Dinosaur Valley State Park

Glen Rose, Texas, United States

Animals and creatures

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Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Two fibreglass dinosaurs, a 70-foot Apatosaurus and a 45-foot Tyrannosaurus rex, stand near headquarters at Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose, Texas. Made for Sinclair's Dinoland at the 1964 to 1965 New York World's Fair, they were donated to the park in 1970.

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Dinosaur Valley State Park

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Site-level location · 32.2496° N, 97.8111° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Visitors to a park built around real dinosaur footprints will also find two very different dinosaurs, made for a world's fair. Texas Parks and Wildlife says the models of an Apatosaurus (70 feet) and a Tyrannosaurus rex (45 feet) near park headquarters were on display at the 1964 to 1965 New York World's Fair, and that the Atlantic Richfield Company donated them to the park in 1970.

They began as part of Dinoland, the Sinclair Oil exhibit. TPWD says Sinclair created nine life-sized dinosaurs for the fair; TPW Magazine credits their design to Louis Paul Jonas, a sculptor and taxidermist known for museum displays. Sinclair's own history says its green dinosaur, DINO, was 70 feet long and weighed 20 tons, and that after the fair he lost his animatronics and toured the country. TPW Magazine reports that the dinosaurs went into storage when Atlantic Richfield bought Sinclair, until Governor Preston Smith, as the park was being developed around 1970, made a radio call for donations of dinosaur artwork. The park itself, 1,587 acres, opened in 1972 to protect the Paluxy River tracks.

TPWD's history page calls the long-necked model an Apatosaurus, while its Dinoland page calls it a Brontosaurus. TPW Magazine says that in 1986 an employee thought its head "cartoonish" and had it replaced with a new, smaller one, which visitors and staff disliked, so the original went back on after a few months. TPWD says the animatronic jaw of the T. rex has been removed, and that a replacement head for the long-necked model, made after scientists found the wrong skull had been used, is kept in its historical collections in Austin.

The statues are near headquarters. A TPW Magazine article from early 2023 said repairs were planned to restore their paint and stabilise their structures.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Texas state park: TPWD lists day use at $8 for adults and free for children 12 and under, with the gate open 6am to 10pm daily. The two large dinosaur models are near park headquarters; the real dinosaur tracks are in the river and are not always visible.

ACCESS

Dinosaur Valley State Park, 1629 Park Road 59, Glen Rose, Texas. The models stand near headquarters, inside the park, so park entry applies. TPWD recommends reservations because the park often reaches capacity.

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