A beloved whip “from the Stone Age” might soon be recognized on a national level.

Fifth generation Whidbey Islander Kyle Renninger remembers being a child and having a “Yabba Dabba Doo” moment while pretending to drive Fred Flintstone’s iconic car through Oak Harbor’s Flintstone Park.

Today, Renninger and the Garry Oak Society are working on nominating the car sculpture for the National Register of Historic Places and the city’s historic register.

Renninger believes that the sculpture, based on the ‘93 Canopysaurus Flintmobile, is a strong candidate for the historic registers due to being over 50 years old, as well as its association with one of the most popular animated sitcoms in U.S. television and with Oak Harbor’s land reclamation history.

According to a 61-year-old article, the 3-ton sculpture came to life in 1964 after the late Dorothy Neil, a longtime News-Times reporter and columnist and the secretary of the North Whidbey Chamber of Commerce at the time, envisioned a tourist attraction for Bayshore Drive, once known as “Flintstone Freeway.”

Neil had dubbed the road “Flintstone Freeway” in an Oak Harbor News story back when she worked as the editor of the paper, the article states. At the time, part of Oak Harbor’s shores were being filled to create more land, and residents were encouraged to dump old concrete and rocks, creating a landscape that reminded her of the rock quarry where Fred Flintstone worked, according to a News-Times story about Neil’s passing in 2004.

Neil went as far as writing Hanna-Barbera to get permission to name the road “Flintstone Freeway,” which the company granted. The name stuck until it was renamed Bayshore Drive, a choice she opposed as its previous name was a part of the city’s history, according to the 2004 story.

In January, Renninger told the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission he was planning to ask for Bayshore Drive to be unofficially renamed Flintstone Freeway in an honorary proclamation to keep a piece of Oak Harbor history alive. The Garry Oak Society would also like to provide interpretive signs covering the history of the car and the freeway, Renninger said.

The first ever Flintmobile was built by employees from the Everett Brothers construction company who volunteered for the project and it’s made of cast concrete, rebar and steel. Initially it featured a roof made of wooden branches and a torn cloth — like in the show — but exposure to the elements forced the change to a metal sheet roof, according to information provided by Renninger.

The car was dedicated on Independence Day in 1964 in a ceremony that featured city leaders as well as Miss Naval Air Whidbey 1964, Carolyn Hancock of Coupeville, who christened the car using a bottle of root beer because she was underaged, according to Renninger.

For the most part, the car has retained its historic integrity and it’s in good shape considering its age and exposure to the marine environment, though it would benefit from some repairs, like repainting the roof and fixing the cracked concrete, Renninger wrote in a draft application for the National Historic Register.