Phillips County Museum
431 US-2 E
Malta, MT
A small Hi-Line museum in Malta where homestead and outlaw history shares the floor with dinosaurs pulled from the surrounding badlands.
The Phillips County Museum in Malta tells the story of a Hi-Line ranching town and the wild country around it, from homesteaders and railroaders to the outlaws who once hid out in the Missouri Breaks. It is the kind of small-town museum where a settler's parlor, a barbed-wire display, and a fossil case can share a single afternoon.
Malta also sits in one of the richest dinosaur regions in North America. The badlands to the south have given up world-class fossils from the Judith River Formation, including the mummified duck-billed dinosaur nicknamed Leonardo, whose fossilized skin made it a scientific sensation. The museum sets the area's local history against that far deeper prehistoric past.
What Guests Love
- Dinosaur fossils dug from the nearby Judith River badlands, a real fossil hot spot
- Homestead-era rooms, ranching gear, and the story of a Hi-Line town
- Tales of the outlaws who once worked this remote country, including the Wild Bunch
- A friendly, unhurried small-town museum where the staff know the stories
Worth Knowing
- It is a small local museum; hours are limited, so check before a shoulder-season visit
- Malta anchors the eastern end of the Montana Dinosaur Trail, so pair it with other stops on the route
- The famous mummified dinosaur Leonardo is tied to this region but is not always on public view; ask locally about what is on display
- This is remote Hi-Line country, so fuel up and plan distances between towns
Details
Malta, MT
Learn about Phillips County Museum
Life on the Hi-Line
Malta grew up along the Great Northern Railway, the northern rail line that opened this stretch of Montana to homesteaders in the early 1900s. The museum gathers the everyday evidence of that era, household goods, ranching tools, photographs, and the rooms of a settler's life, into a portrait of a hard, hopeful frontier where dryland farms and cattle ranches took root on the plains.
The country around Malta was also famously remote, which made it good cover for outlaws. The Missouri Breaks to the south sheltered rustlers and road agents, and stories of the Wild Bunch and other outlaws are part of the local lore the museum keeps alive.
Dinosaurs of the Judith River badlands
South of Malta, the badlands expose the Judith River Formation, rock laid down when this was a coastal plain beside a great inland sea during the age of dinosaurs. Erosion keeps uncovering bones, and the area has become one of the most productive dinosaur grounds in North America, a key stop on the Montana Dinosaur Trail.
Its most famous find is Leonardo, a young duck-billed Brachylophosaurus discovered here in 2000 and so extraordinarily preserved that fossilized skin covered much of its body, along with traces of its last meal. Recognized as one of the best-preserved dinosaurs ever found, Leonardo put Malta on the paleontology map, and the region's fossils anchor the town's twin identity of homestead history and deep time.
Missouri River Country
Malta sits in Montana's Missouri River Country, a sweep of prairie, badlands, and river bottom in the northeast of the state. South of town, the land drops into the Missouri Breaks and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, a vast expanse of rugged coulees, cottonwood bottoms, and reservoir shoreline.
It is big, quiet, wildlife-rich country. Elk, pronghorn, sharp-tailed grouse, and raptors move across it, and the same erosion that reveals dinosaur bones has carved a landscape that rewards travelers willing to venture off the main highway.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Malta
Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and Field Station
In Malta
Malta's dedicated dinosaur museum, home to fossils from the region and a base for working paleontology digs in the badlands.
Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge
About 7 miles east
A prairie-lake refuge that draws pelicans, grebes, and huge flocks of migrating birds, with an auto tour route.
Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge
South of Malta
A vast, wild refuge along the Missouri Breaks with elk, bighorn sheep, and some of the emptiest country in the Lower 48.