Blaine County Museum - Chinook

If your travel itinerary takes you down Highway 2 on the Montana Hi-Line, be sure to visit the Blaine County Museum in Chinook it is one of the best history museums in the state.

Experience the West from prehistoric to pioneer, through thought-provoking exhibits, that tell the story of this land and its people. Exhibits show Assiniboine and Gros Ventre culture, pioneer days of the cowboy, hardships of the Homestead Era, and Blaine County's history through two World Wars. Impressive reconstructions include a "Tar-Paper Shack", church, schoolroom, clothing exhibit, and an old time dentist office and doctor's office. These exhibits invite visitors to look at a very different way of life than we experience today.

The interim visitor center for the Bear Paw Battlefield, the museum houses three exhibits of historic artifacts found at the site, time-period photographs, and military gear. One of the highlights of the museum is the outstanding twenty-minute multi-media presentation "Forty Miles from Freedom". The presentation recounts the events leading up to the Battle and Siege of the Bear Paw which ended one of the most remarkable and tragic retreats in this nations history.

A site on the Montana Dinosaur Trail the museum's Paleontology Exhibit displays a dozen Judith River Formation exhibits including Hadrosaur, Gorgosaurus, and Edmontonia fossils from the area. Remains of gigantic marine reptiles Mosasaur and Plesiosaur are featured, along with invertebrates from the area's ancient ocean. In the "Look, Touch, and Wonder" room, guests can handle fossils of sea creatures, plants, and dinosaurs.

There is also a gift shop containing information on the Bear Paw Battlefield, over 500 book titles for adults and children, and native handicrafts.

For more information about the Montana Dinosaur Trail go to www.mtdinotrail.org