SOUTHERN WYOMING - Montana and Wyoming - page 680

Tate Geological Museum
A great little free museum associated with Casper College since 1980 is the Tate Geologic-
al Museum (125 College Dr., 307/268-2447, www.caspercollege.edu/tate , 9am-5pm Mon.-
Fri., 10am-4pm Sat.), which houses nearly 3,000 fossil and mineral specimens. The mu-
seum is also home to “Dee,” an 11,600-year-old Columbian mammoth (the oldest and
largest mounted specimen in the world) who was likely 65 or 70 years old when he died.
The collection includes dinosaur bones and fossilized footprints found in Wyoming. A
fossil prep lab allows visitors to watch and ask questions of working paleontologists, and
an interactive “Dino Den” will delight kids.
Fort Caspar
Positioned at a critical river crossing for the Oregon, Mormon, Pioneer, California, and
Pony Express Trails, Fort Caspar (4001 Ft. Caspar Rd., 307/235-8462,
www.casperwy.gov , 8am-5pm daily May, 8am-6pm daily June-Aug., 8am-5pm daily Sept.,
8am-5pm Tues.-Sat. Oct.-Apr., $3 adults May-Sept., $1.50 Oct.-Apr., $2 children 13-18
May-Sept., $1 Oct.-Apr., free for children under 13) was built in 1862 to protect travelers
through the area and was occupied by the military until 1867. When the Army decommis-
sioned the site and took as many of the materials as they could with them to build Fort Fet-
terman in 1867, Native Americans burned what remained to the ground. In 1936, a Works
Progress Administration crew rebuilt several of the buildings on the original site. The fort
and museum are operated by the City of Casper.
Exhibits at the fort include reconstructions of the Mormon Ferry, Guinard Bridge, and
Richard Bridge that predated the fort, as well as fort history, pioneer trail history, and other
agricultural, oil, and gas exhibits related to the region. The museum also hosts interesting
traveling exhibitions.
MM National Historic Trails Interpretive Center
Among the state's most renowned museums, the National Historic Trails Interpretive
Center (1501 N. Poplar St., 307/261-7700, www.blm.gov/wy , 8am-4:30pm Tues.-Sat.
May-Aug., 9am-4:30pm Tues.-Sat. Sept.-Apr., $4-6 ages 16 and older, free for children un-
der 16) tells the gritty story of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion on the historic
pioneer trails through interactive exhibits and multimedia presentations. The museum's ex-
hibits are both indoors and out, and they succeed in giving visitors a real sense of what
day-to-day life was like for the early pioneers. The museum's seven distinct galleries are
dedicated to four of the trails that cut through the region, as well as Native Americans,