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Museum of the Rockies is a museum in
Bozeman, Montana Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city o ...
. Originally affiliated with Montana State University in Bozeman, and now also, the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...
, the museum is largely known for its paleontological collections. The Museum houses the largest collection of
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
remains in the United States, possessing the largest ''
Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosa ...
''
skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
ever discovered, as well as the thigh bone of a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' that contains soft-tissue remains. The museum is part of the Montana Dinosaur Trail and is
Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
's official repository for paleontological specimens. The museum's collections focus on the physical and cultural history of the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
and the people and animals who have lived there, and date back more than 500 million years. Permanent exhibits include: "Enduring Peoples", which chronicles the life of Native Americans on the Northern Plains and near the Rocky Mountains; "History of the Northern Rocky Mountain Region", whose inhabitants included Native Americans, fur traders, gold seekers, and settlers from frontier days through
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
; the Living History Farm, which includes the Tinsley House, where costumed interpreters demonstrate life in a turn-of-the-century home; and the
Taylor Planetarium Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to: People * Taylor (surname) ** List of people with surname Taylor * Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah * Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron * Justice Taylor (disambiguation) ...
, a , 104-seat domed theater.


Overview

Museum of the Rockies preserves and tells the stories of Montana and the Northern Rockies, educating visitors about the region's rich history, which includes its paleontological roots. The museum was founded in 1957, funded in part by a gift from Caroline M. McGill. The museum's collection has grown to include 300,000 objects that cover over 500,000,000 years of history. In 1980, the museum acquired over 10,000 photographs and negatives from the heirs of Albert, Alfred and Chris Schlechten (now known as the Schlechten collection). These photographs chronicle the Bozeman and
Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...
areas over two generations (from about 1905 until the late 1970s). The museum offers symposiums, allowing Native Americans whose tribes called the region home to share their oral histories with visitors. In 2005, the museum became an affiliate of the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...
, which provided the museum greater access to the collections and programs of that institute. Traveling exhibits that visit the museum have covered topics such as African American art,
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
and
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
costumes, the impact of
weapons A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...
on the cultures of the Rocky Mountains, and King Tut.


At the Museum


Tinsley House

The Tinsley House () is preserved by the Museum of the Rockies as a living history museum. The 100+ year-old house was originally located in Willow Creek and it was moved to its present site (on more than ) in front of the museum in 1989. At the museum, visitors can learn about the life of the Tinsleys and others who lived at the time. Children can try on clothes and play with contemporary toys of the time. The house includes a functioning
outhouse An outhouse is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket toilet, but other forms of dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may also be use ...
, water pump and kitchen where food typical of the time is sometimes prepared. The Tinsleys migrated west during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
. William and Lucy aveTinsley met in Virginia City, Montana, where both worked. They relocated to the Gallatin Valley after they married. The Tinsleys built their house in 1889 when the original cabin became too small to accommodate their growing family. The house provides an overview of homestead life in the 1800s in the
Gallatin Valley Gallatin County is located in the U.S. state of Montana. With its county seat in Bozeman, it is the second-most populous county in Montana, with a population of 118,960 in the 2020 Census. The county's prominent geographical features are the ...
. The house was constructed of logs accumulated over the course of two years from the Tobacco Root Mountains. Many of the interior items are believed to have been ordered from the Sears catalog. Most items in the house have been donated by Tinsley descendants.


Paleontology

While not its sole focus, the museum is primarily known for its paleontological collections. This was not always the case, however. Specimens found in Montana had usually been taken out of state to other museums. This changed in 1990 with the discovery of a '' Tyrannosaurus rex'' skeleton that would remain in Montana and be exhibited at the museum. While fossils continue to be the property of the
federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
, the museum has been able to increase its collection (due in part to Curator Jack Horner's agreement and work with the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
and the Federal
Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's ...
). The museum is now home to 13 ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' specimens, including one of only two complete that have ever been found. Apart from housing one of the largest collections of dinosaur
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s in the world and the largest in the United States, the museum is also home to one of the world's largest ''Tyrannosaurus'' skulls (MOR 008) – narrowly surpassing that of the
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
's specimen, Sue. The museum's Siebel Dinosaur Complex, designed by curator Horner, is home to one of the first identified female
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s, an ovulating ''T. rex''. Curator Horner, who served as an adviser to the ''
Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
'' films, was one of the lead scientists involved in the 2005 discovery of soft tissue remains in the thigh bone of a ''Tyrannosaurus'', which were later brought to the museum. The museum has also been involved in a number of other finds, including a baby ''
Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...
'' in Jordan, Montana, in 2006, and "Yoshi's Trike" (MOR 3027), a large ''
Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...
'' specimen with 125 cm long horns, discovered in 2010. In June 2008, the museum formed part of a consortium that obtained a mobile paleontology lab that would assist researchers, allowing them to chemically analyze fossils while still in the field in order to help prevent degradation. With the completion of MOR's new Curatorial Center for the Humanities in 2017 and the removal of humanities items to this new storage facility, the MOR paleontology department will gain about of space in the museum's basement to expand the collection of fossils. The department will also add three research staff, who will be housed in the basement, bringing the total number of researchers to eight by some time in late 2018.


Curatorial Center for the Humanities

On April 28, 2016, the museum broke ground on a new $4 million, Curatorial Center for the Humanities (CCH). The new building will provide storage and
curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
ial space for the museum's humanities collection, which includes art, archaeological, historic, Native American, and photographic items. About of the building will be devoted to storage space, with the remaining containing office and work space. Private donations paid for the entire cost of the structure, which meant that no state funds were used. Slate Architecture of
Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * H ...
designed the structure. Bill Walker was the lead architect. Civil and structural engineering, as well as planning for the
electrical system Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
,
mechanical system A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...
, and
plumbing Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling (HVAC), waste removal, and potable water delive ...
were provided by Morrison Maierle, Inc., of Bozeman. The
general contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...
was Jackson Contractor Group of Bozeman. Curators at MOR began cataloging all the humanities items in storage in 2015. Construction on the building is expected to be complete June 2017. Humanities items currently on display and in storage will then be taken to the CCH for conservation and restoration. Moving the items is expected to take another year. MOR officials said that the history hall exhibits will be completely revamped after the move to the CCH is completed.


References


External links


Museum of the Rockies official website
{{authority control History museums in Montana Living museums in Montana Montana State University Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Museums in Bozeman, Montana Native American museums in Montana Natural history museums in Montana Planetaria in the United States University museums in Montana Dinosaur museums in the United States Smithsonian Institution affiliates Museums established in 1957 1957 establishments in Montana Paleontology in Montana Science museums in Montana Hell Creek Formation