FORT PECK, Mont. -- A grand total of 452 guests – the greatest single-day turnout of the past decade – visited the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum in Fort Peck, Montana, June 21, 2025, during its 20th Anniversary celebration.
“This is the busiest day we’ve had in the last 10 years at least,” said Susan Dalbey, park ranger and museum director. “It was steady all day long.”
The anniversary event featured several special activities supported by park rangers, dedicated volunteers and other experts at the center, which also serves as the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge visitors center.
“At the Fort Peck Interpretive Center, we have something for everybody,” Dalbey said. “Whether its wildlife, dinosaurs, kids’ activities, history… we can provide activities for young and old in a variety of different subjects.”
The volunteers helped answer questions, coordinated powerhouse tours, assisted with 91 pinecone bird feeders, bagged 61 batches of popcorn, helped youth make 147 commemorative buttons and dressed up in inflatable dinosaur costumes to delight young paleontologists.
Visitors explored the Bee Haven Pollinator Garden, then were able to confirm their insect sightings in a new digital exhibit featuring photographs by Sean Heavey. They also played lawn games, drew with sidewalk chalk, and read a book along the half-mile Story Trail.
Local paleo-ecologist Joseph Garcia, who has extensive field experience in the Hell Creek formation, shared Lewis and Clark’s observations of the Cretaceous period in Northeast Montana and answered questions about the many fossils he had on hand.
“It’s really an institution in the region,” Dalbey said. “There’s so much passion in the region because so many people were involved to help develop it, so now to have it in place for 20 years is pretty spectacular.”
The Interpretive Center officially opened May 7, 2005 after nearly ten years of planning and fundraising by the Fort Peck Dam Interpretive Center and Museum Association, Inc., Fort Peck Paleontology Inc., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, among others.
Located near Fort Peck Dam, the center is a joint effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It showcases the history and construction of Fort Peck Dam, the largest hydraulically filled dam in the United States, through photos, tools, personal artifacts and worker records.
“Tourism and recreation are a key economic driver for Northeast Montana, particularly, but all of the state of Montana,” Dalbey said. “The Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum is a destination for our tourists as well as our local folks.”
The center also features a life-size model of “Peck’s Rex,” a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus rex discovered just 20 miles southeast of Fort Peck. The inclusion of Peck’s Rex and other fossil displays secured its place as a premiere destination along the Montana Dinosaur Trail.
The Montana Dinosaur Trail – which also celebrated its 20th anniversary this year – is a collaboration of 14 museums in Montana meant to boost paleontology tourism. The Montana Department of Commerce spearheaded the Dinosaur Trail with the grand opening occurring at the Fort Peck Interpretive Center in 2005. Dinosaur enthusiasts can purchase a prehistoric passport which describes the dinosaur displays, exhibits, and activities found in Montana. Anyone who collects stamps from all 14 locations within a designated timeframe can submit for a T-shirt.
“That’s been a wonderful partnership for us to get people from other parts of the state,” Dalbey said. “Everybody loves dinosaurs and they have for generations. It’s still a magnet to get people up here, and if they’re coming here to Fort Peck they’re often spending more than one day.”
Dalbey said the Interpretive Center is a key part of the local economy, as visitors’ tourism dollars are being spent on all the small businesses in the area, but getting the word out doesn’t come easy.
“I think our biggest challenge is getting people here to the Interpretive Center, because we’re not right on a major interstate,” Dalbey said. “It takes an effort to get here…but many people don’t have a reason to come here unless they have that passport or are really chasing the Montana Dinosaur Trail. Many people travel across Montana on Highway 2 but we’re about 15-20 miles off to that highway. They’ll find us somehow, but there’s still a number of people we know we’re not catching here. So that’s one of our bigger efforts and how our partnerships with our tourism folks is really important.”
Another partner, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, manages more than a million acres of land surrounding the reservoir. USACE works closely with the agency on the management of the lands, law enforcement and paleontology cultural resource protections, with USACE managing the recreation areas while the Fish and Wildlife Service takes care of the grounds in between.
“It’s a team effort,” she said. “So many of our visitors are traveling through from East to West or West to East, doing the Montana Dinosaur Trail, traveling to our national parks or visiting relatives.”
She added that while it might feel like the middle of nowhere, it’s also a centrally located facility for many of the state agencies and educational organizations within the region, and they’ve been able to leverage the center more and more for meetings and other public uses.
She said working closely with local tourism partners, the department of commerce and chamber offices to feature the Fort Peck Interpretive Center contributed to the success of the 20th anniversary event and the center’s continued interest.
“We not only tell the dinosaur story, but we also talk about all of our Corps missions,” Dalbey said, mentioning that visitors learn about USACE’s construction of the dam with an original focus on navigation and flooding control, but they also are introduced to the additional six USACE missions as well.
“We offer the powerhouse tours which offer great perspective and people can experience that so they can relate to it better,” she said. “They see the natural environment here with the wildlife exhibits and can relate to that during their visit as well. We visit with folks about water quality and of course hydropower – all of those issues that people are interested in.”
Linda Parpart, a third-year volunteer, spent the anniversary event at the front desk counting visitors, answering questions and helping Montana Dinosaur Trail participants stamp their passports. She said she volunteers to stay active and social in retirement, and to give back to the community where she’s lived for the past 25-years, and she encourages others to do the same.
“We need people to contribute, to keep things going,” Parpart said. “In the summer, this is when we have our most visitors. I like to try to give back and I enjoy meeting people from all over, literally, the world.”
Parpart said she’s met people from Australia, Europe and elsewhere at the center, and now also volunteers as a camp host for nearby USACE owned recreational campgrounds.
“It’s just an amazing place,” she said. “People come from all over the country and it’s fun to talk to them about where they’re going and where they’ve been and meeting all these different people and hearing their stories. I love it.”
Dalbey added that in her eight years at the interpretive center, she’s watched everyone leave having created new memories.
“When people go on vacation or they’re trying to recreate, they want to create experiences – something that they can remember, whether with their families or friends: ‘Remember that time we went to the Fort Peck Interpretive Center?’… that kind of idea, and we have that here,” Dalbey said. “It’s a new experience every time they come in; they learn something just a little bit more.”
While 20 years might seem like a long time to some, visitors can expect to find those experiences and make memories at the Fort Peck Interpretive Center for decades to come, fulfilling the mission to share stories from over 90 years of Fort Peck history, 250 years of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and taking you back in time 66 million years ago to the Age of the Dinosaurs.