Giant Dinosaurs in the Desert – Not Just in Pee Wee’s Movie!

One of Mod Betty's favorite movies ever is Pee Wee's Big Adventure and when I learned that the giant dinosaurs featured therein were not just built for the movie, but were actually a place us mere mortals could visit - well - bucket list added to, and now accomplished!

Off Route 10 in Cabazon, CA (1.5 hours west of Los Angeles, and an easy 20 min from Palm Springs) these roadside giants were originally built to draw attention to the Wheel Inn truckstop diner, also featured in Pee Wee's movie:

The restaurant was opened in 1958 by Claude Bell who also worked as a sculptor and artist at Knott's Berry Farm. He began construction on the first dinosaur in 1964, and it took him 11 years to complete.

This Brontosauraus (now updated to Apatosaurus) is 45 feet tall, 150 feet long, and is thought to be the first dinosaur to be used as a building, as it houses a gift shop (closed when we visited even tho the sign said it should be open :-( )

The story behind the dino construction it is actually kind of awesome, as Claude created it using materials salvaged from the construction of Interstate 10 to build it. While he did have help from an iron worker, and a pal of his offered to paint "Dinny" (pronounced Dine-y) for a case of soda and a dollar, he did all the other work himself.

Click here for a cool photo of Dinny's steel skeleton before it was covered with sprayable concrete.

The other dinosaur, "Rex" was started in 1981, and is most famous in my mind for where PW and Simone realize everybody has big "buts" that they can't deny. ;-)

Claude passed away in 1988 and the attraction was sold in the early 1990s to a group that believes in Creationism, not Evolution. To which I say, "To each their own."

In September of 2013, the Wagon Wheel suddenly closed too with the addition of a Burger King and Denny's to the neighborhood, and much of the traffic that used to stop there has now been diverted to the new casino down the street. To which I say "boooooo!"

Now here's where Mod B really screwed up - because the gift shop in Dinny was closed, I assumed the whole attraction was closed, so we just snapped some photos and left.

But according to my retro-research I now am reading that if you pay to get into the museum way in the back, you can still climb up into Rex's mouth just like PW and Simone. Dang it in me believing the signs! Though...it does give us a good excuse to go back there again - yeah that's it!

So here's how my screw up can help you - as of this writing my contact at the dinos confirms you can go up in the T Rex and  even Dinny, so please do...

don't have a big BUT...!