Dinosaur Park: The WPA's Concrete Beasts
South Dakota
On a hilltop above Rapid City, seven concrete dinosaurs have been staring down at the Black Hills since nineteen thirty-six. They were built as a Works Progress Administration project, designed by a local lawyer and sculptor named Emmet Sullivan with scientific guidance from Dr. Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Construction began in February of that year and the park was dedicated on May twenty-second, nineteen thirty-six. The idea was simple: tourists driving to see Mount Rushmore would pass through Rapid City, and a hilltop full of life-size prehistoric creatures might give them a reason to stop. The original five sculptures included a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Stegosaurus, a Triceratops, an Apatosaurus, and a Trachodon.
Two more were added later. They have been repainted periodically and remain entirely free to visit. They are not particularly scientifically accurate by today's standards, but that is part of the charm.
