Here in the high plains of Montana, much of the early history can be described as the wild west. The Little Rocky Mountains and the country rolling south into the Missouri Breaks was perhaps the epitome of the Old West played on movie screens. The characters of those times were cattle barons, gold seekers, outlaws, cowboys, and the free-roaming Native Americans who, until they were forced off their land, called this beautiful country home. The Phillips County Museum is dedicated to the interpretation and promotion of this area’s unique, illustrious history, from the giant dinosaurs to the cowboys and outlaws, from the northern Plains Indians to the pioneers.

As a stop on the award winning Montana Dinosaur Trail, it is not surprising that the Phillips County Museum is home to authentic fossils, including Elvis, a thirty-three foot brachylophosaurus that is nearly complete. The unique geological history of the area has left a rich deposit of fossils of every kind excavated from the rich Judith River Formation.

Along with dinosaurs, the Phillips County Museum holds artifacts from outlaws, homesteaders, Indians, and cowboys who settled in the shadows of the Little Rocky Mountains. Step into the stories by examining photographs, newspaper clippings, wanted posters, pistols, tools, and other relics. The cowboy bunkhouse, one room school, mercantile, and the H.G. Robinson home transports you back to the old west, and gives you a taste of day to day life of those living in present-day Phillips County.