It’s an interesting town, Dinosaur, Colorado 81610. It’s on the south side of US Highway 40, a very short distance east of the Utah border.
And it touches on the Colorado part of Dinosaur National Monument. The Wikipedia entry gives specifics:
The Town of Dinosaur is a Statutory Town located in Moffat County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 339 at the 2010 census.[5]
The town of Dinosaur was originally named Artesia; the current name was adopted in 1966, to capitalize on the town’s proximity to Dinosaur National Monument.[6] The monument headquarters is located just east of the town on U.S. Highway 40.
And:
Many streets in the town are named after dinosaurs, including Cletisaurus Circle, Tyrannosaurus Trail, and Antrodemus Alley.[8]
It’s a setup, a straight line waiting for a good comedian.
Brian Switek, the science writer now based in Salt Lake City, suggests one area ripe for comedy:
http://twitter.com/Laelaps/status/417128850762391553
Wait. What? Dinosaur Baptist Church?
Brian Tweeted that he wasn’t looking to ridicule, but: “I just imagined thyreophorans, maniraptorans, sauropodomorphs, and their ilk in the congregation.”
That might produce even more comedic situations.
It’s a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated congregation. Aren’t you curious how Sunday school goes for dinosaur-crazy kids in such a church, in such a town?
Signs of life, signs of the times, signs of something!
Another shot of the directional sign for Dinosaur Baptist Church, from earlier in 2011, I think. From Text of the Day.
From a different angle, one can see that the church is just a couple of blocks off of Stegosaurus Freeway. Wow.
2007 photo of the sign showing street signs at the intersection of 6th Street and Stegosaurus Freeway. Photo by Will Gelnaw, who has copyright to it.
Still, it’s fun to imagine a nice, small town church, with dinosaurs in the back pews singing along. (Instead, Chris Clarke suggested, they are hiding in the Rocks of Ages . . .)
More:
Welcome to Dinosaur, Colorado (Photo credit: J. Stephen Conn)
- Groups Push to Find Industry-Outdoors Balance in Dinosaur, CO (publicnewsservice.org)
- Dinosaur National Monument (mysoul dothdelight.wordpress.com)
- Signs: “Church” Warning signs? (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- More good stuff from Chris Clarke, here at Coyote Crossing
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Dinosaur was originally called Artesia. As a native of this part of Colorado, we went through there occasionally, and discussed the name change when it happened in the 1960s. My father liked the name Artesia and he told me a story about the artesian well that was located there. I remember no details about that story, unfortunately, but maybe I’ll drive up there some clear cold day and see if I can find out more about it. We all liked the street signs, and considered changing the names of the streets in Rifle, Colorado. If Dinosaur could have dinosaur street signs, why couldn’t we have streets named after guns? Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
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