Museum of the Rockies facts for kids
Museum of the Rockies front entrance.
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| Established | 1957 |
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| Location | 600 W. Kagy Boulevard, Bozeman, Montana, United States |
| Type | General History Museum |
The Museum of the Rockies is an awesome museum located in Bozeman, Montana. It's connected to Montana State University and is also part of the famous Smithsonian Institution.
This museum is super famous for its amazing collection of dinosaur fossils. In fact, it has the biggest collection of North American dinosaur fossils in the whole United States! You can see the largest Tyrannosaurus skull ever found here. Plus, there's a Tyrannosaurus rex thigh bone with actual soft tissue inside!
The museum is part of the Montana Dinosaur Trail. It's also Montana's official place for keeping dinosaur bones and other ancient finds. The museum shows the history of the Rocky Mountains. It covers the people and animals who have lived there for over 500 million years.
Some cool permanent exhibits include:
- "Enduring Peoples": This exhibit tells the story of Native Americans. It focuses on those who lived on the Northern Plains and near the Rocky Mountains.
- "History of the Northern Rocky Mountain Region": This exhibit explores the lives of early people in the region. It includes Native Americans, fur traders, gold seekers, and settlers. It covers history from frontier days up to World War II.
- The Living History Farm: Here, you can visit the Tinsley House. Costumed guides show you what life was like in a home around the year 1900.
- The Taylor Planetarium: This is a cool domed theater. It's 40 ft (12 m) wide and has 104 seats. You can watch amazing shows about space!
Contents
Discover Montana's Past
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The Museum of the Rockies helps us understand the history of Montana and the Northern Rockies. It teaches visitors about the area's rich past, including its amazing dinosaur history. The museum first opened in 1957. It received some funding from a gift by Caroline M. McGill.
The museum's collection has grown a lot. It now has 300,000 objects! These items cover over 500 million years of history. In 1980, the museum got over 10,000 old photographs. These pictures show life in Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park from about 1905 to the late 1970s.
The museum also hosts special talks. Native Americans whose tribes lived in the region share their stories. In 2005, the museum became connected to the Smithsonian Institution. This gave the museum more access to the Smithsonian's collections and programs.
The museum often has special traveling exhibits. These have covered many topics. Some examples include African American art, movie costumes, and the impact of weapons in the Rocky Mountains. They even had an exhibit about King Tut!
Explore the Museum's Exhibits
The Tinsley House: A Glimpse into History
The Tinsley House is a special part of the Museum of the Rockies. It's like a living history museum. This house is over 100 years old! It was originally in Willow Creek, Montana. In 1989, it was moved to the museum grounds. The grounds cover more than 10 acres (40,000 m2).
At the Tinsley House, visitors can learn about the Tinsley family's life. You can see how people lived back then. The house even has a working outhouse, a water pump, and a kitchen.
The Tinsleys moved west during the American Civil War. William and Lucy Tinsley met in Virginia City, Montana. They moved to the Gallatin Valley after they got married. They built their house in 1889 because their first cabin was too small. The house shows what homestead life was like in the 1800s in the Gallatin Valley. The house was built using logs collected over two years from the Tobacco Root Mountains.
Dinosaur Discoveries: Paleontology at MOR
Even though the museum has many focuses, it's best known for its dinosaur collections. This wasn't always the case. Fossils found in Montana used to be sent to other museums. But that changed in 1990. A Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was found. It stayed in Montana and was shown at this museum.
Dinosaur fossils are still owned by the federal government. However, the museum has grown its collection a lot. This is partly thanks to Curator Jack Horner. He worked with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Federal Bureau of Land Management. The museum now has 13 Tyrannosaurus Rex specimens! This includes one of only two complete skeletons ever found.
The museum has one of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the world. It's the biggest in the United States. It's also home to one of the world's largest Tyrannosaurus skulls (MOR 008). This skull is even bigger than "Sue" at the Chicago Field Museum!
The museum's Siebel Dinosaur Complex has a special exhibit. It features one of the first identified female dinosaurs, an ovulating T. rex. Curator Jack Horner was an advisor for the Jurassic Park movies. He was also a lead scientist in a big discovery in 2005. They found soft tissue remains in a Tyrannosaurus thigh bone. These remains were brought to the museum.
The museum has been involved in other cool finds too. In 2006, they found a baby Triceratops in Jordan, Montana. In 2010, they found "Yoshi's Trike" (MOR 3027). This is a huge Triceratops with horns that are 125 cm long!
In 2008, the museum helped get a mobile paleontology lab. This lab helps researchers analyze fossils right in the field. This stops the fossils from breaking down.
The museum's paleontology department is getting more space. This is because other items are moving to a new storage building. The department will gain about 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) of space. They will also add three new research staff members.
Curatorial Center for the Humanities
On April 28, 2016, the museum started building a new center. It's called the Curatorial Center for the Humanities (CCH). This new building is 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2). It provides storage and work space for the museum's other collections. These include art, old artifacts, historical items, Native American objects, and photographs.
About 13,000 square feet (1,200 m2) of the building is for storage. The rest is for offices and work areas. Private donations paid for the entire building. This means no state money was used.
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Curators at the museum started organizing all the humanities items in 2015. The new building was finished in June 2017. All the items on display and in storage were then moved to the CCH. This process took about a year.
Museum officials have said that the history hall exhibits will be completely updated after the move is finished.
Learning and Education
Students from all over Montana can visit the museum for school tours. They can also join homeschool programs and summer camps. The museum offers educational classes and lectures too.
Even college students from Montana State University can take classes here. They can do research projects. They can also study museum practices and do independent studies with the museum.
See also
In Spanish: Museo de las Rocosas para niños
