Trip out West to Dinosaur Mecca

StormbedPaleo
Jul 14, 2023
2 min read

I've finally got a little time to add a new posting here on the site. I've been travelling through Alberta, B.C., Montana and Idaho for the last 9 days on a non-fossil trip. That said, we did visit the famous Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta (roughly 1.5 hours outside of Calgary). Drumheller is a town with an identity; dinosaurs. There's pretty much dinosaur everything there including breweries and real estate firms. Dino sculptures line the streets and the "World's Tallest Dinosaur", a 25 metre tall theropod, looms out from a small gift shop smack in the middle of downtown. You can walk up inside the head for $5.

There are several fossil shops in town, some with world-class material for sale (though the trilobites are again, sadly under-represented). One such shop is the aptly named 'The Fossil Shop', on Bridge street. I spent some time with it's friendly owner, John Parsons, who has been in the fossil business for a very long time. He's also a lifelong, avid fossil hunter -a type easily recognized as it takes one to know one. Several dinosaur fossils from the area are available at his shop which was nice to see. In Alberta, fossils must be registered with the local government. Only fossils that have been collected pre-1980 can be legally sold in this province and only two companies have been 'grandfathered' in for this arrangement. I was lucky enough to grab a trio of excellent Albertosaurus teeth that met these legal requirements.

Inside the museum you can see some truly world class exhibits including "black beauty", a nearly complete tyrannosaur specimen with black preservation and the best preserved dinosaur ever found to date, Borealopelta markmitchelli. There's also a decent exhibit on the Burgess Shale. I found the trilobite collection lacking but there were some excellent pieces on display nonetheless.

After leaving Alberta, we headed across the border into beautiful Montana. Glacier national park and Kootenai National forest were highlights in the area. On the way back into Canada via Idaho, we drove through Cranbrook B.C. where I serendipitously met up with a new friend, Chris. Chris has been digging bugs out in B.C. nearly his whole life. Not only does he have an epic collection, he's made dozens of contributions to the growing list of new trilobite species from the area. It's always nice to meet a kindred spirit in a niche hobby. I was sent home with a number of McKay group bugs to prep which I'm excited about starting. Less excited was airport security, one of whom's agents felt I represented a threat to my fellow passengers by potentially committing acts of domestic terrorism with a sharp-edged trilobite rock. Oh, the times we live in.

The first of these terrorism-trilobites has been completed. I'll post a photo following my Alberta pics! Thanks for reading! -M