Barnum Brown (1873-1963) was perhaps the most famous fossil hunter of the early Twentieth Century. Based out of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), Brown traversed the country bargaining and trading for fossils. He was not limited to dinosaurs. He was known to collect or obtain anything of possible scientific value or that could take up space in the museum. Often, he simply sent money to have the fossil shipped to the American Museum, and any new specimen of interest often resulted in a flurry of letters between the discoverer and Brown. After working a handful of years in Wyoming for the AMNH in the late 1890's, Brown led an expedition to the Hell Creek Formation of Southeastern Montana. There, in 1902, he discovered and excavated the first documented remains of Tyrannosaurus rex. 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... The American Museum of Natural History is a landmark of Manhattans Upper West Side in New York, USA, at 79th Street and Central Park West. ... To be more accessible to a general audience, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Hell Creek Formation is the division of Upper Cretaceous rocks in North America. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Binomial name Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905 Tyrannosaurus rex (ty-RAN-o-sawr-us) meaning king tyrant lizard because of its size and large teeth and claws (Greek tyrannos = tyrant + sauros = lizard; Latin rex = king), also known colloquially as T. rex and The King of the Dinosaurs, was a giant carnivorous...

The Hell Creek digs were prosperous, and Brown collected enough fossils to fill up whole train cars. As was a more common practice back then Brown's crews used controlled blasts of dynamite to remove the tons of rock covering their fossil discoveries. Everything was moved with horse-drawn carriages and pure man-power. Although the total amount of fossils removed from the badlands was impressive, there was seldomly any site data recorded.

After nearly a straight decade in Montana, Brown headed to Alberta, Canada and the Red Deer River near Drumheller. Here, Brown and his crew spent the middle 1910's floating down the river on a flatboat and stopped along the way to prospect for fossils in promising-looking localities. At this time, the famous Sternberg family floated down the river as well. The two parties, Brown's being American and Sternberg's being Canadian, exhibited a playful but friendly rivalry. The discoveries were all for the good of paleontology. One of Brown's most significant finds were several left feet from a group of Albertosaurus collected in Dry Island Provincial Park. His find was largely forgotten in the recesses of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller. Dr. Phil Currie, who was the Head of Dinosaur Research at the time, relocated the site of the bones using only an old photograph as a guide, and reopened the site for excavation in the summer of 1998. Excavation of the site under Tyrrell Museum auspices ceased in August, 2005. However, once Dr. Currie took a new job at the University of Alberta, his new crew worked the site in 2006 and will continue for several years to come. Red Deer River is a river is in Alberta, Canada, it is a tributary of the South Saskatchewan River. ... Drumheller is a town in the Badlands of east-central Alberta on the Red Deer River an hour and a half northeast of Calgary. ... Sternberg is a town in Germany. ... Species ? (type) Albertosaurus (al-BURR-to-SORE-us) is the genus name for several species of tyrannosaurids that looked similar to Tyrannosaurus rex, but were somewhat smaller. ... Dry Island Provincial Park is located in Central Alberta about a 40 minute drive from Red Deer. ... The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, 90 minutes drive east of Calgary, is known the world over as an outstanding paleontology museum and research facility. ... Drumheller is a town in the Badlands of east-central Alberta on the Red Deer River an hour and a half northeast of Calgary. ... Phil Currie, formerly the head of Dinosaur Research at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta is now a researcher and prominent palaeontologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. ...

An homage to the paleontologist was made in the 1998 IMAX film T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous in which he was played by actor Laurie Murdoch. IMAX theatre at the Melbourne Museum complex, Australia. ...