After opening its doors to the public in 1985, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is celebrating a monumental milestone as it welcomes its 15 millionth visitor.
The Pike family from Edmonton are the museum’s official 15 millionth visitors. Ben Pike, Stephanie Lagden and five-year-old Hawken Raine are visiting Drumheller, and this was their first time visiting the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
“It was a big surprise! Not something you expect, to be the 15 millionth visitor when you turn up at the door,” says Ben Pike, who is the official 15 millionth visitor.
Ben Pike and Stephanie Lagden brought five-year-old grandson Hawken Raine to Drumheller to visit the museum because he “really likes dinosaurs.”
The family received free admission to the museum and got a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility. They also received a $200 gift card for the museum gift shop, along with a free lunch at the museum cafeteria.
“We’re here for two nights, so maybe tomorrow we’ll go look at some hoodoos,” Ben tells the Mail. “We’ve now got free tickets to go up (World’s Largest Dinosaur), so that might be on the agenda as well.”
Acting Executive director and Preservation and Research director Craig Scott said during the celebrations, “We opened in 1985, and I don’t think there was any thought in anyones wildest dreams we’d be achieving 15 million visitors in the span of less than four decades.”
The museum celebrated its millionth visitor in 1987, two years after first opening its doors to the public; 10 years later, in 1997, the museum welcomed its five millionth visitor. In 2010, the same year the Royal Tyrrell celebrated its 25th anniversary, it also celebrated its 10 millionth visitor when eight-year-old Dayton Stachniak and family visited on August 19, 2010.
Recently, the museum celebrated its best year after welcoming a total of 501,430 visitors in 2022. This is the first time the museum has recorded more than half a million visitors in a calendar year since it began charging admission in 1991.

An inmate at the Drumheller Institution was sentenced for his part in an attack on another inmate.
Musa Fofana, 24, appeared in provincial court in Drumheller on Friday, March 17. He pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon.
The court heard how, on May 12, 2022, an inmate at the Drumheller Institution was attacked by four individuals.
It was captured on CCTV where the culprits were seen making stabbing motions with jail made weapons.
The victim escaped and corrections officers took control of the scene. The victim received one stab wound and some cuts but was not seriously injured.
Fofana is currently serving for convictions which include robbery.
Two other inmates involved in the incident have already been sentenced.
Fofana addressed the court, stating this was his first federal sentence and he would like to make changes to his life so as not to return.
The judge went along with a submission from the crown and defence for a five month sentence consecutive to the sentence he is currently serving.
He was ordered to provide a mandatory DNA sample and has a lifetime firearm prohibition.