It has a long official name, but of course most people just refer to it as Tyrrell, or the dinosaur museum. It was named after a guy who accidentally discovered the first dinosaur fossil in Alberta – well, accidental in the sense that he wasn’t looking for fossils, but he knew one when he saw one, which is more than I can say.
It’s near Drumheller, in the Alberta Badlands, of which it offers guided tours in the summer. (Take the tour. Doing the self-guided thing, I once slipped partway down a hill in the badlands and didn’t think I was going to be able to clamber back up. The top layer of soil kept losing contact with the hill proper, sloughing off and providing me with no traction and no way to get any. Yikes.)
Like the Winnipeg ballet, it has “royal” status, but maybe it appeals more to small boys. And paleontologists, who appreciate its collection of 160,000 fossils.
It offers programs for the public and for teachers. It has wonderful exhibits.
