Natural Bridge: A town located in Rockbridge County Virginia, whose name is derived from its National Historic Landmark, a two hundred and fifteen-foot-tall natural limestone arch carved out by Cedar Creek a side stream that flows off the James River.

Although the population of this small town is only right around fifteen hundred, it sees its share of visitors particularly during the summer traveling months. Tourists from all over flock to see the Natural Bridge that has often been included in several “Seven Natural Wonders of the World” lists.

But don’t let this fool ya. Nestled along this seemingly quiet and peaceful little town, specifically along South Lee Highway, there’s a battle going on! And one of Jurassic proportions!

And that’s where we’re going to venture on this written expedition, my dear readers…

Welcome to Dinosaur Kingdom II!

Within this fifteen-foot high gated area lies an unknown twist to the Civil War; one that the history books failed to mention.

Travel back to June 1864 where General David Hunter has just raided and burned nearby Lexington! As he and his troops continue moving on towards Lynchburg, a few Union scouts opt to detour near the Natural Bridge Caverns, only to make a startling discovery! Seems that all the war commotion has awoken a species of prehistoric dinos from their cryogenic slumber, millions of years later!

But those wise Union scouts, they’re no dummies!  They are determined to use this revelation to their advantage!  Their ingenious plan? To use the creatures for weapons of mass destruction!!!!

Meanwhile, Professor Cline, along with his own army of Mr. Slimes, are also trapped in 1864! Desperate to fuel his time machine with massive amounts of gold, he disguises his Mr. Slime infantry as the opposing Confederates to search for the legendary Beale’s Treasure which is said to have been buried nearby.

One must enter this gated kingdom to experience the truly unique, one-of-a-kind, family friendly mayhem that Dinosaur Kingdom II has to offer.

Where else can you enter a time tunnel? Or experience a topsy-turvy building? Or pet a raptor? With unpredictable and entertaining surprises around every corner, Dinosaur Kingdom II is a roadside attraction that you surely won’t want to miss!

The Mastermind behind the Mayhem

After surviving this far-out clowning combination of dexterous dinosaurs and the zany account of Civil War history, I had to meet the man behind the magic: Mr. Mark Cline.

Mark Cline is a world-renowned artist who produces numerous sculptures and pieces for attractions all over the world.

From multiple towering statues like this Space Cowboy that sits along the famous Route 66, to numerous Yogi Bears that serve as Jellystone Park’s national mascot, and countless others in between, chances are, your eyes have likely caught a glimpse of the magical world of Mark Cline.

Mark was kind enough to invite me to chat with him at the place where all his magic comes to life, Enchanted Castle Studios!

When I arrived, Mark was currently working on pieces for a “Wizard of Oz” themed mini golf course located at Watkins Regional Park in Maryland.

Mark shows off his much-detailed storyboards that he constructs with each creation. He also explained how he used a lot of the existing fixtures of the current mini golf course and how he will transform them into the scenes from the beloved Oz story.

Enchanted Castle studios is delightfully overwhelming!

In between designing and sculpting pieces that are enjoyed all over the world, Mark also finds the time to be active in his own community.

As he shows me his elaborate Willy Wonka float where he performs for area parades, he instantly “blooms” this bouquet of edible flowers right before my eyes! The astounding and eccentric similarities of Mark and Mr. Wonka certainly don’t go unnoticed.

So how in the world did all this start?

Mark: “ADHD.” He laughs.

“I was put in this ‘slow learning’ class back in fourth-grade by my teacher because I couldn’t keep up with the regular class academics. So for forty years, I believed that I was slow or stupid and I guess I just worked harder to get above that; to get over that stigma.

“What happened was, since I was this ‘slow learner,’ I was vying for some type of attention. It goes way back to when I was little. I had this brother who was very cute, he looked more elfish-like, and got all the attention. I was more the ugly duckling.

“Now my other brother who was ten years older than me, now he was an artist. Well, what happened was, I realized at an early age, that he got a lot of attention through his artwork. I think deep down I realized I couldn’t make myself any cuter, but that maybe if I learned how to draw…

“So my oldest brother was an inspiration to me and I learned how to draw and finally heads started looking in my direction!

“Once I got into school, people were asking me to do different pieces of artwork. But then, I took it a step further; with all these shows that were popular in those days, I started imitating some of the characters.”

Mark suddenly does a remarkable impression of “Mr. Haney” from Green Acres and Thurston Howell aka “The Millionaire” from Gilligan’s Island.

Mark: “So I’d do all these characters, and that helped divert the attention from being in that ‘special class.’ I learned, like magicians do, (the art of) misdirection.

“But as an entertainer, I needed props and props were expensive so I learned how to make props. By doing this, I looked at other things that were existing and became an observer of shapes.

“I took two pie pans and put them together and made flying saucers from ‘Lost In Space.’ I played Stan Laurel in a fourth-grade show and needed a derby, so I took my mother’s mixing bowl, spray painted it black, and built a cardboard rim around it.

“I was doing the whole thing in the fourth-grade show and brought down the house and people were coming up to me saying ‘Mark! That was great! Where’d you get that derby?’ And my mom and dad were standing there, and I said ‘Well, this was from my mom’s mixing bowl!’ And back when I was getting all the accolades, I knew my parents weren’t gonna come back on me later and be hypocrites saying, ‘You shouldn’t have done that!’”

Mark goes on to explain that when he was about fifteen his mother, out of loving concern for him, took him to see a psychiatrist.

Mark: “So the psychiatrist walks into the room, and I shake his hand, and we’re talking and towards the end of the session, he tells my mom, ‘You know there’s nothing really wrong with Mark, he’s just got a very active imagination.’

“On the way out, I said, ‘Oh by the way doc, I’d ask you your time but your watch has stopped.’ He looked at me and said ‘What? No?’ And he looks down at his watch and says ‘How’d you do that?’ And I said, ‘A magician never tells his tricks.'”

Mark explains that upon entering the office and shaking the doctor’s hand, he had noticed that he was wearing his watch on his right hand.

Mark: “I thought this was odd, and noticed that he wasn’t looking at his watch during the session. I had looked down at it, and saw it had stopped. So, I played this up the whole time and waited for the opportunity.” He laughs.

“And guess what? He still writes to me today, only met him one time.”

As Mark’s story continues, I became even more intrigued.

Mark: “Right after high school, I was not college material, I wasn’t military material, and I lived sort of like a bum and gypsy in this park in Staunton. But I kept this journal, writing all these things like, ‘What do I want out of life.’ What does anybody want out of life? Happiness. I wanted to use my abilities to help somebody. It’s all about the healing.

“So I put down the journal and thought, ‘Well I need to get a job’ so I hitchhiked to the unemployment office, and go in, and ask this lady if there’s any work, and she said no that there wasn’t anything. I had my hand on the doorknob and was on my way out, when the lady in the other room said ‘We have something.’ And I immediately said ‘I’ll take it!’

“It was a place called Red Mill Manufacturing where they mixed up resins and made little figures like this.”

Mark holds up a small cow figure.

“Now the guy that was my boss, after being there a few weeks, he said to me, ‘Mark, there’s something different about you. I want you to stay after work and I want to show you how to make a mold of your hand.’ And I stayed and made a mold of my hand and I said ‘Man! I can make all kinds of stuff outta this!’ And he said ‘You sure can! Here’s a five-gallon bucket. Now go home and play with it.’”

And the rest is history.

Mark’s pieces are as close as his own Natural Bridge, Virginia and stretch as far across the globe as Lebanon.

Mark: “I do work for Broadway shows, for millionaires, for billionaires…”

He humbly shows me a text picture of one of his customers he’s currently doing work for, which just so happens to be Butch Patrick aka “Eddie Munster.”

Mark’s wonders have caught the attention of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Travel Channel just to name a few.

It’s not surprising that Mark is frequently asked to do interviews and make appearances.

He shares one particular appearance.

Mark: “In 2012 I was asked to do a show called ‘The Barnum of the Blue Ridge.’ And I went and did the show and was asked to give a talk to about four hundred people.  Afterwards, this one lady came up to me and she said, ‘Do you remember me?’ And I said ‘Yes. You’re Mrs. Barry my fourth-grader teacher.’

“I wanted to catch up with her at the end of the show and I looked around until the crowds had dwindled, but she was gone. It took me about four years to finally catch back up with her, and when I did I talked to her on the phone and after about thirty minutes into it, I got comfortable enough to ask her about that class she’d put me in. ‘Was I really that stupid?’ I said.

“She hesitated and asked, ‘Is that why you think I put you there?’  And I said ‘Yea.’ And she said, ‘Mark, I put you there because you were so advanced, artistically you were so different. I had to find a place to put you.’

“So, in essence, she was protecting me because otherwise they would have taken a student that did poorly academically and done something else with them. She took me under her wing, she watched out for me, she did what a good teacher was supposed to do. And it wasn’t because I was stupid at all. Speaking of the Wizard of Oz, I was the scarecrow.”

Mark then does an identical impression of Ray Bolger’s role in the 1939 film, complete with his famous finger gesture pointing to ‘his head all full of stuffin’.

“The scarecrow, you see, he came up with all the ideas…”

It’s clear that ideas are something Mark Cline never runs out of.

My afternoon with Mark continued into late evening as I joined him, along with his assistant “Pete,” on his historic and haunting tour of Lexington. Mark has mixed the town’s history and ghostly legends of long-gone residents since 1996 when he first started “Haunting Tales, Lexington’s Ghost Tour.”

Mark: “I believe a tour, such as this, is only as good as the guide.”

Another avenue where Mark, himself as the host, fails to disappoint.

Through the use of exceptional story-telling, theatrics, illusions and the down-right unexplainable, this was, by far, the best ghost tour I have ever experienced! In fact, there were even a few surprises in the cemetery that caught both Mark and Pete off guard!

The world is unpredictable when Mark Cline is around, but in a good way.

A paramount artist, creator, engineer, innovator, and entertainer. How can so much talent exist in one human being?

I asked Mark how he would describe himself.

“A good man. That’s something I’d be glad to be remembered by.”

Who knows? Maybe one day, when I make it on The New York Times Best Seller list, I just might decide to erect a thirty-foot “Tom Tom” replica to display in my front yard… And if so, I know just the man to do it!

Click here to visit Mark at Enchanted Castle Studios