Entry No. 8 — the Salt Lake City file — filed under: oddities
Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum
A free, accredited university natural-history museum whose quiet headline exhibit is Shasta — a taxidermied liger (a real lion-tiger hybrid) who lived at Salt Lake's Hogle Zoo from 1948 until her death in 1972 — displayed alongside a full-size mounted elephant and one of the last surviving passenger pigeons, a species extinct since 1914.
The story
You walk onto the Brigham Young University campus expecting standard lecture halls, but tucked inside the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum is a frozen menagerie of the genuine and the improbable. The quiet headline act here is Shasta, a taxidermied liger—a real male-lion and female-tiger hybrid—who lived at Salt Lake City's Hogle Zoo from 1948 until her death in 1972. Long before pop culture made ligers out to be a mythical punchline, Shasta was Utah's living genetic anomaly, and she now spends her afterlife watching over the museum floor.
Opened in 1978 and named for Seattle businessman Monte L. Bean, the accredited facility balances scientific preservation with jaw-dropping scale. A full-size mounted African elephant anchors the space, while nearby glass cases hold delicate tragedies like a preserved passenger pigeon, a species that went completely extinct in 1914. Further in, the Fred and Sue Morris Bird Gallery packs in more than 100 mounted waterfowl and pheasant species alongside elaborate ecosystem diorama exhibits.
What it's like
Navigating campus parking requires a little patience, but inside, the museum has a quiet, academic rhythm where glass-eyed predators stare down college students reviewing notes. It is completely free to enter. Weeknights are the ideal time to visit—the museum stays open until 9:00 PM Monday through Friday, meaning you can wander the diorama halls and inspect Shasta in eerie near-solitude long after the daytime crowds vanish.
The move: Work your way through the Fred and Sue Morris Bird Gallery's 100-plus mounted waterfowl and pheasant species, then go find Shasta and settle the 'are ligers even real' argument in person.
- 📍 Provo (BYU campus)
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 645 E 1430 N, Provo, UT 84602
Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- John Hutchings Museum of Natural History — Follow up the campus taxidermy tour with Lehi's eccentric museum, where cabinets house mineral specimens, historic firearms, and oddities like a swatch of tanned human skin.
- Dream Mine — Pair a study of extinct specimens with a drive south to Spanish Fork to check out the surface relics of an unproductive 1894 relief mine.
- Holdman Studios — Trade preserved wildlife for artisan craftsmanship by heading to Lehi to see molten glasswork and cathedral-scale stained glass in progress.
Good to know
Is admission to the Bean Museum free?
Yes, admission to the museum is entirely free.
What is Shasta the liger's backstory?
Shasta was a lion-tiger hybrid born at Salt Lake City's Hogle Zoo in 1948. She lived there for 24 years until her death in 1972, after which her specimen was preserved for display.
What are the museum's hours?
The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM, and Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It is closed on Sundays.
What other rare specimens are on display?
Alongside Shasta, you can view a full-scale mounted African elephant, an extinct passenger pigeon specimen, and over 100 mounted waterfowl and pheasants in the bird gallery.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: lsm.byu.edu · Wikipedia · intermountainhistories.org
last checked: 2026-07-20