10,200 Sq Ft
5,600 sq ft museum/discovery center & bathrooms
2,600 sq ft retail / ice cream store / office
2,000 sq ft storage and mechanical
This is the largest tourism venture in Drumheller since the Tyrrell Museum was built some 23 years ago.
The Tyrrell Museum has more real dinosaur bone than any other museum in the world.
The Tyrrell Museum is a research museum.
It is Drumheller's tourism anchor tenant.
Most kids want more than the visual experience of a traditional museum about dinosaurs.
Kids want to play, to discover, and they want to TOUCH.
Our charter is to operate a Dinosaur Discovery Center that offers hands on activities for kids.
It is a cross between the Disneyland and a natural history museum.
Everything in here has been done before, however nothing has ever been done like this before.
We traveled the world and looked at what kids liked to do at natural history museums, science museums and amusements parks, and we looked at creating a new for profit business model from what kids liked.
We built many of the molds for our activites and displays, over the last four years in our company Fossil World Creations.
16' Triceratops next to our temporary store.
Triceratops and other Ceratopsian Dinosaurs are found throughout Alberta including Drumheller.
July 2008
57' Camarasaurus.
This dinosaur once roamed the plains around Drumheller.
One of the big attractions for the Dinosaurs was the ocean called the Bear Paw Sea that had shallow inlets in and around Drumheller.
July 2008
24' Stegosaurus.
Stegosaurus and other herbivore dinosaurs once lived in Drumheller.
The babies and young of this dinosaur will be found inside our new Discovery Center.
July 2008
Crib Wall being prepared for the building pad.
July 2008
Crib Wall being poured.
July 2008
Building floor prepared by FW Construction (Don Chambers and Gary Bianosky).
Note the steel sticking up.
There are 84 pilings under the building floor and crib wall.
Some of them go down as much as 48'.
The ground under this building has two bad things in it, Bentonite (volcanic ash) and coal (left over from t he warm lush dinosaur days.
July 2008
Retaining Wall.
Installed by FW Construction (Fossil World - Don & Gary) using our crane and bob cat.
Much of the dirt work was also done by FW construction.
On top of this wall we will place a 4' cedar wood fence.
The river is located about 20' below our site, so the extra height is a good idea.
July 2008
Steel Walls Go Up - Day 1.
July 2008.
Steel Walls Go Up - Day 1.
July 2008.
Steel Walls Go Up - Day 2.
July 2008.
Steel Walls Go Up - Day 3.
July 2008.
Sky Crane view from Camarasaurus Head look East on Dinosaur Trail
9 August 2008.
Front Entrance.
This will look like the entrance to Jurassic Park when Sandra is done.
9 August 2008.
Front of building from sky crane 16 ft up.
9 August 2008.
Foam insulation in floor.
Underground electrical and plumbing in.
Underground air system in.
Underground vacuum system for paleontology prep lab in.
9 August 2008.
View from Sky Crane of Camarasaurus looking to the West.
The lines are patch work I did to the seams, this will get painted tomorrow using sky crane.
9 August 2008.
Sky Crane view of pad, steel is only 2/3 prepared, rest will be done tomorrow.
Cement is about to get poured.
9 August 2008.
Another Sky Crane view of Camarasaurus head looking at traffic coming from Tyrrell Museum saying there is something special going on here.
9 August 2008.
Steel Walls Go Up - Day 2.
View of Drumheller hills across from the Discovery Center.
The white lines are the volcanic eruptions, and the big upper one is where most of our dinosaurs are found (65 MYA - KT boundary).
9 August 2008.
Packing the parking lot.
Rebar over the pilings.
There are two piling under each thicker rebar area that go down up to 40' each.
Rebar of floor.
Cement going in store and warehouse area.
Finished cement in store and warehouse.
Building movers come to move our 1,100 sq ft store back to its original location on Highway 9.
Steel roof panels going up.
Framing for bathrooms, plaster room and staff room.
An older lady drove into our building while it was being moved.
Our building was 100% on our side of the street.
She hit it at 50 mph, and not one braking mark in the road.
Our flag man almost was run over by her as he tried to wave her off.
She was o.k.
If she had hit the building one foot more over she would have died instantly.
No idea how it really happened.
Another view of the damage.
The van she was driving was totalled.
I took her door to the dump and it had a 2x6 implaied through the mangled door.
They used jaws of life to remove her from the back door.
Her van hit the corner and turned 180 degrees and scrapped the side as it came to a stop about 60 ft after impact.
