cultural objects—many rare and never-before-exhibited—from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. “From These Lands” will exhibit eight objects from Kentucky, including a Mammoth Cave gypsum stalactite. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system on Earth, with over 405 miles of mapped caverns.