Dinosaur, CO

Dinosaur is a statutory town in Moffat County, Colorado, United States. The 2020 census counted 243, residents. Dinosaur is a part of the Steamboat Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Dinosaur was originally known as "Baxter Springs", owned by Art and Fanny Baxter. In addition to tourism related to the Dinosaur National Monument, cannabis dispensaries have been a significant part of Dinosaur's economy since the late 2010s. The short version is that Dinosaur carries an earlier story into the places people know and use now. That is the local read on Dinosaur: its past remains attached to the places people use now. Dinosaur was renamed "Artesia" for its valued water supply when a town was platted to accommodate the oil boom in the 1940s. The Utah border is 2 miles to the west.