Site Tours

Paleontology Site Tours available to accompany the museum staff, this summer, when they collect fossil localities.

Join Us!

The Pioneer Trails Regional Museum in Bowman, North Dakota is providing Paleontology Site Tours for interested individuals to accompany the museum staff when they collect fossil localities. Participants will learn about the local geology, what fossils are present, and the procedures to properly collect them. Visitors will assist with collecting as well as learning what takes place in the preparation lab upon returning to the museum.

Tour Itinerary

2026 Tour registration is now closed. Watch this page for information on 2027 tour registration in the spring.

Tours will be available Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, throughout the summer as weather permits. Other dates may be available by appointment, contact the museum to inquire.

The tours will begin at 8:30 AM MDT by meeting at the museum. A short drive will then be necessary to the field site by your personally owned vehicle. The tour group will return to town around noon. After a noon break, participants will return to the museum in the afternoon to learn the preparation and curation processes. The Site Tour will end around 4:30 PM, unless other previous arrangements were made.

Tours may be available into September and October weather and schedule permitting. Contact the museum for Fall tour availability.

Pre-registration and payment will be required the day prior to the start of the tour. Please call the museum with questions or to schedule a tour at (701) 523-7659.

Waivers of Liability will be required for all attendees.

Make the most of your PALEO TOURS!

1. Spend the night at a local hotel

2. Eat breakfast at The Biscuit or Rhame Café

3. Grab coffee from Lasting Visions

4. Tour the museum

5. Grab lunch at Silver Dollar Bar & Grill or Rowdy Rooster.

6. Hike White Butte, the tallest point in North Dakota

7. Explore Fort Dilts State Historical Site

8. Enjoy dinner at The Lucky Goose or Grazer’s

9. Bowl a game at South Main Lanes
10. Take in a movie at the historic Bowman Theater

Sign Up Today!

: A man and a child stand on a gray, eroded hillside overlooking a deep ravine under a clear sky.

: Five people pose holding small sample bags on a rocky, shrub-covered hillside under a clear blue sky.

: Four people crouch and stand examining dark, rocky soil on a dry, shrub-covered hillside under a clear blue sky.

: Students in a lab use microscopes at a long bench with trays of labeled specimens.

: Smiling girl in a maroon hoodie holds a blue water bottle and a small fossil on a rocky, shrub-dotted hillside.

: People scattered across a dry, rocky hillside with sparse shrubs, some crouching and digging while others stand.

: Mandan High School Biology students

: Two people sit on a rocky ledge gazing across a vast, striated canyon under a clear blue sky.

: Girl in a black t-shirt crouches on a rocky hillside holding a small fossil while three people sit behind her.

: Family of five in casual clothes and hats poses on a dry, grassy ridge above a rugged badlands valley under a hazy sky.

: Adults and children gather in a dry, grassy field with rugged hills and a hazy sky in the distance.

: Group of adults and children in casual clothing pose on a dry, rocky ridge with a wide, hazy valley behind them.

: Group of people gathered on a steep, eroded hillside covered with sagebrush beneath an overcast sky.

: Six people in casual clothing pose on a rocky, sagebrush-covered hillside beneath a cloudy sky.

: Dozens of white cloth-wrapped bundles with tape labels lie on dry, rocky ground beside open cardboard boxes.

: Three field crew members in hats and work clothes crouch among broken shale rocks, one holding a small tool while a hand holding a rock reaches in from the right.

: Five people in work clothes and hats sit among broken rocks, examining specimens beside a row of white-wrapped bundles.

: Four people carrying white buckets walk across a dry, shrub-dotted hillside beneath a bright blue sky with puffy clouds.

: Smiling woman in a blue jacket and baseball cap sits on dry, rocky ground and shows off a small fossil, with two people behind her under a bright blue sky.

: Smiling man in a blue shirt and wide-brimmed hat crouches on a rocky hillside, holding out a fossil in his open hand.

: Two hands hold a weathered bone and a comparison card illustrating a mammoth next to a ruler.

: Smiling girl in a blue patterned bucket hat and denim overalls holds a fossilized specimen in both hands on a pale, rocky badlands flat.

: Open palm wearing a blue ring, holding a small white ruler and three tiny fossils, with gray shorts and dry ground behind.

: Hikers spread across a steep, eroded gray butte beneath a clear blue sky, some near the grassy crest and others descending the rocky slope.

: Students gather around a large fossil specimen on a table in a lab with white cabinets and exposed pipes.

: Teenage girl in a wide-brimmed hat and black tank top holds three small fossils next to a scale bar in her open palm on a dry, shrubby hillside.

: Children scattered across a wide, eroded gray badlands valley under a cloudy sky, with a man in a blue jacket and a child standing on a rocky ridge in the foreground.

: Children and adults work at long white tables in a lab with dinosaur posters, blue chairs, and wooden stools.

: Open palm holding ten rough stone and fossil fragments of varying sizes, with blurred shoes and dusty ground below.

: Three boys smile near a dark soil pit, one kneeling in an hoodie holding a large dark rock, another holding small rocks in a black jacket and red pants, with green hills under a cloudy sky.

: Smiling young woman with long wavy hair and a black cap wears a blue Santa Barbara California sweatshirt outdoors while holding a fossil in her open hand.