Dinosaurs Invading Bergen County Park

Field Station: Dinosaurs is moving to Overpeck County Park, county officials announced Monday.

More than 30 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs will be brought to life at the park, said Bergen County Executive James Tedesco.

“Field Station: Dinosaurs is a world class attraction that will bring their successful mix of education and fun to our children and offer something that no park in the State of New Jersey or region can," Tedesco said in a statement.

The park is expected to open in 2018.

Scientists from the New Jersey State Museum are working to ensure the latest theories and discoveries in the fields of paleontology, geology, and environmental studies are covered in the park.

The park will operated under the theme of "9 Minutes from Manhattan — 90 million years back in time."

Field Station: Dinosaurs will be temporarily located on 14 acres of land in the Henry Hoebel section of the park in Leonia. A more permanent, 35-acre home is being designed in the Teaneck section to the south of DeGraw Avenue across from the Glenpoint Hotel and office complex.

The former Secaucus attraction was named the second best dinosaur theme park in the world by Maxim magazine in 2013. It lost its lease on the property to make room for a new campus for the Hudson County High Schools of Technology.

Guy Gsell, president and founder of the attraction, said he received support from people throughout the state to stay in New Jersey.

"We looked at wooded lots and empty properties from the Pinelands to the Highlands but we couldn't ask for a better, more beautiful site than Overpeck County Park or more innovative, forward thinking partners than County Executive Tedesco and the Bergen County Parks Department," Gsell said.

Park officials had considered moving the attraction to Kansas before the move to Overpeck was planned.

The park is expected to employ 120 people and keep its $150,000 in tax revenue in New Jersey.

Bergen County Executive James Tedesco and one of the animatronic dinosaurs featured at Field Station: Dinosaurs/Courtesy of Alicia D’Alessandro

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