Uintah County launched a new dino-themed marketing campaign this Month with two animated dinosaurs named Vern and Al, which put together spell Vernal.
LishaColtharp, with Uintah County Travel and Tourism, said Vernal has been known as dinosaur land for a while.
"We are home to Dinosaur National Monument, which is the only place in the world where you can view and touch over 1,500 dinosaurs bones still left in the mountain where they are found," Coltharp said.
Vernal wasn't always the dino-hub it is now. Utah and the economy in the Uintah Basin is dependent on those dino tourists, said Dan Johnson, the chief of interpretation and visitors services at Dinosaur National Monument.
Earl Douglass, a paleontologist, actually came here originally to look for ancient mammals that are found in some of the rock formations. They actually located some dinosaur fossils in the area east of Vernal. In 1909, he explored what would eventually lead to the big excavation and discovery of the quarry that we still have today inside of Dinosaur National Monument, Johnson said.
"A lot of discovery is still happening with dinosaurs. People think about this is something that, yes, Earl Douglas found these in 1909 and excavations happened back then, but new species of dinosaurs and other ancient life is still being found everyday.
More discoveries have been found in the last 20 years than in the last entire 100 years before that."
"Studying the past from a long time ago helps us understand the world we live in today," he said.
Vernal is all things dinosaur. We have the green dinosaur that dresses up each month for different occasions and then we have our famous pink dinosaur Dina the Dinosaur, so it's just the dinosaur mecca of Utah, Coltharp said.
Johnson said the tourism industry and the focus on dinosaurs is really important because it is a distinguished aspect and it is a unique resource that does draw people in from all around the world.
