Fort Peck Interpretive Center

The country around Fort Peck is some of the richest dinosaur ground on earth. The badlands here expose the Hell Creek Formation, the rock that recorded the very end of the age of dinosaurs, and paleontologists have pulled remarkable finds from these clay hills. Peck's Rex, discovered in 1997, was among the most complete tyrannosaurs ever found when it came out of the ground.

The center lets you get close to it in three forms, from the mounted bones to a lifelike model to a skull you can study up close. Around the tyrannosaur, the exhibits fill in the wider prehistoric world of the region, the marine reptiles and other creatures that once swam and roamed this now-dry high plains country.

The other half of the center is the human story of Fort Peck Dam. Begun in the 1930s as a New Deal effort to control the Missouri River and put thousands of Depression-era men to work, the dam grew into the largest hydraulic-fill dam in the country. The exhibits walk you through how it was built, with firsthand accounts from the workers who did it and a look at life in the raucous boomtowns that sprang up alongside.

Because the center sits right at the dam and the powerhouse, the history feels close at hand. You can look at the exhibits and then step outside to the very structure they describe, still holding back the Missouri and still generating power more than eighty years on.

The center also holds the two largest aquariums in Montana, stocked with the fish that live in Fort Peck Lake and the Missouri River, from paddlefish and sturgeon to the walleye and pike that draw anglers. It is an easy, kid-friendly way to see what swims in the enormous reservoir just upstream.

All of this sits inside the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, so the natural setting is part of the draw. The center makes a good orientation point for the whole area, a place to understand the dam, the lake, the fossils, and the wildlife before you head out to see them.

The center is a key stop on the Montana Dinosaur Trail, a route that links fossil museums across the state, and it pairs naturally with the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta and other stops to the south and west. For anyone chasing the trail, it is one of the anchors in the remote northeast corner of Montana.

Like most of Missouri River Country, this is a warm-season destination. The center and the surrounding attractions are liveliest from late spring through early fall, when the dam, the lake, the theatre, and the wildlife refuge are all in full swing. Winters here are long and cold, so plan a visit for the greener months.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.