The Morrison Museum is a small teaching museum and field research station focused on Front Range Colorado paleontology. Highlights include the first Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus bones, T. rex, Triceratops, and Mammoth skulls, as well as recently unearthed hatchling dinosaur footprints featured in Smithsonian magazine.

The Museum is a 30 minute drive from downtown Denver, located on Highway 8, a mile and a half north of 'The Fort' restaurant in Morrison.

New INDOOR Attractions:

• Completely redesigned museum, featuring more information about local fossils, historic discoveries, and modern research.
• Expanded Paleontology Laboratory and collections storage area.
• NEW FOSSILS: Touchable Mammoth skull, Giant Sea Lizard skull, and more!
• NEW ART: juvenile Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus by Ewan Sanko and Shane Foulkes.
• COMING SOON: A mural depicting Morrison’s Quarry 5 paleoenvironment by acclaimed paleoartist Donna Braginetz.

New OUTDOOR Attractions:

• New local geology display in the new Time Garden.
• Outdoor fossil preparation in the new Quarry 5 Garden.
• Encounter the living descendants of Jurassic plants in the Jurassic Garden.
• New Fossil Dig Pit & Educational Rock Garden for future Paleontologists and Geologists.
• The Bone Cabin is now the Discovery Outpost and can be rented for birthday parties.

Have a Museum Birthday Party! This two-hour long program consists of hands-on demonstrations with short discussions about fossils, rocks, and reptiles. Participants touch real and cast fossils, feed a lizard, pet a snake, grind stone from dinosaur bone, paint a small cast of a dinosaur track and more. Visitors are then taken behind the scenes, to help out in the Paleo Lab. Participants pour a cast of a T. rex tooth (for the birthday child) and check out the fossils, rocks and minerals that are hidden within the museum’s collection.

Following this tour, your party will retire to the newly refurbished Discovery Outpost, where you have cake and open presents. Please note the Museum does not provide food, decorations, or cold storage. This program is appropriate for up to fifteen children and five adults.

Birthday Tours must be prescheduled. The fee for this tour is $6 per person with a minimum of $60 for groups of less than ten participants. Add a Dino Grab bag for only $2.00. MNHM Members take ten percent off the total cost of the party program.

(above photo) At work in the historic Morrison Quarry 10, site of the first discovery of Apatosaurus ajax in 1877. In 2003, the Museum dig crew discovered Colorado's first Stegosaurus tracks at this site. Visit the Museum to learn more about this ongoing project.

Historic Dinosaur Dig Tours: Want to see the dig sites where the first Apatosaurus skeletons were found 132 years ago? Do you want to walk were baby Stegosaurus roamed? Come explore these historic sites with Matthew Mossbrucker, the discoverer of the now famous baby dinosaur tracks. Reservations are now being accepted for tours of the historic dinosaur quarries of Morrison, focusing on Quarry 10, and the fossils recovered from these sites at the Morrison Museum. Registration is $55 per person for a 5 hour program. Portions of this experience are strenuous, and involve short vertical hikes that involve loose rocks, rattlesnakes, and cactus. Therefore, due to safety concerns, this tour is not suitable for those under age sixteen. Snacks and water will be provided. Participants are responsible for their own transportation and meals. Call 303-697-1873 and speak with Matthew Mossbrucker or email him for more information.

Click here to read the Smithsonian magazine article.

Click here to view a KUSA 9news feature on the Morrison Museum.

Click here to read about the discovery of baby Stegosaurus tracks from the front page of the Denver Post.

Click here to view a KUSA 9news feature about the find.

Click here to see images of the hatchling and adult stegosaur tracks.

Click here to read the Associated Press article on the baby tracks.

To register for the MNHM Volunteer Program, please contact Director Matthew Mossbrucker (Tuesday-Saturday) to discuss program costs (which are minimal) and requirements. 303-697-1873 or email volunteer@mnhm.org.

Docent Program The Museum is seeking adult volunteers to provide museum tours for schoolchildren and unscheduled walk-in visitors, preferably on weekday mornings. Applicants must be at least sixteen years old for this position.

Herptile Care Program The Museum is seeking adult and mature youth volunteers to provide care for the museum's reptile and amphibian collection. Applicants must be at least sixteen years old for this position.

The Morrison Natural History Museum was founded to interpret and preserve the dramatic Earth history of Morrison, Colorado and the greater Front Range. The building itself is an experiment in reuse, combining the condemned cabin of a local rancher with new materials. Volunteer labor built a foundation on Town land, and perched the cabin upon it. On October 26th, 1989 the Morrison Natural History Museum opened as an teaching museum where small groups of visitors could interact with knowledgeable guides and encounter natural history.

Since 1995, the Museum has been proudly operated by the Town of Morrison. Visitor’s admission fees and Museum Shop sales help the town of less than 450 residents to offer the educational services provided by the Museum. In 2007 nearly 15,000 tourists visited the Museum or participated in outreach events: an exponential jump from the previous year.

To further support the Town’s endeavor in 2005, a private charity was created to support the Museum’s mission. The Morrison Natural History Museum Foundation is an IRS recognized 501 c 3 non-profit corporation.

Just outside Morrison, the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge (an independent non-profit) operates a Visitor Center at the Alameda Roadcut along Dinosaur Ridge to interpret the geology and fossils of that site. The Morrison Natural History Museum collaborates with the Friends to generate awareness about West Denver’s Earth science resources.

Recently, the Museum has received international acclaim for its fossil discoveries at the historic dinosaur dig sites along Dinosaur Ridge. These excavations, supported by the Jefferson County Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) and Aggregate Industries, have yielded a treasure trove of infant dinosaur tracks. Included in the discoveries are the first infant stegosaur and apatosaur tracks. The Museum’s dig crew continues in the 130 year tradition of exploring local outcrops for clues to Colorado’s ancient past.

In 2009 the Museum is poised for major exhibit renovation to be completed by Memorial Day Weekend. Come and explore the cabin that is packed with a growing collection of natural history wonders.