The Rock and Fossil and Dinosaur Shop – Deerfield, Massachusetts - Atlas Obscura
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The Rock and Fossil and Dinosaur Shop

Deerfield, Massachusetts

This roadside attraction attracts kids with dinosaurs before blindsiding them with geology. 

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The Rock and Fossil and Dinosaur Shop rickpilot_2000 on Flickr (Creative Commons)
The Rock and Fossil and Dinosaur Shop rickpilot_2000 on Flickr (Creative Commons)
The mining attraction. rickpilot_2000 on Flickr (Creative Commons)
Happy dino replicas in the Dinosaur Forest behind the shop kendrawashere (Atlas Obscura User)
A UFO drops off an alien in the Dinosaur Forest kendrawashere (Atlas Obscura User)
A t-rex femur and other bones inside the shop kendrawashere (Atlas Obscura User)
A 3D Dinosaur Wall roars behind the shop kendrawashere (Atlas Obscura User)
A volcano blows at the entrance to the Rock Fossil & Dinosaur Shop kendrawashere (Atlas Obscura User)
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Like many of its roadside brethren, The Rock and Fossil and Dinosaur Shop has a collection of home-made dinosaur statues, but their real love is for geology and rocks. 

Located in rural Massachusetts, the deteriorating dinosaur collection sits behind the run-down gift shop and mining attraction, and the thunder lizards have seen better days. Many of the statues have been repaired with duct tape while their paint fades. Inside the attraction, visitors can dig for fossils and gems in a cave and, according to the website, turn children into “rock hounds” and “pebble puppies.” The location’s proudest attraction is their mining sluice where kids can pan for gems and gold which have been liberally seeded in the silt. While the focus is a bit scattered, The Rock and Fossil and Dinosaur shop is a classic piece of roadside Americana that doesn’t seem like it’ll be going extinct anytime soon.   

dinosaur parks dinosaurs roadside attractions animals
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The Buttonball Tree
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