In 1986, Adam Luna stood in front of his rockhounding shop on the edge of Holbrook, Arizona, and decided to build a brontosaurus.
Luna was a welder and self-described jack-of-all-trades. He knew steel, rebar, concrete, and paint. What he didn't know was that his first dinosaur—a 25-foot creature with a smooth, cartoonish finish—would become the blueprint for an entire roadside attraction that still draws tourists today.
Holbrook sits just outside Petrified Forest National Park, where actual dinosaur remains have been found. But Luna's creations aren't meant to fool anyone. He painted them in bright, friendly colors and gave them gentle expressions specifically to avoid scaring children. They're sculptures, unapologetically so—art installations that celebrate the dinosaurs that once roamed this landscape, rather than attempts to recreate them.
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Start Your News DetoxBy 2000, Luna had built more than 11 dinosaurs standing outside the Rainbow Rock Shop, each one constructed using the same method: a steel skeleton, wrapped in rebar netting, then covered with a painted concrete shell. The technique sounds simple, but the execution required skill. The smooth concrete skin that Luna developed became his signature—something other shops around town tried to copy when his dinosaur park proved popular enough to inspire competitors.
Some of those copycats were even built by Luna's own assistants, which didn't sit well with him. An International Dinosaur Park opened nearby where visitors could drive past various dinosaur models, though it has since closed and the statues were relocated. Few of the imitators ever quite matched the quality of Luna's originals.
Luna even built a dinosaur for the Moon Lite Barbershop, run by his son Daniel, extending his concrete creations across town.
A Quirky Pilgrimage
Today, the Rainbow Rock Shop remains the heart of Holbrook's dinosaur scene. The shop charges a small fee to photograph the statues up close, surrounded by an impressive array of petrified wood. The hours are unpredictable—Google Maps might not have the current schedule—but the dinosaurs themselves are visible from the street any time of day. They've become the kind of place people add to road trip itineraries, a moment where art, geology, and Americana intersect in the high desert.
