Everytime I drive by here, the song Walk the dinosaur gets stuck in my head. Does anyone else remember that song? I think it's a shame there isn't a geocache here to celebrate this great photo opportunity on the side of the road. That's why I placed one today. After you take some pictures you should walk the dinosaur... which means do the dance they do in the music video...over to the geocache! Of course this stuff is all optional. Haha!
Some information and history complied about Dino from Sinclairoil.com:
Sinclair’s advertising writers first had the idea to use dinosaurs in Sinclair marketing back in 1930. They were promoting lubricants refined from crude oil believed to have formed when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The original campaign included a dozen different dinosaurs, but it was the gentle giant, the Apatosaurus, that captured the hearts of Americans.
Apatosaurus or Brontosaurus?
DINO was called a Brontosaurus when he was first used in Sinclair advertising. So why do we call him an Apatosaurus now?
Dinosaur fossils are rare, which makes it difficult to study and classify them. Since 1903, paleontologists have had conflicting opinions about whether the Brontosaurus is its own unique genus, or whether it’s the same as the Apatosaurus. Sinclair has followed the prevailing opinions of the scientific community, which currently favors calling DINO an Apatosaurus – though new research may eventually change that.
DINO became so popular that Sinclair registered him as a trademark in 1932. Named Dino (pronounced Dy-no, unlike the Flintstones cartoon pet dinosaur Dino, pronounced Dee-no), the first life-size model was created for the 1934 Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago by P.G. Alen for a display about crude oil extraction sponsored by Sinclair Oil.
A life-size DINO appeared in the “Century of Progress” Chicago World’s Fair in 1933-1934, along with several other dinosaurs built by P.G. Alen, who was known for creating lifelike papier-mâché animals for motion pictures.
Sinclair and DINO are lovingly parodied as the fictional Dinoco brand in multiple Pixar movies, including Toy Story and Cars.
DINO first appeared as a balloon in The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1963 and quickly became an annual fan favorite – so popular that in 1975, he was named an Honorary Member of the Museum of Natural History.
In the 1991-1994 Disney TV series Dinosaurs, which featured animatronic dinosaurs by Jim Henson, Sinclair is the surname of the main characters.
Thank you to everyone who takes the time to find my caches. Happy 'cachin!