As this article from the Waco Trib indicates, Dinosaur Valley State Park didn't just happen but because people had community pride and pushed for state-park funding and status. That happened in 1968. Shows that people love the idea of not only being known for the dino tracks but, even while a poor county, pre-the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, worked to get a state park here.

The tracks were discovered in 1909, garnered media attention in 1938, and the site was purchased by Texas in 1968 and opened to the public in 1972. But the real story is behind the scenes, said Dorothy Leach, Somervell County Historical Commission archivist and lifelong resident of Glen Rose.It was a community effort for years to make these tracks available to the public,” she said. “It had been a dream of the Chamber of Commerce and the historical groups, and, of course, all the political entities were interested.”

Residents of the city and county began pushing for the tracks to be recognized and protected in the 1960s, she said, as the county couldn’t afford to develop the site itself.

“They were trying every avenue,” she said. “I think it took all that effort at the local level to really keep it before the legislature and the public’s eye.”