Re: Hello may I join in? (Hawkins)

[Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette <dinosaur@dinosaur.org>]

Sorry... accidentally sent this before it was complete.

The SECOND post has the whole reply.

Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette wrote:

> Interestingly enough, the story most commonly told is that the some of the 
> dinosaurs for the Central Park Exhibit were, in fact, constructed.
>
> Boss Tweed's political machine, however, had different ideas about how they 
> wanted to spend the money allocated for the park. According to the common 
> account, thugs were sent to destroy the (largely concrete) models. The pieces 
> were then buried in a currently unknown location in Central Park.
>
> This is, in fact, the story (simply put) that I've heard for years.
>
> One can find it along with a reproduction of what the museum might have 
> looked like at:
>
> http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/pama/mtnwjp.htm
>
> I'd be particularly interested to know why the sources cited below don't 
> believe that any of the dinosaurs were actually built and why, for the first 
> time in my memory, the political finaglings are left totally out of the story.
>
> The following is a brief quote from a more extended account available at the 
> above URL.
>
> "Hawkins came to the United States and established a workshop in Central Park 
> to build the
>           molds necessary to cast the prehistoric creatures. The museum was 
> to be quite spectacular. An
>           iron framework held up by columns was to cover a small park. In the 
> park, replicas of two
>           Hadrosaurs were to be shown under attack by the carnivorous 
> LaeLaps. In a shallow lake the
>           marine reptile Elasmosaurus would frolic. Extinct mammals, 
> including mastodons, giant sloths,
>           giant elk, and giant armadillos would also be featured. The price 
> tag for the project was
>           $300,000.
>
>           The project was well underway in 1870 when the notorious politician 
> William "Boss" Tweed
>           came to power in New York City. Finding no way he could profit via 
> illegal kickbacks from the
>           museum, Tweed determined to destroy it. He packed the park 
> commission with his own people
>           who then voted to put a stop to the project and destroy the 
> foundations that had been laid.
>
>           Hawkins persisted, however, and Tweed decided more drastic action 
> was needed. A year later
>           thugs, sent by Tweed, broke into the workshop and smashed the 
> dinosaurs with sledge
>           hammers. Later, they came back and did the same to Hawkins' molds 
> and small scale models.
>           Hawkins was shocked and disgusted with this episode and after a 
> stint on the staff at Princeton
>           University, returned to England. And so the Great Paleozoic Museum 
> of Central Park became
>           the museum that never was. "
>
> To many "fans" the holy grail of DinoArt is the discovery of the location of 
> the smashed remains.
>
> ES

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