Dinosaur Land entrance, 1996.

Dino Jaws of Dinosaur Land

White Post, Virginia

In the early 1960s Joe Geraci owned a gift shop named Rebel Korn'r in White Post, Virginia. Every year he'd head to Florida during the off-season. On his 1963 trip, he was impressed by the dinosaurs at one mini-golf course, so he had their creator, Jim Sidwell, build several saurians to stand outside the Rebel Korn'r.

Dinosaur Land entrance, 2008.

They proved so popular -- and frequently vandalized -- that Joe eventually moved them behind the shop and converted it into an attraction named Dinosaur Land.

Joe now needed something new out front to grab attention for his backyard dinosaurs. He cannibalized another Florida innovation: the giant entrance mouth at Gatorland, built in 1962. While other alligator attractions were legally prevented from copying Gatorland's open-jawed concept, Joe's big chompers were too remote and too prehistoric to be considered competitive. And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, more gift shops have since created their own toothy portals.