Reanimated N.J. dinosaur park announces details of new Bergen County location

Field Station: Dinosaurs will get a temporary home before settling for good in Overpeck Park

After they were evicted last fall, Guy Gsell searched far and wide to find a new home for his dinosaurs. He feared the roaring creatures -- his "Jerseysauruses" -- would have to move out of state.

But it turns out the solution was just up the Hackensack River. 

Field Station: Dinosaurs, the dinosaur park that has drawn children, parents, teachers and students to Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus for the last three years, will reopen on May 28 at Overpeck County Park in Leonia. The new space will serve as a temporary stomping ground for the dinosaurs as the park builds a permanent home in another section of the park in Teaneck. 

"It is so nice to have floated upstream a little bit," says Gsell, 55, Field Station's president. "It feels great to be back in business." His own fascination with dinosaurs began with the Sinclair Oil dinosaurs at the 1964-65 World's Fair. The static giants were a far cry from the 32 moving, wailing creatures that populated his dinosaur park. 

Those dinosaurs had to leave Secaucus last year to make room for the construction of a high school building. Gsell calls the Leonia location -- a grassy field off Fort Lee Road at the Henry Hoebel area of Overpeck -- "our beachhead." 

While the first version of Field Station, a 16-acre portion of Laurel Hill near exit 15X of the New Jersey Turnpike, saw dinosaurs planted in spaces between trees and rocks as part of a hilly series of paths, the Overpeck space is a flat stretch of green. Gsell says that while this will create more of a "herd" of dinosaurs, the park will be adding landscaping to break scenes up and tents for "mystery."

"We are going to now mount a major campaign to build a terrific permanent park -- hopefully 2017 -- here in Overpeck County Park," he said at Monday at an announcement on the Leonia property. As local mayors and county officials stood in a line next to him, two of the park's dinosaurs, retrieved from storage, bared their pointy teeth. One of them, a dilophosaurus, had been plugged in -- as Gsell spoke, the theropod moved its head, topped with two red crests, from side to side.

Field Station recently assured its future in North Jersey by way of a contract with the Bergen County Improvement Authority.

In 2017 or 2018 (Gsell is aiming for 2017), the park will move to larger digs -- up to 30 acres of space -- near Teaneck Creek and the Fort Lee Road entrance to the Overpeck in Teaneck. Right now, the spot -- which Gsell calls "a big, wild, great woods" -- is partially inhabited by a long paved path bordered by reeds, trees, brush and garbage. This path will become the "promenade" area of the future park and form just one corner of the attraction, which will include a parking area near Degraw Avenue and a bridge across Teaneck Creek.

A workup of the future permanent site of Field Station: Dinosaurs in Teaneck, which may open in 2017 or 2018. (Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
 

Overpeck Park, which spans more than 800 acres over Leonia, Teaneck, Palisades Park and Ridgefield Park, sits on the site of former landfills and brownfields. 

"As the dinosaurs move into their temporary home, the county will continue to work on a permanent site," said James Tedesco, Bergen County executive, at the park announcement. "The permanent location will be the site of a former landfill which the county is required to cap and reclaim for public use." 

Tedecso added that remediation of the land, currently in progress, would likely be finished sooner than expected because Field Station is moving in.

"This is a big win for Bergen County," he said. 

A lone animatronic dinosaur stands guard over the future temporary site of Field Station: Dinosaurs in Leonia. (Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
 

Alicia D'Alessandro, spokeswoman for the county executive, says Field Station will pay a park permit fee of $75,000 to use the Leonia space. She says that the dinosaur park will pay rent and, depending upon ticket sales at the new Teaneck location, a portion of proceeds could go to the county, though those details have not been finalized. 

Gsell says visitors can expect the same prices -- admission is $15 for all ages, with extras available for more money -- and no reduction in the fleet of dinosaurs for the coming season, though the trail will be shorter. As in years past, the park will be open from May through November. 

"It's all going to be the same," he says, noting that he doesn't even need to change the park's tagline -- "9 minutes from Manhattan, 90 million years back in time." He could, but "7 minutes" just doesn't have the same ring. 

The new Field Station: Dinosaurs will open on May 28 at 40 Fort Lee Road in Leonia. For more information, visit fieldstationdinosaurs.com