old trail museum

The museum has an excellent display of local culture past and present. There is a good display of dinosaur remains and also displays on the museum grounds.

On a drive from Great Falls to Kalispell we took the road through Choteau and saw this museum by the roadside. Was disappointed in that it was closed but it was in early May and it was not yet tourist season. We walked around and viewed the dinosaurs and looked into windows and took some pictures.

Even if you don't go in, you can take pictures with the fiberglass dinosaurs outside, but the admission is so cheap, go on in and learn something. They have exhibits on everything from prehistoric fossils through native inhabitants and European exploration/settlement, local historic people of note, and an outbuilding with stuffed grizzly bears. There's a cute little gift shop in another one of the outbuildings too. We spent about 45 minutes there, which was long enough to see the things we were interested in, but you could easily spend a couple hours there. Well worth the stop. The excellent farmer's market was just across the parking lot as well.

On the way to Freezeout Lake we see a Farmers market in Choteau and stop, only to discover, at the same place, Old Trail Museum – a historical museum complete with Bear traps, 4 original cabins, a grizzly room, the story of the last legal hanging in Montana (1933) and “Old Sol” – the skeleton of an unfortunate trapper for the Hudson Bay Company - with not one but three Indian arrows in his bones! Don’t miss it, the modest admission fee of $2 is well worth it. There is also a dinosaur room, if dinosaurs are your thing.

The exhibits are varied and eclectic from the last hanging in Great Falls to awesome Grizzly Bears to dinosaurs to life in the 1800s in Great Falls.... and on and on.... all great... all interesting and all fun.... and when you are finished, wonderful home made ice cream... Chamber of Commerce next door.

After driving through Glacier National Park and enjoying the spectacular scenery, we headed south on rather lonely US 89 to Helena. The scenery is beautiful but there is almost nowhere to stop for food, restrooms etc. for a long way. Imagine our delight when we arrived in charming Choteau. My guide book mentioned the visitor center and ice cream parlor at the Old Trail Museum and we were happy to stop as we needed some travel info. The gentleman manning the visitor center was very polite and gave us the exact information we needed. The restroom facilities were much appreciated and the adjoining ice cream parlor with Montana Wilcoxson's ice cream was such a nice treat! We walked around the outside of the museum with the colorful dinosaur statues but our scedule didn't permit us to tour the interior. It's a wonderful place to stop between Helena and Glacier. If we're ever back, we'll definitely make plans to visit the museum.

We loved our visit to the Old Trail Museum! There is something for everybody at this fun stop! Ice cream and giant dinosaurs for the kids, and serious exhibits for history buffs. We really enjoyed the museum and talking to the great people that run it. Thanks, Anne!The exhibits are so very well done. It is worth the stop just to see and read about "Old Sol" and the kind of day he had! Yikes, I thought I had a bad day or two until I took one look at him and read about his day!

Choteau is the site of dinosaur finds so of course the museum relects this with many quality dinosaur fossils and exhibits plus since it sits on the Rocky Mountain front the rest of the museum has frontier and wildlife related items. Very interesting!