Trailside Museum of Natural History at Fort Robinson State Park, Natural history museum in Fort Robinson State Park, Nebraska.

The Trailside Museum of Natural History occupies a restored 1904 building that once served the Army post as a theater and gymnasium. The collection includes exhibits on Nebraska's geological past, fossils, and animals that have shaped the region.

The building was constructed in 1904 as a theater and gymnasium for Fort Robinson and served the Army until 1955. The University of Nebraska then took over the structure and transformed it into a museum.

The museum's name comes from its setting beside the fort's trail network, and its exhibits were assembled by the University of Nebraska State Museum, which opened it here in 1961. A permanent paleontology display by Mark Marcusson reconstructs 18 animals that lived in Nebraska about 40 million years ago, including Dinohyus, built from fossil skeletons and studies of anatomy and locomotion.

To visit the museum, you will need a park permit to access the state park grounds. The building has a gift shop with science books, minerals, educational toys, and local souvenirs.

The two Columbian mammoth bulls on display were found in 1962 on nearby private land with their tusks locked together, apparently after a fight between the animals; paleontologist Michael Voorhies led the excavation. The exhibit, called Clash of the Mammoths, opened in 2006.