Montana Dinosaur Trail

06/03/2025

Montana Dinosaur Digs offers real dinosaur fossil expeditions with real paleontologists. Book an expedition today!

04/03/2025

🌍🦖 Journey back in time with MOR’s Presenting Prehistory lecture series!
On Thursday, March 6, at 5:30 p.m., join Dr. Giulio Panasci as he unravels the prehistoric world before Hell Creek. How did iconic dinosaurs like Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus come to dominate western North America? Discover how fossils from Montana’s Frontier Formation reveal a story of increasing endemism at the end of the Mesozoic Era.
📍 Hager Auditorium
🎟 Included with membership | $5/non-members
🍪 Refreshments & speaker meet-and-greet to follow
🔗 Secure your seat today: https://museumoftherockies.org/calendar/pph-hell-creek

03/03/2025

Montana Dinosaur Trail Travelers - Expansion and facility upgrades are happening along the Trail. Our communities of Choteau, Bynum, and Glendive each received a substantial project grant from the Montana Commerce Department. They join the Trail Communities of Havre and Jordan/Garfield County in being state investment recipients - so get your plans in place to come and see what's happening and enjoy your Montana Dinosaur Trail Adventure even more!
Here's some detail about what's happening in Choteau/Bynum with the The Montana Dinosaur Center and Old Trail Museum:
🚨 Big News for Choteau area! 🚨
We are going to be growing—in a big way! 🦖
Thanks to funding from the Pilot Community Tourism Grant Program (PCTGP), Choteau is set to see some incredible tourism upgrades, including a massive 9,000-square-foot expansion at the Dinosaur Center!
This new space will feature a full-scale Seismosaurus model, fossils that have never been on display before, and expanded storage for our growing collection. It’s all about creating an even better experience for visitors and making Choteau a top destination for paleontology lovers.
But that’s not all! The grant is also supporting other key projects in Choteau and Bynum, like:
✅ Upgrades to the Weatherbeater Arena 🏟️
✅ Development of the Rocky Mountain Front Interpretive Center at the Old Trail Museum 🏛️
A huge shoutout to our Executive Director Cory Coverdell and the amazing committee of local leaders who worked hard to make this happen. Their efforts are helping transform Choteau into a year-round hub for tourism, history, and adventure.

RELEASE: Commerce Awards $8.75 Million to Seven Montana Communities for Tourism Success Montana Department of Commerce sent this bulletin at 02/27/2025 09:30 AM MST Commerce Awards $8.75 Million to Seven Montana Communities for Tourism Success The Pilot Community Tourism Grant Program funds projects...

02/03/2025

Happy ! Crinoids have been filter feeding in the oceans for about 480 million years. These “lily-like” animals are related to starfish and MOR IV 3529 preserves bodies and arms of multiple crinoids and other marine invertebrates.

01/03/2025

Month #3 of the Montana Dinosaur Trail’s 20th Anniversary Year has arrived! Our Winter Operations Schedule has 5 Trail Facilities open on regular schedules, six are open by advance-notice appointments, and the remaining three are gearing up for their 2025 Spring Opening. If you’re in the Bozeman area for skiing or other outdoor winter activities, check out “SUE: The T. rex Experience” exhibit there through September. The 4th Annual “Dinosaurs & MOR” Celebration fills MOR March 28-30, and a few Montana Dinosaur Trail Partners will be there as part of the Jr. Paleontologist Stations. Information about these and other 2025 Trail Events are available on our website - https://mtdinotrail.org/ - You can shop for Trail Gear there as well. Come join us in 2025 and help us Celebrate!

Montana Dinosaur Trail Facility Operating Schedules
March 2025
Blaine County Museum, Chinook: Open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm EXCEPT Closed Select Federal Holidays.
Carter County Museum, Ekalaka: Open Monday-Friday 9 am-5 pm, Saturday-Sunday 1-5 pm EXCEPT Closed All Federal Holidays.
Depot Museum, Rudyard: Open by Appointment Only, 406-355-4356.
Fort Peck Interpretive Center, Fort Peck: Open By Appointment Only Mon-Fri, call 406-526-3493 or 406-526-3411 ext. 0.
Frontier Gateway Museum, Glendive: Open by Appointment Only (24 hr Advance Notice Minimum) through May 2025. Call 406-377-3018 or 406-365-4653.
Garfield County Museum, Jordan: Open by Appointment Only (24 hr Advance Notice Minimum) call Karen Witt 406-557-2544.
Great Plains Dinosaur Museum, Malta: Closed March 1-15, Will begin taking tour appointment reservations after March 15, 406-654-5300.
H. Earl Clack Museum, Havre: Open Tues-Sat 1-5 pm thru late May. Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump site/Tours Closed until May 2025.
Makoshika State Park, Glendive: Visitor Center Open Wed-Sun. 10 am-4 pm, Closed State & Federal Holidays; Park open for Day Use 7 am-10 pm and overnight camping.
Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman: Open Daily 9 am-5 pm.
Old Trail Museum, Choteau: Closed until May 2025.
Phillips County Museum, Malta: Closed Jan-Mar, Reopens April 2025.
The Montana Dinosaur Center, Bynum: Open By Appointment Only, Call 406-469-2211. Book 2025 Field Digs at https://tmdinosaurcenter.org/
Upper Musselshell Museum, Harlowton: Closed December 1, 2024-April 1, 2025.

01/03/2025

Data is fun! Here you can see the breakdown of sandwich orders from our fossil dig expeditions!

It's not too late to add your order to the 2025 data - book now at https://tmindosaurcenter.org Our first expedition of the season leaves June 1!

25/02/2025

The Montana Dinosaur Trail is looking for some good people from the Great States of Rhode Island and New Hampshire to help us Celebrate our 20th Anniversary! Actually….we’re inviting The World to come celebrate the Trail’s partnership “milestone”….the specific request for The Ocean State and Granite State participation is that they represent the only 2 States that have not purchased a Montana Dinosaur Trail Passport from us! Let’s change that this year. Passports available at https://mtdinotrail.org. RI & NH residents - We’ll celebrate with you when you celebrate with us! Look forward to it.

25/02/2025

Ever seen a hoodoo? No, it's not a voodoo spell gone wrong. Hoodoos are those weird, towering rock formations that look like nature was playing Jenga after a few too many drinks 🍻 Come see these geological oddities in person at Makoshika State Park, where millions of years of erosion created Montana's version of rock celebrities! They're like the supermodels of the badlands - tall, dramatic, and impossibly balanced. Visit before they ghost us (in geological time, of course).

23/02/2025

Happy ! The fossil in this stone (bottom) looks similar to a lizard’s lower jaw, but it's actually the spine of a Cretaceous hybodont shark (MOR 362). These freshwater sharks had two of these imposing spines on their back and went extinct with the non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous.

20/02/2025

🎨🦕 Calling all artists and dino lovers! Virtual Fossil Friday is back tomorrow with a special creative twist.
Join us Friday, February 21, at 9 a.m. MST as paleo-artist Ruby Pines walks us through drawing the duck-billed dinosaur Maiasaura, Montana’s state fossil! Whether you're a seasoned artist or just love dinosaurs, this is one you won’t want to miss.
🔗 More details here: https://museumoftherockies.org/calendar/virtual-fossil-fridays

17/02/2025

14/02/2025

Happy Birthday to Barnum Brown (Feb 12)! The World's 1st identified T. rex find mentioned below happened on Barnum's work in Montana - the Jordan area to be exact....which is part of the Montana Dinosaur Trail (https://mtdinotrail.org)

Happy birthday, Barnum Brown! Known as one of the greatest dinosaur collectors of all time, Barnum Brown helped the Museum establish its world-class fossil collection. Brown’s extraordinary fossil-hunting career—which took him from a frontier farm to the world’s top fossil sites and to the halls of the Museum—included the discovery of the first skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Photo: Image no. 338624, AMNH Library, Barnum Brown with hadrosaur specimen collected by Edward Drinker Cope, American Museum of Natural History [1935-1950]

14/02/2025

Happy Valentine's Day from all of us at Makoshika State Park!

10/02/2025

Featuring a cast of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered, the Museum of the Rockies invites guests of all ages to see the world through SUE’s eyes.

09/02/2025

Meet MARGIE! 🦖 The full-size Struthiomimus skeleton that's part of Montana's 20-year Dinosaur Trail legacy. Glendive's Frontier Gateway Museum: Where prehistoric giants come to life.
https://southeastmontana.com/blog/celebrating-20-years-of-the-montana-dinosaur-trail

08/02/2025

Happy ! These are the jaws of SUE (FMNH PR 2081), one of the largest and most complete specimens of T. rex ever found! Meet this iconic dinosaur and explore its ecosystem in ‘SUE: The T. rex Experience’, opening this weekend at MOR. Come face-to-face with a fleshed-out reconstruction of SUE, life-sized casts, and examples of the other organisms found alongside this T. rex.

08/02/2025

Month 2 of the Montana Dinosaur Trail’s 20th Anniversary Year is underway! The H. Earl Clack Museum in Havre has re-opened after an operational pause in January. They join 4 other Trail Facilities operating on regular schedules. Five others are currently open by appointment and the remaining 4 plan to reopen later this Spring. Our Trail Communities 2025 Events are underway or putting final plans in place. You can check the events out on our website - https://mtdinotrail.org/ - where you can also shop for Trail gear, get your Trail Passport, learn more about the Trail Facilities and Paleontology in Montana. Come join us for the Adventure of Your Life!

Montana Dinosaur Trail Facility Operating Schedules
February 2025

Blaine County Museum, Chinook: Open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm EXCEPT Closed Select Federal Holidays (Mon. Feb. 17, Presidents Day).
Carter County Museum, Ekalaka: Open Monday-Friday 9 am-5 pm, Saturday-Sunday 1-5 pm EXCEPT Closed All Federal Holidays (Mon. Feb. 17, Presidents Day).
Depot Museum, Rudyard: Open by Appointment Only, 406-355-4356.
Fort Peck Interpretive Center, Fort Peck: Open By Appointment Only Mon-Fri, call 406-526-3493 or 406-526-3411 ext. 0.
Frontier Gateway Museum, Glendive: Open by Appointment Only (24 hr Advance Notice Minimum) through May 2025. Call 406-377-3018 or 406-365-4653.
Garfield County Museum, Jordan: Open by Appointment Only (24 hr Advance Notice Minimum) call Karen Witt 406-557-2544.
Great Plains Dinosaur Museum, Malta: Closed for December 2024-February 2025.
H. Earl Clack Museum, Havre: Open Tues-Sat 1-5 pm thru late May. Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump site/Tours Closed until May 2025
Makoshika State Park, Glendive: Visitor Center Open Wed-Sun. 10 am-4 pm, Closed State & Federal Holidays; Park open for Day Use 7 am-10 pm and overnight camping.
Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman: Open Daily 9 am-5 pm.
Old Trail Museum, Choteau: Closed until May 2025.
Phillips County Museum, Malta: Closed Jan-Mar, Reopens April 2025.
The Montana Dinosaur Center, Bynum: Open By Appointment Only, Call 406-469-2211. Book 2025 Field Digs at https://tmdinosaurcenter.org/
Upper Musselshell Museum, Harlowton: Closed December 1, 2024-April 1, 2025.

05/02/2025

🦕 20 YEARS OF DINO DISCOVERIES! At Carter County Museum, witness Montana's first dinosaur displays! Home to the rare juvenile T. rex and epic Annual Dino Shindig. Your prehistoric adventure starts here.
https://southeastmontana.com/blog/celebrating-20-years-of-the-montana-dinosaur-trail