The Hernando Dinosaurs

by August Herwede, Hernando Sun

As you drive state road 476 between Lake Lindsey and Nobleton you come across a headless dinosaur, brontosaurus to be exact, next to the road. It is very realistic and on some foggy mornings it would not be difficult to imagine it coming alive. You cannot help but wonder: How did it get there and who built it?

The answer to those questions is easy. It was built by August Herwede who lived in the little white house behind the brontosaurus. August who was born September 21, 1886 was a painter and interior decorator. After his wife passed in 1964 August began to build concrete animals in his yard surrounding the house.

He built an elephant, woolly mammoth, a pair of lions, fighting dinosaurs and was working on his biggest creation a brontosaurus. In two years, he built more than 30 animals around the house.

He would have liked to have started earlier, but apparently there were complications. “I wanted to build an elephant, but Mama wouldn’t let me.” The St Petersburg Times quoted August as having told his daughter-in-law.

August is said to have been inspired to build the dinosaurs by the 1964 World’s Fair held in New York which featured a dinosaur exhibit named “Dinoland”. Dinoland, sponsored by Sinclair Oil, featured 9 full sized dinosaurs including the company’s trademark brontosaurus. Sinclair Oil also built a service station on US 19 in the shape of a brontosaurus in 1964.

August built about two thirds of his brontosaurus. Then one day while high up on the scaffolding working on the back of the brontosaurus August fell and broke both legs. He died a few months later at the age of 80 in 1967 unable to finish the brontosaurus.

August’s menagerie was sold off piece by piece until only the unfinished brontosaurus was all that was left behind. So, the next time you find yourself on state road 476 take a minute to admire August’s unfinished brontosaurus. It is impressive in both its realism and detail. If you try hard enough you may even be able to picture the little white house surrounded by animals as it was almost 50 years ago.

Fossil fuel vehicles have nothing to fear as long as dinosaur-shaped repair facilities survive -- such as this gas station just south of Weeki Wachee, Florida. It's named "Dino" (pronounced DYE-no) and is 110 feet feet long, 30 feet wide, and 47 feet high. It's a stylized Apatosaurus, built by William Wilkis of New Port Richey because he was a dealer for Sinclair Oil Co. -- no strangers to dinosaur branding. Despite its prehistoric look, the gas station opened in 1964, although old photos suggest the cement dino was under construction ten years before that.

On April 6, 1977, Harold Hurst bought the dinosaur. Harold's Auto Center has operated inside it ever since and is now owned by Harold's wife and son.

In 2020 the gas station was poised to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. Not bad for a concrete dinosaur.

Dinosaur-shaped Building

In 1977, the price of oil was under $15 a barrel, U.S. 19 was a two-lane road, and the dinosaur-looking building on the corner of Balm Street and Commercial Way in Spring Hill was an oil company. 

“It was a trademark for Sinclair Oil Company back in the 60’s,” said Dana Hurst, co-owner of Harold's Auto Center, which owns the building now. "The fellow that built this seen the dinosaur at the World’s Fair in 1960 in New York, came back and built one.” 

Irene Hurst and husband Harold bought the property back in the 70’s when the family was looking for a permanent fixture for their auto repair center. They later passed the tradition and the business to their son, Dana. 

The building is now set to become a national landmark by the Florida Department of State Historic Preservation.  “Never really thought much," Dana told us. "it’s going to be pretty neat."  The building has already been approved for landmark status at the local and state level. The final step is to get it approved as a national landmark federally. At this moment, the family isn’t sure of when that will happen.

But one thing is certain. National landmark or not, everyone knows where Harold's Auto Center.

"Everyone knows where the dinosaur is at," Dana said.

The Spring Hill Dinosaur (also known as the Foxbower Dinosaur) is a cartoonish 20 foot concrete statue that is a hybrid mix of a Apatosaurus and a Stegosaurus.  It is located near 3273 Commercial Way (U.S. 19) in the unincorporated community of Spring Hill, in Hernando County, Florida. 

It was constructed in 1962 by the Foxbower Wildlife Museum (AKA Dinosaur Wildlife) which stood behind the Dino until it closed in 1998. The statue is 6 years older than the community of Spring Hill and was constructed at the height of the roadside attraction craze of building concrete dinosaurs, which began in the late 1950's

The statue was restored in 1999 by Carlo Daleo the owner of A.A. Painting and Pressure Cleaning.  It was vandalized with red and green graffiti the following year.

The dinosaur is 22 feet tall and 58 feet long from head to tail. It was built in 1962 by Mr. Herwede who was a local artist that became famous back in the 1950's and early 1960's for constructing concrete dinosaur attractions along various highways in West Florida.  The construction design of the dino has been confirmed by its half complete sister dino known as the Brooksville Dino. Herwede was never able to finish construction of the Brooksville Dino due to his death in 1967.

The original color of the dino has always been a rose colored pink and it is constructed out of molded concrete which has been reinforced with both steel i-beams and rebar. What gives the dino its shape is its steel cage which lies between the dino's concrete exterior and its steel skeleton interior.

The Spring Hill Dinosaur was constructed to be a roadside attraction for the Foxbower Wildlife Museum; both the Museum and the Dino were both originally owned by Jacob Foxbower. The Museum opened for business in 1963 and the Dino was constructed a year earlier in 1962.

Due to financial hardships, caused by a lack of attendance, the wildlife museum eventually turned into a taxidermy shop in 1970. The taxidermy shop featured over 1,200 stuffed animals which featured a prominent disformity of one kind or another. Following the death of Jacob Foxbower, ownership of the taxidermy shop and the dino passed to his wife in 1988. Mrs. Foxbower passed away ten years later in 1998 and ownership of the shop and dino passed down to the Foxbower's oldest son Jacob Foxbower. Following the death of his mother, Jacob and his sibiling chose to close the family business in 1998.

Jacob Foxbower sold the building that once housed the Foxbower taxidermy shop, and the land that the dino sits upon, to a local Spring Hill doctor whose name is currently unknown. Today the dino stands and is regarded unofficially as a local historic landmark of Spring Hill.