14 Roadside Dinosaur Attractions Worth the Stop

Onsted, Michigan, right off of the U.S. Highway 12, might seem like an odd place to find an apatosaurous. But in 1963, this town with a population of less than a thousand was home to a whole cadre of life-size fiberglass dinosaurs. These “terrible lizards” were once part of The Prehistoric Forest, an attraction on the site of a real tar pit complete with waterfalls and a fossil digging area.

Sadly, the park fell into ruin over the years, but road-trippers can still see the decaying remnants. As bizarre as that may seem, it’s not even that much of an anomaly. Dinosaur parks were once popular roadside attractions in the United States. Although many have seen better days, there are dozens of them in various states of dilapidation scattered around the nation.

From “Warty Willy,” an animatronic stegosaurus in Akron, Ohio, to the Dinosaur House, a retired schoolteacher’s life-long passion project in Henderson, Nevada, here are some places to glimpse the ruins of the land before time.