Most drivers barreling down Interstate 90 in South Dakota’s near Exit 170 don’t expect to see a giant human skeleton walking a Tyrannosaurus rex on a leash.
But there they do.
The towering roadside sculptures rise from the prairie just east of 1880 Town, an eclectic collection of buildings courtesy of a movie company’s failed venture that turned into a piece of living South Dakota history.
A massive iron skeleton of a human really is leading an iron T. rex skeleton across the South Dakota grasslands like an oversized prehistoric dog.
And the whole thing started with one man who simply wanted a dinosaur and the founder of 1880s Town, the late Clarence Hullinger.
“He always wanted to build a dinosaur,” said Scott Key, who has helped with 1880s Town operations for roughly 45 years. “When he was in his 80s he finally got around to it.”
A Dinosaur Dream
Years earlier, when the famous T. rex fossil Sue was discovered in Montana in 1990, Hullinger wished South Dakota had a dinosaur skeleton it could claim for its own.
So, he decided to build one himself.
His vision included a life-sized human skeleton attached to the beast by a leash.
The sculptures eventually took shape on property near 1880 Town, the sprawling roadside attraction west of Murdo filled with historic prairie buildings, antiques and Old West memorabilia.
The dinosaur itself had absolutely nothing to do with the carefully recreated frontier town.
That fact mattered to some family members.
“My brother never wanted the dinosaur skeleton anywhere near the town,” said Tim Hullinger, who operates the American Inn in Murdo. “He said it didn’t fit.”
Clarence, however, had an answer ready.
“My dad said the dinosaurs were there before 1880, so it fits,” Tim said.
Building A Prairie T. rex
Clarence assembled the skeletons using scrap iron and drawings as a guide, but there was one part of the dinosaur he planned to keep simple: the head.
Tim objected.
Clarence’s plan was to cut the skull from flat sheet metal. Tim said he thought the dinosaur deserved something more realistic.
“He was going to cut it out flat,” Tim said. “I said, ‘No, it needs to be three-dimensional.’”
So Tim volunteered to build the head himself.
Over about four days, he cut holes into sheet metal and hammered the steel into shape by hand before welders assembled the final structure.
Today, the dinosaur’s head still gives the sculpture much of its personality, somewhere between terrifying predator and oversized roadside mascot.
The skeleton man and his skeleton dinosaur pet seem to be heading to 1880 Town, but whether that was intentional is anyone’s best guess.
So Strange People Tried Stopping On The Interstate
The sculptures quickly became a roadside phenomenon. Drivers slowed down. Some stopped altogether.
According to both Key and Hullinger, the state eventually installed “No Parking” signs on I-90 near the sculptures because too many tourists were pulling over along the interstate shoulder to snap photos.
“The only thing we get questions about is if people can walk out there,” Key said.
The answer is no.
The sculptures were never meant to be explored up close. The land around them is fenced, and visitors are discouraged from stopping along the interstate.
Instead, the giant skeleton and his dinosaur are intended as a drive-by curiosity — something motorists glimpse at 80 mph before wondering if they imagined it.
Apparently, people remember it.
At one point, Tim received a photo from Italy showing someone wearing a T-shirt featuring the famous skeletons.
The family had never made or sold such a shirt.
“I have no idea where the T-shirt came from,” Tim said.
How 1880 Town Began
The dinosaur sculptures may steal attention from passing motorists, but the attraction they stand beside has its own unusual history.
The roots of 1880 Town date back to 1969, when Richard Hullinger — Tim's brother — purchased 14 acres at Exit 170 near Murdo. Initially, there were no plans for a tourist attraction.
A gas station came in 1972.
Then a movie production company arrived nearby to film an 1880s-era movie. The company built a frontier-style main street set and borrowed Indian artifacts and antiques from Clarence Hullinger.
Winter weather shut the production down before filming was completed.
When the movie company abandoned the project, it gave the western set to the Hullinger family.
That’s when 1880 Town was born.
Over the decades, the attraction grew into a collection of authentic prairie buildings and artifacts from the late 1800s and early 1900s, including a one-room schoolhouse, barns, shops and antique collections.
Visitors can also come face-to-face with animals commonly found in the region during the 1880s: horses, chickens, ducks — and even a camel.
Still, for many travelers speeding across South Dakota, the first thing they remember is the skeleton walking a dinosaur through the prairie grass.
Honestly, that’s probably exactly what Clarence Hullinger hoped for.
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
