List of museums in Montana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Museums in Montana |
This list of museums in Montana encompasses museums which are defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. Museums that exist only in cyberspace (i.e., virtual museums) are not included.
The six areas referred to in the "Region" column are explained in a separate section below.
Montana has an unusual number of paleontology museums and museums with paleontology sections, much of them filled with discoveries from within the state. These museums are listed again in a separate table below with more specific information.
This list is a sortable table. Click on the small boxes next to any heading title to reorder the list (in alphabetical order or reverse alphabetical order) by that category.
Contents |
[edit] Defunct museums
- Dumas Brothel - Butte [1] - The institution is still struggling to survive as of April 2008, with a fundraising plea on the home page of its website. The website states the bordello was "designed and built as a brothel in 1890 and remained active as a brothel until 1982, making it America's longest running house of prostitution".[5]
In the early part of the twentieth century,there was a "red light district" in Butte that was several city blocks in length.It was located in the uptown historic district.
[edit] Museums with paleontology holdings
This list repeats items in the above list, with more information on fossil dinosaur holdings. Each of the museums on the Montana Dinosaur Trail has "unique paleontology displays, interpretation, replicas or actual skeletons of dinosaurs and other fossils" found in Montana", according to the official Montana Dinosaur Trail web page.[6]
| Name | Town/City | Region | On Dinosaur Trail? |
Education programs/ Guided tours? |
Associated Field Digs? |
Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaine County Museum | Chinook | North central | Yes | No | No | Web page; paleontology department of this local museum has a dozen Judith River Formation exhibits including Hadrosaur, Gorgosaurus, and Ankylosaurus fossils from the area; has remains of gigantic marine reptiles Mosasaur and Plesiosaur, along with invertebrates from the ancient ocean that covered the area; a "Look, Touch, and Wonder" room where visitors can handle fossils of sea creatures, plants, and dinosaurs.[6] |
| Carter County Museum | Ekalaka | Southeast | Yes | No | No | Website; Collection, all collected from the nearby Hell Creek Formation, includes one of the world's five skeletons of Anatotitan copei, complete skulls of the three-horned Triceratops horridus, the dome-headed Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensisi, and Nanotyrannus lancesis (a tiny tryannosaur)[6] |
| Fort Peck Field Station of Paleontology | Fort Peck | Northeast | Yes | Yes | No | Website; associated with the University of Montana Paleontology Department, a working field station where paleontologists research, prepare, mold and cast fossils[6] |
| Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum | Fort Peck | Northeast | Yes | Yes | No | Collection centerpiece is "Peck's Rex", claimed to be one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons yet found; in the lobby is a life-size replica model of Peck's Rex, and the exhibit hall displays a full-size skeleton cast; also a Cretaceous Sea display and several other dinosaur exhibits[6] |
| Garfield County Museum | Jordan | Northeast | Yes | No | Yes | Website; dinosaur holdings include Cretaceous fossils from the Hell Creek Formation; a Tyrannosaurus rex skull, full-size Triceratops replica, a Pachycephalosaur skull[6] |
| Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and Field Station | Malta | Northeast | Yes | Yes | Yes | To open in June 2008; contains fossils and preparation lab; displays include Brachylophosaurus mummy dinosaur recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "best preserved" dinosaur; Jurassic Stegosaurs; a Sauropod; visitors can view the lab where dinosaur fossils are prepared[6] |
| H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum | Havre | North central | Yes | No | No | Fossil displays include Judith River Formation dinosaur eggs and embryos believed to be laid by a Lambeosaurus ("duck bill" dinosaur); displays about archeological finds from the nearby Wahkpa Chu'gn buffalo jump site.[6] |
| Makoshika State Park | Glendive | Southeast | Yes | Yes | No | Montana's largest state park has dinosaur fossil remains, including Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops; visitor center at the park entrance has exhibits explaining the site's geologic, fossil, and prehistoric significance;[7] artifiacts include a Triceratops skull; has a "touchy-feely" table allowing visitors to hold fossils and artifacts prevalent in the park[8] |
| Makoshika Dinosaur Museum | Glendive | Southeast | Yes | Yes | Yes | Website; Fossils from around the world; late Cretaceous, Jurassic periods; an "Ages of the Sea Cavern"; displays life-sized Allosaurus and Stegosaurus in combat; Pterosaurs, a full-size Tyrannosaurus rex skull; dinosaur sculptures[6] |
| Museum of the Rockies | Bozeman | South central | Yes | Yes | No | Said to have "one of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the world", including the world's largest Tyrannosaurus rex skull, one of the first identified female dinosaurs in the world (an ovulating T. rex); rare fossils; part of Montana State University - Bozeman; state's official repository for both federal and state paleontological collections[6] |
| Old Trail Museum | Choteau | North central | Yes | No | No | Website; Displays finds from the area's Two Medicine Formation, including a Maiasaura skull, Einosaurus skull as well as nestling, hatchling and teenage Maiasaura skeletons and bones, a Sauronitholestes skeleton cast, dinosaur footprints, marine fossils, bones that can be touched, a preparation lab display, geologic information about the Rocky Mountain Front and Willow Creek Anticline[6] |
| Phillips County Museum | Malta | Northeast | Yes | No | No | Website; Paleontology section includes fossils from nearby Judith River Formation; 33-foot long skeleton of "Elvis", a Brachylophosaurus, claimed to be "one of the best articulated dinosaur skeletons ever found"; a complete Tyrannosaurus rex skull; 28-foot skeleton of an Albertosaurus[6] |
| Rudyard Depot Museum | Rudyard | North central | Yes | No | No | Displays include the "Oldest Sorehead", a Gryposaurus found nearby; a duckbill dinosaur and egg nest display[6] |
| Two Medicine Dinosaur Center | Bynum | North central | Yes | Yes | Yes | Website; baby dinosaur bones; Guinness Book of World Records largest, scientifically accurate dinosaur reconstruction; Seismosaurus halli; public, hands-on dinosaur research and education programs[6] |
| Upper Musselshell Museum | Harlowton | South central | Yes | No | No | Website; centerpiece is "Ava", a full-size Avaceratops skeleton replica from the Judith River Formation; Hadrosaur tibia and fibula, a cast of a Gypsonictops jaw; dinosaur leg bone and hip bone fossils; other fossilized ancient sea creatures[6] |
[edit] Regions
The six regions referred to in the above lists are based on those used by the Montana tourism authority[9] and the Montana Association of Museums.[10] The regions used here have the same boundaries but are renamed here:
- North central ("Russell Country"):
- Prominent communities: Great Falls
- Counties: Cascade, Chouteau, Hill, Judith Basin, Liberty County, Meagher, Pondera, Toole, Wheatland
- Northeast ("Missouri River Country"):
- Northwest ("Glacier Country"):
- Counties: Flathead, Glacier, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli
- South central ("Yellowstone Country"):
- Prominent communities: Bozeman
- Counties: Carbon, Gallatin, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Park
- Southeast ("Custer Country"):
- Prominent communities: Billings
- Counties: Big Horn, Carter, Custer, Dawson, Fallon, Golden, Musselshell, Prairie, Powder River, Rosebud, Treasure, Wibaux, Yellowstone
- Southwest ("Gold West Country"):
- Prominent communities: Helena, Butte
- Counties: Beaverhead, Broadwater, Deer Lodge, Granite, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Madison, Powell, Silver Bow
[edit] See also
- Arboreta in Montana (category)
- Botanical gardens in Montana (category)
- Historic landmarks in Montana
- Houses in Montana (category)
- Forts in Montana (category)
- Museums list
- Nature Centers in Montana
- Registered Historic Places in Montana
[edit] Notes
- ^ Web page titled "Conrad Mansion National Historic Site" at Visit Montana state government website, retrieved May 12, 2008
- ^ Web page titled "Montana Museum of ARt & Culture" at Visit Montana state government website, retrieved May 12, 2008
- ^ Web page titled "Utica Museum" at the Visit Montana website, retrieved May 11, 2008
- ^ http://zoologicalmuseum.dbs.umt.edu/collections.htm
- ^ "About" page at the Dumas Brothel website, accessed May 12, 2008
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Montana Dinosaur Trail Web page, retrieved May 11, 2008
- ^ Montana state parks Web page on Makoshika, retrieved May 11, 2008
- ^ Friends of Makoshika State Park Website, retrieved May 11, 2008
- ^ Museums web page of the Visit Montana state website], retrieved May 11, 2008
- ^ Home page of the Montana Association of Museums, retrieved May 11, 2008
[edit] External links
- Museums Association of Montana
- Visit Montana - Museums Complete listing of museums with facilities, contact info, directions.
- Montana Dinosaur Trail - museums with focus on paleontology in Montana
|
||||||||||||||||||||
