Why is there a Dinosaur House in Henderson?
Stepping inside “Dinoman” Steve Springer’s yard feels like taking a step back in time.
Springer has spent the last 18 years transforming his Henderson home into the Shan-Gri-La Prehistoric Park, also known as the Dinosaur House: a free attraction for local kids to come and play games, win prizes and maybe learn a little something about the creatures that roamed the Earth millions of years ago.
Teacher turned ‘Dinoman’
After retiring from teaching English at Burkholder Middle School in 2004, Springer said he wanted to create a space for kids in his neighborhood to come and have fun for free.
“I missed the kids so much that I wanted to create some kind of park that kids (could) just stroll through and look at stuff and have fun,” he said.
Springer spent three months in 2006 preparing his yard to become a neighborhood park. He started with a few small figurines, but when he put one dinosaur at the center of his yard, everything changed.
“(The dinosaur) got so much attention, and then suddenly I had three of them, then seven, and then went ‘OK, I know where we’re going,’ and the park was born.”
Springer’s dinosaur collection today includes more than 60 figures — including a towering 14-foot T. rex. The figures, manufactured across the United States, Mexico and the Philippines, are commissioned by Springer, with some donated by friends and the traveling interactive dinosaur exhibit Jurassic Empire.
The walls of Springer’s garage are filled top to bottom with toys, candies and dinosaur posters. It’s also where he parks his custom-wrapped Dinomobile that he drives around Henderson with two plush dinosaur passengers hanging out of the rear windows.
Springer said he always tried to find ways to make learning fun as an English teacher, which guides how he operates the park as a place where kids can both learn and play.
“I always figured that if I’m not having fun teaching, they’re not having fun learning, so I made it as fun as I could,” he said.
Dinosaur House hits milestone
The Dinosaur House gets roughly 40,000 visitors a year, and in December passed 1 million visitors, Springer said.
The park is now only open three days a week, down from seven, but Springer said it’s not slowing down any time soon.
“The kids, the locals, they never miss a day,” he said. “We have games outside they can play where they win stuff, and they just have fun.”
From its inception, Springer said one simple philosophy has guided the nonprofit park above everything else: “To put a smile on your face and to make your day better.”
“It’s not about the money; it’s about the smiles. If you’re having fun, that’s all that matters to me.”
Shan-Gri-La Prehistoric Park’s fall and winter hours run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 733 Greenway Road, Henderson.
For more information, visit shangrilaprehistoricpark.org.
Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.
