On May 22, 1936, Rapid City’s Dinosaur Park on Skyline Drive was dedicated. The park includes seven concrete dinosaurs constructed as part of a Works Progress Administration or WPA project.
The dinosaurs were designed by lawyer and sculptor Emmit Sullivan and constructed with a two-inch metal pipe frame covered with wire mesh and a concrete skin. The Park was built as a tourist attraction and city park. It includes five dinosaurs representing the prehistoric history of the Black Hills region.
The dinosaurs replicas include a Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Apatosaurus, formerly the Brontosaurus, and an Anatolian, formerly known as a Trachodon. Originally the dinosaurs were painted gray but now they have a green-and-white color scheme that dates to the 1950s. Two additional prehistoric creatures were added later, a Dimetrodon and a Protoceratops.
Skyline Drive was built as a companion project and the complex was intended to capitalize on the tourist traffic going through Rapid City to Mount Rushmore National Monument.
The scale of the dinosaur replicas is generally correct, but research since shows their forms are an outdated view of dinosaur anatomy. Dinosaur Park has been changed over the years with additional asphalt paths, stone retaining walls, terraces, and railings, but it still serves as a unique tourist attraction.
Dinosaur Park in Rapid City was officially dedicated on May 22, 1936, with construction continuing until 1938.
Production help is provided by Doctor Brad Tennant, Professor of History at Presentation College.
