Museum History

In the quiet backroom of a modest rock shop, a remarkable journey into the past was unfolding. Dave and Laurie Trexler, along with Dave's mother Marion Branvold, had created a sanctuary for the numerous specimens they had unearthed over the years. It was here, amidst the rugged beauty of Montana, that Laurie stumbled upon the skull of a Maiasaura peeblesorum, a discovery that set the family on a path of excavation in the late 70s that would challenge the preconceptions of the scientific community.

During one of these excavation periods, Marion, on a leisurely walk a hill or two away from the main site, made an extraordinary discovery herself—baby Maiasaura bones. With an instinct for preservation, she temporarily safeguarded these precious fragments of history in a coffee can, unaware of the struggle she would face in getting them recognized. Marion reached out to local Montana museums, only to be met with skepticism. The idea of a baby dinosaur being fossilized was dismissed outright, not because of the evidence, but because Marion lacked formal qualifications in paleontology. Despite this, her rich family background, intertwined with ranching and informal assistance to early paleontologists like Barnum Brown, endowed her with a deep, albeit unrecognized, expertise in the field.

This dismissal also mirrored a wider issue within the state; for over a century, Montana's fossils had been excavated and relocated to distant institutions like the Smithsonian or Carnegie, leaving the local heritage impoverished. At the time, only a single hadrosaurian dinosaur represented Montana's rich prehistoric past, relegated to the basement of a high school in Ekalaka.

The tide began to turn when Jack Horner, a preparator from Princeton, ventured into Bynum and visited the rock shop. Engaging with Marion, he became one of the few to recognize the significance of her find. Horner took the baby dinosaur bones back to Princeton, where his research confirmed their importance, marking the discovery of the first distinguishable dinosaur baby in scientific literature. His subsequent visits and studies led to further revelations, including the identification of dinosaur eggs in the area, cementing the site as one of only seven established dinosaur nesting sites in the world.

This story underscores the founding ethos of the museum that now stands on this historic ground. Here, the belief is firmly held that one does not need an established degree to contribute meaningfully to paleontology. Moreover, there is a strong commitment to preserving Montana's paleontological heritage within its borders. Despite its relatively short history of about 25 years, the museum stands as a testament to the contributions of individuals like Marion Branvold, who, armed with passion and perseverance, helped to rewrite the history of life on Earth.