For anyone that has ever been in Rapid City and looked up at the sky, I am sure your eyes caught at least a glimpse of the big green dinosaur that looks over the city. The big green guy is one of seven dinosaurs that make up Rapid City’s world famous Dinosaur Park.
The park is a free attraction that has putting smiles on the faces of children since 1936. One of the earliest memories I have of this area is when I came here on vacation with my parents when I was only six or seven years old. Mom wanted to get a god picture of the city, and being that my dad had been out here visiting relatives a few times in the past, he knew the best place to snap a picture was from Skyline Drive.
After going around all of the hair pin turns to get to an overlook for mom to take pictures all I wanted to do was get out and walk around. A little bit further up the road we finally stopped where I could get out. Dad said to get out, but be careful because there were dinosaurs all around. Being an imaginative young kid, I couldn’t wait to find a dinosaur so I jumped out of the car into the parking lot. As I looked up on to the hill though I saw. I big green thunder lizard.
Years later when I actually moved to Rapid City, I had completely forgotten about the concrete dinosaurs until one day when I was driving west through down town and I noticed the out line of the big brontosaurus up on the hill side. I decided to take a detour and head up there. As I pulled off of Skyline and into the parking lot all the memories began coming back. I walked up the long flight of stairs to stand amongst the dinosaurs once again.
There are a lot of times I remember things from my childhood as being absolutely larger than life, but when I see them again they are no where near as big as I remember. This is not the case with Dinosaur Park. They are every bit as big as I remembered, if not bigger. All seven dinosaurs are life size and there is no other way to describe them but massive.
Emmet Sullivan who also designed the brontosaurus at Wall Drug as well as the dinosaurs at Dinosaur World in Arkansas is responsible for the design of the dinos in Rapid. The project was completed by the Works Progress Administration or WPA which started during the great depression to provide jobs for the unemployed. The dinosaurs were originally the color of the concrete they were made from, but later painted green and white.
Dinosaur Park is one of Rapid City’s many family friendly attractions with no entrance free. There is a concession stand and gift shop, but the park itself is free. If you have never seen it before I would definitely recommend giving it a look. You also get a breath taking view of the city. There aren’t many things in this world that are free any more and even fewer can fill you with wonder and make you feel like a little kid again.
Thanks for reading, and I really do hope you check it out.
