Cabazon Dinosaurs

Cabazon Dinosaurs
Tourists can walk inside Dinny the Dinosaur
General information
Architectural style	Novelty architecture
Town or city	Cabazon, California
Country	United States
Coordinates	33°55′12.41″N 116°46′22.24″W / 33.9201139°N 116.7728444°W / 33.9201139; -116.7728444
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

Cabazon Dinosaurs, also referred to as Claude Bell's Dinosaurs, are 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 building shaped like a larger-than-life-sized Apatosaurus, and Mr. Rex, a 100-ton Tyrannosaurus rex structure. Dinny (pronounced "Dine-ee") and Mr. Rex are at the Cabazon exit of Interstate 10 in California, a short distance west of Palm Springs behind the Wheel Inn diner on Seminole Drive in San Gorgonio Pass.

History

The Wheel Inn Restaurant, once owned by Claude Bell

The creation of the Cabazon dinosaurs began in the 1960s by Knott's Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell (1897–1988) to attract customers to his Wheel Inn Cafe, which opened in 1958. Dinny, the first of the Cabazon dinosaurs, was started in 1964 and created over a span of eleven years.^[1] Bell created Dinny out of spare material salvaged from the construction of nearby Interstate 10 at a cost of $300,000.^[2] The biomorphic building that was to become Dinny was first erected as steel framework over which an expanded metal grid was formed in the shape of a dinosaur.^[3] All of it was then covered with coats of shotcrete (spray concrete). Bell was quoted in 1970 as saying the 45-foot (14 m) high, 150-foot (46 m) long Dinny was "the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as a building."^[4] His original vision for Dinny was for the dinosaur's eyes to glow and mouth to spit fire at night, predicting, "It'll scare the dickens out of a lot of people driving up over the pass."^[4] These two features, however, were not added. With the help of ironworker Gerald Hufstetler, Bell worked on the project independently; no construction companies or contractors were involved in the fabrication. The task of painting Dinny was completed by a friend of Bell's in exchange for one dollar and a case of Dr Pepper.^{[citation needed]}

A second dinosaur, Mr. Rex, was constructed near Dinny in 1981. Originally, a giant slide was installed in Rex's tail; it was later filled in with concrete making the slide unusable. A third woolly mammoth sculpture and a prehistoric garden were drafted, but never completed due to Bell's death in 1988.^[5]

Creationist museum

Exhibits and displays inside Dinny detail arguments for Young Earth creationism and against evolutionism. This one concludes that the "Evolutionary Origin of Life Is Impossible."

Following the sale of the property by Bell's surviving family in the mid-1990s, Cabazon Family Partnership and MKA Cabazon Partnership of Costa Mesa, California became the new owners of the roadside attraction. The partnership obtained approval for a major expansion of the Cabazon dinosaur site in 1996 with the land-use approvals including restaurants, a museum, and gift shop, and a 60-room motel at the Main Street exit in Cabazon. Orange County developer and MKA partner Gary Kanter states the original vison has been for MKA to transform the area into a children's science and museum exhibit.^[6]

Currently located inside Dinny is a gift store and museum promoting creationism with some of the toy dinosaurs in the shop sold under the label "Don't swallow it! The fossil record does not support evolution."^[7] The current ownership has expressed a Young Earth creationist belief that most dinosaurs were created on Earth about 6,000 years ago - the same day as Adam and Eve.^[7] In stark contrast to that belief are Bell's painted frescoes and sculptures inside Dinny, depicting a naturalist and evolutionary viewpoint. Bell's paintings include representations of Cro-Magnon man (labeled "Cro-Magnon Man 30,000 [years ago]") and Java Man (labeled "Java Man 400,000"). Bell's historic displays now exist alongside information detailing the creationist viewpoint of the earth and man's origins.^[5]

The Cabazon Dinosaurs attraction also features an open-air museum with fiberglass and robotic dinosaurs. Other activities at the site include a sand pit where visitors can experience a "dino dig"^[8] as well as a gemstone and fossil panning sluice. Pastor Robert Chiles, assisting Kanter in turning the exhibit into a non-denominational church, has been quoted as to his belief of why children are drawn to the dinosaur attraction, "There's something in their DNA that knows man walked with these creatures on Earth."^[7] Chiles and Kanter plan to promote their views of creationism at the attraction based on their interpretation of the Book of Genesis.^[7]

In popular culture

The popular 1985 comedy film Pee Wee's Big Adventure filmed several scenes around the dinosaurs.^[7][9] According to director Tim Burton in the film's DVD commentary, many people thought the dinosaurs were built for the movie and did not realize they were part of a real roadside attraction.^{[Full citation needed]} The dinosaurs were also featured prominently in the 1989 adventure dramedy The Wizard (film). The dinosaurs and the Wheel Inn diner made a brief appearance in the 1985 music video for the Tears For Fears song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World".

See also

• Novelty architecture
• Wall Drug has a dinosaur

References

1. ^ The Cabazon Dinosaurs | The Big Waste of Space Photologue
2. ^ Valley Legends (4/26/1999), Desert Sun.
3. ^ Feuerstein, Günther. Biomorphic architecture: Menschen- und Tiergestalten in der Architektur, Volume 1, p. 117. Edition Axel Menges, 2002. ISBN 3-930698-87-0
4. ^ ^{a b} Associated Press, Cabazon, California. Eugene Register-Guard, April 12, 1970. "Cement brontosaurus just beginning: Claude Kenneth Bell and his 'monster'." Hosted by Google Newspapers. Retrieved on January 2, 2010.
5. ^ ^{a b} Bet you didn't know (11/9/2005), Desert Sun.
6. ^ Cabazon expansion proposed (11/5/1996), Press Enterprise.
7. ^ ^{a b c d e} Powers, Ashley. Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2005. "Adam, Eve and T. Rex: Giant roadside dinosaur attractions are used by a new breed of creationists as pulpits to spread their version of Earth's origins." Page 1,page 2,page 3,page 4,page 5. Retrieved on December 29, 2009.
8. ^ Dinosaurs draw people from all over, Judith Salkin, The Desert Sun, June 28, 2008.
9. ^ Famous Movie Locations: Wheel Inn Restaurant from 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' (Cabazon, California), by Kim Potts, Aug 10, 2010, Moviefone. Retrieved 2011-08-21.

External links

• Official Cabazon Dinosaurs Website
• Roadside America