Although there were no tremors felt across town or reports of ancient creatures running rampant on Bathhouse Row, over 100 dinosaurs spent the weekend in Hot Springs thrilling guests of all ages.
Jurassic Quest XL "Out of Extinction," a fully functioning animatronic dinosaur exhibit, drew nearly 8,000 people to the Hot Springs Convention Center over the course of three days, event organizers said.
"If I had to take a guess, I would say we had about 8,000 people come to check this out. Our online ticket sales were about 4,500 and we've about mirrored that to our walk-in sales," customer service manager Michael Vincent said Sunday.
According to Vincent, many of the people in attendance at the event and others like it across the country end up traveling hours to see the life-like creatures who once stomped around the world.
Although the obvious attraction to the exhibit is the thought of walking among animated, life-like dinosaurs, media relations manager Johnel Acosta said they work just as diligently to ensure guests leave knowing more about dinosaurs than when they first bought their ticket.
"We have a real fossil station where (guests) get to come and learn all about fossils in addition to guided tours. Our Tour guide is very knowledgeable about all things dinosaur and he enjoys just letting everyone know about each and every one of the dinosaurs we have," Acosta said.
The Jurassic Quest team also said they have big plans to expand the educational experience by including a special section devoted to strange dinosaurs, a taphonomy area that teaches people about the process of fossilization, and an anatomy area explaining how the modern day descendants of dinosaurs are actually birds and not lizards. They said they hope the next time they come to Arkansas, they will give those interested in attending a first-class education on these prehistoric creatures.
General admission tickets gave visitors the opportunity to visit the educational portion of the exhibit as well as walk among life-sized, roaring creatures from the past. Guests marveled at the larger than life animatronic figures as they walked through the winding paths between exhibits.
Children enjoyed the several hands-on areas where they could dig for their own fossils and create take home keepsakes. For a few additional dollars, visitors could climb aboard one of the animatronics and ride a dinosaur across the room. Children's faces lit up as soon as they settled into the saddle high above the rest of the crowd.
"I just think keeping the passion for dinosaurs alive is very important. Dinosaurs are now timeless; they're something we all share and gives us something in common. Usually, when we step into a community we're really bringing that community together around the dinosaurs," Acosta said.
The next stop on the Jurassic Quest XL adventure route is Memphis, Tenn.
Local on 06/25/2018