INVESTMENT IN EASTEND’S T.REX DISCOVERY CENTRE

The Government of Saskatchewan today announced it will provide $200,000 in funding to hire additional staff, improve exhibits and enhance programming at the T.rex Discovery Centre in Eastend. The centre is becoming an important tourism destination in southwest Saskatchewan and is the home of "Scotty," one of the world's largest Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs ever discovered. The funding will also assist in marketing and promotion.

"The T.rex Discovery Centre has been one of western Canada's best kept secrets," Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Dustin Duncan said. "This funding will help develop it further as a tourism destination for visitors from Saskatchewan and Canada."

The T.rex Discovery Centre works with the Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport through the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM). The RSM operates the Fossil Research Station, where two palaeontologists work on a permanent basis to provide scientific support for the Centre's programs. The T.rex Discovery Centre's staff present interpretive, educational and exhibit-based programs for the public.

Although palaeontologists from around the world have visited the area for over a century, the RSM began scientific research there in the 1950s. In 1994, the RSM began the excavation of what was then only the thirteenth-known partial skeleton of the carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. This project led to establishing a temporary interpretive centre in Eastend in 1995. The Eastend Community Tourism Authority developed the permanent T.rex Discovery Centre with funding from provincial, federal and private sources. It officially opened on July 19, 2003.

Visit www.royalsaskmuseum.ca and www.dinocountry.com to learn more.

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For more information, contact:

Sean St. George
Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport
Regina
Phone: 306-787-9087
Email: sean.stgeorge@gov.sk.ca