Backroad Odyssey : Travel Stories, Van Life & Road Trip Oddities
Traveling America's backroads, road trip experts - Noah and Noodles - explore fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they unravel the - often shocking - story behind each neglected story or location.
If you love travel, exploration and unique locations - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel Stories, Van Life & Road Trip Oddities
The Enchanted Highway - One Man's Dream to Save His Town
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The sparse fields of North Dakota hold a secret …
Mysterious scrape metal statues populate the wind-swept landscape.
The reason behind their labored construction and the harrowing story of the man who built them - that’s a story worth telling.
This is the fable of the Enchanted Highway…
Works Cited:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/videos/meet-the-man-who-built-north-dakota-s-enchanted-highway
https://www.ndtourism.com/regent/attractions-entertainment/family-fun/enchanted-highway
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=the+enchanted+highway.com&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/enchanted-highway
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2155
Noah and Noodles here!
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Introduction to the Enchanted Highway
Speaker 1Cruisin' down the street . I wonder where this road would lead . So many possibilities . Care to share what you think . Oh , noodle Dolls , what do you see ? Back Road Odyssey .
Speaker 1The sparse fields of North Dakota hold a secret . Mysterious scrap metal statues populate the windswept landscape . The reason behind their labored construction and the harrowing story of the man who built them . That's a story worth telling . This is the fable of the Enchanted Highway .
Speaker 1I park along the small main street of Regent , North Dakota . A large tin sculpture guards the door to my intended destination , the Enchanted Highway gift shop . The door creaks slightly as I enter the modest building . Inside , a warm smile and bright eyes look back at me . The man's time-tested features betray the zealous youth he emotes . He says only one thing how can I help you ? Only one thing . How can I help you ? We are driving along Interstate 94 . My dog and co-pilot , noodles , is in the passenger seat . After camping around Teddy Roosevelt National Park for a week or so , we're ready to head further west . But first the Enchanted Highway , a series of welded sculptures leading to the small North Dakota town of Regent . Before we begin our exploration into this North Dakota oddity , we've got to start at the beginning . Who built the Enchanted Highway .
Speaker 1There's so much to learn by being in a small town , gary Greff . The Great Grass Prairie of western North Dakota has few trees and even fewer towns . What remains is windblown , sparsely visited and deeply uninteresting alone . Sparsely visited and deeply uninteresting this , at least , was the perception . So much so that , from 1990 to 2000 , the few towns that remained lost , on average , at least 20% of their population , and this includes Heddinger County , home to Regent , north Dakota , and the birthplace of Gary Griff , home to Regent , north Dakota and the birthplace of Gary Griff
Gary Greff Returns to Dying Hometown
Speaker 1. Born as most in the area into a farming family , gary later attends the only school in town and where some look back with contempt at the small , seemingly detached towns of their youth . Gary cherishes the fresh air , close connections and quiet of Regent , north Dakota , but the call of opportunity can tear you away even from the things that you love . After graduation , gary leaves the small town he grew up in to become an educator . Eighteen long years pass and the sight that meets Gary upon his return to Regent is an unwelcome one . I came home and saw that the town of Regent was dying . Gary Greff of Regent was dying , gary Greff . We pulled off the highway and we're officially now at mile zero of the Enchanted Highway .
Speaker 1We parked next to the first sculpture along the highway . It's called Geese in Flight and is a truly massive sculpture with silhouettes of geese flying over mountains over a setting sun . My first thought is how did just one teacher make this ? It's intricate , it's massive . But before we get into the how , we need to start with the why . We have a man . He returns to his childhood home to see it dying . Why is building sculptures the solution ? I had no art experience , no welding experience , gary Greff .
Speaker 1Upon returning to Regent , gary asks himself a simple question how can I help Regent stay alive ? He starts with one painful fact and a corresponding question there's 32.5 miles of bare road separating Regent from the bustling interstate . How do I make people willing to drive that distance ? The answer comes by chance one day when Greg notices a mother and a child pulling off the road for a picture with a small statue . Seeing this , the educator , with no welding or sculpting experience , thought to himself what if I made that ? How hard could it
Building Massive Sculptures Without Experience
Speaker 1be ? It's a little windy . We parked at mile three . The sculpture's called Deer Crossing . It's deer , right obviously , maybe 100 feet high , jumping in a line and right away , aside from it looking beautiful . I have to ask how does somebody with no experience decide one day yep , what I'm gonna build , I see it in my head and this is what I'm going to build , despite not knowing how to do it by myself ?
Speaker 1How does and did Gary approach making these with literally no , no experience ? It takes me about six years to do a sculpture Six years , gary Greff . The first sculpture Gary makes is also the most iconic A giant tent family made of oil well tanks , fuel tanks and scrap metal . To make his first and subsequent sculptures , he teaches himself how to weld . He wills each statue's completion and Gary works outside nearly every day on his sculptures Rain , snow , wind . The pieces are simply too big to fit in any studio . As for the materials , to fit in any studio . As for the materials , everything comes from a dump or is otherwise cheaply acquired and repurposed . And through the years and years and years of work , trial and error , doubt from neighbors , hard physical and mental labor , various now iconic sculptures begin to emerge .
Speaker 1The enchanted highway begins to take shape . We're at mile 15 . The statue is underneath grasshoppers in the field , giant grasshoppers are nearby , giant grass blades , and it is pretty cool . We're at mile 19 . Here Fisherman's dream , probably my favorite so far we have a fisherman pulling in an even bigger mass of fish , maybe 50 feet in the air . Well , other fish , other vegetation swim underneath . It's one thing to have the idea for something , but to actually carry it out , that's incredible . Mile 24 , pheasants on the prairie Noodles is really curious about this one . Mile 26 , theodore Roosevelt rides . Again , it's a giant outline of Teddy Roosevelt on a horse . Mile 30 , the famous , world's largest tin family Seems like a happy bunch . And here we are . Mile 32 , at the end of the Enchanted Highway , that is , if we didn't drive another half mile .
Journey Along the Enchanted Highway
Speaker 1What ties into Enchanted ? But a castle , gary Greth . Gary's ambition , his creativity doesn't stop at the highway . He figures at the end of the 32.5 mile stretch . There should be a hotel . Regent itself should also be a destination . But after being laughed out of banks , his ideas belittled , loan request denied , gary had to once again get creative . And when his old high school is up for sale , gary once again gets creative . This is right where I sat when I graduated high school . This is right where I sat when I graduated high school , gary Greth sitting at his bar at the Excalibur Steakhouse in the newly established Enchanted Castle , regents , new Premium school turned medieval castle hotel .
Speaker 1Here we are at last , at the end of North Dakota's Enchanted Highway . We're standing in front of the Enchanted Castle . In front of the castle-esque facade there's maybe a 70-foot metal knight battling a dragon , made , of course , by Gary himself . And here's what I'm thinking now . What a better way to celebrate Regent , to make it a destination . What could be a better reason as well to have something like this than to save your town , to truly craft something out of nothing , to save something that you love ? I don't know . It's a great cause , and to
The Enchanted Castle and Regent's Revival
Speaker 1me that's what makes the Enchanted Highway here in Regent , north Dakota , magical .
Speaker 1Just as Gary transformed the sparse North Dakota landscape into a destination , transformed the sparse North Dakota landscape into a destination , he converts the teacher rooms , administrative spaces and halls of his beloved high school into a building , bolstering the once dying town . Although the population of the town of Regent still remains around 200 people , the sculptures laboriously built by Gary in rain , in wind and in snow lure roughly 920 cars per day towards his beloved Regent . That's 920 people who otherwise would have continued on their way . All from the efforts of one man who saw nothing and made something . The story of North Dakota's Enchanted Highway is a call . It's a reminder to us all that , although sometimes you feel powerless to events beyond your control , as long as you're around you still can spark the change you want to see . Everybody has it in them . If I can do it a person that didn't know how to weld didn't have an art class I can go build a 110-foot metal sculpture . You can do whatever you put your mind to . Gary Greff . The man at the counter thanks me a present glint in his eye .
Speaker 1I leave the Enchanted Highway souvenir shop , get in my van , pet my dog Noodles and start to drive backwards towards the interstate I left . And as I leave Regent , as we pass the various sculptures we'd just stopped to visit , I realized that man with the glint in his eye , the knowing look , the weathered features he made what I'm driving past . That was Gary Greff . And after beating myself
Final Reflections and Parting Thoughts
Speaker 1for the missed opportunity to talk , to get insight , to get to know him , I stop and I think to talk to get insight , to get to know him , I stop and I think the Enchanted Highway is and never was about Gary Greff , nor would he want it to be . Gary doesn't seek recognition , praise . To visit Regent . That's enough . That's the goal . And all of this flies through my mind as Gary , his cherished town and the enchanted highway leading to it fade from view . It's Noah here .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to Backroad Odyssey . Every minute you spend with us means the world it really does . With that said , I have some final thoughts . You could easily drive past each statue and think to yourself those are cool , but it's the reason for their construction , the story that makes locations like this worth visiting , worth talking about . So I'll leave you with a challenge Next time you see something like that on the side of the road , remember to be curious , ask questions . You never know what story then awaits , and other than that , teddy Roosevelt National Park is nearby . Consider giving that a visit as well . We'll be doing a future episode on the park Genuinely a unique space , often overlooked , and the history is deeply fascinating . Finally , finally , if you find value in the show , in what we're trying to shed light on overlooked locations and stories , share your favorite episode with a couple friends . Really helps Noodles and I continue to put the work we'd like to into each episode . Thanks again for traveling with us . Be good to each other . Where to next ? Backroad Odyssey .
