Dakota Dinosaur Museum

One of the things that we saw plenty of on our trip to Western South Dakota and North Dakota was dinosaurs, fossils of dinosaurs to be precise. The Dakota Dinosaur Museum of Dickinson North Dakota is a unique museum and set apart from some of the other museums by it's unique displays, sculptures and how it became a part of North Dakota's tourism.

There are quite a few museums dedicating themselves to showing off their collections of fossilized reptiles, animals and other creatures and even rock and mineral collections. One of the big things that sets this museum apart from the others that we visited was you actually got to see, behind a glass wall of course, a dinosaur casting in progress. At the back of the museum they have set up a lab that shows how they go about casting a dinosaur into plaster to create a protective case for the bones as they are transported. At least that was what we had seen when we were there. The museum changes the display routinely to add variety to the exhibits so that you can visit the museum and never get bored with your tour.

They have a wide variety of dinosaur fossils and displays for them. They have created a unique mix of dinosaur fossils, recreated scale dinosaurs, rock and mineral collections, vertebrate and invertebrate fossils and some other interesting displays. The one thing that I noticed at first about the exhibits when I walked in was that the dinosaurs have skin. They have several dinosaurs that have been recreated by an artist, John Fischner of Needville Texas, fleshed out the dinosaur sculptures of the museum, creating very life like dinosaurs.

The other thing I noticed and liked very well was many displays that contain some of the medium to smaller fossils are made of glass and are square. They are about five feet tall but square so that you can walk around the display and see from many different angles the various bones and rocks and minerals that are in these display cases. Many of the other museums we went to had the rocks, minerals and fossils displayed in a case that you can only see what they want you to see, in other words the best side of the object on display. This square glass display case allows you to walk around the display and see all sides of the objects and see what the other sides of them look like. Of course you can't see the bottom and in some cases they are up against stands or other displayed objects but it is nice to be able to see some of the other sides of things. My family is very interested in rocks, minerals and fossils and we have a pretty neat little collection of them, if I don't say so myself, and this was a unique feature of the museum, to be able to see the other sides of things.

The museum has some interesting sculptures on the outside of the building as well, next to the outside entrance is a life size triceratops, I think that is what it is, I could be wrong. There are other very life like dinosaurs throughout the museum along with the usual dinosaur fossils of skulls and whole skeletons. The museum is the proud home of one of the best Triceratops skulls ever found along with all the other skulls and bones of dinosaurs. The collection and museum is the work of Alice and Larry League, they had collected many dinosaur fossils on their own and wanted to not only have a better place to house their personal collection but to show it off and educate the public. Larry League is a professor of Geography and Geology at Dickinson State University and his wife is the non profit agency director. They coordinated the development, fund raising, construction and exhibit preparation for the museum.

The museum opened on May 13, 1994 with it's 10 full scale dinosaurs and other collections. The League's donated their private collection of fossils, rocks and minerals, and the City of Dickinson, businesses and others donated funds and their personal efforts to see the museum opened and continue it's efforts at public education and tourism for Dickinson. The museum is run by a board of director's that volunteer their time to see the functioning of the museum and elected to have the Alice League as the museums Director and Larry as the Curator and Collections Manager.

The museum funding comes from the entrance fees and the profits from the gift shop, with it's rocks, minerals, fossils and educational items for sale in the lobby of the museum. The entrance fees are $6 for adults and Children $3. The museum is open from May 1st to Labor Day but you can arrange tours with them through their web site or by phone. Their website is here: http://www.dakotadino.com/index.html
and you can call them from there if you are interested in a group or class tour. That is another thing about the museum that I find as unique. They offer class tours but they also offer a museum scavenger hunt to help people learn about the exhibits and dinosaurs, fossils, rocks and minerals of the museum. The hunt is like you would think, they give the group leader a list of questions and the group needs to find the answer to each question at the different exhibits and the information for those exhibits. The scavenger hunt is offered during the month of May and in August and September, see their web site for details.

The Museum Center also has a couple of other museums to visit, the Joachim Museum and the Pioneer Machinery Museum. The Joachim Museum is a regional museum with exhibits of the area, North Dakota and it's history and past. Some of the exhibits change from time to time and you can go here to learn more about the museum: http://www.joachimmuseum.org/index.htm

The Pioneer Machinery Museum is just like it's name, dedicated to the machinery of the pioneers and farmers of the region, there are even a collection of buildings in the area from the past of pioneer and heritage descent. The museum has many pioneer collections of machinery, tools and other things from the farming and cultural roots of the people who settled in the Dakota and Dickinson area. You can find more, especially photos here: http://www.joachimmuseum.org/machinery_building.htm

The Dakota Dinosaur Museum in Dickinson North Dakota is only about thirty miles east of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, South Unit and well worth the stop. It is a great exhibit of fossils, dinosaur skeletons, rocks, minerals and other natural things. The Joachim museum and the pioneer machinery museum is also worth a look, to see the heritage of the pioneers and the tools and items they used to settle in the area is unique.