Nearby is a replica of a protostega gigas, a giant sea turtle measuring 16 feet from flipper to flipper. Similar fossils have been found in Kansas.

"There's two ways these fossils could get to Kansas, and one is the evolutionary way; the other is the biblical creation way," Kline said.

"The evolutionary way says there was an inland sea that came from the Gulf of Mexico. But the biblical creation way says it was the flood of Noah's day."

The museum, which opened in May, was four years and $1.5 million in the making. It contains a 90-seat theater, paleontology lab space and a gift shop run by Kline's wife, Miriam.

The funds were raised through a nonprofit Kline created, the Foundation Advancing Creation Truth. About 80 percent of the funding came from Montana, said Kline, a businessman who lived in the Bitterroot Valley for 23 years before moving to Glendive in the spring of 2003.

The Gianforte Family Foundation donated the T. rex and acrocanthosaurus exhibit in the museum's main display hall, the largest donation for a specific exhibit.

The foundation, set up by Greg Gianforte, CEO and founder of RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, supports Christian causes in education, poverty and evangelism.