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Dinosaurs of Holbrook

Town's claim to fame is set in stone

Long before Sir Richard Attenborough depicted dinosaurs as "objets de tourism" in the Jurassic Park movies, prehistoric creatures already were in service as marketing tools for this community.

Although Holbrook's image is more about the Old West and Route 66 than about dinosaurs, the big critters were here a long time before the cowboys, cattle ranches and highway.

About 225 million years ago, the high tableland surrounding the city was a vast floodplain populated by small dinosaurs, huge reptiles and fish-eating amphibians. It was the Triassic Period, and when it ended, the area sank and was flooded by a sea. When plants and animals died, they were covered by freshwater sediments.

Eventually, through a series of upheavals and stresses, the huge trees were turned into petrified logs and the dinosaurs became fossils. Examples of both are common in Petrified Forest National Park, off Interstate 40 about 25 miles east of Holbrook.

One of the more spectacular finds was Gertie, who was dug up on the grounds in 1984. Gertie's place in dinosaur genealogy still confounds paleontologists, but casts of her bones are on display at the Rainbow Forest Museum, in the southern end of the park.

So that's the basis for the dinosaurs, which now rise above the rust-colored flatlands in and around the area.

• The dinos outside Stewart's Petrified Wood, a tourist stop about 15 miles east of Holbrook, are a prime example of imagination and salesmanship. Three green dinosaurs stand there; one is snarfing a department store mannequin in a historically suspect tableau.

Charles and Gazell Stewart operate the shop, off I-40 at Exit 303, where they sell petrified wood, meteorites and souvenirs. Charles built the dinosaurs out of chicken wire and concrete after watching a television documentary about Route 66.

"They said something about this being the land of dinosaurs, and we qualify," he said.

The gimmick apparently works. Stewart has photos and other proof that musician Ray Price, comedian Jerry Seinfeld and writers and photographers from a variety of publications have pulled off the interstate to look and, occasionally, buy something.

• The dinosaurs improve in quality and quantity about three miles east of Holbrook, where life-size denizens of sci-fi flicks stand along the interstate and urge drivers to stop at the combination Dinosaur Park, International Petrified Forest and Museum of the Americas.

There are 14 concrete dinosaurs in the park, off Exit 292, most of them showing sharp fangs and an apparent lust for vehicles. But others, such as a baby emerging from an egg, are kindlier creatures. Each critter was crafted by area artisans from reinforcing rod and concrete. Park owners are planning 12 more.

Visitors can buy stuffed toy dinosaurs in the museum gift shop, which also features pottery, jewelry and a small lunch area. The museum offers a good selection of Indian artifacts and fossils. A dirt road encircles the complex, so visitors can drive around and get close-up photos of the concrete beasts.

The park is open from dawn to dusk seven days a week. Admission is $5 per car.

• Now to downtown Holbrook, where dinosaurs serve as both art and signage.

Because Navajo Boulevard is the main thoroughfare, it's logical that most of the dinosaurs would congregate there. Visitors who come in from the north first encounter a pair of oversize carnivores at Petrified Rock Garden, a rock shop at Navajo Boulevard and California Street.

Duane Gelski, who works at the shop, said the concrete statues don't draw a particularly high number of tourists and that many who do stop are interested only in taking pictures. But, he opined, "Things are slow all over these days." Both dinos are ferocious looking and well-fanged but one sits on a flatbed trailer, leading the casual observer to question its authenticity.

Three blocks down, at Navajo and Hopi Drive, Adam Luna's creatures guard his Rainbow Rock Shop. There are seven dinosaurs, the tallest almost 25 feet. Because they're patterned after vegetarians, they're not too frightening.

Luna devoted nearly 20 years to the creation of his magnificent seven, using cement and reinforcing rod. Just around the corner, at 109 Hopi Drive, Ted Julien relies on dinosaurs for part of his income. He has operated Julien's Roadrunner for more than 30 years, selling curios, T-shirts and road signs.

Among his hottest items are T-shirts with dinosaur emblems. One was the result of a father-daughter disagreement. When Julien refused to let his daughter stay out past curfew, she responded, "Daddy, you're from the age of dinosaurs!" He incorporated her words into a design and is still using it more than a decade later.

Julien also sells a lot of old Sinclair Oil signs, the ones featuring a brontosaurus.

Finally, there's The Thing That Came From Fountain Hills.

In January, the city held a dedication ceremony for a bronze dinosaur in Living West Park, on the northwestern corner of Navajo and Hopi. The sculpture's curious route to Holbrook started in New York.

Five years ago, Jack and Joanna Lundeen and their daughter, Jeni, of Fountain Hills, visited a gallery in New York. They spotted a dinosaur sculpture, and Jeni, commenting that she had a birthday coming up, facetiously suggested that it would make a good present.

Her parents bought the sculpture, but not as a birthday present. Instead, they envisioned converting it into an outdoor shower near the swimming pool at the house they were building in Fountain Hills.

When the house was finished, they hired a crane to move the sculpture, but the crane wasn't long enough to hoist it from the driveway to the pool. So the Lundeens, who had visited Holbrook and remembered the city's other dinosaurs, proposed donating the creature to the city. City officials said the work would be an ideal centerpiece for their new park and accepted.


GETTING THERE: Holbrook is about 190 miles northeast of Phoenix. Take Interstate 17 north to Flagstaff, then Interstate 40 east to Holbrook. For a back-road trip, take Arizona 87 north to Payson, Arizona 260 east to Heber and Arizona 277 north to Arizona 377, which goes north to Holbrook.

MORE INFO: Open from dawn to dusk. Admission: $5 per car at Dinosaur Park; nominal photography fee at Rainbow Rock Shop.

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