DinoLand U.S.A. (location)

“The friendliest fossils in America”

―Town slogan

DinoLand U.S.A.
Attractions	DinoLand U.S.A. Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama DINOSAUR Donald's Dino-Bash! Disney Springs Christmas Tree Trail
Location	Diggs County, Florida
Inhabitants	Dino Institute Dr. Bernard Dunn Chandler the Dino Handler Chester & Hester Daryl Diana Sore Dr. Eugene McGee Dr. Grant Seeker Dr. Helen Marsh Jenny Weinstein Lucky the Dinosaur Sam Gonzales Wilderness Explorers Dr. Woodson DinoLand Gazette
Visitors	Aladar Daisy Duck Donald Duck Dr. Shirley Wou Goofy Huey, Dewey and Louie Launchpad McQuack Scrooge McDuck

DinoLand U.S.A. is the setting for the land of the same name in Disney's Animal Kingdom. It is a fictional dinosaur themed tourist-town in Florida.

Description

DinoLand U.S.A. is a town located in Diggs County, Florida, along route 498. DinoLand U.S.A. is base for the Dino Institute which has various paleontological activities within the town. Because of this, DinoLand U.S.A. is also a tourist-trap town with a dinosaur gimmick. The town is located along a Floridian river. The town's local newspaper is the, "DinoLand Gazette".

Locations

• American Crocodile Enclosure:
• The Boneyard: The Boneyard is a paleontological excavation site which was established in 1947 when the first fossils were found in DinoLand, U.S.A..
• Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama: "Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama" is a dinosaur gimmicked amusement park run by locals Chester & Hester, and based out of a parking-lot like space in the town.
• Chester & Hester's Dinosaur Treasures: "Chester & Hester's Dinosaur Treasures" was a gas-station run by Chester and Hester which they turned into a dinosaur gift-shop.
• Cretaceous Trail: Cretaceous Trail is a trail through the woods marked with sculptures of dinosaurs, and which has plant-life similar to that which grew in the Cretaceous period. This trail receives donations from the Dino Institute and as a result is dedicated to those who are part of the Dino Institute's legacy. The trail has also served as a camping-ground for scout groups such as the Junior Woodchucks.
• Dino Institute Headquarters: This is the headquarters for the Dino Institute, located at 47 Prehistoric Way. The building serves as a museum, and base for the organization's time-travel tourism.
• Fossil Preparation Lab:
• Oldengate Bridge: The Oldengate Bridge is a bridge at the main entrance to DinoLand U.S.A., made from the cast of a brachiosaurus skeleton. The bridge is fifty-two feet tall and is more than eighty-feet long while modelled off the skeleton of a brachiosaurus which was discovered in Colorado in 1900 and which resides in the Field Museum of Chicago.
• Quonset hut: The quonset hut is adjacent to Restaurantosaurus, and served as base for aviator Launchpad McQuack during his time in the town.
• Restaurantosaurus: The original headquarters of the Dino Institute which was a fishing-lodge that also served as a museum and living-quarters for students of palaeontology. In the 1970s, the Institute constructed their new headquarters and their old lodge became the restaurant, "Restaurantosaurus", decorated with fossils, pieces of dinosaur art, and dinosaur memorabilia.
• Theater in the Wild: The Theater in the Wild is a large theater space.

History

Background

Prehistory

During the Mesozoic Era, the region which would become DinoLand, U.S.A. had a dense forest/jungle filled with various kinds of dinosaur. By the late Cretaceous, this area was filled with various kinds of dinosaur not common to Florida. An iguanodon named Aladar who had previously lead a party of migrating dinosaurs to safety was one of the animals living in the region.

A CTX time rover visiting prehistoric Diggs County

During this period, the region was visited by humans in time-travelling, "Time Rovers" from the future. These visitors were composed of scientists from the Dino Institute and time-travelling tourists brought with them. One of these expeditions headed by an unaothorized Dr. Grant Seeker had placed a tracking device on Aladar and planned to bring him to the future on a separate mission. However, the tracker only managed to track Aladar to minutes before the K-T Mass Extinction's meteor impact and was thus ruled as too dangerous a mission by Seeker's superior, Dr. Helen Marsh.

While left to oversee scenic tours of the Mesozoic for the Dino Institute's time-travel tourism, Seeker hacked into the system to send a Time Rover of guests to the time-period where he had tracked the iguanodon for them to retrieve it while he piloted their rover. This mission went sour when the guests found themselves hunted by a giant Floridian Carnosaurus and got caught in the early stages of the meteor impact. Ultimately, the guests were assisted by the iguanodon in escaping the Carnosaur and Seeker brought them all back to modern day. Meanwhile, the meteor impact presumably killed all of the non-avian dinosaurs living in what would become Diggs County.

Early town history

Billions of years later, the region was settled and developed into Diggs County, Florida. Notable residents of the town were married gas-station owners Chester and Hester. In 1947, the bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex were discovered in what became the Boneyard. Various palaeontologists travelled to the town to excavate, and in 1949, the Dino Institute was founded. The Institute's original headquarters was a fishing-lodge that also served as a museum and living-quarters for students of palaeontology.

Chester and Hester would make profit from this, by selling tacky dinosaur souvenirs from their gift-shop. The two would go on to open the amusement park, "Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama" while turning their old gas-station into a gift-shop. The two would also learn to become palaeontologists by their old-age in the 1990s.

In 1959, the Dino Institute's dig team uncovered pachycephhlosaurus fossils.

On April 22, 1978, the Dino Institute constructed a new museum/headquarters in DinoLand, U.S.A.. The previous headquarters was subsequently turned into the gimmicked restaurant, "Restaurantosaurus". In 1980, the Institute's dig team uncovered a hadrosaurus fossil. In 1987, the Toon anthropomorphic ducks Huey, Duey and Louise of the Junior Woodchucks managed to save a Baby Hadrosaurus, presumably through time-travel technology.

Countdown to Extinction

By the 1990s, the Dino Institute recruited one Dr. Helen Marsh to be their new chairwoman due to her reputation for saving museums from bankruptcy. As head of the Dino Institute, she purchased the company ChronoTech which was experimenting with time-travel technology via the CTX Time Rovers. Using these time rovers, Marsh oversaw expeditions to the time of dinosaurs to study the animals, along with time-travel tourism for increased revenue.

On an unauthorized mission using one of the institute's Time Rovers, Seeker probed an iguanodon in the late Cretaceous so that he could track it. However, Seeker was not permitted to retrieve the dinosaur by Doctor Marsh, not only for punishment in going behind her back, but also because the dinosaur could only be tracked near the K-T Extinction's meteor impact and was therefor too dangerous to extract.

While left to oversee scenic tours of the Mesozoic for the Dino Institute's time-travel tourism, Seeker hacked into the system to send a Time Rover of guests to the time-period where he had tracked the iguanodon for them to retrieve it while he piloted their rover. This mission went sour when the guests found themselves hunted by a giant Floridian Carnosaurus and got caught in the early stages of the meteor impact. Ultimately, the guests were assisted by the iguanodon in escaping the Carnosaur and Seeker brought them all back to modern day.

Aladar spotted along the rivers of Diggs County

Later history

The Time Rovers brought the iguanodon back to the Dino Institute where Seeker attempted to keep it behind Dr. Marsh's back. At some point, the creature escaped captivity and disappeared with Seeker attempting to track it down; going so far as the sleepy town of Disney Springs, Florida.

In 1998, Chester and Hester were photographed and featured in Gelatin Silverprint's magazine article, "American Gothic Revisited", connected to the Dino Institute.

At some point (possibly prior or concurrent to the events of Countdown to Extinction), the Institute managed to bring a Segnosaurus called, "Lucky" to modern day DinoLand U.S.A.. This dinosaur was taken care of by Institute member, "Chandler the Dino Handler", and sometimes taken to greet citizens and guests of DinoLand.

In an unspecified year, DinoLand, U.S.A. was visited by Donald Duck and his wealthy uncle Scrooge McDuck from the city of Duckburg, arriving in a plane crashed by Launchpad McQuack. Here, Donald planned the inaugural year of a local festival called, "Donald's Dino-Bash" which Scrooge funded, celebrating dinosaurs and how the Ducks/McDucks were descended from them and related to the dinosaur, Daryl. While in DinoLand, Scrooge's rival Flintheart Glomgold created a fake dinosaur skeleton to claim his family had an older presence in Scotland than McDuck's. Due to this, Scrooge teamed up with the Dino Institute to use their archives and discredit Glomgold's claims.

Appearances

Adventurers Outpost

A bulletin-board in the outpost has field notes and photographs on DinoLand, U.S.A..

DinoLand U.S.A.

DinoLand is the titular setting for this themed land.

Disney Springs Christmas Tree Trail

There is a poster along the Christmas Tree Trail promoting the Dino Institute's time-travel tourism service. Overtop is a message from Dr. Seeker, looking for Aladar.

Trivia

• It is unknown what the town's name was prior to its 20th century dinosaur re-theme.
• Many of the dinosaurs shown as having lived in DinoLand would not have been living in what becomes Florida.
• The presence of the Duck/McDuck family in DinoLand U.S.A. is often connected to them looking for, "Duck-billed dinosaurs", more commonly referred to as hadrosaurs. In real-world palaeontology, the, "Duck Billed Dinosaur" name is something of a misnomer as they did not have actual duck-like bills, instead having had beaks and other mouth parts which did not consistently preserve with the rest of their skeletons.
• US Route 498 is a tribute to Disney's Animal Kingdom opening in the April of 1998.
• In 2024, Goofy had a bird-watching themed meet-&-greet added to DinoLand, U.S.A. with various Easter eggs:
  • Amongst his belongings was a thermos from Camp Minnie-Mickey, a defunct land of Disney's Animal Kingdom.
  • His outfit is from Camp Minnie-Mickey and has badges with various Disney bird characters on it including: Donald Duck, Madame Upanova the ostrich from Fantasia, Chicken Little from the 1943 Silly Symphony of the same name, the vultures (Buzzie, Flaps, Ziggy, and Dizzy) from the Jungle Book, Arthur Pendragon's bird form from the Sword in the Stone, Big Mama from the Fox and the Hound, Zazu and an Ostrich from the Lion King.
  • Behind Goofy's bird watching meet 'n' greet is a list of "Birdies" he had seen featuring illustrations of various Mickey Mouse universe birds including: Baby Red Bird from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Pete's parrot from Steamboat Willie (labelled as "Squawky Birdies"), Marblehead the pelican from the 1946 Donald Duck cartoon Lighthouse Keeping (labelled as "Floating Birdies"), Chuuby from Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway (labelled as "Song & Dance Birdies"), Tuppence from the 2013 Mickey Mouse TV series, and Esther the Ostrich from the 1948 cartoon Mickey Down Under (labelled as "Really Really Big Birdies").

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