Malta might become owner of dinosaur museum

SUSAN GALLAGHER Associated Press Writer HELENA

The town of Malta might soon own the new dinosaur museum that celebrated a grand opening in June and draws tourists to the northern Montana community of about 2,000 residents. The state Land Board is scheduled to decide Monday whether ownership of the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum should transfer from the state to Malta. The farm town near the fossilrich Judith River Formation gained attention in 2000 when an ex t r a o r d i - nary duckbilled dinosaur fos s i l was found on an area cattle ranch. "He's on loan to the Houston Museum of Natural Science," said Carolyn Schmoeckel, Malta's clerktreasurer and president of the nonprofit Judith River Foundation, which manages the Malta museum. "He's supposed to be coming back this spring." The Texas museum describes the 77-million-year-old fossil dubbed Leonardo as "the most perfectly fossilized plant-eating dinosaur ever discovered with almost all of his skin still intact." If the town acquired the museum, it would issue a lease to the foundation, which would continue managing the facility, Schmoeckel said. Having the Museum in local rather than state hands would simplify operations, she said. Last month, the Montana Department of Commerce requested public comment on the proposal to give Malta the museum. The lone response came from a state historic preservation officer who found the change in ownership would not harm historic resources, said Dave Cole, administrator of the depar tment ' s Communi t y Development Division. No money would change hands in the property transfer. Said Schmoeckel, "This is all on paper." In 2006 the state Land Board, consisting of the top five elected state officials, authorized the Department of Commerce to buy the museum site for $92,000. Jan's Floral & Greenhouse was removed from the property and the museum took shape. The project cost $671,500, nearly three-fourths of it appropriated by the Montana Legislature. Besides Leonardo, the museum's fossils include skeletal Roberta, also a duckbilled dinosaur; Ralph the sauropod; Giffen the stegosaur; and Arrow, a prehistoric crocodile. A Montana family has loaned the museum a collection of fossilized sea life. A plan for land behind the museum calls for walking paths. A draft environmental assessment released last month says the museum's proximity to the existing Phillips County Historical Museum ensures a "campus concept." "The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum has the potential to bring seasonal part-time and full-time residents to the community and provide positive economic benefit" in Malta, which has lost population in recent years, the assessment says. Schmoeckel said the museum received about 1,500 summer visitors, has drawn some hunters this fall and will remain open over the winter. A September program on the Discovery Channel showcased resources of the museum, which is near U.S. Highway 2 and the Milk River. "I t 's kind of a preppy design," Schmoeckel said. "You'd think it would be in Seattle." (AP)