Barney's front yard at Arizona's Bedrock City.

Bedrock Cities: Homes of the Flintstones

Everyone's favorite modern Stone Age family has been put through the corporate entertainment cyclotron the past few years. The Flintstone Show at Universal Studios -- coupled with the live-action film antics of John Goodman, Rick Moranis and whoever it was who played Wilma -- have put new spins on a perfectly good old cartoon.

Vintage view of the Bronto-burger Drive-in.

Today's children ask themselves: "Is Betty Rubble a cartoon, or just something Rosie O'Donnell did before she became famous?"

Take heart, loyal Bedrock fans. Two (and possibly more) Flintstone Bedrock City attractions exist: one in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and one near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. With their roots firmly in the cell-animation universe of the original (which ran from 1960-66, and is rerun today in over 80 countries), they are touchstones of two-dimensional reality in an increasingly cross-platformed world.

The Bedrock City in Custer, SD, was the first. Sprawling across 30 acres, it was the brainchild of several local concrete makers, who figured that with their abundance of raw materials, building a modern Stone Age town would be easy.

 

Up went Fred's house, then Barney's, then Mr. Slate's. Then the main street, with a working radio station and fire department. The bank employs glamour mannequin tellers, who are frozen in a perpetual holdup by a dwarf caveman. Next door, a butcher attempts to cut off the head of a turtle, who pulls in her head just ahead of the knife again and again, hurling verbal abuse in the process. A 20-foot-tall statue of Dino guards the park entrance.

Dino, Custer, SD

At one end of main street is Mt. Rockmore, a mini Mt. Rushmore, with Fred, Barney and Dino included as the famous heads. Visitors are encouraged to take a ride in a Flintmobile and to have a Brontoburger. Live Fred and Barney's walk around and shake hands.

As reassuring as Custer's Bedrock may be, it's still in South Dakota and it isn't open in the winter. That's why we're lucky to have a second Bedrock City, closed only on Christmas, in relatively nearby Valle, AZ. With 365-days-a-year camping, this is a place for those who savor the Stone Age year-round.

Bedrock II stands out on a flat, windy, rocky plain south of the Grand Canyon. Built in 1972, it originally had a live Fred & Barney like the Custer Bedrock -- but the isolation of the site and the lack of local workers quickly made that impractical. All of the buildings -- post office, jail, beauty parlor, houses -- are barren, except for a few sturdy concrete items and worn out pieces of junk. They're painted in garish colors with Kelly Moore paints.

Custer's Barney and Fred greet you.

Still, this Bedrock is far from extinct. The Fredmobile tram loops through a volcano and the Bedrock Theater plays cartoons; audio is broadcast over loudspeakers. U-B-The-Flintsones photo cutouts are available for treasured video and pix mementos.

The Valle Bedrock is licensed for merchandising by Hanna Barbara, and although that confers benefits -- the attraction got shiny new fiberglass statues of all the Flintstones characters last year -- it has drawbacks as well. Pressure platforms in front of Fred and Barney used to trigger nutty audio patter, but the suits at Hanna Barbara, blind to the multimedia needs of tourists, told Bedrock to shut off the tapes.

Flintmobile, Valle, AZ.

"It wasn't presenting the image they wanted," Bedrock told us. Although the movie boosted attendance, it was more valuable to Bedrock for the cornucopia of new merchandise that could be resold in its gift shop.

2003: Site visit to Custer -- things looked pretty much the same.

2002: Two long operating Flintstones-themed attractions in Canada are reported closed since 1998; one turned into a Dinosaur park, the other in Kelowna, British Columbia demolished and replaced by a 10-cinema movie theater and strip mall.

April 1999: See ya, Wilma...Jean Vander Pyl, the internationally known voice of Wilma Flintstone, died on April 13, 1999, at age 79, of lung cancer at her home in Dana Point, CA. Jean was the last of the living Flintstones performers.

Aside from Wilma, she was also the voice of Pebbles and Mrs. Slate, the wife of Fred Flintstone's boss. Amazingly, Jean also played the part of seven of the characters on "The Jetsons," including Rosie the robot maid, George Jetson's mother-in-law, his secretary, and Mrs. Spacely, the wife of George's boss.