Drumheller Fossils
A visit to the Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site🌿 and the Royal Tyrell Museum🦕.
Coal, oil and dinosaurs….a plethora in Alberta. Coal is made from decayed ancient plant material, and oil is made from tiny, ancient marine organisms, and then we also have the fossilized remains of numerous larger species of plants and animals. Alberta is considered a world-class destination for the number, type and quality of the dinosaur bones found here. A visit to Alberta would not be replete without at least a cursory view of these ancient fossils.
As an environmentalist I’m all for leaving fossil fuels in the ground. However, it is a part of Alberta’s history, and both coal and oil & gas extraction are two of the many important files for my work at Alberta Wilderness Association. My staff and I have been working very hard and there have been many heavy hits recently by government decisions and industry that are extremely damaging to our environment, so I thought we could all use a morale boost and a learning day outside of the office. I decided to take them on a field trip to Drumheller.
The Atlas Coal Mine has lots to see, and if we’d had more time we might have taken the train tour or hiked up to the mine. I think you could easily spend a whole day here. This is a National Historic site and has the last wooden tipple ever made in Canada.
After a couple of hours at the Atlas Coal Mine, we headed to the Royal Tyrell Museum. All I can say is that this is a spectacular museum. It goes through the geological history including the flora and fauna of ancient Alberta. The displays were wonderful.
I’ve included a few of my favourite photos from the museum below.
Favourite items from the gift shop!
I bought this wonderful reusable tote bag and an ammonite patch!
If interested, you can read about my previous visit to Dinosaur Provincial Park - Home of Big Fauna.[2]
[1] Admission to either site was not cheap, it was $16.45 / adult for the basic admission to Atlas, and $21 /adult at the museum (2025 prices).
[2] In addition to these sites, there is another great museum located just west of Grande Prairie in northwestern Alberta, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum. Both times I’ve traveled through the area, the museum was unfortunately closed.
