After the American Civil War, the Hancock family purchased Rancho La Brea in the 1870's and discovered the true scientific value of the fossil deposits. While the Hancock family industrially drilled for oil and mined the asphalt to be used for people as far away as San Francisco, a few small scale excavations were made. These excavations were mainly conducted by the University of California, Berkeley between 1901 and 1912. In 1913, the Museum of History, Science, and Art-which later became the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County-launched large scale excavations which lasted almost two years.

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