Cabazon Dinosaurs

Riverside County, United States

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Rising from the desert west of Palm Springs along Interstate 10, Cabazon Dinosaurs is a quirky roadside attraction featuring two colossal steel-and-concrete figures: Dinny the Dinosaur, a 150-foot-long Brontosaurus, and Mr. Rex, a 65-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex. Built by sculptor and theme park artist Claude K. Bell starting in 1964 to draw customers to his nearby Wheel Inn restaurant, the dinosaurs were completed in 1975 and 1986 respectively. The pair gained wider fame through their appearance in Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985). After Bell's death in 1988, ownership changed hands and the site became a creationist museum in 2005, though that thematic content has since been removed. The monuments remain visible monuments to mid-century American novelty architecture and vernacular roadside culture.