Museum gets dino billboards, looks at T. Rex head

The H. Earl Clack Museum Board heard Monday about two separate Montana Dinosaur Trail topics, one a set of billboards promoting Rudyard, Havre and Chinook and another an opportunity to bring the tyrant lizard king to the Havre museum.

Clack museum manager Jim Spangelo said a lawsuit against Fort Peck Paleontology Inc. has ended, but the result is the sale of the nonprofit’s items, including its gift shop items and a model of the head of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

“They may have won the battle and lost the war,” Spangelo said.

The issue was a lawsuit over the Fort Peck nonprofit making copies of castings from two T. rexes, which the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research said it make illegally. Black Hills sought $7.4 million in its lawsuit.

The lawsuit was settled out of court, but the Fort Peck nonprofit dissolved. Its assets are being auctioned off.

Spangelo said the T. rex head would be a good addition, including its fitting into the history of the region and into the Clack Museum’s current displays.

“I’ve never had a kid come into our museum who didn’t want to see a Tyrannosaur,” he said.

“Having said that, it’s ugly,” Spangelo added, saying the head model is displayed as if it were coming through the wall.

Board chair Judi Dritshulas agreed that the head would be a good addition.

“Personally, I think it would be a nice draw,” Dritshulas said.

Spangelo said the gift shop items have a minimum bid of $1,000, and the board might want to look at those. Even if the Havre museum doesn’t bid on those items, the list might give a good idea on some merchandise the Clack Museum gift shop could carry, he added.

The other Dinosaur Trail item for discussion was new promotion of some Hi-Line museums on the trail.

Spangelo said the Russell Country tourism district is putting up billboards, including by Shelby and by Chinook, promoting the museums in Chinook, Havre and Rudyard, with the heading “100 million years in the making.”