The museum's collections focus on the physical and cultural history of the Rocky Mountains and the people and animals who have lived there, and date back more than 500 million years.

Permanent exhibits include: "Enduring Peoples", which chronicles the life of Native Americans on the Northern Plains and near the Rocky Mountains; "History of the Northern Rocky Mountain Region", whose inhabitants included Native Americans, fur traders, gold seekers, and settlers from frontier days through World War II; the Living History Farm, which includes the Tinsley House, where costumed interpreters demonstrate life in a turn-of-the-century home; and the Taylor Planetarium, a 40 ft (12 m), 104-seat domed theater.

[3] The museum offers symposiums, allowing Native Americans whose tribes called the region home to share their oral histories with visitors.

[5] Traveling exhibits that visit the museum have covered topics such as African American art,[6] television and film costumes,[7] the impact of weapons on the cultures of the Rocky Mountains,[8] and King Tut.

The 100+ year-old house was originally located in Willow Creek and it was moved to its present site (on more than 10 acres (40,000 m2)) in front of the museum in 1989.

[11] While fossils continue to be the property of the federal government, the museum has been able to increase its collection (due in part to Curator Jack Horner's agreement and work with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Federal Bureau of Land Management).

[1] Curator Horner, who served as an adviser to the Jurassic Park films,[14][16] was one of the lead scientists involved in the 2005 discovery of soft tissue remains in the thigh bone of a Tyrannosaurus,[17] which were later brought to the museum.

[19] In June 2008, the museum formed part of a consortium that obtained a mobile paleontology lab that would assist researchers, allowing them to chemically analyze fossils while still in the field in order to help prevent degradation.

[20] With the completion of MOR's new Curatorial Center for the Humanities in 2017 and the removal of humanities items to this new storage facility, the MOR Paleontology department will gain about 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) of space in the museum's basement to expand the collection of fossils.

[22][23] The new building will provide storage and curatorial space for the museum's humanities collection, which includes art, archaeological, historic, Native American, and photographic items.

Students from all over Montana can engage in school tours, homeschool programs, summer camps, and educational classes & lectures at the museum.