Rochester Museum and Science Center

Like many other top science museums, the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC; 657 East Ave., 585/271-4320 or 585/741-1880, www.rmsc.org [1], 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon.–Sat., 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sun., adults $10, seniors and students $9, children 3–18 $8) houses plenty of fossils, dioramas, exhibits on flora and fauna, and prehistoric beasts. What makes the place really unusual, however, is “At the Western Door,” a powerful exhibit on the Seneca Nation.

The exhibit examines Seneca life from pre-European contact in the 1550s to the present. Separate sections, brimming with artifacts, focus on such subjects as the fur trade, the Iroquois Confederacy, the Sullivan campaign, and the sad history of broken treaties. As late as 1960, the Allegheny Senecas lost one-third of their reservation when it was flooded to create Kinzua Dam.

Also at the museum is the state-of-the-art Strasenburgh Planetarium. The sky shows cost $4–8.