A sampling of souvenir postcards and other collectibles from Vernal, Utah, with dinosaur imagery: The big Tyrannosaurus statue, seen on a postcard (below, left), was designed and constructed by George Milecam to promote his local Dine-A-Ville Motel in 1958. His wife Helen designed “Dinah,” the friendly bipedally posed sauropod that has become Vernal’s mascot. “Dinah” originally appeared that year as a large pink statue standing outside the motel, but has been moved to a hilltop at the edge of town, welcoming visitors to Vernal.
In 1977, Dinosaur Gardens, an outdoor display of life-sized prehistoric animals — mostly dinosaurs — was erected outside the Vernal Field House of Natural History. The models were the creations of Elbert Porter. A model Diplodocus based on the full-sized Porter statue was sold in the museum gift shop.
The three white cement dinosaur figures in front of the museum are the work of Millard Filmore Malin.
Local artist E. G. (Ernest) Untermann produced myriad, rather quaint pieces depicting the prehistoric life of Utah for the Vernal Field House of Natural History. Some of these paintings are on display, others are stored away in the museum’s collections. For years I’ve tried (with no luck) to obtain one of these paintings for my own collection.
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