Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Disney parks have streets, boulevards, avenues, and highways. Five Disney castle parks have a Main Street, U.S.A. Disney’s Hollywood Studios has Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, and Grand Avenue. Disney California Adventure has a two-lane U.S. highway, Route 66 through Radiator Springs in Cars Land.

Yester Animal Kingdom also has a two-lane U.S. highway. It’s Route 498 in DinoLand U.S.A.

Photo by Chris Bales, 2005

Route 498 passing the dinosaur entrance to Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama

This narrow asphalt highway has a yellow line down the center and no shoulders along much of it. Cars would have trouble if there were traffic in both directions. Fortunately, it’s for people, not cars.

There’s an elaborate backstory for the highway and what you encounter along it.

In the 1940s, long before the Interstate Highway System, Chester and his wife Hester opened a gas station on U.S. Route 498 in Diggs County, a rural location somewhere in the United States. There wasn’t much else around there, except for a fishing lodge and some cabins. Chester and Hester eked out a living from motorists passing through. To increase their income, they added a general store to serve motorists and those who came to fish.

Later that decade, fossil hunters found a treasure trove of dinosaur bones nearby. Within a few years, academic paleontologists established the Dino Institute in the old fishing lodge and adjacent structures. This included dormitories and a dining hall for graduate students — and even museum exhibits to teach curious visitors about what they were doing.

Diggs County became a genuine tourist destination. Business was booming for Chester and Hester. With so many visitors (and their wallets) now in Diggs County, they restocked their store with “dinosaur treasures” and plastered it with signs to bring in customers.

The Dino Institute also prospered. In April 1978, it built an impressive new headquarters and museum, bringing in even more tourists.

Chester and Hester hatched their most ambitious plan — a dinosaur-themed amusement park called Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama. The weathered asphalt parking lot across from their gas station and store became home to two rides, a bunch of carnival games, a snack trailer, fun house mirrors, and face painting.

The entrepreneurial couple sculpted a life-size brontosaurus and lined U.S. Route 498 with signs advertising their park. They added their own embellishments to official highway signs.

Photo by Chris Bales, 2012

Life-size brontosaurus, in the tradition of Claude Bell’s Cabazon Dinosaurs

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Rides of Distinction? No “Rides of Extinction”

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013

Photo opportunity behind the tail of the brontosaurus

Photo by Chris Bales, 2012

Modified sign: “Nothing pedestrian about Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama (cross my heart)”

Photo by Chris Bales, 2012

Another modified sign: “We put the action in Roadside Attraction”

Photo by Chris Bales, 2024

Walking down Route 498 adjacent to Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Did Chester or Hester paint these signs?

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

“Scientific? Nope… terrific!” and “Plenty of prehistoric laffs”

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

“Dusty old bones gettin’ y’all down?” and “For fossil-free fun!”

Chester and Hester are aware that tourists are more interested in having fun than in being educated. Perhaps the couple learned this from Michael Eisner, who mistakenly thought Walt Disney World guests would embrace the Disney Institute.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2006

Dino-Rama spelled in plant-letters edged with old license plates

Photo by Chris Bales, 2015

Main entrance to Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama

If you didn’t enter Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama under the big dinosaur, you now have another chance. Don’t miss TriceraTop Spin, Primeval Whirl, and Fossil Fun Games.

Photo by Allen Huffman, 2007

More of Chester & Hester’s distinctive dinosaur art

Photo by Chris Bales, 2012

Route 498 curving toward Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures

As walk around the curve on Route 498, you arrive where it all began for Chester and Hester: their gas station and their store. Pop in for some dinosaur souvenirs — and for merchandise related to various Disney movies having nothing to do with dinosaurs. Or did we all just miss the dinosaurs in Frozen and Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Photo by Chris Bales, 2015

The final stretch of Route 498

A lot of small signs defined the beginning of Route 498. As you approach the other end of the short highway, three large signs dominate. The first one was clearly modified by Chester and Hester. The second one actually includes Dino-Rama, so the couple left it unaltered. The final one marks the entrance to their paid parking lot.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015

“But if you want some fun… Visit Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama! Rides! Games! Laffs!”

Photo by Chris Bales, 2024

“Where fossils are our way of life!”

Photo by Allen Huffman, 2019

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The gates to the parking lot are closed. Their parking lot charges far less than the lot at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. A sign reads “Lot Full.” It seems the couple is doing good business.

There is no actual U.S. Route 498. DinoLand U.S.A. officially opened on Earth Day 1998 — April 22, 1998 — the opening day of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. April 1998 (4/98) is where U.S. Route 498 comes from.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2025

Construction wall in February 2025

Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama! closed permanently on January 13, 2025. A construction wall went up. Part of U.S. Route 498 remained open to guests. It ended at Chester & Hester’s gas pumps, still used for Donald’s Dino Bash character meet-and-greets. Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Tresures store was beyond the wall. Eventually, all of DinoLand U.S.A. will become a Tropical Americas land.

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Updated May 9, 2025