Surry County has plenty of events which become so ingrained in people’s lives they become an annual rite of sorts.
Folks plan family get-togethers around Mount Airy’s Autumn Leaves Festival, seemingly the entire Mayberry-loving world considers Mayberry Days their annual family reunion, and old time music lovers watch for the yearly Old Time Fiddlers and Bluegrass Convention with almost as much anticipation as children look forward to Christmas.
Pilot Mountain may have added a new tradition for area families — one that has its roots way, way back, in the Mesozoic Era.
“We’ve been to every one,” said Westfield’s Lindsay Prince, a 9-year-old who was in Pilot Mountain Saturday checking out Ed’s Dinosaurs Live, set up at the Armfield Civic Center. Informally called Dinosaurs on Main two other times the display was in town — since it was set up on Pilot Mountain’s Main Street — the display featuring life-like animatronic dinosaurs has been to Pilot Mountain twice before, in 2022 and in 2019.
“It’s kind of a family tradition. We’ve even taken my picture on that dinosaur every time,” she continued just seconds after climbing down from a snarling, younger version of a Tyrannosaurs Rex. Though a now somewhat experienced dinosaur tamer, Lindsey admitted that “the ones that move still make me nervous,” eliciting a chuckle from her parents, Nate and Christina Prince.
The dinosaur display was one of several traveling dino teams owned by Ed’s Dinosaurs Live, a Concord-based company that sets up dinosaur displays that are aimed at being both fun for kids and educational for all age levels. The set-up features inflatable dinosaurs, others built for children to sit on, and still others that are life-like models which move and even let lose with a growl or a roar or menacing headbob on occasion.
On Saturday, Doug Tompkins, with Ed’s Dinosaurs Live, said in addition to the dinosaur team in Pilot Mountain, the firm had one team in Wisconsin and another in High Point.
“We’ve had a lot of people through here today,” he said about mid-way through the four-hour display Saturday. In contrast to the 2022 visit, when the display was almost overwhelmed by a crush of people, this year’s event was a little more relaxed.
“We’ve had a steady stream of people, trickling in and out.”
While adults at the dinosaur event seemed to be mildly amused at the animatronics, it was the kids that kept adults entertained.
Most were wide-eyed and excited to run up to the dinosaur models, touching them, eagerly claiming small dinosaur figurines being handed out by the staffers on hand.
But more than a few of the young ones were a little nervous when one of the animatronic beasts did their thing — slapping a tail around, raising a head, letting loose with a roar.
For others, it was the moving dinosaurs which were the attraction.
“All the dinosaurs coming alive is my favorite part,” said 7-year-old Anna Venable, of Siloam. Anna said the brontosaurus was her favorite dinosaur.
When their mom, Sarah Williams, asked 3-year-old Samuel Venable what his favorite one was, he had no hesitation: “Raptor!” he cried out, before then going into his own chant: “Raptor, raptor, raptor,” he repeated.
Five-year-old Amelia Garrell, visiting from King with her grandmother Ellen Garrell, was hamming it up on a baby triceratops when she made it plain that the triceratops was her favorite of the prehistoric creatures.
“I’m sad they are all extinct,” she added, a wistful tone in her voice.
Though extinct, the spirit of the dinosaurs definitely were alive in Pilot Mountain on Saturday, much to the delight of hundreds who visited the display.
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