Before State Lines: Here Are Five Ways Montana Has Been Keeping Time for Ages

In the far reaches of eastern Montana sits the state's largest state park: 11,500 acres of badlands that were once teeming with prehistoric life. Here amid Makoshika State Park's natural bridges, soaring hoodoos, and sandstone caprocks, dinosaurs like Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex roamed. Evidence of their time here exists in the park's sedimentary rock layers, excavated skeletal remains and tiny jawbones, as well as fossilized fragments of ancient reptiles and fish.

This rugged landscape is just one of Montana's many links to the past and to a larger story that has shaped Big Sky Country for ages. Long before becoming a U.S. state in 1889, Montana has been keeping history. The land's rich heritage spans millennia, from fossils dating to the Cretaceous Period to Native American cultural traditions that stretch back more than 10,000 years.

A massive inland sea once covered much of what is now central and eastern Montana, creating thick layers of sediment ideal for preserving prehistoric life. Back then, tentacled ammonites and large marine reptiles like long-necked plesiosaurs navigated its warm, shallow waters, while Late Cretaceous dinosaurs such as the duck-billed Edmontosaurus wandered along muddy coastal plains. Much later, the region experienced glacial activity.

In eastern and central Montana, the massive continental Laurentide Ice Sheet flattened the landscape, permanently rearranging rivers and leaving behind vast fields of rock and debris. Indigenous oral histories and archaeological sites show that early human hunters and gatherers navigated these post-glacial landscapes using the rich ecosystem and abundant bison populations across the plains. Remnants of their stories still exist in paleontological and cultural sites throughout Montana's central and eastern regions.

In essence, a visit to Montana is like stepping far back in time. Here are five ways that you can experience the paleontology, geology, and culture that formed the foundation of the forty-first state: When American geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden found isolated dinosaur teeth along Montana’s upper Missouri River in 1854, the discovery became the first identified dinosaur remains in North America. Today, Montana is one of the best places in the world for discovering dinosaur fossils, thanks to its unique Late Cretaceous geological formations.

These soft shales, mudstones, and loosely cemented sandstones have preserved everything from sauropod bones to microscopic marine plankton. The statewide Montana Dinosaur Trail consists of 15 stops across Montana, with most of them concentrated in the eastern and north-central parts of the state. Each location offers a unique glimpse into the world of these prehistoric giants, with everything from rare specimens of flying reptiles to “Leonardo,” a mummified plant-eating Brachylophosaurus that still has over 90 percent of its body covered in fossilized skin and tissue.