Details

Students will participate in bringing fossils from the field to Carter County Museum for a permanent Montana Learning Center exhibit at the Museum. The MLC exhibit evolves from year to year as the collection of fossils discovered by campers grows. Campers’ fossil discoveries will become part of Carter County Museum’s permanent collection, and the campers who discovered the fossils will be listed as the collectors on the exhibit’s explanatory placards. 

Carter County Museum is located in eastern Montana, in the small ranching community of Ekalaka. Founded in 1936 by amateur archaeologists and paleontologists who were members of the Carter County Geological Society, the Museum’s original mission focused on the collection and study of dinosaur fossils found on local ranches and that still is its main area of focus today. The Museum has the proud distinction of being Montana’s first dinosaur museum.

Museum staff will provide guidance at the dig sites, tools for digging, and expertise. Campers will receive a special tour of the collections areas of the Museum and a fossil cast to take home as a souvenir. Long-time MLC and Museum volunteer Heath Caldwell will serve as a junior counselor for the camp and participants will benefit from his experience in the region and his mentorship. There will be an opportunity for night-sky viewing during one evening with all eyes on eastern Montana’s starry skies.

The cost of this camp is $1,295 for all six days. Included in the cost of the camp is transportation, housing, meals, snacks and all learning and recreational activities and related fees. Students leave from Montana Learning Center’s campus on Canyon Ferry Lake on Sunday afternoon and return there on Friday afternoon.