Carter County - Geology and Geography
Background Info / Historical Story
“The Hell Creek Formation, and the region of Carter County in particular, are known for bearing some of the United States’ more notable dinosaur fossils, including famous Tyrannosaurus rexes such as Thomas (Los Angeles County Natural History Museum), Jane (Burpee Museum), Wyrex (Houston Museum of Nature and Science), Tristan (on tour in Berlin), and the Cleveland Skull (Cleveland Museum of Natural History). Alazadasaurus, a Styxosaurus, or marine reptile named for the town of Alzada in Carter County near where it was found, resides in the Chicago Field Museum, and Nancy, an Edmontosaurus also from Carter County is on display at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. Significant triceratops from the region includes Homer at Burpee Museum, a complete skull at the Field Museum in Chicago, and Horridus, a nearly complete triceratops horridus, which became a centerpiece of the Melbourne Museum in Australia in 2022. In many of these institutions, the specimens are listed as being from Montana at most, with the noted exception of the Burpee Museum, which continues to operate a field program in the Ekalaka area and has dedicated displays to their excavations in the region.”- Sabre Moore
Collections Spotlight
Photos, Maps, etc
- Carter County Geologic Map
- Montana-Geologic-Map-2000px-2.png
- RayTroll MT Fossils.jpg
- Soil Map.jpg
- ChronostratChart2023-09.pdf
- Assembled hadrosaurid dinosaur in Carter County Museum in 1953
- Triceratops skull discovered by Robert Proctor. The skull measures about 4.5 to 5 feet long and 2.5 feet across. Taken during October of 1940.
- A close-up of the triceratops femur bone excavated by the N. Y. A. students on October 23, 1939. The bone is four feet in length.
Links to other helpful sources:
- Mining in Montana: History Collections
- Oil and Gas - Montana Geology
- Montana’s Oil & Natural Gas Development