Fromdahl said the name Wankel comes from the family who discovered the original fossil along the Fort Peck Lake sometime in roughly the late 1980s.

The original fossil is on loan to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., where Fromdahl said it is known as "The Nation's T. rex."

A large wall mural shows how life might have looked under the sea in Montana thousands and thousands of years ago.

The museum is free and its dinosaur-oriented portion doesn't offer tours but instead provides scavenger hunt handouts for younger visitors to fill in with facts from displays throughout the building.

In addition to the dinosaur models and skeletal molds, the museum holds what Fromdahl said were the two biggest aquariums in Montana, one sitting at 8,000 gallons and another holding 5,500 gallons of water.

The one holds fish that can be found in the nearby lake, the other fish found in the Missouri River.

A display with current and historical wildlife of the area is also housed in the building, along with an exhibit dedicated to the history of the construction of the Fort Peck Dam.