Cabazon Dinosaurs
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Cabazon Dinosaurs, also referred to as Claude Bell's dinosaurs, are world famous, enormous, sculptured roadside attractions located in Cabazon, California and visible to the immediate north of Interstate 10. The site features Dinny the Dinosaur, a 150-ton, larger than life-sized sculpture of a Brontosaurus and Mr. Rex, a 100-ton Tyrannosaurus Rex. Dinny and Mr. Rex are at the Cabazon exit of Interstate 10, a short distance west of Palm Springs behind the Wheel Inn diner on Seminole Drive in San Gorgonio Pass.
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[edit] History
The Cabazon dinosaurs were built by Knott's Berry Farm sculptor Claude K. Bell (1897-1988) in the 1960s to attract customers to his Wheel Inn Cafe which opened in 1958. Dinny, completed in 1964, was created out of spare material from the construction of Interstate 10 at a cost of US$300,000 over the course of two decades until Bell's death in 1988.[1] No construction company or contractors were involved in the project. In 1981, Mr. Rex was constructed nearby to Dinny. A giant slide was intended to be installed in Mr. Rex's tail, but this plan was scrapped. Dinny's paint job was reputedly done by a friend of Bell's in exchange for one dollar and a case of Dr Pepper. A third wooly mammoth sculpture and a prehistoric garden were drafted, but not completed, due to Bell's death.[2]
More than mere sculptures, Dinny and Mr. Rex are habitable buildings. The entrance is at the base of Dinny's tail. Bell himself once lived in Dinny's upper rooms. Structural problems and other factors have over time threatened the structures with removal.
[edit] Current Status
The sculptures are currently owned by MIKA Cabazon Partnership of Newport Beach, which owns the property that the dinosaurs and Wheel Inn restaurant are located on. In 1996, the partnership requested approval for a major expansion of the Cabazon dinosaur site. This proposal sought to lure five fast-food restaurants, a sit-down restaurant, a museum, and gift shop, and a 60-room motel to the north side of Interstate 10, at the Main Street exit in Cabazon. Gary Kanter, one of the partners and a Christian minister, said at the time that MIKA hoped to eventually turn the area into a children's science park.[3]
The inside of Dinny, designed as a museum with alcoves and frescoes featuring naturalist and evolutionary content, has been recently turned into a creationist museum[4] promoting intelligent design theory. The Kanters intend to spend $2 million to $3 million to add a giant sand pit where kids would rummage for fossils, a center that would contrast creationism with evolution, a maze, and a replica of Noah’s Ark.[5]
[edit] Pop Culture References
Both Dinny and Mr. Rex have a brief cameo in the video of the Tears for Fears song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World as well as in the motion pictures Pee-wee's Big Adventure and The Wizard.
[edit] References
- ^ Valley Legends (4/26/1999), Desert Sun.
- ^ Bet you didn't know (11/9/2005), Desert Sun.
- ^ Cabazon expansion proposed (11/5/1996), Press Enterprise.
- ^ Bet you didn't know (11/9/2005), Desert Sun.
- ^ Adam, Eve and T. Rex (9/5/2005), Los Angeles Times.
