Face to face with Dinosaur George

We went to the annual "Dinosaur Day" at the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country over the weekend. Until last week, we didn't know it existed. It's not far from the big dam at Canyon Lake, only a mile or so from a house Lisa and I seriously considered buying before choosing to reside in New Braunfels instead. The museum itself doesn't consist of much. It's a small, wooden building housing a gift shop, whose sole purpose is to hold down the fort until the current million-dollar fund raising campaign concludes. The money will go to building a permanent shelter over the mmuseum's showpiece--an extensive array of dinosaur tracks that were exposed during excavation of the hillside more than 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the soft limestone is eroding rapidly in Texas' unkind climate, making the need for the permanent shelter rather acute.

The tracks that are exposed are pretty impressive. Like Dinosaur Valley State Park up in Glen Rose, the tracks are fairly distinct and well preserved (other than that unfortunate erosion problem). There are lots of iguanadon prints at the Heritage Museum site, along with predatory dinosaur tracks and a couple of mysterious trails, which may be those of giant snails.

Dinosaur World out of San Antonio was there, with a tremendous number of fossil replicas people could look at and touch. These guys were great with kids and adults alike, answering all kinds of questions clever and inane alike. George Blasing, aka "Dinosaur George," gave a humorous and enthusiastic presentation every 30 minutes to the gathered masses, which kept our girls enthralled. The man is a natural with crowds. We picked up his DVD, which views a lot like a pilot for a Discovery Channel Kids TV series, and lo and behold if he isn't in negotiations with Discovery for a program slot on Animal Planet. Good for him! Dinosaur World will be at the New Braunfels Folkfest April 23-24, and bring along their full-size Tyrannosaurus skull, but I'll be at Aggiecon that weekend. Ah well.

I recall Dinosaur World having a store in the Rolling Oaks Mall in San Antonio around 3-plus years back, which closed/relocated while I was still working at the paper there, before I landed my Texas State gig. The had a phenominal assortment of fossils and replicas. It'd be cool to find out if their new headquarters has a retail section, and if so, take the girls to marvel at all the groovy fossilized nests and skeletons we won't ever be able to afford...

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