Roaring Into History

When you think of dinosaurs, you think of the GobiDesert, of the Badlands of Alberta and the dinosaur finds in Montana. You generally don’t think of Eastend, Saskatchewan.

Well, you should.

It was in 1991 when a very special fossil was found near Eastend. It was of a T-Rex and it would turn out to be the most complete skeleton of a T-Rex ever found in Canada. The history of the T-Rex Discovery Centre began earlier than that. It was in 1988, after a number of fossils had been discovered, that the Town of Eastend created the Eastend Tourism Board. The board members came up with the idea of having a Paleontological Centre in town. Three years later, Scotty, as the T-Rex is known, was discovered.

Today, the T-Rex Discovery Centre is 16,000 square feet in size, with a number of amazing fossils and interactive displays.

During our visit to Eastend on a very windy day this April, we found that we had most of the museum to ourselves since it is still technically the winter season for them. With no admission fee, we went right in and began looking around at the many displays. These displays included a Triceritops skull, a full T-Rex skeleton replica, a place to test your strength against a T-Rex and the actual skeleton of Scotty, albiet behind glass.

How did a T-Rex turn up in Saskatchewan, well 70 million years ago or so, Eastend, Saskatchewan was located around where Athabasca Lake is now, at 58 degrees latitude. During that time, the weather was very warm and the seasons were light. There is even evidence of palm trees growing in Saskatchewan, or what would one day be Saskatchewan.

There was also a Ptilodus skeleton on display. Found near Estevan, it is one of the earliest known Tertiary mammal skeletons in the world.

Overall, the Discovery Centre is a great way to spend an hour or two, learning about the far distant past and about how much the region has changed. No visit of course is complete without a picture with the huge T-Rex skeleton on display, and don’t forget to test your strength against Scotty!

Directions:

Coming down from Highway 1, go through Gull Lake and Shauanvon until you come to the Eastend turnoff. Follow Highway 13 to Eastend, about 30 km from Shauanvon. Once in Shaunavon, drive to the west end of town and take the turnoff to the T-Rex Discovery Centre. Drive up a small hill and you will see it on your right hand side.