Old Trail Museum

823 Main Ave. North
Choteau, MT 59422
406-466-5332
Website

The Old Trail Museum’s Dinosaur Antechamber showcases discoveries from the Two Medicine Formation. The primary building displays a life-size Maiasaura alongside a mural of the natural environment from local artist Jim Utsler. The museum’s exhibits include Maiasaura and Einiosaurus skulls, nestling, hatchling and adult Maiasaura skeletons and bones, and a Sauronitholestes skeleton cast. A prep lab display and geologic information about the Rocky Mountain Front and Willow Creek Anticline provide additional information about the area and its rich paleontology heritage. The museum provides visitors with hands-on education, and provides a ‘touch’ bone for children and adults to gain a deeper understanding of these giants. The bone is a real fossilized dinosaur thigh bone from a duck-billed dinosaur.

Did You Know?

In 1984, Ben Veach of the Montana State Council of Rocks and Minerals initiated a campaign to recognize the Maiasaura as the state fossil. A class of sixth graders in Livingston picked up the campaign, writing letters to state officials and collecting signatures in support of the designation. The first Maiasaura specimen were discovered at Egg Mountain in 1978, this was one of the first discoveries to suggest that some dinosaurs lived in herds of all life stages, from infancy to maturity.

Where to Next on the Montana Dinosaur Trail?

Nearest to the North

Two Medicine Dinosaur Center
Bynum, 13 miles (20 minutes)
US Highway 89 north from Choteau to Bynum.

Nearest to the East

Upper Musselshell Museum
Harlowton, 182 miles (3 hours)
US Hwy 89 east from Choteau to junction with US Hwy 200; US Hwy 200 east through Great Falls and onto the junction with US Hwy 191 at Eddies Corner; US Hwy 191 south from Eddies Corner to Harlowton.

Nearest to the South

Museum of the Rockies
Bozeman, 197 miles (3.25 hours)
US Hwy 89 east from Choteau to junction with US Hwy 200; US Hwy 200 east to I-15 Vaughn Junction; I-15 east and south through Great Falls and onto Helena; US Hwy 287 south from Helena to Three Forks and I-90; I-90 east from Three Forks to Bozeman.