This was a wonderful 'find'. Steve was shown a brochure published by Borrego Springs showing the sculptures of Ricardo Breceda. He was an artist most well known for his large metal sculptures of animals. His first sculpture was of Tyranosaurus Rex, a request from his daughter for a 20 foot high and 45 foot long dinosaur for Christmas after she had seen Jurassic Park III. Since then, Ricardo has created over 130 sculptures! He found a benefactor in a gentleman named Dennis Avery who not only commissioned more sculptures but provided land for the sculptures to be shown. The town of Borrego Springs credits the sculptures with bringing in thousands of tourists each year. Unfortunately we ran out of sunlight and were not able to see all of the sculptures.
Of course, there are more statues than the sea serpent. The animals commissioned by Dennis Avery were to accompany a book on the fossilized animals of the Anza Borrego Dessert written by Avery.
That's it folks. If you are in the area of Borrego Springs it is well worth a detour to check out these, and more statues. You can pick up a handy map of all of them at the Chamber of Commerce.