Dinosaur Park is a tourist attraction in

Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western S ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Dedicated on May 22, 1936, it contains seven

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

sculptures on a hill overlooking the city, created to capitalize on the tourists coming to the

Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black ...

to see

Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: ''Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe'', or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakot ...

. Constructed by the city of Rapid City and the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, WPA Project #960's dinosaurs were designed by

Emmet Sullivan Emmet Sullivan, (May 27, 1887 – November 3, 1970) was an American sculptor. He was born in Powder River, Montana, and claimed to have worked on Mount Rushmore. He created the five dinosaurs in Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, South Dakota in ...

. Sullivan also designed the ''

Apatosaurus ''Apatosaurus'' (; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, ''A. ajax'', in 1 ...

'' (formerly thought of as a synonym of ''

Brontosaurus ''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from Greek , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of gigantic quadruped sauropod dinosaurs. Although the type species, ''B. excelsus'', had long been considered a species of the closely related ...

'') at Wall Drug nearby in Wall, South Dakota, the

Christ of the Ozarks ''Christ of the Ozarks'' statue is a monumental sculpture of Jesus located near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, atop Magnetic Mountain. It was erected in 1966 as a "Sacred Project" by Gerald L. K. Smith. The statue stands high. Background During ...

statue in

Eureka Springs, Arkansas Eureka Springs is a city in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States, and one of two county seats for the county. It is located in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas, near the border with Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the city populati ...

, and the dinosaurs at the now closed Dinosaur World in

Beaver, Arkansas Beaver is a town in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 67. The community is located on the White River at the western limits of Table Rock Lake deep in the Ozark Mountains. Located north of Eu ...

. The park is located at 940 Skyline Drive and is maintained by the city of Rapid City. Admission is free, however steep flagstone stairs may limit handicapped accessibility. The park was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on June 21, 1990.

Dinosaurs on display

Dinosaurs represented in the park include ''

'', ''

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

'', ''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...

'', ''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...

'', and an ''

Edmontosaurus annectens ''Edmontosaurus annectens'' (meaning "connected lizard from Edmonton") is a species of flat-headed and duck-billed (hadrosaurid) dinosaur from the very end of the Cretaceous Period, in what is now North America. Remains of ''E. annectens'' have ...

'' (formerly '' Anatotitan'' which itself was formerly ''

Trachodon ''Trachodon'' (meaning "rough tooth") is a dubious genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur based on teeth from the Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana, U.S.Leidy, J. (1856). "Notice of remains of extinct reptiles and fishes ...

''). A '' Protoceratops'' and a ''

Dimetrodon ''Dimetrodon'' ( or ,) meaning "two measures of teeth,” is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian (Early Permian), around 295–272 million years ago (Mya). It is a member of the family Sphenacodont ...

'' (''Dimetrodon'' is not actually a dinosaur, but rather a

synapsid Synapsids + (, 'arch') > () "having a fused arch"; synonymous with ''theropsids'' (Greek, "beast-face") are one of the two major groups of animals that evolved from basal amniotes, the other being the sauropsids, the group that includes reptil ...

, and more closely related to mammals than reptiles) were added later on and are located near the gift shop and parking lot. With the exception of the ''Protoceratops'', the dinosaurs they selected were based on fossils found in South Dakota and the Western United States. The dinosaurs were constructed out of 2 inch (5.08

centimeters 330px, Different lengths as in respect to the Electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the Metre and its deriveds scales. The Microwave are in-between 1 meter to 1 millimeter. A centimetre (international spelling) or centimeter (American spellin ...

) black iron pipe, with a wire mesh frame and a concrete skin. Originally they were gray in color, but by the 1950s the statues were painted bright green with white undersides. Being constructed in the 1930s, the dinosaurs reflect the thinking of the times (for example, dragging tails). The tyrannosaur's original finger claws (of which it incorrectly had three on each hand) as well as its teeth have been lost or damaged over the years to where its hands are stumps and its teeth are all but gone. Vintage postcards of the ''T. rex'' do in fact show these were originally part of the sculpture. The ''Stegosaurus'' also had a shorter tail with 4 correct tail spikes, but this has changed recently where the tail spikes have been removed (perhaps due to safety concerns) and the tail considerably lengthened.

Gallery of Dinosaur Park images

File:TriceratopsDinosaurPark.jpg, ''Triceratops'' - May 2003 File:StegosaurusDinosaurPark.jpg, ''Stegosaurus'' - May 2003 File:DinosaurParkGiftShoppe.jpg, Gift Shop - May 2003

References

External links

''“Roadside Attractions”'', a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

Official site

* ttp://www.rcgov.org/pdfs/Parks-and-Recreation/Parks/DINOSUAR%20PARK%20MP%202014.pdf/ {{Black Hills, South Dakota Roadside attractions in South Dakota Dinosaur sculptures Buildings and structures in Rapid City, South Dakota Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota Outdoor sculptures in South Dakota Black Hills Works Progress Administration in South Dakota Tourist attractions in Rapid City, South Dakota Concrete sculptures in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Pennington County, South Dakota 1936 establishments in South Dakota

Dinosaurs on display

Gallery of Dinosaur Park images

See also

References

External links