Largest Concrete Dinosaur Building, Cabazon, California

This dinosaur first started in the mind of Claude Kenneth Bell. He watched every day thousands of cars go flying by at 70 miles per hour on their way to Palm Springs, and said to himself, ‘I’m gonna stop ’em.

He had purchased 62 acres of land on Interstate 10 northwest of Palm Springs, California. He already had a truck stop, and Wheel Inn Restaurant, which opened in 1958.

Now he needs something that will attract attention to them cars speeding by. His mind goes back to the to a childhood visit to Atlantic City where he saw "Lucy," a building shaped like an elephant.

He really liked dinosaurs so it didn't take long to have drawings of a 150-foot-long Brontosaurus. The project got a helping hand from a flash flood that buried some of the construction materials for the freeway. The rebar and other castoff steel you see all came from the freeway. Construction started in 1964, some of the cement was from the rejected cement loads for the freeway. He salvaged other building materials to construct his dinosaur.

The years went by and this brontosaurus grew to 45 feet high out of the surrounding landscape. At the time he said his dinosaur was first in history to be used as a building. He wanted his dinosaur's eyes to glow and mouth to spit fire at night.

As this 150-ton brontosaurus stands it was completed in 1975. Took 11 years to build at a cost of $250,000 to $300,000 since no one can agree on the cost.

Bell past way in 1988 at age 91 leaving this drawing board with a giant mastodon, and a saber-toothed tiger to dream about.

I would like to thank Claude Bell and his family for creating Claude Bell's Dinosaurs. I'm sure Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex will be around for us to view for years to come.

Engagement challenge witch is the right spelling of the Brontosaurus?
Dinney or Dinny

Thank-you for all your comments and viewing the video. I have other videos I would like you to view.

Map:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=18IyJwLu-3PoR48vxQ78zhUXd7jU&usp=sharing

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