Future Fuel

Happy Dinosaur Lovers Day!

In 1934 John Kanerva began his life’s work, building the first of more than 50 life-sized dinosaurs at the Calgary Zoo. They were cutting edge, but soon science progressed and made the models obsolete. They were replaced with models made from the Sinclair Oil Exhibit dinosaurs (1964-65 New York World's Fair) in 1983. Today, only one of the original dinosaurs remains. "Dinny", a brontosaurus, was declared an Alberta Historical Resource in 1987.

There is very little information about the Lost Dinosaurs of St. George's Island.

2004 Artist Trust Auction, Seattle
3" x 5" acrylic on wood

Comments

[Roger Vickers]

Your information regarding Dinny the Dinosaur in Calgary, Alberta is wrong. Sinclair Oil copied Dinny as their so-called 'Mascot' and I have the proof to make this statement.

[Kipling]

I was under the impression that Dinny is the only Kanerva dinosaur left at the zoo and the rest are Sinclair replacements. Is this not true?

[W. Knerva]

Whoever you are, you're dead wrong about Dinny and John Kanerva; my Grandfather. Dinny is the last remaining concrete Dinosaur at the Zoo. All the other concrete reptiles were destroyed; that's fact. However, the statement that replicas of Grandad's work came from Sinclair Oil is nonesense. That's a fact. Do you know who named Dinny? Do you know how high Dinny is? Do you know how long Dinny is and how much it weighs? Did you know that Dinny is hollow? Do you know John's secret ingredient in his concrete mix? Do you know the name of the company who restored Dinny in August, 1987? Did you know that a person who worked for Sinclair Oil visited the Zoo and pilfered Dinny's design and copied it for their (Sinclair Oils) own logo 'Dino'? Typical rumours and theft are common to Americans. Do you want to find out all the FACTS? You'll have to wait until the documentary about my Grandfather is published by a Calgarian who has all the facts! That's a fact too.

[Kipling]

Hey cool, there's going to be a documentary? Awesome. When? Who is producing it?

[Sgt. Blowstack]

Ladies, please!

Nowhere in Kipling's blurb does it say that Sinclair made replicas from Kanerva's models. If Sinclair did indeed base their logo on Dinny's design, that's very interesting.

The Kanerva dinos were indeed destroyed in 1983 (except for Dinny, thankfully) and the initial replacements in the "new improved" dinosaur park across the river were indeed made from casts of the 60's World's Fair models, specifically the Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus and Struthiomimus models. Check out your old mid-60's issues of National Geographic magazine for the double page Sinclair ads if you don't believe me. The original World's Fair models had some moving parts, such the Tyrannosaus jaw and the Triceratops head, which are absent on the fiberglass replicas. The fact that these replacements were touted at the time as as being more "up-to-date" than the old Kanerva models is a telling reflection on the fact that Calgary often has tended to not have a whole lot of regard for its cool old stuff. By '83, in paleontology circles, the old World's Fair models were regarded as no more accurate than the old Kanerva ones. At least the Kanerva models were made locally by a native Calgarian.

I think Kipling's painting is a really nice tribute to the hard work that John Kanerva put into the original prehistoric park. I grew up here and I have fond memories of it which were brought back by this piece, which she got the inspiration for from one of my old postcards. I find it sad that there are so many people in this city nowadays that have no idea that the park even existed.