Enchanted Highway
Fifty-five kilometres of North Dakota back road lined with enormous scrap-metal sculptures, built by one man to save his town.
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Gary Greff was a schoolteacher in Regent watching the town empty - population falling, school closing, businesses shutting - and decided in 1989 that giant roadside sculpture might give people a reason to drive the road. He had no art or welding training and learned as he went. Seven large works now stand along the fifty-five kilometres, made from scrap metal and oil-field pipe: Geese in Flight, listed by Guinness as the largest scrap metal sculpture, stands about eleven metres high and twenty-one across; there are also grasshoppers, deer, fish, a Teddy Roosevelt on horseback and a pheasant family. Each has a pull-off. Regent at the end has a themed hotel he also created.
What you actually see
- Seven large scrap-metal works - spread over fifty-five kilometres.
- Geese in Flight - listed as the largest scrap metal sculpture.
- Pull-offs at each sculpture - on an otherwise empty road.
- A project by one untrained man - begun in 1989 to save a town.
When to go
May to October. Half a day for the full route.
Honest expectations
It is a slow drive on a two-lane road with nothing else along it. Winter snow closes it. There are no services between the ends. Whether it saved Regent is debatable - the population has kept falling.
Nearby
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is west; Dickinson is north.
What to pack for Enchanted Highway
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.