S mack in the middle of dinosaur country, the Hi-Line has a series of dinosaur exhibits that are featured in Montana’s focus on the prehistoric, the Montana Dinosaur Trail. Created in 2005, the trail features 15 sites in 12 Montana communities including Havre, Chinook, Malta and Rudyard. People participating in the trail can purchase a “prehistoric passport,” which includes information about the displays at each of the 15 sites, information about fossils and a space to take notes, as well as the passport section. People taking the passport to the sites can receive a “dino icon” stamp from each location. Users who fill the passport with stamps from all 15 sites within five years receieve a Montana Dinosaur Trail Prehistoric Passport Tshirt. The local dinosaur displays continue to grow. Slightly to the east in Malta two locations, the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and Field Station and the Phillips County Museum, feature displays on some world-famous fossils, including Leonardo, the mummified-then-fossilized duckbill dinosaur found near Malta recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-preserved dinosaur fossil ever found. The Blaine County Museum in Chinook features extensive exhibits including different dinosaur fossils from the area, as well as marine reptiles, with visitors allowed to look at and actually handle fossils in the displays. The exhibits at the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum in Havre also continue to grow, with many new additions in the last few years. A recent addition to the museum system in Rudyard, which includes a classic car museum and the Museumof-the-Rockies-affiliated Depot Museum, is a set of dinosaur displays. Lifelike displays show visitors a representation of the ancient animals that once lived in the area. Dinosaur Trail Passport books can be purchased at the member sites of the trail or online at http://mtdinotrail. org/. Hi-Line’s ancient history on display in Malta Montana’s has always had beautiful wildlife, even 65 million years ago.     The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and Field Station in downtown Malta allows visitors to sneak a peek what Big Sky Country looked like back when it was Big Lizard Country.     The museum has numerous specimens of diverse species, many of which were uncovered just outside of town.     The museum’s headline duck-billed dinosaur, the hadrosaur Leonardo, may currently be on tour, staying in Houston, Tex. now, but the rest of his hadrosaur family, Roberta and Peanut, are holding down the fort in Malta.     They also have such popular species as the long-necked sauropod, a stegosaurus and a triceratops.     Open from May 2, until autumn, the museum is open seven days a week, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays.     Other than dinosaur fossils, the mu- seum currently has an exhibit of ancient sea creatures on loan from the Eichorns in Lewistown.     For those interested in a more hands on approach to the ancient world, the museum also offers three sessions of hands-on archaeological expeditions, for anyone at least 11 years old.     During the sessions, from July 11-15, 25-29 and Aug. 15-19, paleontologist Dave Trexler leads attendees in hunt of signs of ancient life.     Trexler, from the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center in Bynum, will teach groups how to excavate, record and transport fossils in the rugged plains of Phillips County.     “Our main registration group is a family, it’s usually one of the kids that gets fascinated with dinosaurs and the family decides to take some time in the field, but once we get out there it’s usually the parents that get into it,” Trexler said. “Everyone kind of has a misconception about what it’s all about when they get there. They’re usually pleasantly surprised when they get out there.” “It’s not just important work, it’s fun.”     The museum’s biggest event of the year is their annual fundraising dinner during the first week of June, to coincide with Malta’s other big draws, the car show and races at the Phillips County Motor Sports drag strip.     This year the dinner has a special surprise, according to Carolyn Schmoeckel, president of the Judith River Foundation Board that runs both the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and the Phillips County Museum next door. “We are hoping at our fundraiser to have an unveiling of a very unique specimen, which I can’t disclose,” Schmoeckel said.     Information about the museum or any of their program offerings and events can be found online at www.greatplainsdinosaurs.org.