Sinclair Oil
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The company has long history of being a fixture on American roads and briefly in other countries with its green dinosaur logo. In 1969, Sinclair Oil Co. was acquired by the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), but federal anti-trust provisions required the new entity to divest itself of certain of the Sinclair assets. The old Sinclair's East Coast operations were sold to BP, and a new, independent Sinclair Oil Company was formed by a holding company in 1976. The new company acquired the right to the Sinclair brand and logo and ARCO's retail operations in the region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
Sinclair patented the gasoline additive SG-2000. The company also owns the Little America Hotels & Resorts group, which owns and operates the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, among other properties.
Sinclair used a green dinosaur, presumably an apatosaurus, as its corporate logo and mascot. The high-octane fuel blend was called "Dino Supreme", inflatable dinosaurs were given as promotional items and an anthropomorphic version appeared as a station attendant in advertisements. After the acquisition by ARCO, the dinosaur was phased out, but at least one service station, in Winona, Minnesota, retained the look through the 1980s and many stations along Interstate 80 still have the dinosaur logo. The animatronic family of the TV series Dinosaurs was given the surname "Sinclair" after the oil company. A number of other characters on the show also had names that were petroleum-related references.
Sinclair continues to use the green dinosaur and markets all its products under the logo. Sinclair has been owned by Earl Holding since the mid-1970s. He also owns SnowBasin Resort in Ogden, Utah, and the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Grand America is a five-diamond hotel that is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World.
References to Sinclair in popular culture
- In the 2006 movie Cars, Sinclair and Sunoco were parodied: the main sponsorship for the winning car was from a company called "Dinoco", using a similar logo to Sinclair's brontosaurus and name to that of Sunoco.
See also
- Convenience store
- Gas station
- Gasoline
- List of automotive fuel brands
- List of oil-producing states
- OPEC
- Palmer, Bradley
- Petroleum
- Teapot Dome scandal
External link
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