Dinosaur Kingdom

Dinosaur Kingdom (also called Escape From Dinosaur Kingdom) is a tourist attraction in Natural Bridge, Virginia, consisting of statues which depict a dinosaur attack on the Union Army. Dinosaur Kingdom is currently closed without plans to reopen due to storms in June 2012.[1] The park contains thirty fiberglass dinosaur statues, a smaller number of Union soldiers, and several other characters, including Abraham Lincoln and a gorilla in a cowboy hat.[2] Dinosaur Kingdom, which opened in 2005, is the work of local artist Mark Cline, who also created nearby Foamhenge.[2] The park's statues are built around the premise that paleontologists discovered dinosaurs in Virginia in 1863; when the Union Army attempted to use the dinosaurs as weapons, the dinosaurs turned on them. Cline originally planned to have the dinosaurs besiege Pancho Villa's army, but chose to use the Union Army instead to win local favor, claiming "people still fight the Civil War down here".[3] According to Cline, Northerners have never complained about playing the villain in the attraction; he plans to open a similar park at Gettysburg reenacting Pickett's Charge with dinosaurs, in which the Confederates will be attacked.[4] Cline had desired to build dinosaur statues ever since stopping at the Dinosaur Land park in White Post, Virginia in his youth; his inspiration for Dinosaur Kingdom's theme came from the movie The Valley of Gwangi, in which cowboys discovered living dinosaurs in a Mexican valley.[2][5]

References

  1. ↑ "By Roadside, Monsters and Dinosaurs No Longer Scare". The Wall Street Journal. September 3, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 Hutkin, Erinn (June 30, 2008). "A Dinosaur Tale For the Whole Family in Natural Bridge". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Dinosaur Kingdom". Roadside America. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  4. ↑ Carlson, Peter (April 24, 2006). "Jurassic Lark; What Do Dinosaurs and the Civil War Have in Common? Mark Cline's Art". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Clodfelter, Tim (September 1, 2006). "Fiberglass Menagerie: Virginia Man Lives Out Dream of Creating Statues, Scenes". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved April 20, 2012.

External links

Coordinates: 37°37′51″N 79°32′27″W / 37.6309°N 79.5408°W / 37.6309; -79.5408


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