George the T. rex in his Vernal rodeo regalia, aglow at night.

George the T. Rex

Vernal, Utah

George Millecam built Vernal's green T. rex in 1969, one of seven dinosaurs that he made out of concrete in the late 1960s, and the only one still in town. He moved the 23-foot-tall beast to its current spot, across from his now-gone Dine-A-Ville Motel, in 1971. According to his daughter, when George later leaned that the patch of land on which the T. rex stood would be given a curb and gutter and that he'd have to pay additional taxes on it, he indignantly gave both the property and the T. rex to the town government.

Watermelon chomping dinosaur.

Glade Allred, Vernal's street superintendent, began dressing the dinosaur for the holidays in 1991. Over the next few years Allred and his staff created a year-round selection of props for the dinosaur, including a Pilgrim hat and turkey drumstick for Thanksgiving, bunny ears for Easter, and a cowboy hat and half-eaten watermelon for the 4th of July.

George the T. rex decked out for Easter.

Over the years the dinosaur gradually changed into a T. rex caricature, with increasingly ragged teeth and goggly bulbs for eyes. Christmas lights dangled off of its legs year-round. But the town rallied, and in 2024 Vernal cleaned up the dinosaur, gave it a makeover, transformed it into a respectable likeness of George Millecam's original version, and named it "George" in his honor.