of a thalattosuchian crocodile from the Jurassic period in Central Oregon. The museum plans on displaying these fossils after they are studied. Later in 2005, the Northwest Minerals Gallery opened in a former storeroom at the museum after renovations totaling $150,000. By 2007 the museum received 25,000 visitors each year, mainly from school groups. In August 2008 the museum opened a retail gift shop in The Streets of Tanasbourne shopping center, and closed it in December 2009 due to the economic recession. This satellite gift shop was to be a temporary endeavor, and was designed in part to help drive traffic to the museum. By 2010 the museum's collections had grown to more than 20,000 specimens, and still had about 25,000 visitors annually, with about 18,000 coming from school field trips. Tschernich stepped down as curator in 2011, with Lara O'Dwyer-Brown taking over the position in 2012. Brown left in 2014, with Julian Gray hired as executive director and Leslie Moclock as curator in May 2014. Leslie Moclock left the museum in 2018, and Julian Gray resigned to take over the curator position. Garret Romaine was named the executive director on an interim basis pending the hire of a new director, scheduled for 2020. Aurore Giguet took over as the executive director with the museum in 2020. Collections The museum is the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest with more than 20,000 items. The specimens come from around the world, many personally unearthed by the Rices. Bill Dameron of The Mineralogical Record named the museum as having the best mineral specimens in the Pacific Northwest. The collections include gemstones, minerals, fossils, meteorites, and some artifacts. Gemstones include rubies, diamonds, rhodochrosite, opal, emerald, and amethyst among others. Fossils include shark teeth, coprolites, or fossilized dung, petrified wood, dinosaur eggs, trilobites, and a baby dinosaur of the genus Psittacosaurus. Around 1,000 of the specimens at the museum are only viewable using a microscope. One gallery, the Rainbow Gallery, is designed to showcase rocks and minerals that have phosphorescent or fluorescent elements that allow them to glow in the dark. An automated system uses a lighting cycle that includes ultraviolet lights to energize the rocks. A large portion of the petrified wood comes from the collection of Dennis and Mary Murphy. Their collection, which is in excess of 450 items and includes a log of white oak weighing 1,200 pounds (544