Series: San Diego’s vanished roadside relics — dinosaurs, doll heads, and other highway oddities

Weird, wacky, and wonderful

A giant piece of fruit on a street corner. A suspension bridge tucked into a canyon. A dinosaur standing beside a highway long since rerouted. Even a collection of eerie “dead dolls.”

San Diego County once had a roadside landscape built for looking as much as traveling. Before the interstate system turned movement into a straight line between destinations, early highways were lined with oversized figures, handmade landmarks, and attractions designed to slow drivers down long enough to notice them.

Most are gone now. Some were dismantled, others faded as traffic shifted to the interstate system, and a few were absorbed into communities that no longer resemble the roads they once bordered. What remains is scattered — fragments of a roadside culture that once stretched across the county.

This new series explores those fragments across San Diego County — places abandoned, transformed, or still standing in unexpected forms.

Part one begins in Alpine, where a single dinosaur still stands more than half a century after the roadside attraction that built it closed.

Alpine’s Dinosaur Land

A 20-foot dinosaur still stands in Alpine more than 60 years after the roadside attraction that built it closed. The giant brontosaurus remains near Alpine Boulevard — a quiet reminder of a brief but ambitious chapter in San Diego County’s history.

On Aug. 5, 1962, William Swan opened Dinosaur Land in Alpine with an idea that fit its time: a roadside attraction that blended education and entertainment through life-sized fiberglass dinosaurs.

The park featured 10 figures, including a towering brontosaurus nicknamed “Dinosaur Bob.” Swan envisioned something larger, with plans for a volcano ride, petting zoo, cave restaurant, and other attractions that never materialized.

At the time, the attraction sat along Highway 80, a main travel corridor before Interstate 8 redirected traffic through East County. Families passing through could pull off the road and find themselves face-to-face with dinosaurs rising above the eucalyptus-lined landscape.

Roxanne Rice recalls those trips through the backcountry.

“Headed to grandma’s house in the backcountry of San Diego was quite an adventure,” she said. “I waited with anticipation to read the great Burma-Shave signs … Through those silver gray-green leaves, you could see the plastic snout of a Tyrannosaurus Rex peeking through.”

Lynn Rosenblum also remembers the attraction as part of growing up in San Diego.

“I definitely visited, and it was a big part of my childhood in the early ’60s,” she said. “People told me for years there was no dinosaur park in San Diego. But through research, I found the site again myself in 2015.”

Despite its early popularity, Dinosaur Land struggled financially and closed in 1964, just two years after opening. The shift to Interstate 8 pulled traffic away from Highway 80, cutting off the steady stream of travelers who once passed directly by the site.

Most of the fiberglass dinosaurs were removed or lost over time. The former Dinosaur Land property later became Alpine Mobile Home Estates, a residential mobile home community along Alpine Boulevard.

But one figure survived.

“Dinosaur Bob,” the 20-foot brontosaurus, still stands on private property within Alpine Mobile Home Estates, tucked into a wooded area behind several homes. Over the decades, residents have helped maintain it, and in some years it has been decorated during the holidays.

Though the attraction disappeared long ago, Dinosaur Land survives in memory, local lore, and one unlikely landmark. Hidden among the homes, Dinosaur Bob remains a reminder of a time when the journey itself was part of the attraction.

Do you remember Dinosaur Land?

Read more history stories here, and do you have a story to tell? Send an email to DebbieSklar@cox.net.

Sources:

San Diego History Center archives (Dinosaur Land, Alpine historical references)
Alpine Historical Society publications and local historical accounts
U.S. Highway 80 corridor and early East County transportation history
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) historical highway realignment records (Interstate 8 development)
Oral histories and recollections from San Diego residents (Roxanne Rice, Lynn Rosenblum)
Roadside documentation and historical references to “Dinosaur Bob” and the Alpine site