Johnson’s Park dinosaur owner aims to recreate sculpture at last
Four years after buying a dinosaur statue that stood for decades at the site of the old Johnson’s Park mini golf course, its owner has plans to restore the 16-foot figure.
Brown-headed, aqua-bellied, and orange-coated, the 13,000-pound figure has slumbered on Chad Covert’s property in Saukville since he purchased it in 2017 for $11.
“I wanted it done the first year, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen when I picked it up and realized it was 13,000 pounds,” Covert said of the reconstruction.
When completed in the coming weeks, the Tyrannosaurus rex will join the skeleton of an Indy-500 racecar and a shop/bar made of a grain bin in Covert’s backyard.
Johnson’s Park was an amusement located near on North 76th Street, just north of Good Hope Road. It had a minigolf course, giant slide, batting cages and go carts.
For more than two decades, the dinosaur stood as a guardian of the minigolf course. Johnson’s Park closed in the late 1990s and much of the park was cleared in 2007. The dinosaur figure remained on the site, until the city auctioned it off after it foreclosed on the property due to unpaid taxes in 2017.
Covert, who remembered the dinosaur from his childhood, said he first considered buying the dinosaur as a decoration for one of the car dealerships he owned. He once operated two near the site of the former park. But plans to buy it from John Johnson, the park’s original owner, fell through.
When Covert finally did buy it, decided to plan the dinosaur for his house instead of a business based on a conversation with Johnson.
“He said, ‘You can do what you want with it, but I don’t want to see it on my way home from work.’ “
To remove the figure from the site, Covert employed the help of several friends and tow trucks. An article in the
Chad Covert had the T-Rex dinosaur removed from the Johnson’s Park location on North 76th Street on Jan. 4, 2017. PHOTO COURTESY CHAD COVERT
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at the time said in order to pry the dinosaur loose from its foundation, the group removed its tail, a leg, an arm and a large bone on which the dinosaur rested its weight.
The moving of the dinosaur, and the years it spent stored on its side, damaged the figure. The dinosaur, which has a mesh-concrete exterior on a metal frame, is partially collapsed.
Covert said he hopes to get the started on reviving it over the next two weeks. He envisions that the project will last two weeks, and plans to post updates on social media.
Restoration will involve raising the statue using a Skyjack lift over a 14-foot metal I-Beam, Covert said. From there, he plans to weld the dinosaur onto the newfound support from the inside with the help of his father, a welder.
Covert said he will also try to contact one of the original builders, who lives in La Crosse to help him redo the tuckpointing — that is, detailing the dinosaur’s concrete shell to fix any chipped or tattered scales.
Covert also plans to add solar-powered lights to the statue’s eye sockets and repaint it in a new color scheme, potentially brown and green.
“I don’t want it to stand out obnoxiously in my backyard” he said. “It might be a little more true to dinosaur colors this time.”
When all is done, the dinosaur will rise on the back corner Covert’s property, near a wooded expanse. According to Covert, this will mostly hide the figure, though he expects it to be partially visible from the street.
Alas, it will not be accessible to the public.