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Bronto is a brontosaurus sculpture about 70 feet long, made by Richard Wescott in 1964 for the original dinosaur trail of Durham's Museum of Life and Science. It is the last surviving piece of that trail and stands behind a fence off the Ellerbee Creek Trail.
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Bronto Trail Brontosaurus
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Approximate location · 36.020° N, 78.904° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Most of Durham's original dinosaur trail has long since vanished into the woods, but one long-necked giant is still on its feet beside a greenway. Bronto was sculpted by Richard Wescott in 1964 for the Museum of Life and Science's Pre-History Trail, which opened in 1967, according to the Durham Voice. WRAL describes Wescott as a former architectural designer who made 12 life-sized models from fossil evidence; the Durham Voice counts 11. The sculpture's length is given as 72 feet by WRAL, about 70 feet by the Durham Voice and 77 feet in Discover Durham's directory.
WRAL reports that vandals smashed five models in December 1967, the year the trail opened. The dinosaurs deteriorated over the following decades, and the Durham Voice says Hurricane Fran in 1996 left the old trail so damaged that the museum closed it for safety reasons. A new Dinosaur Trail was finished elsewhere on the museum's grounds in 2009.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
Bronto stands in woods off the Ellerbee Creek Trail, behind a chain-link fence. The Durham Voice reported in 2026 that the museum maintains the fence and does not encourage visitors to go too close. A sign near the West Murray Avenue entrance marks Wescott's Bronto Trail.
ACCESS
Off the Ellerbee Creek Trail, a greenway near Northgate Park and the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. The sculpture is on the museum's campus behind a fence; the museum does not encourage visitors to approach closely.
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