The Museum at Prairiefire in Overland Park, Kansas, is a natural history museum that operates as a partner to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, hosting major travelling exhibitions from that collection. The building — an architectural statement in its own right, clad in iridescent panels that shift color with the light — sits in a suburban mixed-use development that manages to be more interesting than the description suggests.
The permanent collection focuses on the natural history of the Great Plains, with fossil exhibits including a full Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Temporary exhibitions from the AMNH partnership mean the programming changes significantly from year to year. It is a 30-minute drive from downtown Kansas City on the Kansas side, but for families or natural history enthusiasts it is worth the trip.