Cabazon Dinosaurs facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Cabazon Dinosaurs |
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Novelty architecture |
| Town or city | Cabazon, California |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 33°55′13″N 116°46′22″W / 33.92028°N 116.77278°W |
| Construction started | 1964 (Dinny) / 1981 (Mr. Rex) |
| Completed | 1975 (Dinny) / 1986 (Mr. Rex) |
| Cost | $300,000 (Dinny) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Claude K. Bell |
| Structural engineer | Gerald Hufstetler |
The Cabazon Dinosaurs, once called Claude Bell's Dinosaurs, are a famous stop along the road in Cabazon, California. This attraction has two giant dinosaurs made of steel and concrete. Their names are Dinny the Dinosaur and Mr. Rex.
These huge dinosaurs are located just west of Palm Springs. You can easily see them from Interstate 10 as you drive through Southern California. Dinny, the Brontosaurus, is about 150 feet (46 meters) long. Mr. Rex, the Tyrannosaurus rex, stands about 65 feet (20 meters) tall. Many people know these roadside dinosaurs from their appearance in the 1985 movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
Claude Bell, who was a sculptor and theme park artist, started building these dinosaurs in 1964. He wanted to bring more customers to his restaurant nearby, called the Wheel Inn. Dinny was finished in 1975, and Mr. Rex was completed in 1986. Claude Bell passed away in 1988. His family later sold the property in the mid-1990s. The new owners changed the attraction into a museum in 2005. However, any religious materials have since been removed.
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Who Built the Dinosaurs?
Claude K. Bell (1896–1988) was an artist who loved to sculpt. He started his art career as a teenager. He would sculpt teddy bears out of sand on the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey. People passing by would give him tips, which encouraged him. Soon, he was making a living by creating sand sculptures at fairs all over the country.
In 1947, Walter Knott hired Claude Bell. Knott wanted him to create concrete sculptures for Knott's Berry Farm. Bell also ran the portrait studio at Knott's for many years, from 1951 to 1986. He, his wife, and his daughter Wendy all worked there, drawing portraits of visitors.
Claude Bell bought the land where the dinosaurs stand today in 1946. He paid $5,000 for it. The land was leveled for him for free. This was part of a deal to let the state remove gravel for a freeway overpass. Bell started living on the land part-time in 1952. He opened his restaurant, the Wheel Inn, there in 1958.
How the Dinosaurs Were Built
Claude Bell began building his first dinosaur, Dinny the Brontosaurus, in 1964. He got the idea from a childhood visit to the Atlantic City Boardwalk. There, he saw Lucy the Elephant, a building shaped like an elephant. He decided then that "someday I would build something big like that elephant house."
Bell used steel and cement that were saved from the freeway. These materials became unusable for official state construction after a flash flood. Bell was allowed to take them if he cleared them from state property.
Dinny was built like a giant sculpture. First, a steel frame was put up. Then, a metal grid was shaped over the frame to look like a dinosaur. Bell worked with an engineer named Ralph Titus. They welded steel beams to form the "ribs" of the dinosaur. Then, they wrapped the structure with wire to create the skin's shape. Bell said, "Everything is shaped in wire – wrinkles in the neck, muscles in the legs." After that, the wire was sprayed with layers of shotcrete, which is a type of concrete.
In 1970, Bell said that Dinny, who was 45 feet (14 meters) high and 150 feet (46 meters) long, was "the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as a building." He originally wanted Dinny's eyes to glow and its mouth to spit fire at night. He thought, "It'll scare the dickens out of a lot of people driving up over the pass." However, these two features were never added.
Dinny was finished in 1975. At that time, the project cost over $100,000. By 1986, Bell estimated the cost at $250,000.
Bell had plans to build a second dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus rex, as early as 1970. He said, "It's taken so long for this first one because Ralph and I had to make our own special machinery... From here on it will be smooth sailing." By November 1980, you could see the scaffolding for the second sculpture. A year later, the structure and wire frame were complete and ready for cement. The Tyrannosaurus sculpture was designed with a channel in its tail for a slide. But by 1986, Bell worried the slide would be too steep to be safe.
Claude Bell also planned to build a third sculpture, a woolly mammoth, and a prehistoric garden. However, these were never completed because Bell passed away in 1988.
What You Can See Today
After Claude Bell's death, his wife Anna Marie wanted to make his dream of an amusement park come true. In 1992, there were plans for a 60-acre attraction called Dinosaur Village. It would have featured 12 moving dinosaurs, along with the existing ones. Other ideas included an arcade, kids' rides, and a theater. However, these plans did not happen. By 1995, Gary Kanter's company bought the property.
In 1996, the new owners got approval to expand the Cabazon dinosaur site. This included plans for restaurants, a museum, a gift shop, and a motel. Gary Kanter said their main idea was to turn the area into a science and museum exhibit for children.
Today, the Cabazon Dinosaurs attraction includes an outdoor museum with fiberglass and robotic dinosaurs. Visitors can also enjoy other activities. There's a sand pit where you can try a "dino dig." You can also pan for gemstones and fossils at a sluice.
The Kanter family still owned and operated the site as of 2021.
See also
- List of dinosaur parks
- Novelty architecture
Images for kids
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Walter Knott asked Bell to sculpt the minuteman statue at Knott's replica of Independence Hall. Bell also made concrete figures for benches in Ghost Town and the Roaring 20s areas.
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Bell sculpted this bust of Walter Knott in 1967. It is on display at Calico, California. A similar bust, made by Bell in 1966, is at Independence Hall at Knott's.
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The portrait artists today at Knott's, at the north end of Camp Snoopy.
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Tourists can visit a gift shop inside the belly of Dinny the Dinosaur.
