How Dinosaurs Helped Fight The Great Depression

We'e been on an extended journey out west with stops in parts of Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota including  Denver, Vail, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore and Rapid City where we stopped at that town's famed Dinosaur Park which sits high above the city.

While some may shrug off the park today as a few old dinosaur statues on a hill, it was actually built to help capture traffic coming to Mount Rushmore and was, for its time, quite an accomplishment.

The City of Rapid City credits Dinosaur Park (built in 1936 during the Great Depression and when Mount Rushmore was still being carved out) for beginning Rapid City's transformation into a major tourist destination

The dinosaurs originally were painted gray, and were changed to cartoonish green and white in the 1950s. They are made of concrete, are virtually indestructible and were crafted by men in need of employment, hired by the federal government during the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Dinosaurs were selected to represent those roaming the Western United States, including Apatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Edmontosaurus annectens. A Protoceratops and a Dimetrodon were added later.

Generations of families have come to visit Deano, the quirky 80-foot-long Apatosaurus, and his six other dinosaur friends, straddling Rapid City’s skyline on Dakota Hogback Ridge.

The Park was refurbished in 2024. The multi-million dollar project focused on aesthetic improvements, including repainting the concrete dinosaurs, and improving accessibility.

The park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. If you ever come out this way, be sure to include it as part of your visit!