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"CIMMY" THE CIMARRONASAURUS
Boise City, Oklahoma
Contributed by Gerald Thurman of Tempe, Arizona
Cimarrona saurus

This monumental iron sculpture was created by Joe Barrington from Throckmorton, Texas. It is located on the grounds of the Cimarron Heritage Center on Highway 287 just north of town. Two local amateur paleontologists, Bob and Norma Gene Young, financed this project. It is a life-sized model of an Apatosaurus, based upon bones that were excavated by a Dr. Stovall in 1931 about eight miles east of Kenton, Oklahoma. This sculpture is 65 feet long, 35 feet tall, and it weighs an impressive 18,000 pounds. The "dinosaur" was nicknamed "Cimmy" by a Boise City elementary school student.

Another interesting fact: Boise City (Boise rhymes with "voice") and it is the only town in the continental United States that has ever been bombed. On July 5, 1943 an Air Force B-17 mistook the lights around the courthouse square for their intended target -- a bombing range about thirty miles to the southeast. Boise City is also the site of the World Champion Post Hole Digging Contest each June during the Santa Fe Trail Daze.

Location:
Cimarron Heritage Center
1300 N. Cimarron Avenue
Boise City, OK 73933

[Click here for a larger map]

Photographed by Gerald Thurman 6/9/07
Posted on RoadTrip America 6/07