Devil’s Coulee Dinosaur Museum in Warner is a southern Alberta museum that offers guided tours of its museum and egg nesting site. Guests can also touch many of the fossils in the museum’s collection, including dinosaur bones.
“We have a very fun season coming up, with the opportunity to host summer camps, plenty of site tours and even showcase some new additions to our collection,” notes Advertising and Events Coordinator Megan Johnson.
Executive Director, Curator and Collections Manager Amy Chandler explains back in 1987 the first official dinosaur egg nesting site was found in Canada right near us.
“We have a contract where we are the only people who can take visitors out to the nesting site to see where the actual dinosaurs were out there laying their eggs,” Chandler adds.
This season, the museum will host 13 summer camps, Chandler says. “Which is about twice as many as last year. We’re excited about having more kids coming into the museum and learning about fossils.”
According to Chandler, there are three different summer camps, including a museum-based one, one that is out at the site and a family camp.
With the site-based camp, participants will get to explore some of the different places around the area. “That even some regular visitors don’t get to see.”
Out at the site, Chandler says, Devil’s Coulee is as close to grassroots paleontology as you can get. “We’re on deer trails. There is nothing man-made out there, so you’re really out in nature in the Alberta Badlands experiencing it. You get to see where the nests were found. We’ve got different places all around the coulee, depending on whether you go on a regular or extended tour. We’ve also got new finds always coming out because the clay out there is always eroding. Every time it rains, we find new stuff.”
Chandler notes there’s also a special find at the site called the “explod-a-saurus,” which is a bone that has fractured into a bunch of different pieces. “People can meet explod-a-saurus and a few of our other fossil friends.”
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“As long as the weather cooperates with us, we’re going out to the site everyday,” says Chandler.
For more information about summer camps or events visit online at devilscoulee.com.
