Tate Dinosaur Digs
NOTE: Registration is not ready yet for the Summer 2025 Tate Dinosaur Digs but the schedule is listed below. If you would like to be notified of the registration for 2025 digs, please send an email to JP at the email address at the bottom of this page.
2025 Tate Dinosaur Digs
The goals of Tate Dinosaur Digs are to offer fun, educational experiences to the public while building up the museum’s collections for display and research. Registration will be through the museum. The fee includes six nights of lodging, six dinners, five field lunches, five breakfasts at the hotel in Lusk or Medicine Bow, snacks, drinks/water, and all ground transportation from Casper. The price is $1250 for a double occupancy room. There is an extra fee ($350) if you want to room solo. A non-refundable deposit of $500.00 is required upon registration to hold your place. The balance of the fee is due no later than 60 days prior to the start of the dig. The minimum age for participation is 16. All 16 and 17-year-olds must be accompanied by an adult participant.
The Digs are run by the Tate’s field operations and prep lab manager, JP Cavigelli. 2025 will be JP’s 2oth year running these digs for the Tate Geological Museum. JP’s expertise has led to his participation in numerous paleontological expeditions throughout the West as well as in Niger, Mongolia, Alaska’s North Slope and Tanzania. JP’s recent projects beyond Tate Dinosaur Digs include leading the excavation and preparation of Lee Rex, the only Tyrannosaurus rex found in Wyoming that has stayed in Wyoming and leading an upcoming (summer 2025) sauropod excavation.
Fee Includes
Here is what is included in the cost of the week-long Dinosaur Digs. Accommodations in a Casper hotel on Sunday evening prior to the Dig and Friday evening after the Dig are included. The hotel offers a free shuttle to and from Casper-Natrona County International Airport. The cost of a Dig also includes hotel accommodations in either Lusk (Covered Wagon Hotel) or Medicine Bow (Virginian Hotel), depending on the dig site. The Covered Wagon Hotel in Lusk offers continental breakfast. The hotel’s indoor pool and hot tub are always welcome after a hard day in the field. The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow is more rustic… it has a sit down restaurant breakfast (but no pool). All hotel accommodations are double occupancy. Same sex roommates are assigned as necessary. Single occupancy, based on hotel room availability, can be arranged at extra cost of $350. Any hotel rooms that differ from this arrangement are not covered in the cost of the dig. Simple, delicious lunches in the field are provided daily, as are dinners each night in town. Alcohol is not included in the cost of trips. Dig fees also include all transportation from Casper to the dig site and back to Casper at the end of the dig. Each week of dino digging is limited to 8 people plus two Tate Museum staffers (JP and a field helper/chauffeur).
2025 Description
Digs run from Sunday evening through Friday. Participants should be in Casper the Sunday evening before the posted start date for dinner with the group. Fossils collected remain property of the Tate Geological Museum, although participants are usually allowed to bring home a few samples of bone.
(If a trip is labeled ‘wait list’, feel free to call me to ask about it. Phone number listed below).
Option 1: Jurassic Dig. July 7 to 11 or September 8 to 12: We will be will be returning to the Morrison Formation at Como Bluff, near the town of Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The fossils here date to the Jurassic Period and are about 140 million years old. This ranch is part of the historical Como Bluff that was collected by Cope and Marsh in the early days of dinosaur exploration. We will be doing some work at the Nail Quarry this summer. This quarry was discovered in the early 1980’s and is very rich in Jurassic dinosaur bones, but may be running a bit thin. There are other quarries on the ranch that we may explore as well.
Option 2: Cretaceous Dig. August 25 to 29 : We will be at the Meadow Ranch in eastern Wyoming, digging in the late Cretaceous Lance Formation; about 65-66 million years old. We have been collecting on this ranch for fifteen years and still have a lot to do there. We will focus on a small Triceratops discovered by one of our Dig participants last summer. This site has produced many of the bones that make up the skull of a triceratops. We are hoping to find additional pieces and whatever lese this quarry has to offer. There may be some prospecting as well… that is walking about looking for new sites.
Participants are required to sign and return the Registration Form and Release Form with the non-refundable deposit in order to reserve a spot. Please print these and send them in with your deposit payment to the address below.
- 2025 registration form for Tate digs (PDF) Stay Tuned
- Release form for Tate digs (PDF) Stay Tuned
Tate Dinosaur Digs
Tate Geological Museum
125 College Drive
Casper, WY 82601
For more information on any of these outings please call 307-268-2447 or email J.P. Cavigelli.
NOTE: Please do not buy a plane ticket until your registration is confirmed. I send out a letter of confirmation as soon as I get the COMPLETED paperwork and the deposit. Paperwork INCLUDES the release form.