Prehistoric world ontario
M.A. Kleen
Prehistoric World in Morrisburg, Ontario is a quaint throwback to roadside attractions of yore. There’s nothing fancy here; it’s just a stroll through the park among painted concrete dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals created by local artists Paul and Serge Dupuis, but it’s simple fun and education for a reasonable price.
The Dupuis brothers have been creating these life-sized sculptures for over 37 years. They depict primitive reptiles of the Paleozoic period to large mammals of the Cenozoic and Quaternary. Each sculpture features a plaque with information about the creature. There are currently over 50 sculptures.
For kids, there’s something fascinating about the hugeness of dinosaurs. It’s hard to believe creatures like this once existed. Kids can rattle off complex Latin names with ease. I’ve forgotten half of what I used to know about all the different species and popular theories.
Compared to other dinosaur parks, Prehistoric World doesn’t have the most realistic depictions, but the dinosaurs and primitive mammals have a friendly appearance. I’ve visited other dinosaur parks where younger kids were frightened of the
“Look! I can pick his nose! It’s really big!”
“That’s…super great honeybear.”
It’s been a couple of years that I’ve been wanting to visit this touristy site, but other things cropped up, so with about a week to go before it closed for the season, we ventured out early in the morning and got there just as it was opening at 10am.
There’s not a whole lot of info online about this park. There’s no website, and I could only find an unofficial Facebook page and some Yelp reviews. Sooooo, I really didn’t know what to expect. I kind of went “Hmmmm” when we pulled into the parking lot, then “Oh!” after we exited the place-where-you-pay room, and then “Eeeeee!” when we started through the woods.
My kids aren’t like,
dinosaur crazy
, but they like them enough, and we’ve read all our dino books quite a few times each (Dinosaurs Love Underpants is a favourite), so I thought they’d be interested, but maybe not over-the-moon out-of-their-minds excited. But they loved it! Even the 9-year old. My 4-year old made the gnarliest squeal/twitter of d
Prehistoric World in Morrisburg, Ontario
Last Updated: August 9, 2025
Prehistoric World. Just 1 hour from Ottawa, we took the day to drive to the small town of Morrisburg for a fun family day of adventuring. Our first adventure was the locally-famous Prehistoric World.
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Also known as the Morrisburg Dinosaur Park, Prehistoric World is every dinosaur loving child’s dream come to life.
Usually, they are open from late May to Labour Day in September, from 10 am to 4 pm and accept last visitors at 3:15 pm. During Covid, they plan on remaining open until at least Thanksgiving to recover some of the costs they lost during the lockdown.
The first thing we noticed is that there wasn’t much parking. There were a handful of people double parking on the lawn before we managed to score a spot closer to the entrance, and without blocking anyone in. We suggest arriving early, and bring lots of bug spray and sunscreen, as it can get hot in the field during mid-day.
Picnic tables are available along the path, but they are currently closed
There are sometimes places that leave you a deep impression you when you’re a kid and for me, Prehistoric World in Eastern Ontario is definitely one of them. My parents used to take us there every year when we were kids, and there was nothing I found more fascinating than all these dinosaurs hidden in the forest.
More than twenty years later, as my brothers and sisters have children now, we have decided to renew this old tradition. So we headed to Morrisburg last weekend and I was able to rediscover Prehistoric World, this time with my adult eyes.
And curiously, I wasn’t disappointed.
Prehistoric World was born from the imagination of Franco-Ontarians Paul and Serge Dupuis. Amateur sculptors, the two brothers began to carve life-size dinosaurs in cement in their backyard. They had a dozen dinosaurs the first time they opened the doors of their private land to the public in 1982.
Nearly 40 years (!) later, the two brothers still operate the site on which new dinosaurs have been added over the years. A trail of about a kilometre winds through a woodland where you can find, here and there, triceratops, stegosaurus and diplodocus.
And all the dinosaurs are life-size