Thanks to the website Geekologie, I learned that there is a town called Dinosaur in Colorado! It sounds like a fun place. Who wouldn’t want to live on Ceratosaurus Circle or Diploducus Drive? Too bad it’s 500 km away from my house. But given that it’s in Colorado, I wonder if any of those streets are older than 6000 years?
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The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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October 28th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Never had you pegged for a geekologie reader Phil. Hooray Dinosaurs!
October 28th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
It’s a nice little town. We stayed there when we went to Dinosaur National Monument (back before they had to close the visitor center for repairs.)
October 28th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Been there. Not exciting. I see Dinosaur has street view in Google Maps. Yikes.
Named Artesia until 1966 (Wikipedia). On US40, near Dinosaur National Monument (which IS worth a visit).
Y2K population 319. Don’t miss it if you can.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
True Fact: Dinosaur National Monument headquarters is in Dinosaur CO, but the Monument’s dinosaur quarry is in Utah.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I used to live near there between Rangely and Dinosaur in the old oil camps back in the early 80′s. Its a nice little community without much to do besides hunt prairie dogs, coyotes, and deer. Lots of fun 4×4 and motorcycle trails around there (I put 5,000 miles on a 100cc dirt bike there one summer) .
It also some of the darkest skies in the US – high and dry and no light pollution. I can remember camping near there many nights and during the summer, the Milky Way was bright enough to almost read by!!!
My folks live near there now, down in Grand Junction, and we try to go up there every couple of years to see what is now – nothing much about that area has changed in the last 50 yrs – and that is a good thing!!!
October 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Passed through there last month on the way home from RMNP. We ended up in Vernal that afternoon so we kind of flashed through downtown Dinosaur, but I would say the streets are pretty recent. Mid-Anthropocene probably, definitely not 6000 years old.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I can’t believe you’ve never been to Dinosaur. The quarry at Dinosaur National Monument is way cool. I heard they’ve had to close the building to the public but you might be able to take your “scentist” street cred and get access. Even if you don’t see the quarry this is a great part of the country to visit.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
My family road-tripped there from Boulder when I was little. It was amazing for a little, dinosaur-loving kid like I was.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
There’s not much to recommend Dinosaur except that it has a fairly well stocked liquor store and it’s on the way to the put-in for the Lodore Canyone whitewater river run.
You indeed won’t find Dinosaurs at Dinosaur. The quarry near Vernal, Utah has been closed since 2006 because the building was deemed unsafe. A new building has been authorized but it’s still in the planning stage.
http://www.nps.gov/dino/why-is-the-quarry-visitor-center-closed.htm
October 28th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I’m in favor of any town that would have a 5 1/2 St!
October 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
There are actually two entrances to the park. The canyon area has great geology, and really neat cliff art, but no dinosaurs.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Dinosaur, Colorado is featured in the latest issue of Dark Avengers. People passing through town are disappearing, and Norman Osborn’s crew of misfits and bad guys posing as heroes has been tasked with investigating the disappearance of an influential Senator’s daughter. So far the Sentry, Moonstone/Ms. Marvel, and Osborn himself (in his Iron Patriot armor) have disappeared as well.
Outgeek that.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I don’t know if it is Google or the town itself, but they misspelled “Tyrannosaurus” (only used one “n”).
I mean, gosh, if you’re going to do a paleo-geek theme to your town, at least make the effort to get it right!
October 28th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I’m guessing they’ve been around longer than the correction of Brontosaurus
Maybe they should rename it Apatosaurus.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Ya know – I drove through Dinosaur the morning of August 11 this year. This was after departing Steamboat about 8pm and driving West as long as I could – until I stopped about midnight maybe 70 miles East of Dinosaur – and watched the Persiads from a “scenic view” parking area well off the road and well away from lights. Best shower I had EVER seen.
I got a little rest, left the lot about 4am and was through Dinosaur unfortunately something like 5am – so I didn’t see much. We did stop and take a photograph of the sign at the Utah border though. It is the worst one from the entire trip – it is amusingly full of bullet holes.
JC
October 28th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Phil, we need to get you over here to the western slope. As a resident of this great state, you needn’t spend all your time on the wrong side of the mountains! Come on over– we’ll find something for you to do.
By the way, Yojimbo, those funny numbered streets are pretty common in towns on the far left side of the state. Visitors often find them amusing. They do, in fact, have their own logic, though: they tell you how far away you are from (for whatever reason) Utah! 5 1/2 street or road, or what have you, would be a north-south running street, that lies 5 1/2 miles from the state line. I grew up on 31 road — 31 miles east of the zion curtain!
October 28th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Phil–there are many other places in Colorado with evocative names worth checking out.
For chemistry buffs, there is the hamlet of Radium.
For those that like cleanliness, there is Hygiene, which is actually in Boulder County.
And then there’s always Rifle and No Name in Garfield, County.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Well we know that the earth is only about 6,000 years old, so I’m going with “No, they’re not.”
I keed
October 28th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
@Mig
Thanks – I figured there was a logic to it, but didn’t know it was that. Sort of a small-scale version of the town of Halfway OR (where I lived once), so named becauuse it was on the 45th parallel.
Anyway – I just like the fraction, like Don Gillis’ Symphony No. 4 1/2.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
The western part of Colorado is much prettier than the eastern part, assuming you consider the Rockies as the dividing line and belonging to neither side. You’ve got Dinosaur, CO National Monument, Grand Mesa, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde National Park, a lot of stuff I’ve forgotten, and a lot of cool stuff in between.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Hmmm… the BA makes me wonder if the BA must think the earth is barely 6000 years old simply because he’s in Colorado. None of my pals in Co are even religious.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
We camped near there in Dinosaur National Monument on our way to Hell’s Canyon (for geology field camp). There were (as expected) lots of dinosaur statues and signs all around the town.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
You’re welcome, Yojimbo. And, thank you for sending me rushing about for information on Don Gillis’ symphonies; I rather enjoyed that.
I’d like to add a quick note regarding Bunk’s comment above: Western Colorado is a beautiful place, and I would encourage any and all to visit if they get the chance. This being the BA Blog, your mention of the Grand Mesa brings up a point that may interest folks here: the night sky from the Mesa is stunningly spectacular. At just over 10,000 feet in elevation, and, perhaps most importantly, very accessible, it would tough to imagine a better to place go see a sky bursting with stars, with so little effort. While light pollution from Grand Junction and some of the smaller towns surrounding the mountain has gotten worse since I was a kid, that can be minimized by traveling away from Grand Junction, and staying on the top — the flat part — of this enormous mesa. (The mountains around Santa Fe, NM come to mind as, perhaps, another good spot. However, Santa Fe is a larger city than Grand Junction, so light may be more of a problem there.)
Sorry, I’m really not trying to sell anything.
I think I was just thrilled to have my little part of the world mentioned, today. (Plus, I haven’t had much sleep, so I get kinda chatty.)
October 28th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I spent my earliest years playing in Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, SD.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
“But given that it’s in Colorado, I wonder if any of those streets are older than 6000 years?”
No, the streets are only a few seconds old, our brain builds them as and when we look at them.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:03 am
I’ve recently learned about a Jurrasic jigsaw puzzle at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry near Price, UT. I hope to pay a visit some day soon. It apparently has a very large collection of fossils that are inexplicably mixed up but still in good condition. Wikipedia provides some additional information about the mystery of the fossils too.
There’s another dinosaur museum in Western Colorado near I-70 called Dinosaur Journey Museum. I was there some years ago, and my recollection now is what the kids would describe as “meh”. Nothing special.
I’ve seen a few (non-dinosaur) fossils on BLM lands while camping in the wild horse area near South Shale Ridge area. I can second the recommendation for the excellent night sky viewing in the area.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Yes, those streets are “rendered in real time” as we say in the fulldome production business.
October 29th, 2009 at 1:59 am
I wonder if Jesus rode his raptor down the streets?
October 29th, 2009 at 2:50 am
There’s this wonderful island of sanity in Colorado known as Boulder. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just sayin’.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:48 am
A couple photos of some dinosaurs of the genus Artificia taken in the general area of Dinosaur, as well as a couple of the petroglyphs in the National Monument: http://www.flickr.com/photos/essentialsaltes/3564936048/in/set-72157618792756034/
October 29th, 2009 at 9:10 am
But if your living in Dinosaur are you livng in the past & doomed to extinction?
October 29th, 2009 at 9:13 am
@ 9. BJN Says:
There’s not much to recommend Dinosaur except that it has a fairly well stocked liquor store
Hey, what more do you need?
October 29th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Whoah, there’s a flashback.
I grew up in the comparatively bigger, but still tiny, town of Meeker, ~75 mi. to the east of there.
I don’t remember that much about elementary school, but I do remember enjoying field trips to Dinosaur Nat’l Monument. Don’t recall much of anything about the town itself. I think it’s pretty unremarkable in all but name.
October 30th, 2009 at 9:00 am
@Mig – to bake Yojimbo’s noodle, point him at Grand Junction streets – my folks live on E 1/2 street (thats not east one half, but rather the street halfway between E and F) =-) Mig is right – its pretty common over on the Western Slope. Go to Mormon towns in Utah and you’ll be amazed at how they lay down a street naming grid – it would do a scientist/engineer proud! =-)
You are correct about the Grand Mesa – I miss living out there and go visit my folks at least once every year during ski season! =-)
I learned to ski on Powderhorn a few decades ago and brought my daughter here when she was 6 to teach her how to ski. Its not the biggest mountain, but you don’t have crowds and the price is always fair.