BELLE FOURCHE—Belle Fourche’s newest attraction, Dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Museum, officially opened its doors to the public on Friday, May 23. At 9 a.m., a crowd of locals and supporters gathered in front of the museum for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Walter Stein, museum owner, kicked off the morning with a speech individually thanking each sponsor, employee, land owner, and everyone who had a hand in getting the museum up and running. “This is a team effort,” said Stein. As the ribbon was cut, excited patrons entered the museum for the first time, getting to see the variety of educational stations, life-sized dinosaur animatronics, bones, and more. Outside, customers chose from several local food trucks for a delicious breakfast.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was just one part of a full weekend of opening celebration festivities at the museum. On Thursday evening, the museum hosted a VIP Pre-Opening Party for friends, family, sponsors, and land owners with an amazing turnout and a line out the door! The pre-opening party featured hors d’oeuvres—including dinosaur-bone shaped cookies!—a free-will donation cash bar, food trucks, and a silent auction full of interesting items like dinosaur fossils, bones, and minerals.
Clayton Phipps, a fossil hunter from Montana, was the guest speaker for the evening. Phipps explained how he got to be a self-proclaimed “dinosaur hunter” and told the story of how he discovered the “Dueling Dinosaurs,” two entangled fossilized dinosaur skeletons. The Dueling Dinosaurs, a 22-foot tyrannosaur and a 28-foot Triceratops, were a monumental find in the field of paleontology.
Thursday’s event finished with the lighting of the museum’s outside sign.
The opening festivities continued through Sunday, May 25, with a full slate of guest speakers giving talks on various paleontological topics all weekend.
Stein is “ecstatic” to see his dream finally come to fruition. “It’s one of those things where it’s a long time coming, and I’m so glad that we could bring it to Belle Fourche and this community,” he said.
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