A Visit to the Stone Age at Arizona’s Bedrock City Before it Becomes History

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July 2022 Update: The new owners have decided to keep Bedrock City open indefinitely! Visit their website for up-to-date information.

Just a few miles south of the Grand Canyon is a place where you can, at least for a few more weeks, step into the fanciful past of the Flintstones, the modern stone age family. This is Bedrock City.

A massive sign of Fred Flintstone and and sign reading "Yabba Dabba Doo Means Welcome to You!"

The partially broken sign over the gateway to Bedrock City.

Part of the massive sign features a mural of various dinosaurs and Pebbles crawling.

A large painted sign reading "Entrance to Bedrock City"

A cut out painting of Dino, the purple dog like pet, paying a guitar, and text reading "Born to Bedrock"

Entrance to Bedrock, with a small yellow and orange dinosaur painting the way.

This colorful town isn’t from the stone age, but actually 1972, and was built in Valle, Arizona as a companion park to the one build in Custer, South Dakota, which was built in 1966, and closed back in 2015. Sadly, this one in Arizona is about to face extinction too. Linda Spreckles, wife of Francis Spreckles who originally brought the park to life and passed away several decades ago, put the park up for sale in 2015, and sold it to new owners who have plans to demolish the faux prehistoric city inspired by the 1960s Hanna-Barbara cartoon, The Flintstones, and build Raptor Ranch, a park that will serve as home for birds of prey. The new owners originally closed the property in January of this year, but decided to reopen it for one more summer. So, because this place is really about to become a thing of the past, we took loads of photos! Even including one of the elusive Patrick!

The service station, with "new tires" sits out front. A dinosaur statue also sits out front.

A yellow pterodactyl appears to be flying over a giant volcano.

Myself wearing a lime green peasant and brown cut off shorts, leaning against the blue and green dino.

A yellow pterodactyl emerges from an egg.

The post office, a two store building that appears as if it were made from a giant rock and carved out. A sign out front reads "Local UPS Air Mail"

Inside the Post Office, a long brown counter in a corner made of wood.

A photo opt, painted so you can look like Fred or Wilma.

A massive long neck dinosaur stands in the middle of Bedrock. He is green with yellow spots. A small awning is in the middle of his back, and he is really a slide! Climb up just under his neck, and slide down his tail.

The exterior of the grocery store, a mauve stone building with a spit build out front with large faux bones, and what appears to be a pterodactyl on a spit.

Inside the grocery store, a green cash register with faux fruit behind.

Inside the grocery store, a table with faux ribs sits, and paintings of Wilma Flintstone cooking.

A mural of various dinosaurs on a stage.

A statue of Pebbles.

The residential area of Bedrock city, three concrete structures, flat roofs, that appear to be made of stone, one blue, one orange, one yellow.

Myself, wearing a lime green peasant top, brown cut off jean shorts, and my hair in pigtails with small bone clips in my hair. Behind me, an orange concrete structure that looks like a caveman's home.

Fred Flintstone's house, which is painted blue, and is made to look like it is made of one giant rock, but is really made of concrete and features a flat slab like roof.

Myself, wearing a lime green peasant top, brown cut off jean shorts, and my hair in pigtails with small bone clips in my hair. Behind me, an orange concrete structure that looks like a caveman's home.

Inside Barney's house. Everything appears as if it were carved out of rock, but is really sculpted concrete. A fireplace is on the left, and a yellow TV on the right. The curtains are made from zebra print fabric.

In the kitchen a concrete stove with "ribs" on top, which is really painted wood.

Myself, wearing a lime green peasant top, brown cut off jean shorts, and my hair in pigtails with small bone clips in my hair. Behind me, an orange concrete structure that looks like a caveman's home.

The "police man's house", a concrete building made to look like it was carved from a giant rock, and with a flat slab roof.

Myself, wearing a lime green peasant top, brown cut off jean shorts, and my hair in pigtails with small bone clips in my hair, sitting on a saber tooth cat, the prehistoric style homes of Fred and Barney behind me.

Pat, wearing a red button down shirt and tan shorts, poses next to the faux camera. Behind him an odd tapered building made of concrete stands, which is the school house.

Myself, wearing a lime green peasant top, brown cut off jean shorts, and my hair in pigtails with small bone clips in my hair. Behind me, a yellow concrete structure that looks like a caveman's home.

A saber tooth cat statue stands posed in front of a faux camera.

A concrete building almost resembling a Hershey Kiss, which serves as the school house.

Inside the school house a blackboard is on the wall, and a statue of a cartoon school teacher in a purple cavewoman dress.

Fred and Barney's homes. Rock like homes made of concrete, flat roofs. Fred's house is painted blue, Barney's is painted orange.

Inside the Medical Center, where a statue of a stone age nurse stands, wearing a teal dress with white apron. A painting on the wall of various bottles makes it appear like a cabinet.

"Stonehead's General Store" a dome like building made of concrete, with round windows.

The "telephone" which is a stone age version of the first telephones.

A blue woolly mammoth statue.

Myself, wearing a lime green peasant top, brown cut off jean shorts, and my hair in pigtails with small bone clips in my hair. Behind me, a teal concrete structure that serves as the "beauty parlor" a concrete bone sits out front.

Inside the Beauty Salon, a display case with heads featuring different "stone age" hairstyles using bones sit inside. On the wall paintings of various stone age beauties.

A stone age beauty, wearing a pink and black dress, her hair in a ponytail with a bone at the base.

Inside the barber shop, where two chairs made of wood sit, and painting of Bam-Bam hangs on the wall.

A large, drive through volcano with a yellow pterodactyl over.

Myself sitting on the police motorcycle outside of the police station.

Myself standing on top of the giant green and white dino.

Exit sign reads "Exit Yabba Dabba Doo means Thank You"

Thankfully the new owners won’t be entirely forgetting the property’s past and plan on keeping the the Flintstone home, the Rubble home, volcano, woolly mammoth, saber-tooth cat, some of the photo opts, some vehicles, and the dino slide so visitors can recreate Fred’s famous moment of when he gets off work.

Bedrock City also used to have “Fred’s Diner” but it has since shuttered, and the area now used for storage, however the adjoining campground, complete with “Wilma’s Laundry” is still operating.

The main building, a single store building with round windows and appears as if it were carved from a giant rock. A large sign atop reads "Entrance to Bedrock City"

A sign for seating for Fred's Diner.

A stone age travel trailer.

As mentioned, this place is only around for a few more weeks. When we asked they said construction will begin next month! So take a step back in time at Bedrock City while you can, at 101 S. Highway 180 in Valle, Arizona.

Outfit
Bones: Kreepsville 666 via Knott’s Berry Farm
Necklace: A Rolling Stone, Redlands, California
Peasant Top: Pinup Girl Clothing
Shorts: Redlands Galleria, Redlands, California
Mocs: Minnetonka

Sources
Craven, Scott. “A summer-long goodbye: Bedrock City welcomes final visitors before it becomes Raptor Ranch.” azcentral, 14 June 2019. Accessed 10 September 2019.
Craven, Scott. “Bedrock City: Prime Stone Age real estate for sale.” azcentral, 5 June 2015. Accessed 10 September 2019.
Craven, Scott. “Flintstones Bedrock City closes; Raptor Ranch is coming.” azcentral, 29 January 2019. Accessed 10 September 2019.
Lutz, Dan. “Custer ‘Flintstones Bedrock City’ knocked down into history.” News Center 1, 19 April, 2019. Accessed 10 September 2019.

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6 comments on “A Visit to the Stone Age at Arizona’s Bedrock City Before it Becomes History”

  3. Shame I can’t make it before it goes away. Wish they would keep it. I made it to the South Dakota one back in the mid 1970s. I blogged about both a while. Would be nice to have someone re-create it or buy the pieces. I ran across a Maryland amusement park that had closed. A woman purchased some of it at auction and was able to convince the property owner to sell her what was left. It took a while for her to raise the money, but she was able to save a lot.

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  5. I was there on 1986 with my Husband and 2 children we Loved the park and the Flintstones are my favorite cartoon sad to see it go🤣😭

    Reply