The attraction makes its return to the region despite a welding accident that razed one large dinosaur Watch video
Update: the park opening has been pushed back a day to Sunday, May 29. This story has been changed in light of the new information.
One flaming dinosaur could not stop the herd.
Though the lumbering Argentinosaurus' foam flesh was rent from its towering steel bones following a welding accident this month, the land time forgot will carry on. Field Station: Dinosaurs, New Jersey's version of Jurassic Park, will reopen on Memorial Day weekend in Bergen County, albeit a day later than originally planned.
"A decision was made late on Friday that the park still needed one more day of preparation to be able to deliver the quality experience our customers expect and that we demand," said Guy Gsell, park president, in a statement late Friday. "We were excited for our opening on Saturday, but we will have to hold that excitement for one more day and look forward to welcoming families at our opening on Sunday."
Field Station debuted in 2012 in Hudson County's Laurel Hill Park. The Secaucus attraction featured a perch from which a roaring, animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex overlooked the New York skyline. The dinosaur used facial recognition technology and sensors to interact with visitors. But the park had to pack up the robotic dinosaurs and leave in 2015 to make way for the construction of a high school building. After a search for a new location took park staff out of New Jersey, a new home for the dinosaurs was found just a few miles away in the Leonia section of Overpeck County Park.
And yes, Argentinosaurus -- the charred, 90-foot-long titanosaur that is no more -- will be replaced, Gsell told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. Though other dinosaurs have come for the tittle, Argentinosaurus is often considered the longest dinosaur to have ever lived. Gsell will not say how much the robotic dinosaur is worth, but he does say it was insured and could be supplanted by a fresh longneck as soon as July. The park's remaining dinosaur fleet -- 31 altogether -- return for the new season.
In the old park, dinosaurs were planted in between foliage and a hilly path took visitors to each creature. In the new arrangement, the dinosaurs ring a large, open field down the road from sunbathing park visitors.
"The dinosaurs are still mostly tucked into the woods," Gsell says. Yet because each figure is in closer proximity to one another, the resulting scenes ramp up the drama between smaller dinosaurs and would-be predators.
"I'm a fan of the opening scene of 'Jurassic Park,'" he says. "That idea of a dinosaur herd."
A wheelchair-accessible mesh pathway guides visitors around the displays, which showcase the same moving, wailing dinosaurs from the original Secaucus location. Gsell says construction is about 75 percent complete on the new park, which is slated to open at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Admission will be $15 for all ages except children under 2, who are free. After an extended Memorial Day weekend opening, the park will be accessible to the public on Saturdays and Sundays through June 26 and Tuesday through Sunday from June 28 to Sept. 4. Field Station will close after Labor Day.
The dinosaurs stood in suspended animation Thursday as about 30 workers and artists put the finishing touches on the bones of the park and the intricate features of dinosaur hides.
Field Station's Argentinosaurus went up in flames after a welding accident at the new Overpeck Park location. It was the largest, most expensive dinosaur in the park and is slated to be replaced this summer. (Left: Chris Torello. Right: Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)"At the end of the day we'll be ready to power it all up," Gsell said before he ultimately decided the park opening would have to wait one more day. James Tedesco, county executive, surveyed the progress ahead of a previously scheduled Saturday morning ribbon cutting on the property.
Field Station will continue to host visits from scientists and run a series of educational children's shows. School groups are already booked for the first week in June. Gsell will host a new show called "Mystery of the Missing Dinosaurs," which he calls "'CSI' meets paleontology."
The Leonia field, located at 40 Fort Lee Road at the Henry Hoebel area of Overpeck Park, is just a temporary location for Field Station. In 2017 or 2018, the dinosaurs are supposed to move to a section of the park in Teaneck currently inhabited by forest and marshy brush. The planned entrance will be located across from the Marriott at Glenpointe hotel at Degraw Avenue. Visitors will use a bridge to cross Teaneck Creek to get to the park promenade and dinosaurs.
Field Station is paying the county a park permit fee of $75,000 to use the space in Leonia. The new home for the park in Teaneck is the site of a former landfill. Tedesco has said that remediation of the land will likely be expedited to make way for the dinosaurs. A county official previously said that the future "permanent" home for the park could generate proceeds that would go to the county, but Gsell says a deal has not yet been finalized.
For more information, visit fieldstationdinosaurs.com