Interstate 10 is an unusual stretch of road.  As well as the requisite million different burger joints, & the now-defunct Spanky’s BBQ (RIP Spanky), there are multiple windmill farms (quite a beautiful sight to behold) & some major designer discount shopping.  & then, of course, there are the dinosaurs.

Most famous for appearing in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (yes, those dinosaurs!), the Cabazon Dinosaurs site is home to Dinny, a 150-ton building in the shape of an Apatosaurus, & Mr. Rex, a 100-ton Tyrannosaurus Rex sculpture (shown above).  They were started in 1964 by Claude K. Bell, a sculptor & artist from Knott’s Berry Farm.  He had opened a restaurant on the I-10, the Wheel Inn Cafe, & decided to create the dinosaurs as a way of attracting visitors to pull off the highway & have a meal.  He planned for Dinny’s eyes to glow ferociously & for his mouth to spit fire at night, saying, “It’ll scare the dickens out of a lot of people driving up over the pass.”  Unfortunately, these two features were never added to Dinny’s glorious visage.  It took 11 years for Dinny to be completed, & he was painted by a friend of Claude’s for one dollar & a case of Dr. Pepper.  Mr. Rex was constructed in 1981.

Since then, the Wheel Inn Cafe has sadly given way to a dreary Burger King which seems to service only the constant stream of visitors who take the exit to visit their prehistoric friends, & the Cabazon Dinosaurs are owned & operated by a collective of creationists.  Yes, it’s true!  Dinny’s belly is now home to a creationist museum, where signs say incredible things like, “Don’t swallow it! The fossil record does not support evolution.”

If you’re in the mood for a bit of twisted education, you can pay $5 for entry, where you can see a sculpture of King Arthur battling a dinosaur (with a rock?), while a lion & lamb watch on.  There are some other fun facts about how Java Man is a myth & we could not possibly have evolved from apes because our feet are too different.  Hmmmm.  Take it with a grain of salt.  Dinosaurs were Jesus’ pets, indeed!

Words by Gala Darling with photos by Seth Johnson