Giant animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex ended up selling for $38,500 to an organization in Drumheller, AB August 6, 2020 (photo courtesy Colton Mckee)

By Chantal Wagner

Gateway to the Badlands

Tourism Medicine Hat throws hat in the ring for animatronic dinos

Aug 6, 2020 | 4:17 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Tourism Medicine Hat was hoping to find another way to bring more people to our city by going back to the region’s prehistoric past.

They were planning to win one or more of the 70 animatronic dinosaurs that move and make sounds through an online auction on Thursday.

The possibilities were endless if one of the extinct creatures came to the city.

A showing of Jurassic Park got local bidders in the mood to bring a life-size resident from the cretaceous period to Medicine Hat.

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The dinosaurs were available for auction online from Able Auctions based in Langley, B.C.

Tourism Medicine Hat Executive Director Jace Anderson says they didn’t want to miss out on the potentially once in a lifetime experience.

“This is the gateway to the Canadian Badlands so if we could end up with a couple of these and put them somewhere in the city that would feel like a home run.”

The local board had six dinosaurs they were willing to bid for, particularly ones that were natural for the region or North America.

“This opportunity, completely out of the blue. It’s fair to say that we were not looking to buy an animatronic dinosaur 10 days ago when it became even possible to dream like that,” Anderson said.

But the appetite around Canada and the U.S for the creatures was a little outside of Tourism Medicine Hat’s price range so they did not purchase a dinosaur. The T-Rex alone sold for nearly $40,000.

“Frankly I was hoping that because this happened so quickly there might be a very limited market for people who were able to get ready and get into the space to bid. I don’t think that’s the case right now with the number of bidders we’re seeing and the number of dollars they’re prepared to spend.”

Despite seeing less long-haul traffic from a tourism standpoint as a result of COVID-19, Anderson says the support for tourism in the city is strong.

And the organization has been focusing on local tourism with the My Medicine Hat summer campaign.

“That’s really good for us as a community because as a tourism destination we need that first. And when that happens then visitors, it’s authentic to invite visitors to come in and that’s going to happen into the rest of 2020 and 2021.”

Anderson adds COVID-19 has challenged and changed everything, but they’re fortunate Medicine Hat and tourism stakeholders are resilient.