CANTON, New York (WWNY) – Driving from Ogdensburg to Canton, you’ve probably seen it – a big rock bearing a big grin. It’s a friendly monster, Canton’s own cartoon dinosaur, something that is likely to stir a smile.
It’s the work of Joe Benjamin, creator and maintainer of the big rock.
“It’s quite a project to keep the same smile, the same eye, the same hair,” Joe told 7 News Friday.
He first laid eyes on the rock when it was just…a rock, as he drove out of SUNY Canton.
“You could see the top of the rock and it kind of, the more I drove, I was like I could paint that into a dinosaur head and it would look really neat.”
He drove by for two years or so before summoning up the courage. He asked the farmer. He said yes. Keeping it up for six years hasn’t been easy.
“When it was really hot the other day. And it’s loud. And there’s bugs up my nose and I can’t stop to itch my nose,” he said.
Because of its odd, carved shape, Joe likes to think the rock could have meant something to people eons ago.
“The chances of someone way back carving this thing, or having it be something like an artwork, or a relic for them, is probably slim. But it stretches the imagination,” he said.
Oh – and the the burning question — is it a boy or girl? Well it’s named Dino, but ““It’s not a boy or a girl. It’s whatever the imagination of whoever’s looking at it wants it to be,” Joe said.
Joe plans to keep working on Dino for as long as he can – and he’s spotted an even bigger rock in the Adirondacks.
“I thought to myself, I could do it just like this. But make it look like a guy, looking up at the stars.”
No doubt, he could.
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