Wyoming Dinosaur Center, Thermopolis

Thermopolis sits above one of the world's largest mineral hot springs, but its other claim to fame is hiding underground just outside of town. The Wyoming Dinosaur Center opened here in nineteen ninety-five partly because of what kept turning up in the nearby badlands: exceptionally preserved fossils from the Jurassic period.

The museum displays the only real specimen of Archaeopteryx, the transitional feathered dinosaur, on public exhibit outside of Europe. It is called the Thermopolis Specimen, and it shows feather impressions in unusual detail. Visitors can also drive to active dig sites where paleontologists still pull bones from the hillsides. In the world of dinosaur museums, that combination of on-site excavation and a headline specimen is genuinely rare.