In 1964, a California sculptor began a 150-foot steel-and-concrete dinosaur to lure drivers to his diner; building it took 11 years and $250,000

In 1964, Claude Bell, former Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor, began constructing a giant dinosaur beside Interstate 10 in Cabazon, California. He hoped to attract motorists to his Wheel Inn restaurant, and the result was a 150-foot-long, 45-foot-high structure called Dinny. According to the Los Angeles Times, it took Bell 11 years and $250,000 to complete the construction, made from salvaged steel and concrete from nearby construction. What was initially an advertising idea became a landmark motorists travelling through Southern California recognised.How Bell turned salvaged materials into a roadside attractionThe project’s inspiration came from Bell’s childhood when he visited Atlantic City in 1906 and saw a local landmark there: an elephant-shaped building called Lucy. The experience stimulated his ambition to create a roadside structure that was equally distinctive. Dinny was made using a steel framework to support its structure, which was reinforced with rods and heavy girders.The girders were sourced from a drive-in theatre that was no longer in use in Banning, while the rest of the materials were recovered from nearby Interstate 10 construction. After it was cross-braced and welded, the framework was covered with approximately 1,200 bags of cement. The dinosaur’s exterior was shaped by Bell himself; he ran his gloved hands over cement to achieve a textured skin and chose a greenish-brown finish because the dinosaur’s actual colours were unknown. The finished structure worked as both a giant roadside advertisement and a building with functional indoor space.A doorway in the tail of Dinny leads to an 18-by-56-foot main room, while the dinosaur housed another apartment in its back. Initially, Bell’s idea was to use the main room as a restaurant or cocktail lounge, but he quit on it because he wanted visitors to be curious when they entered and explored the structure. Eventually, the interior ended up accommodating a museum.Another giant dinosaur was in the cards for Bell, a Tyrannosaurus rex called Mr Rex, whose construction began in 1981 and was supposed to be 65 feet in height. The original plans included a winding staircase towards its mouth, which visitors were supposed to climb and, through its teeth, look across the desert. Bell’s other ambition extended beyond the two dinosaurs, and it included adding a woolly mammoth and smaller prehistoric animals to create a dinosaur garden, but those additions never materialised.From the Wheel Inn to a Hollywood landmarkAfter Bell passed away in 1988, the property underwent a new phase after a development company took over the site and expanded its attractions, ABC 10 reported. The additions saw the development of robotic dinosaurs, a dinosaur bone pit, and a gift shop inside Dinny. The property was also given a new look as a visitor destination rather than serving its original role as a roadside attraction to entice customers to the Wheel Inn. Hollywood also helped put the dinosaurs on the map with elevated status after they appeared in Pee-wee's Big Adventure and The Wizard. Moreover, the way the Dinosaurs’ interior was used also went through major changes; SPACES Archives records show that Dinny’s interior became a museum dedicated to Young Earth Creationism.As of today, the Cabazon Dinosaurs stand at 50770 Seminole Drive in Cabazon, California, where visitors can explore dinosaur displays and other attractions. Although Bell never finished his planned prehistoric garden and the Wheel Inn was demolished in 2016, Dinny and Mr. Rex remain roadside landmarks, outlasting the restaurant they were built to promote.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.