Last (?) Road Trip with Rose the Tiny Tent Camper; Part the Vth — RUSTY!
At age 80, a camping road trip may have been ill-advised… Notwithstanding, there I wuz —
RUSTY the Daspletosaurus
I promised to tell you how RUSTY the Daspletosaurus (a life-sized model) got his name. Rusty is the greeter at The Montana Dinosaur Center, Bynum, Montana. He’s actually very friendly, just made to look menacing because carnosaurs, y’know? Anyhow, his jaws are wired shut.
Driving in, you first see Rusty sprinting after unseen prey across the road…
Much hard work had to be done to bring him to life.
Because when I met Rusty in 2008, he looked like this.
Rusty in 2008 was an armature awaiting fleshing out. I am unsure about most of the materials used, but his main frame was unprotected steel…that became…RUSTY.
So it stuck.
He stayed like this for several years because there were always higher priorities than attending to Rusty’s completion and everyone loved him anyway.
I thought the bicycle was hilarious!
In 2012 staff, including my son Matt had fleshed him out and begun to try paint schemes for Rusty's livery. Since the fossil record is sparse about what any of these animals actually looked like — were they feathered, camouflaged, or gaudy like peacocks — they experimented with various looks. It was concluded that the above was too unconventional, so they settled on the below.
When they were fleshing Rusty out, they got the idea of putting red highway reflectors behind his eyes. It’s a startling sight when driving past at night. His right side gets the most sun, so it is fading faster. His toofies need a touchup.
So what else is here?
Since both of my “Kidz” worked in this place, I’ve had ample opportunities to explore and photograph over several years. Still, I cannot resist photographing even when I have been somewhere before. I can always do better.
SEISMO the Seismosaurus
SEISMO is the nickname given to the museum’s life-size model of a Seismosaurus (137 feet long!), so huge he won’t fit into a single frame in situ even with a 10mm lens. In 1991, paleontologist David Gillette announced that he had found what he was sure was the largest of the enormous sauropod dinosaurs. He called it Seismosaurus halli. Some sources suggest Seismosaurus was really an especially large Diplodocus, but 137 feet of full-sized model wound around in a small space is a challenge. Seismo can be and has been disassembled and taken on the road, but those days are over because it was very stressful for him.
It’s not possible to show the scale of that astounding neck in a single photograph. My lens was barely short enough to make the shot.
It would not be pleasant if he bit you, but the peg teeth are a marker of a strict vegan.
This crushed, dislocated full-size Tyrannosaur “skull” in its rock matrix is a rescue of sorts. It’s not real. It was crafted for publicity for one of the endless Jurassic Park sequels but was never used. The museum acquired it just because it’s fun. It was deliberately positioned so folks could stick their heads in, which everyone does.
Along the Montana Dinosaur Trail (link)
Much of the American West is dinosaur country. It isn’t that there are more fossils in the west; it is just more likely that the dry desert conditions will preserve the fossils better. It isn’t easy to find and unearth dinosaur remains, but most discoveries are thanks to sharp, trained eyes seeing a small outcrop and recognizing it for what it is. If it weren’t for erosion, we’d have no fossil record at all.
In downtown Choteau is a small but fully packed museum that is on the Dinosaur Trail:
The Old Trail Museum, Choteau, Montana (link)
I won’t write too much on this, instead letting the pictures speak for themselves.
The Old Trail Museum is tiny by comparison with The Dinosaur Center (fifteen minutes up the road, and it is not large). What room this place has is well curated and full of relics and fossils.
The Old Trail Museum is not dedicated only to dinosaurs. The place covers much of the history of Choteau and Montana with other exhibits and heirloom artifacts.
If you know my work, you know I am passionate about museums and glory in them when they allow me to photograph. I share all such photos with the venues at no charge.
Folks from everywhere stop here, if not for dinosaurs or heirlooms or all the other history (I’ve only shown a bit of it, not wanting to be a bore), but —
I SCREAM!
If you are ever up Montana way, stop in Choteau and enjoy some fresh ice cream! You can eat it in the shade of a dinosaur.
— All photos ©Charles G. Haacker
As always, thank you for looking and reading. I really appreciate it! 😊👍
