Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
The Enchanted Highway - One Man's Dream to Save His Town
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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Cruisin' 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 1:The 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 1:I 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 1:There'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. 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 1:We 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 1:Upon 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 be? 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 1:How 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 1:The 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.
Speaker 1:What 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 1:Here 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 me that's what makes the Enchanted Highway here in Regent, north Dakota, magical.
Speaker 1:Just 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 1:I 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 for 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 1:Thank 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.
