Al Lakusta Day, October 27
One teacher. One creek. One find that changed Alberta's prehistoric story.
In the 1970s, Grande Prairie science teacher Al Lakusta took his students fossil hunting along Pipestone Creek. One September long weekend, he spotted dinosaur bone in the creek bed and followed it up the bank. Watch Al and Dorine Lakusta tell the story in their own words.
Al and Dorine Lakusta on the discovery of the Pipestone Creek Bonebed
Archival photograph of Pipestone Creek, 1970s
The discovery
"If they're down here, they must have come from up there."
On a picnic with friends from Calgary, Al wandered up the creek past the fossil leaves and found a piece of dinosaur bone. He climbed a 15- to 20-foot bank above the creek and found a long, sloping surface covered in bone.
Everywhere he looked, there was bone. At the time, no one knew how important the find would turn out to be.
Archival photograph of the dig, 1970s
This was the '70s, of course
A pink bathtub full of dinosaur fossils
For years, Al dug out bones with the help of friends and colleagues, many of whom didn't want to go home at the end of the day. He carried the fossils home in a backpack, cleaned them in the bathtub and laid them across the basement floor.
Hundreds and hundreds of bones.
"Everywhere I looked, I could just see some bone… It's a gold mine."Al Lakusta
A new dinosaur
Named in his honour
Scientists confirmed the bones belonged to a horned dinosaur new to science. In 2008, palaeontologists named it:
Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai
The Pipestone Creek Bonebed is one of the densest dinosaur bonebeds in the world, and its story helped inspire the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.
Image credit: Sheldon A. Graber
The story is still being written
Pipestone Creek today
Every visitor, every student and every researcher at Pipestone Creek is connected to one remarkable find. Palaeontologists are still uncovering bones at the site.
The Pipestone Creek Bonebed is an active research site
See it at the museum
Stand at the edge of the bonebed Al found
Our Pipestone Creek Bonebed exhibit recreates the scene of an ancient floodplain about 73 million years ago, with bones scattered across the ground and scavengers moving in. It's the story Al Lakusta uncovered, and you can see it for yourself in Wembley.
Explore the Pipestone Creek BonebedPlan your visitHours & admission
Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, Wembley, Alberta
Give the gift of discovery
Every great discovery starts with curiosity
Al Lakusta's grew from field trips with his students. Spark someone else's with a museum visit, a guided bonebed tour, a day in the field or a family membership.
Shop gifts of discovery