Dinosaurs on the Hudson - Premium Dinosaur Toys & Collectibles for Kids & Adults | Perfect for Home Decor, Birthday Gifts & Educational Play

About six months before the 1964 New York World's Fair opened, Times photographer John Orris captured a barge-load of prehistoric beasts - "two of which looked very belligerent" - floating down the Hudson River.

Parents let their children stay home from school to see the sight. Drivers on the West Side Highway stopped to snap photos, causing a traffic jam. But "the big moment came at noon at Battery Park when the barge, looking like a fugitive from the Lost World, emerged out of the morning haze for an official reception," The New York Times reported. The replicas were bound for the Sinclair Refining Company's "Dinoland" exhibition, a World's Fair attraction so popular it inspired a road show after the fair closed down. In 1966, The Times published a photo of a Triceratops bound for Miami aboard a specially designed trailer. A caravan of 40-foot flatbed trailer trucks shuttled the dinosaurs between 40 shopping centers in 18 states.