Science Museum Meets With Extinction : Closure: Officials blame the center’s shutdown on its location and financial problems brought about by poor attendance.

The children noticed the dinosaurs were gone. The adults pointed sadly at the packed wooden crates. All the talk was about the final days of the county’s first natural science museum.

Less than six months after its opening reception, the Museum of Natural History and Science closed its doors for the last time Sunday afternoon to visitors because of financial problems brought on by poor attendance.

“The last time I was here, there were huge dinosaurs,” said 9-year-old Shawn Pons of Mission Viejo, who was touring the museum with his parents. “Now, they’re not here; there are less things to see, and today’s the last day for the museum.”

“It’s a shame Orange County doesn’t appreciate the value of this place,” Shawn’s father, Michael Pons, 45, said as he glanced around the fossil room, pausing for a moment to point at the boxes and cartons placed in the back of the exhibition room.

“Maybe some of the (exhibits) are in those boxes,” he told his son.

Rondee Kelly of Laguna Beach wants to teach her 8-year-old son, Vince, and 10-year-old daughter, Vanessa, more about natural history, and now that the museum has closed, they will have to drive to Los Angeles to see similar exhibits, she said.

“Bye-bye, museum,” Vince said, waving to the ceiling as his mother explained to him why the museum had to close.

Museum officials blamed the closing of the 32,000-square-foot, $2-million facility on a sluggish national economy, the Gulf War and the museum’s location in the newly developed Koll Corporate Center.

“Because of the war, we didn’t have the attendance,” said Muffi Mendelson, a member of the museum board of trustees. “Without the visitors, we knew months after (the museum’s December opening) that we may have to close. So, rather than dragging it out and increasing our debt, we decided to cut our losses and regroup and go on from there.”

According to Mendelson, the Natural History Foundation of Orange County, which operated the private museum, will move its administration to offices at Eastbluff Kindergarten Center in Newport Beach. The foundation will also search for a cheaper location for the museum, she said.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, visitors wandered past exhibitions of space, science, dinosaurs and artifacts.

“When I was your age and in Japan, I watched TV faithfully every day to wait for the news of the launching of Apollo 11,” Yoshi Higashimoto, 30, of Irvine told his 8-year-old son, Seiji, as he tentatively touched a model of the first spacecraft to successfully land on the moon.

Apparently not as interested in the modern technology, Seiji rushed his father and mother, Kyoko, 28, into the popular dinosaur exhibit room.

The display, although scaled down because the robotic dinosaur exhibition was dismantled in April, still drew a large gathering Sunday.

“He lived once, millions of years ago,” Seiji said, pressing his nose against a glass box that featured the skeletal head of a tyrannosaurus rex. “I know a lot about dinosaurs.”

In the next room, the Discover Room where children can touch and feel history, Stevie Lambert was showing his father a block with a picture of a large dinosaur.

“It’s a tyrannosaurus rex,” the 3-year-old said, enunciating each syllable carefully. “I know because he has a lot of teeth and tyrannosaurus rex has a lot of teeth.”

“It’s a rotten deal that (the museum) is closing,” said Stevie’s father, Doug Lambert, 34, of Mission Viejo. “This is a great learning place for the kids.”