Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A Bygone Thunderbeast


When I was young, there was a tacky tourist attraction in the small central Oregon town of Chemult called Thunderbeast Park. Never went there...it was quite distant. As I recollect, there was a sign advertising the place along the highway leading from Portland to Mt Hood...and the park was 231 miles from the sign. I never got there and it's long gone, but here is a legacy product of Thunderbeast Park...one of the original prehistoric statues from the grounds, now fronting an automotive place 30-40 miles south of Chemult. I believe this is a Baluchitherium (need to check Wiki) which was an immense prehistoric mammal that lived 20-30 million years ago...much larger than a modern elephant or rhino. Just a little trivia from the era of 1940s/50s tourist traps.

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