When Dinosaurs Fought In The Civil War

Between 1861 and 1865 the bloodiest battles in US history were fought on American soil during the American Civil War. For more than four violent years, armies fought and died after 11 Southern Confederate states seceded from the United States of America over the right to own slaves. After 750,000 American citizens died, combat finally ended with the abolition of slavery and surrender by the Confederate army. But what if something else had happened?

Try then, to imagine that 200 million years earlier (on land that would come to be known by us as a historic Civil War battlefield) massive dinosaurs walked on the same ground fighting their own bloody battles for survival.

Leave it to the imagination of Mark Cline to show us what things might look like had these two events taken place concurrently.  In his now defunct attraction Escape from Dinosaur Kingdom (2005-2012), visitors could see what might have transpired had the Union army captured and used carnivorous dinosaurs as weapons against the Confederate troops!

Located in Natural Bridge, VA’s tourist complex, Cline had created four unique and separate attractions. Visitors could stop to his free sculptural attraction “Foamhenge” (a true to scale Styrofoam replica of Stonehenge), the could “Hunt Bigfoot with a Redneck” (I’ll give you one guess who the Redneck was!) and they could walk through his beloved Haunted Monster Museum (which turned out to be one of our most popular Enchanted Kiddieland posts!). Included with your value price 2 for 1 admission to the Monster Museum, you also got to travel back to 1863 and visit his imaginative”Dinosaur Kingdom.”

Already an expert after building more than 400 dinosaurs for roadside attractions and theme parks, Cline knew that his Dino park would need to be different if it was going to stand out. Lucky for us, he possesses an incredible imagination and an even more powerful sense of humor! The park’s concept is loosely based on the 1969 Ray Harryhausen film, Valley of the Gwangi, (Which pits cowboys against dinosaurs in a special effects Dynamation spectacular!)

Cline imagined a similar scene substituting cowboys with Union Soldiers as villains who use the Dinosaurs as weapons against the South (after all, this attraction is in the former Confederate state of Virginia!) Before you get too upset about the political ramifications of the south winning the Civil War, Cline has stated that he had hoped to build a second Civil War dinosaur park in Gettysburg wherein the Confederate soldiers are the bad guys. Regrettably, that dream never came to fruition.

Dinosaur Kingdom begins its storytelling through journals violently strewn about a campsite with pots and pans, and overturned wagons. By reading the notebooks, visitors can surmise that a family of paleontologists entered a cave in search of fossils only to find living dinosaurs that had escaped (and were now being used by the North to win the war!)! You can see the civilian mother and father Garrison danging precariously in the trees above the sharp teeth of a hungry carnivore.  

As guests entered the self guided wooded park, they’d hear the sounds of nature; sticks cracking under shoes and birds- but beyond this, was the omnipresent laughter of children (and adults!) as they were welcomed into wacky the mind of Mark Cline for a short while. A button with a hand painted sign reading “Feeding Time” begs to be pushed, only to discover that you are standing directly beneath the motorized jaws of a hungry T Rex and a dangling deer carcass! A sign tacked to a tree warned “Don’t Look Up!”, but of course you did, only to see an angry reptile climbing straight toward you. In one scene, a herd of curious raptors surrounds farm animals who had all stacked themselves on top of one another until there was a trembling rabbit sitting on the back of a deer who was sitting on the back of a cow resulting in classic cartoon imagery. One of my favorite gags was a full sized port-a-potty that looked no different from any other, but if you were brave enough to open the door you were met with a shocked looking Yankee soldier being attacked by dinosaurs that had busted through the back walls while he was taking care of business.

Part Wild West park, part Dinosaur Park, part Roadside tourist trap, this place was a dream come true for some road weary travelers who didn’t even know it was here. The park opened in 2005, and our visit was in 2008, meaning it was in a mostly complete state. However, as an ongoing project, Mark Cline continued to add characters and beasts as the years went on. I’m told that later iterations included Abraham Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address, and even a gorilla wearing a cowboy hat. (Hey, don’t tell me you’re getting upset about historical accuracy now!)

Unfortunately, along with the heartbreaking loss of the Monster Museum, much of the attraction was destroyed in a devastating fire in 2012. The park sat vacant for years with an online notice to “check back in 2013.” Folks like me started to lose hope, checking back not only in 2013, but in 2014, and 2015  as well finding no status change.

However, you can’t keep a good dinosaur park down, and like a Phoenix  no, like a Pterodactyl rising from the ashes, the park has some exciting news on the horizon. Last fall, the dinosaurs made a limited engagement appearance at Clark’s Eliok Farm  to terrorize some fairy tale characters (YES, PLEASE!) in the temporary “Enchanted Dinosaur Forest“.  Clark’s Farm, which regular Kiddieland readers will recognize as a sanctuary for rescued Enchanted Forest, MD figures housed the salvaged dinosaurs from September to November 2015 in a hysterical mash up of Dinosaurs and storybook characters that could only come from the off-kilter mind of Professor Cline!

Photo Courtesy of Enchanted Castle Studios

We were so thrilled to see that many of the dinosaurs had survived, but this story has an even happier ending. According to his Facebook page, Mark Cline is planning to bring Dinosaurs back to Natural Bridge, Virginia with the opening of Dinosaur Kingdom II in June 2016! Based on this concept art, my guess is that guests may be riding through this one on by train? Oh, I am so there!

Photo Courtesy of Enchanted Castle Studios

So don’t fret, though you may have never gotten to experience the weirdness of the original Dinosaur Kingdom and Haunted Monster Museum, it looks like this summer you may be able to marvel at these Jurrassic giants once again in Natural Bridge!

Thanks for all the memories, Mark!

A real life Jurassic Park…sort of

Are you eagerly awaiting next week’s theatrical release of Jurassic World? In Kiddieland, we love larger than life dinosaurs too, and we’ve been visiting dinosaur parks long before it was the focus of this summer’s big blockbuster! The Jurassic Park films imagine an attraction with life sized living, breathing dinosaurs, but did you know you can visit such a place today!…except for well-OK so they don’t move or breath-But trust us, it is still a pretty incredible sight to behold!

You won’t believe your eyes when you step back 200 million years into Dinosaur Kingdom! Opened in 2003 in Cave City Kentucky off Route 65, this park harkens back to earlier roadside attractions like Dinosaur Land in VA. Classically designed billboards and giant highway adjacent dinosaurs call out to drivers encouraging them to stop. The park takes the best of the old roadside and updates it as a fun self-paced walk-through under lush and shady trees. (A welcome refuge in the KY summer heat!)

Although this attraction is less than 15 years old, The entrance feels like a movie set attempting to recreate the look and feel of a 1960s attraction and reminded me of something out of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure! Something is so perfect and clean about it, yet it is reminiscent of ballyhoo entertainment from a bygone era.  It looks like a place you might see in an old postcard at a vintage shop, but you can actually step inside.

Once you enter, you’ll see dinosaurs doing all sorts of odd jobs. Some point visitors to the gift shop is, some double as playground equipment, and others take on the very dirty job of cleaning up the smoking section.

Don’t be fooled by these silly characters though, once inside you will see breathtaking views of life-sized, realistically portrayed prehistoric creatures; many of them taller than the large trees that cover the property.

The concrete walkways on the self-guided “Dinosaur Walk” include benches, so I recommend taking it slow on your visit to this 20 acre park. There are over 150 dinosaurs, so take breaks and enjoy it, and be sure to take plenty of photos! Aside from other passing families, my time spent here was very serene and peaceful. I almost wish I’d brought a book or a picnic lunch (encouraged by the park since there are no food stands). Small children can take time to learn about each dinosaur on educational plaques near the display, while mom and dad can take pictures of these giant creatures along the way.

Take a little time extra time to appreciate the exceptional attention to detail and lifelike features of some of these charismatic characters. Look at their faces long enough, and you could almost swear that they’re alive!

Aside from the main walk, The park also features a Boneyard where visitors can uncover a 27 foot dinosaur under the sand. There’s a Skeleton Garden, and a Fossil Dig too. There is also a dedicated picnic area and of course, a Gift shop! We found all sorts of vintage trinkets hiding in corners of the shop.

There are plenty of other nearby attractions to make the trip worthwhile, but we’re sad to report that the longstanding Guntown Mountain and its famous “Haunted Hotel” which was once across the street has recently closed. The silver lining is that it looks like some folks are working on preserving and revitalizing the old park and it is soon to be re-opened as “Funtown Mountain” later this month. We’ll be watching this, as Guntown Mountain was closed for the day by the time we left Dinosaur World and I never got to go inside…roadside regrets.

The park is open daily (Except Thanksgiving and Christmas) from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM and is absolutely worth the stop! Check it out the next time you’re travelling down Route 65, or visiting Mammoth Cave. You can’t miss it, just look for the giant Dinosaurs beckoning you from the side of the road.

Dino-Mite! Dinosaur Land in White Post, VA

Sometimes you find to those parks and they just feel like stepping in to another time. Oh, you thought I meant prehistoric times, oh my, no! I meant 1960s roadside America. When mom, dad, and the kids would pile in the station wagon and stop at places like this on their way to their Aunt’s house. The kind of middle of nowhere attraction that predates cell phones and handheld video games.  When you needed to break up that long trip to Aunt Edna’s this was just the place! Best of all, you can still visit it today-this is Dinosaur Land!

Dinosaur Land is the kind of place we might see in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, but if you are travelling through the Shenandoah Valley, you should swing on in for a retro good time.  The park opened in the 1960s and is still well maintained today, without losing any of it’s vintage charm. Guests can take a self guided walking tour through the wooded park and where you’ll encounter many dinosaurs-some scary, and some downright silly.  Aside from the expected Dinos, you’ll also find a giant Shark, a huge Octopus, a massive mantis,  larger than life snakes, and several other prehistoric beasts!

And no trip to Dinosaur Land is complete without  climbing the stairs to King Kong’s hand and getting a photo in his palm! 

 

Nineteen of the exhibits here were made by Mark Cline and some depict gory battles and death scenes of desperate-eyed dinosaurs caught in the teeth of a larger predator. Cline credits this park with inspiring to sculpt, and he later went on to open his own dinosaur park, Dinosaur Kingdom.

We visited on the 4th of July last year and although it was a hot balmy day in Virginia, we were cool and shaded under the trees. There were plenty of benches to rest along the walk and lots of shade to relax in. Take a slow walk back through time and check this place out. Of course there was a great gift shop with everything from sewing kits, to coin purses and leather goods. I bought anything that looked like it had been sitting here since 1960! Mod Betty took some great photos of the gift shop on her Retro Roadmap blog, which were an excellent scouting tool for seeking out those vintage goodies!

If you are looking to make a day of it, you can make the drive to Harper’s Ferry in about 40 minutes, where you can see the extraordinarily creepy John Brown Wax Museum! Hey kids, do you want to see a wax corpse hanging in a creaky old house built in the 1800s? Then this place is for you! The museum opened in 1963, and even the bravest among you will be looking over your shoulder the entire time you are there. Have fun road-trippers!

 

 

 

Professor Cline’s Haunted Monster Museum

Today’s feature is bittersweet, because this attraction is actually completely gone now, and although it falls a little outside of our usual kiddie attractions, I can’t resist telling you my story of visiting the Haunted Monster Museum.

Driving south to the tourist mecca of Pigeon Forge Tennessee, (en route to visit totally different tourist traps) we found ourselves in need of gas. When we pulled off at the exit, we were greeted with this sign:

Holeeee-y crap! Look at it again and imagine yourself on a boring road trip making a necessary stop.

Imagine our amazement-What was this place?  How have we never heard of it? Does that sign have feet?!Here we are on a 10 hour drive looking for amazing tourist attractions, and we accidentally stumble upon the mother-lode. What was this homegrown “Monster Museum” we were somehow completely unaware of? We felt like giddy children in the car. Unable to stop for the day,  as we arrived after after closing,  we eagerly vowed to stop on our return trip. What we found haunting the woods of Natural Bridge, VA amazed us and continues to be the stuff of roadside legend.

Inside a mostly respectable red brick natural park building, with creepy historic wax museums, a silly “toy museum” (that was one part toy store and one part thrift store) stood several attractions created by sculptor, Mark Cline. This was the first time I had ever heard of Mark Cline, and if you told me that I’d be lucky enough to get a tour of his most ambitious attraction given the man himself, I’d have called you a liar. Yet, here were were…in a colonial building reminiscent of so many field trips. This time it was different. This time we were buying tickets to a “Haunted Monster Museum”. We were told by a brown-haired woman that could have been anyone’s mom that we’d have to drive across the street and look for the “big monster gate”. The ticket seller assured us “You can’t miss it”. Nope, she was right. We didn’t miss it.

Once we passed through the gate and followed a short and creepy path through the woods, we found that a few other nervous travelers were already waiting outside the disheveled house. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  There was a giant one-eyed skull on the front balcony, with skeleton shutters, a snake weaving in and out of upstairs bedroom windows, and gargoyles and bats on the roof. It was quiet, except for the sounds of cracking branches and the whispering of a small group of tourists brave enough to pay the inexpensive admission price to enter this bizarre “museum”. This wasn’t like any school trip I had ever been on!

We sat on picnic benches waiting anxiously waiting for something to happen.  I started to get a little jumpy, unsure of what we had just gotten ourselves into, so when a smiling, wild-haired man came out in a neon green tee shirt and a fedora offering a “lights on” tour, I took him up on the offer; along with the family of a 6 year old girl.  This man was the amazing artist, Professor Mark Cline.

Once inside, I felt very silly for being so nervous. Like all great ballyhoo men before him, Mark proved himself a great showman. The home-made gags were not very scary, and at best were reminiscent of boardwalk dark rides and included things like neon aliens behind chicken wire. Still-something about the ominous surroundings and homegrown nature made this place feel sinister. Once I’d gone through, Professor Cline let me out through the “Chicken Door” where I found a 10 foot tall fiberglass chicken on the back porch to mock me. That Professor, ever an entertainer.

Along with the admission to this attraction, you could visit the Dinosaur Kingdom in the surrounding forests, where this wonderful weirdo (and I mean that in the best sense of the word) made an entire dinosaur park based around civil war soldiers fighting dinosaurs. (I’ll be sure to feature that at a later date!)

As a triple whammy, just down the road, Mark Cline has built FoamHenge, a Stonehenge replica made entirely of Styrofoam as an April Fool’s Joke in 2004. Good jokes don’t grow old though. Ten years later it is still there, although a little worse for wear!

Sadly,  as quickly as it appeared to us on our travels, it was gone-I was heartbroken to learn that the Monster museum was destroyed in a major fire and closed indefinitely in April 2012 along with Dinosaur Kingdom. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to visit it and see it as it stood in 2008. Next time you see a weird sign on the road and think about passing it. Do yourself a favor- Don’t. I’m so glad we stopped here, and didn’t try to “see it next time we pass through.” There was no “next time”.  If you are a fan of Mark and his work, he offers sculpting classes in Virginia specifically focused on fiberglass attractions. I would encourage anyone with a love of kiddie park repair and restoration to consider attending!

Mark Cline is a special kind of person, and we’re all lucky he’s around and scaring little kids, making giant dinosaurs, and fixing broken whales! In a world where everyone is putting in 4D interactive theaters and  virtual reality simulators, Mark is keeping it simple and keeping it real. He’s a hero to kiddie parks and boardwalks alike, and we can all be thankful for that!

If you never got to visit, Here is a video with some footage of this amazing attraction.

 

Welcome to Enchanted Kiddieland!

My name is Missy Mazzaferro, and I’ve never grown up. For the past several years I’ve been travelling to Kiddie parks built in the 1950s and 1960s and documenting them as quickly as I can before they all disappear. In doing so, I now find myself with tens of thousands of images of these quaint, enchanted parks of yesteryear. More vanish each year,  so I hope to share some of these images with you here and inspire you to visit your own local park.

So, boys and girls- buy yourself a reasonably priced ticket and grab a $2 grilled cheese sandwich (served on a frisbee) from the snack bar.  Join me in a trip back through time to visit magical lands where dinosaurs still walk the earth, Mother Goose and her fairy tale friends tell you stories,  and if you’re lucky, maybe you can catch a glimpse of the Easter Bunny or Santa and his elves hard at work in the north pole!

This is Enchanted Kiddieland!