Bozeman, Montana, United States
MSU is also home of a bona fide major tourist draw. Its Museum of the Rockies has one of the
largest paleontological collections in the country. I’ve read in several places that it had the
largest collection of dinosaur bones in the U.S., but I’m not sure. If that’s true, most of the must not be on
display because I’m pretty sure the dinosaur halls at the American Museum of
Natural History in New York, always just called “the museum” in my family when
I was a child, are larger.
Anyway, much of the museum’s collection comes from the
bonanza of such fossils found in the region, especially eastern Montana and
Wyoming. As I’ve mentioned before, geology isn’t my forte, but this fossil
richness seems to have something to do with this part of the world being a
shallow sea during the age of dinosaurs.
While not huge overall, the museums also has additional
collections on regional geology, natural history, American Indian cultures, and
Montana history. The museum is enough of
an attraction that it was my third time there, the first being way back in 1995
on a trip to Yellowstone with my brother when Bozeman seemed like a small town a
fraction of the size it is today.
That fraction would be one-half – census
estimates suggest Bozeman has close to doubled in population over those 24
years.
Although I’ve gotten out of town quite a lot as the weather
has gotten nice, I haven’t gone to that many of of the in-town events in
Bozeman but decided to on July 4th. On eight Thursday evenings through the summer,
Main Street through downtown Bozeman is closed down for Music on Main during
which a stage is set up for a live musical performance and food trucks like the
street. While most Montana towns lack an open container law restricting public
consumption of alcohol, in prissy Bozeman cans, bottles, and coolers are banned
from such events and you have to buy your booze from vendors on site. Sad! The
evening’s show was Tris Munsick and The Innocents, a cowboy crooner from
Sheridan, Wyoming and probably the show that most interested me on the summer Music
on Main lineup posted online.
And Tuesday the 16th was my
birthday. Although I don’t usually do
much in the way of celebrating, I don’t go out of my way to keep it secret
either. My cousin Deb and her husband John took me out to lunch at Rockin’ R
Bar downtown. I like their concept of “Flight
+ Fave”. You can choose from one of several flights of four four-ounce beer
samplers and then get to pick your favorite for a full pint. That’s a bit more
day drinkin’ than I usually do, buy hey, it was my birthday.
2025-05-22