The Library of the Future Has a Mud Pit

On August 8, 2026, the nation’s first public nature library opened its doors in Thornton, Colorado. The Anythink Nature Library combines traditional library services with outdoor spaces and resources designed to help people spend more time in nature.

The library sits on a fifteen-acre campus next to the 140-acre Aylor Open Lands. The 33,000-square-foot space is meant to welcome people to nature, whatever their experience level.

More Than Books

The Nature Library still offers the services patrons expect from a public library, but the experience extends beyond the walls. Visitors can explore gardens, gathering spaces, an art-and-science lab, a living plant wall, sensory environments, and a water-flow and mud pit. An outdoor trail called the Root to Sky Loop also winds through the surrounding shortgrass prairie ecosystem. The loop is expected to connect to the regional trail system on the adjacent Aylor Open Lands by the end of 2027, once the city of Thornton completes its prairie restoration there.

Davis Partnership Architects and THK Associates designed the building and landscape, with construction by GH Phipps. The project took roughly two years to build and cost an estimated $43.4 million. The project is also pursuing LEED Gold certification.

Anythink developed the library using the Environmental Kinship model, an approach that encourages people to learn about, in, with, and for nature. Community members, along with Indigenous and Native American leaders serving on the Anythink Nature Library Advisory Council, helped shape the project.

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Nature You Can Take Home

One of the library’s most practical features is its collection of TryIts, Anythink’s experiential kits and equipment, available for checkout with any library card. The library opened with roughly 550 items across sixty-five collections, including bird-watching kits, wildlife cameras, hiking gear, microscopes, weather-exploration tools, gardening equipment, nature art kits, and conservation resources.

Anythink’s director of external relations and brand strategy, RyAnne Scott, said the branch aims to encourage kids to “get in the mud and get dirty.”

For patrons, that means trying something new doesn’t require buying all the gear up front. Someone curious about birding can borrow a kit, families can test out nature-based activities together, or a budding gardener can borrow equipment and learn along the way.

This is the same logic behind many “Library of Things” collections found at libraries nationwide. These programs lend everything from power tools to museum passes. This gives patrons access to items they may not be able to purchase themselves.

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Why Access to Nature Matters

The idea behind the Nature Library speaks to a larger issue. Access to outdoor space and the benefits it provides is not distributed equally. A 2024 study of nearly 123,000 urban parks across the United States found significant disparities in park amenities between neighborhoods. Research has also linked time in nature to personal well-being. One widely cited study found that spending at least two hours in nature per week was associated with better self-reported health.

Nearly half of Thornton residents say they want more natural open space. More than half of Adams County residents consider parks, trails, and open space essential to the county’s way of life. Most libraries don’t need 33,000 square feet or a mud pit to make nature more accessible. Even a small step in that direction counts.

A Model Other Libraries Can Borrow

For some libraries, bringing nature indoors might mean launching a gardening program or partnering with a local park. It could mean lending binoculars and camping gear. For others, it could mean helping patrons learn about the plants, wildlife, and trails already in their communities. Anythink’s Nature Library takes that idea further than most. One visitor described it as “REI meets a library.”

The branch calls itself the nation’s first public nature library. Similar ideas already exist in other forms. Nature centers, forest schools, and some university extension libraries offer pieces of the same concept. The “first-of-its-kind” claim applies specifically to public library systems, not to nature-based education spaces in general.

Not every library needs to become a nature library like this one in Colorado. Plenty of libraries have a park, a trail, or a garden nearby that they could put to good use. Projects like this don’t happen without public investment. EveryLibrary helps communities fight for library funding and the ballot measures that make them possible.