Bozeman – Museum of the Rockies 6.8.21
We went to Bozeman, MT primarily to see daughter Maya, who
is on a temporary management assignment there for a few weeks at the Comfort
Suites hotel. It was so good to see her
after a very long time. She had already
ordered pizza when we arrived, and we had a good time eating and catching up on
each other’s lives and various family gossip, I mean, news.
Bozeman is a pretty town, small without being rural, with
wonderful views of the Bridger Mountains out of almost any window. It is easy to see why stars and other
celebrities have ranches in the area and, we heard, are routinely seen around
town and treated like everyone else.
Since the hotel was full, we parked the trailer in the lot and Maya
graciously offered the use of her room for showers, etc. We met several of her co-workers and her
boss. It’s always cool to see your kids
in grown-up roles, and in the hotel business she is a manager, dealing with
staff, customers and vendors and various money and facilities issues with
confidence and authority.
We had heard the Museum of the Rockies has an amazing
dinosaur display. We went there
thinking, well, we’ve definitely seen cool dinosaurs – after all, we’re from
Chicago, and we’ve been to the Field Museum, which is hard to beat. Museum of the Rockies definitely does beat
the Field in that department!
We saw a planetarium show on the Voyager exploration project
first, which was entertaining, but the narrator’s smooth voice and the serene
background music made it hard to stay awake.
Then we headed for the dinosaur hall.
This is a huge exhibit with many different specimens of
dinosaurs in various stages of repair and rebuilding. The specimens are colored so you can see
what’s original bone and what has been added to show the shape of the bones as
they would have looked in life.
Incredibly, their T-rex skeleton is 60% original bone. Exhibits talked about what we can learn from
the skeletons about the life cycle, eating and social habits of the animals, as
well as how and why they died. Most of
the bones were found in Montana and the location of the findings as well as the
people involved was most entertaining.
So many of the discoverers were young, volunteers or grad students. I could just imagine the thrill of coming
across a piece of bone on a desert dig and finding out it was a priceless piece
of prehistory. There were entire
skeletons, partial skeletons showing development over an animal’s lifetime,
even egg clutches and individual dino eggs.
Several of the exhibits showed how the evidence of blood vessel patterns
indicates the animals may have had keratin, which makes up hair, nails and
beaks, on the outside of their bodies, for instance in a Triceratops’ neck
frill. Since keratin can be very
brightly-colored in nature (look at the beak on a toucan, for instance), it is
possible that dinosaurs with keratin coverings had bright colors and patterns,
rather than being green or gray like lizards, as we have assumed. One exhibit showed on one side the bones of
two dinosaurs, a carnivore attacking an herbivore, and on the other side, an
imaginative display of what they might have looked like with colorful keratin
on their bodies and primitive feathers like a horse’s mane.
There was a glassed-in lab where visitors could observe a
scientist actually working on restoring the leg bones of a large dinosaur. A white-haired man wearing a yarmulke and a
lab coat, he came outside of the lab to talk to a group of kids about the bones
he was working on (including a four-foot femur) and what you could tell about
the animal by the bones. He was very
enthusiastic and had a great way with kids, infecting them with his interest.
It was really a lot to take in and when we finished that
exhibit we went in search of food.
The museum does not have a cafeteria but we were directed to
a food truck outside. Montana State
University provides a bright blue truck, named Fork in the Road. They appeared to be doing a steady business,
so we could not resist trying out these local offerings, though we had food
with us. Despite the line, service was
fast, and the food was reasonably priced upscale local. LCR had a wild rice and butternut squash bowl
with salmon; I had street tacos also with salmon, both with chopped onion and
tomato, very lightly seasoned. There was
hibiscus tea and huckleberry lemonade. For
dessert we had hand pies (cherry) and an indigenous kind of cookie like a
whole-wheat tart with raspberry jam filling.
An area of tables was outside the museum but it was in direct sun, so we
ate on the grass under a tree in the parking area. It was a delicious lunch and a much-needed
break.
After lunch we saw a Viking exhibit, which had dramatic
music, bits of reenactment films and photos, but seemed a bit thin on the
artifacts, almost as if there had been a plan for the exhibit but it was not
quite finished. Naturally there were
weapons, intricately decorated swords, and a replica of a Viking funeral boat,
but my favorite was a sort of scepter head found in the grave of a woman, and
the explanation that in Viking society women were the keepers of spirituality
and magic.
There was also an exhibit of early settler history which
included a house displayed to show construction techniques that were new at the
time (1920s and 1930s) and contributed to the settling of the area by making
housing affordable while still able to withstand the elements. There was also a replica of a tar paper shack
earlier settlers might have used. Imagining
a night in such a dwelling on the Montana desert, I felt very cold. Finally, the museum had a very thorough
exhibit of Native American history, with contemporary replicas of traditional
clothing and beautiful beadwork, and video and text narration by Native
Americans about their efforts to continue and preserve their cultures.
Gas was $3.17 in Chicago when we left in early May. It was $2.71 somewhere in Wisconsin at the
same time. In general, prices have been as
high as $3.80/gal. Sometimes a sign
appears to advertise a lower price, but it will be for 85 octane, which we
cannot use for the Sequoia. Now that we
are in Washington state, it’s around $3.40.
Signage:
“Mexican food so good, President Trump would build a wall
around it.” - Que Pasa Cantina in Rapid
City, SD.
“In wine there is wisdom.
In water there is bacteria.” -
Wobbly Bobby, bar in Rapid City.
“In victory, you deserve beer. In defeat, you need it.” - Firehouse Brewing Co., Rapid City.
“Thank you, Jesus, for the moisture.” - Sign outside the Country Kitchen in
Dickinson, ND on a rainy day, after many days of seeing signs that read “Fire
danger today – Extreme.”
Marijuana dispensaries are a new source of creative and
entertaining names:
Nature’s Fix (Rockvale, MT)
Grateful Shed (Bozeman, MT)
Elevated (Butte, MT)
And the winner so far:
“For gas sales after hours, first honk horn once! Then keep your shirt on while I get my pants
on.” – Outside a replica of a gas station from the 1930s at the Museum of the
Rockies. (The station was also the home
of the owner, complete with kitchen, living room and bedroom at the back.)
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