Weird California
Weird California
Weird California - By Joe Parzanese

Dixie the Dinosaur

Map Fairfield, California 94534

Dixie the Dinosaur flies off to Benicia
Dixie the Dinosaur flies off to Benicia

How do you sell cigarettes to the masses? Build a life sized dinosaur, a Brachiosaurus to be exact, and name her Dixie the Dinosaur, that's how.

Dixie started out her life near the I-80 as Dixie in Dixon, California promoting a Cigarettes Cheaper store there. She was fifty feet tall, seventy one feet long from the tip of her tail to her nose, weighing in at 15,000 pounds and originally costing $150,000. In 1996 when the store was sold she was transported by helicopter, literally being air-lifted and flown through the air, to the company headquarters in Benicia, California. Although the company didn't get the proper dinosaur permits to have her in town, the city council voted unanimously to allow her to remain in residence and she unofficially became Bennie the Dinosaur.

Dixie the Dinosaur now lies in pieces
Dixie the Dinosaur now lies in pieces

Sadly Cigarettes Cheaper fell apart in 2005 and the once grand dinosaur was auctioned off. An attempt was made to place Bennie on Ebay, but no one could make the reserve price. She is rumored to be on the private property of Mr. John Roscoe in Fairfield, CA. There she lies disassembled and in four or five pieces. She is sadly not available for the public to see.

There is a movement to have her restored once again so all can see and enjoy her. Someone named Breanna sent me the pictures located here on the website stating that they were in contact with Mr. Roscoe and that there is a "strong rescue effort . . . to bring Dixie back to where all can see".

If anyone has any pictures, past or present, that we can post here on the website please let us know. They would be very appreciated.



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First Created: 2012-06-27
Last Edited: 2012-06-27


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