Rudyard’s Depot Museum – Very Cool

We made a quick trip west on US Hwy 2 to visit the Rudyard Depot Museum the other day. Rudyard is between Chester and Havre and one of several small towns on this stretch of highway.

The first thing that captivates many potential visitors to Rudyard is their sign along the highway – Rudyard: 596 Nice People, One Old Sorehead! I think the very bottom part says Rip Snorting and Raring for Business.

In all truthfulness, there are no longer 596 people in Rudyard. And, I doubt if there really is a sorehead! Unless you count the dinosaur named gryposaurus (gripe-o-saurus).

The rail line parallels the highway here so there is rail access for all of the grain grown in the area. Farming would be the mainstay of this community and I suspect wheat is the primary crop grown and harvested.

We went to Rudyard to visit the museum though. You drive in to town heading north and as you are almost through town you’ll see a sign to turn left to see the museum. Its worth the time to visit this facility.

There are three main buildings – their “paper” museum which compares to an archives, the actual Depot Museum building (restored railroad depot) with area history, and a new building built specifically to house dinosaur displays.

We first looked in the dinosaur museum, then we spent a lot of time in the depot museum. Both were so interesting – its one of those places where you could spend hours.

Rudyard native Cliff Ullmen toured us through the buildings and he was an absolute delight. He has a lot of pride in this facility and has worked hard to make it a reality.

For dinosaur lovers – the Rudyard Depot Museum is also on the Montana Dinosaur Trail. Each facility has their own passport stamp and this is one stop you’ll want to make to get your gryposaurus.