Driving With Dixie – Day Three

From Fort Peck to Malta is a drive of only 1 1/2 hours. At the Great Plains Dinosaur Musem in Malta, Brentton and Jake thought that the Leonardo replica was very authentic looking. THey have seen the actual fossil of Leo many times and were impressed with the way it was being painted.

Ayden loved the dig pit and the gift shop. He actually compared it to Toys R Us! The new ocean display with the inverts and fish was Debbie’s special interest.

At the Phillips County Museum (next door to the Great Plains) in Malta, the T-rex was compared with the Albertosaurus in size. The newly updated displays were fresh and lovely. I particularly liked the way the displays were color coordinated.

And, the other treat for all of us was that we got to see great grandma and our other sister Dee, her daughter Jessie, and her year-old grand baby!

Elvis, the brachyolophosaurus, was in the usual pristine condition too. The kids were awed by the meteors since one of them had written a report on them during school.

We stopped at the newspaper office in Malta and gave an interview for the Phillips County News.

In Chinook at the Blaine County Museum, curator Jude Sheppard gave us an enlightening tour. The Touch Room was definitely one of the highlights for the boys!

Of course, the whole town is getting ready for a high school reunion so new displays were being installed for that.

They have a nice book store in the gift shop. Lots of books on history, natural science and dinosaurs!

Then, an extra adventure was in store for us with a trip up the street to the Blaine County Wildlife Museum.

The displays are so life-like along with the murals of the different habitats! Thanks to Jude.

We also were able to talk to a reporter from the Blaine County Journal newspaper about our dinosaur trip.

Our next stop was the Clack Museum in Havre. They were having a contest to name the new baby dinosaur and we voted on the name we thought was best.

Cheryl Gilbert was a gracious host answering questions about the dinosaurs and history of the area. The wooden water pipe was quite a special artifact of Havre’s early days. The baby Maiasaura bones and the nest embryo bones were amazing!

In Rudyard, Lila Redding gave a tour of the Rudyard Depot Museum Dinosaur Hall with the Pteranodons and the Maiasaura nest. All of the different types of fossils from the same ranch and others in that area are phenomenal. For me, one unique area of the Depot Museum Dinosaur Hall was the collection of unusual rocks and little teeth, small bones and claws.

That’s it for now…Dixie