There is a giant, blue dinosaur on the intersection of Arrowhead Trail and Del Monte Rd. in Spanish Fork that is causing some heads to turn.
The dinosaur, which appears to be a brachiosaurus, stands about 12 feet high and 20 feet long, and sits atop a bed of rocks. There appears to be no real rhyme or reason for the dino replica to be stationed where it is, but according to its creator, Wayne Shepherd, the reason is simple: He likes dinosaurs.
“I just like dinosaurs,” he said. “I always liked dinosaurs when I was young.”
The blue dino isn’t the first dinosaur that Shepherd has built. In fact, the first one was built 30 years ago in 1995, and was quite a bit smaller. It was also orange, and was made to look like Dino on the Flintstones. It had light bulbs in its eyes so that it could be plugged to have its eyes light up. That first dinosaur was so popular that in 1999, Spanish Fork High School approached Shepherd to see if the dino, along with students, could be featured in a picture for the yearbook.
“Everybody loved it,” he said. “I had it on the front lawn and the high school was taking pictures for the yearbook. They all came down and thought they could all sit on it for the picture.”
Unfortunately, the weight of all the students caused the neck to break. Shepherd recalled trying to fix the original orange dino, but he wasn’t able to. He had to demolish the dinosaur, and for the next 18 years, his front yard was devoid of a 4-legged prehistoric creature. Over the years, however, friends and community members asked Shepherd when he was going to build another dinosaur, and in 2017, he decided it was time to bring it back – this time, he wanted to build it to last.
“I always had it on my mind to rebuild the dinosaur because everybody kept asking what happened to it,” Shepherd said. “When I retired, I decided I’d build another one out there on the road so everybody could see it.”
For many years, Shepherd worked as a groundskeeper at the hospital, and from time-to-time, the hospital had replaced its light poles. He knew that in order to make the structure of his dinosaur strong, it needed steel.
“I worked at the hospital and whenever they replaced the light poles in the parking lots, I brought them home,” Shepherd said. “I used the parking lot light poles to build the structure and the frame inside, so it’s got a whole steel structure inside it. The backbone, tail, head and the legs are all welded together with a solid metal structure.”
To reinforce the steel, Shepherd poured cement around the legs and then put wire around the body, neck and head, stuccoed it and covered it in paper mache to hold the stucco. He named the new dino Lucy, and the rest is history.
“I didn’t even know what I was doing,” Shepherd said. “I just like trying things, so I just thought, ‘well, this would work, this doesn’t work.’ It was mostly trial and error.”
At 70-years-old, Shepherd said that seeing residents enjoy the fruits of his labor is what makes it all worthwhile.
“The goal was just for people to enjoy it,” he said.
Shepherd said he welcomes all who want to stop by and get a picture with Lucy and hopes that she can stand the test of time this go-around.
