Cabazon Dinosaurs
History
The creation of the Cabazon dinosaurs began in the 1960s by Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell (18971988) 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. Bell created Dinny out of spare material salvaged from the construction of nearby Interstate 10 at a cost of $300,000. 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. 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.” 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.” 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.
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.
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.
Currently located inside Dinny is a gift store and museum promoting creationism with some of the toy dinosaurs in the shop are labeled “Don’t swallow it! The fossil record does not support evolution.” 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. In stark contrast to that belief are Bell’s painted frescoes and sculptures inside Dinny, depicting a naturalist and evolutionist 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.
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” 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.” Chiles and Kanter plan to promote their views of creationism at the attraction based on their interpretation of the Book of Genesis.
In popular culture
Both Dinny and Mr. Rex can be briefly seen in the background of the Tears for Fears video for “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, in Brad Paisley’s music video Welcome to the Future, and they are prominently featured in the Tonio K video Without Love as well as on the cover of his album Notes From The Lost Civilization. They appear on the U.S. version of the Oasis video Supersonic.
The dinosaurs appear in the motion pictures Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Grand Theft Parsons, The Wizard, and Revenge of the Cheerleaders.
See also
Novelty architecture
Wall Drug has a dinosaur
References
^ The Cabazon Dinosaurs | The Big Waste of Space Photologue
^ Valley Legends (4/26/1999), Desert Sun.
^ Feuerstein, Gnther. Biomorphic architecture: Menschen- und Tiergestalten in der Architektur, Volume 1, p. 117. Edition Axel Menges, 2002. ISBN 3930698870
^ 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.
^ a b Bet you didn’t know (11/9/2005), Desert Sun.
^ Cabazon expansion proposed (11/5/1996), Press Enterprise.
^ a b c d 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.
^ Dinosaurs draw people from all over, Judith Salkin, The Desert Sun, June 28, 2008.
External links
Official Cabazon Dinosaurs Website
Roadside America
v d e
Inland Empire
Counties
Riverside San Bernardino
Major cities
Riverside San Bernardino
Cities and towns
100k-200k
Corona Fontana Moreno Valley Murrieta Ontario Rancho Cucamonga Temecula Victorville
Cities and towns
25k-100k
Apple Valley Cathedral City Chino Chino Hills Colton Menifee Hemet Hesperia Highland Montclair Indio Lake Elsinore Palm Desert Palm Springs Perris Redlands Rialto Rubidoux San Jacinto Upland Valle Vista Wildomar Yucaipa
Cities and towns
10k-25k
Adelanto Banning Barstow Beaumont Big Bear Lake Bloomington Blythe Cabazon Canyon Lake Coachella Crestline Desert Hot Springs Glen Avon Grand Terrace La Quinta Loma Linda Mira Loma Norco Pedley Rancho Mirage Twentynine Palms Yucca Valley
Cities and towns
under 10k
Big Bear City Calimesa Devore El Cerrito Oak Glen Highgrove Home Gardens Indian Wells Joshua Tree Lake Arrowhead Mentone Muscoy Needles Romoland San Antonio Heights Sunnyslope Wrightwood Woodcrest
Regions
Coachella Valley Colorado Desert Cucamonga Valley High Desert Morongo Basin San Bernardino Valley San Jacinto Valley Victor Valley
Categories: Museums in Riverside County, California | Tourism in Riverside County, California | Creationist museums in the United States | Dinosaur sculptures | Roadside attractions | Novelty architecture | Visitor attractions in California | Religious museums in California
I am a professional writer from Cheap On Sales, which contains a great deal of information about $keyword_li, welcome to visit!
Processing your request, Please wait....
