Sunset of the dinosaur

Everybody meet Dixie. Dixie the Brachiosaur. I hope you enjoy photos, because they're all you will ever see of her.

Dixie was the best part of my drives to Santa Barbara. Better than the detailed list of all In-n-Outs between Davis and Santa Barbara I keep in the glovebox and my determination to sample them all. Better than playing the alphabet game through Solvang. Better even than the signs for the "Pork Palace" and my fantasies of what that actually entails (they're gross).

Dixie graced highway 680, just north of the Benicia-Martinez bridge. I loved to look for her as I drove past. Once I stopped to take a few pictures. The lighting was just perfect. Isn't the alpenglow on the dinosaur beautiful? And then, suddenly, I couldn't find her any more. I thought maybe I just wasn't looking in the right place. I don't drive too Santa Barbara all that often, so I never remember for certain where she is. I've been known to miss her before. But now I was consistently missing her. And I was pretty sure I knew where she was. It seemed clear that Dixie was gone.

All this was years ago. Googling for Dixie didn't find anything useful. I learned a little about Dixie's history: she used to live in Dixon (hence the name Dixie) and had been airlifted to her home in Benicia. (The pictures are really awesome. You definitely need to follow the links in this post.) But I could find nothing regarding her recent disappearance.

A few years later, I tried again (this was still a few years ago). By then, enough time had passed for newer information on Dixie to make it online and to be found by google. This turned up a page on the Davis Wiki (a thoroughly excellent resource) noting that Dixie had been bought and removed to a private location. How very upsetting that the public (and mostly me ;D) should be deprived of a treasure like Dixie!

But that isn't nearly as upsetting as a news item this summer that was so momentous as to be on the front page of the Davis wiki for months, the news that Dixie is dead. (Also in the above-linked page)

Tragedy of tragedies! Dixie was killed in the firestorm that scorched northern California earlier this summer, when more than 600 wildfires were burning simultaneously. Someone found Dixie in aerial photos, revealing her charred hulk.

But I think the biggest shame can be seen in the high-resolution google earth image of Dixie before the fires, linked also from the Davis wiki page. (You see how instrumental remote sensing has been to telling Dixie's story?! Maybe I should apply for postdocs in dinosaur remote sensing. I'm pretty sure nobody else is doing it; I could be an expert!) From this image, it appears that Dixie was never even assembled at her new home! I don't get that at all. I can understand greedily depriving the world of a dinosaur so that you can have your own private dinosaur for your own private enjoyment (if that's what you're into). But greedily depriving the world of a dinosaur and scattering its body parts around on the ground so that nobody can enjoy it??

If I'm ever rich and eccentric (because I will be eccentric), I will definitely have a large, fiberglass dinosaur. Probably with dinosaur topiary friends. And I will try to place it somewhere that is accessible, or at the very least visible, to the public. People love dinosaurs!