— By Duncan Green

5/20/25

Fairlee, VT—If you’ve ever driven down Route 5 or the stretch of Interstate 91 between Thetford and Fairlee, you might have spotted a large metal dinosaur standing proudly outside Newton Enterprises. You also might have never guessed it was a dinosaur.

The Meg-asaurus, as affectionately named by owner Don Newton, was built by the entrepreneur and rental property owner and his granddaughter Megan. Standing 15 feet tall and built from a 1938 Dodge truck, pieces of a tractor, and sprockets from a bulldozer, the statue is hard to miss.

The Meg-asaurus, in all its glory. Photo by Duncan Green.

To Newton, the structure is a physical testament to his special relationship with Megan. The Hartford High School graduate is 27 and lives in South Carolina now, but as a kid loved nothing more than tinkering with bits and pieces from her grandfather’s scrapyard. And no one loved her passion more than grandpa.

Newton says he quickly came to appreciate Megan’s creativity from a young age. The Vermont Corvette Club member would watch from his garage as she’d build and create with anything she could get her hands on. As a fellow tinkerer, Newton decided to pass his wisdom along, teaching her to weld and grind.

Don Newton in his shop. Photo by Duncan Green.

“She was always picking things up around the shop, trying to put them together, make something out of nothing,” Newton says. “I figured, let’s make something big.”

As a high schooler, Megan and Newton began working on their masterpiece. The only rule: their materials had to come exclusively from the yard. Using sprockets for eyes, the truck for a body, and various other pieces of “junk” for arms and a tail, the Meg-asaurus came together after two years of hard work.

More than a decade later, Megan says the construction process is one of her fondest memories from childhood. While many adults would tell a kid playing with metal to stop, Newton’s enthusiasm for her interests meant “the world” to her. She was brought to tears as she recalled the days spent in the yard with her grandfather, and feels it's a memorial to the fun they have together.

Don and a young Meg and the Meg-asaurus. Photo courtesy of Meg Newton.

Both grandfather and granddaughter said cars passing by regularly stop to take photos of the unusual structure and knock on the door to try to figure out what it is. For the two Newtons, people’s interest is a free trip down memory lane.

“It started as an abandoned truck sitting in the weeds,” Megan says. “He let me be who I was, and now we’ll have it forever. It’s symbolic of who we are.”

Duncan Green grew up in Plainfield and went to Lebanon High School. He’s now a rising junior at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, studying journalism and history, and served as news editor this past semester for The Daily Orange*, SU’s independent student newspaper. He is Daybreak’s first summer reporting intern.*

Note: The original version of this story referred to Don Newton as a retired landscaper. He has actually started and run several businesses, and still owns rental properties in the area.