LA BREA TAR PITS BUBBLING OVER 25TH ANNIVERSARY.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits kicked off its 25th anniversary on Sunday with a daylong party amid the stinky, bubbling pools of the past smack dab in the middle of America's second biggest city.

To celebrate, the museum opened up a new diorama inside, set up games and educational booths outside, and invited the public to come by and learn about the residents of Los Angeles during the Ice Age.

Since it was a birthday party, there were, of course, refreshments and music, free ice cream and entertainment. Nigel Marven presented a live version of his show on the Discovery Channel ``Nigel's Wild, Wild World of Animals.''

Museum staff is hoping the event will also kick off some interest in Southern California's most famous pool of tar.

``It is the only archaeological site in the United States, actually in the world, where these kinds of fossils are found in a city,'' said museum docent Bill Waits, who spent the day giving tours with his face painted like one of the pits most famous denizens, the saber-tooth tiger.

In the pits ringing the museum, researchers have so far discovered millions of fossils from more than 650 million plants and animals dating back 10,000 to 40,000 years.

They include the enormous American mastodon, which towered 12 feet above the ground and weighed an average of 15,000 pounds, and the woolly mammoth.

The unsuspecting animals wandered into the tar pits and became mired in the preserving ooze - much to the benefit of modern-day paleontologists.

``It's like flypaper, kind of,'' Waits explained.

Just because the tar pits are many times older than even our ancient history, it doesn't mean they aren't still doing their thing. Still the occasional small critter wanders into the pits and become stuck, museum staff said.

``It's no less sticky today than it was 40,000 years ago,'' said museum spokeswoman Mary Baerg. ``If it's still oozing, it will still trap.''

The current digging at the tar pits happens in Pit 91, where for two months a year - mid-July through early September - researchers climb down in the 14-foot crater to extract ever more fossils. Already, the 33- year-old pit has yielded more than 3 million fossils.

Sunday's event was a milestone of sorts for Downey resident Arthur Wisniewski, 62, who surveyed the workers down in Pit 91 from behind a safety fence.

The last time he had made the trek to the Miracle Mile's pools of crude was in 1977 - on the day of the museum's dedication 25 years ago.

In the intervening quarter of a century, much has changed at the tar pits site, he said.

``It's quite modern now,'' Wisniewski said. ``I remember they only used to have this one old pit where you could go over and look inside.''

Derrick Wright, a senior guest services attendant at the museum, said they were expecting between 1,200 and 1,500 visitors Sunday. A typical Sunday draws about 600, he said.

IF YOU GO

The Page Museum is open seven days a week, and the viewing station at Pit 91 is open Wednesday through Sunday through early September.

Admission to the museum is $6 for adults, $3.50 for seniors and students with ID, $2 for children between 5 and 12, and free for children under 5.

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A youngster gets a hands-on lesson with a ground sloth statue Sunday at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

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IF YOU GO (see text)