Gingrich Plans Dino Fund-Raiser Speaker’s Event To Benefit Museum’s Dinosaur Exhibit

House Speaker Newt Gingrich will host a fund-raiser for the Museum of the Rockies later this month as part of his tour of Western states that will include a stop in West Yellowstone.

Nancy Kelly, development director for the museum, said Monday the Republican leader and dinosaur fan also will visit with dinosaur expert Jack Horner and visit a dinosaur dig with Horner, the museum’s curator of paleontology.

The fund-raiser will be Aug. 26 from 7-9 p.m. Tickets for museum members are $100; nonmembers must pay $125. The event is limited to 220 people.

Kelly said proceeds from the fund-raiser will be used to remodel the Dinosaur Hall exhibit called “One Day 80 Million Years Ago.” The display is a depiction of a dinosaur nesting site near Choteau that Horner was involved in excavating.

The following day, Gingrich will meet privately with Horner and they will go to a research site, Kelly said.

She said Gingrich had been urged by Rep. Rick Hill, R-Mont., to meet with Horner during his trip.

Both Hill and Gov. Marc Racicot have been invited to the fundraiser, she said.

Gingrich has long had a reputation as a dinosaur enthusiast.

In 1995, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History made a $5,000 replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex head that is on loan to Gingrich to decorate his congressional office.

The fiberglass mold was made from an original skull found in Montana.