Moab Giants is a $10 million open-air dinosaur park and museum scheduled to open later this year. Located 10 miles north of Moab at the junction of US Highway 191 and State Route 313, the park will cover almost 45 acres.
The project is part of the Paleo-Safari Project and funded by Polish investors who have built dinosaur museums in Europe. Headed by Gerard Gierlinski, the project’s main goal is to study and preserve dinosaur tracks around the world.
Moab Giants will showcase both cast and actual dinosaur tracks. Visitors will be able to walk through the outdoor exhibits and view cast tracks next to life-size dinosaur replicas. Actual tracks will be on display inside the museum, which will also house two theaters and a cafe.
Close by is a site discovered in 2009 that contains over 200 tracks in an area about the size of a football field. Several species are represented, including duck-billed dinosaurs and ancient crocodiles. Under the guidance of the Bureau of Land Management, volunteers recently completed construction on a trail. The area has so many tracks it resembles footprints on a dance floor.
Martin Lockley, a retired PhD from the University of Colorado, Denver, is the science director. Besides having garnered a solid academic reputation, Lockley has also made several paleontological discoveries. He continues his research at UC-Denver.
Exhibits will include more than 30 species, some replicas from the UC-Denver collection. The displays will focus on species found in the Western United States. In addition to being a tourist attraction, the museum will also act as a repository for scientific specimens.
