A Friday Visit With Jim Korkis: Chester and Hester

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE CHESTER AND HESTER STORY

By Jim Korkis

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood stories at the Disney World theme parks is the theme behind Chester and Hester and their dinosaur store and amusement venue in DinoLand at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Here’s the backstory of this unique land, where a beaten-up looking parking lot is actually a key part of the theme!

In the 1940s, Diggs County, which later became the home of the Dino Institute, was a quiet rural location with just a few cabins and a fishing lodge. Newly married Chester and Hester, who grew up in the area, decided to open a business since they reasoned that there would be an influx of traffic with Route 498 (from April ’98– the opening date of Disney’s Animal Kingdom) becoming part of the fabled Route 66.

They put their life savings into building a service station. Since they were the only stop for gasoline for miles, they had made a wise investment. However, in 1947, amateur paleontologists discovered a fossil and it was speculated that the area might be rife with even more fossils of scientific interest.

These researchers bought the fishing lodge and turned it into the first Dino Institute. (Eventually, the project grew so large they moved into a new institute building in April 1978 and now the fishing lodge is inhabited by college students who use it both as a dormitory and a commissary.)

Chester and Hester even found some fossils themselves after digging in their backyard and sold them to passing tourists. It proved so popular that the couple began selling more and more dinosaur related souvenirs and found they made more money from that endeavor with less effort than selling gas. So the establishment evolved into Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures.

However, the couple didn’t have enough money to start over fresh so they repainted over many of the things from the gas station. They still have cans of oil, fan belts and other automotive supplies that they continue to sell as well.

One photo of the couple that is in the shop suggests to sharp-eyed guests that the two look almost exactly alike as if the same person posed for both characters.

The Dino Institute discovered time travel and there was a huge flood of people coming to participate. Chester and Hester took over the cracked parking lot across the street and turned it into the kind of small roadside attraction popular in the old days.

Classic roadside attractions featured statues, mini-museums, quirky architecture, gimmicky signage, unique exhibits, carnival-style attractions, and more, designed to separate a curious tourist from the money in his wallet as he traveled along America’s roadways. Many of those attractions included massive cement dinosaurs.

Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama proclaimed that it showed “Dinosaurs the way they were meant to be: big, green and fun” (although some are orange…).

Of course, money was tight for such a major investment so they had to purchase “off the shelf” amusement rides and carnival games that were re-themed to dinosaurs. These are not rides of distinction, but rather “rides of extinction” as one highly colorful sign states.

To compete with the Dino Institute’s technological achievement, Chester & Hester offered guests a trip on Primeval Whirl which, like the ride DINOSAUR, sends guests back in time and has them confronting an asteroid at the end.

The name of this “wild mouse”-style ride is an homage to the Primeval World, Ford’s 1964 New York World’s Fair attraction designed by Disney that featured a glimpse at audio-animatronics dinosaurs which was later installed as the grand finale of the Disneyland Railroad.

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Thanks, Jim. And come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including The Vault of Walt, Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?, and The Book of Mouse, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

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