Enchanted Highway
Thirty-two miles of North Dakota county road turn scrap steel into a civic rescue attempt, spacing giant geese, grasshoppers, fish, pheasants, deer, and people across working prairie.
Artwork inspired by Gary Greff
Teacher and artist Gary Greff began the Enchanted Highway in 1989 to draw travelers toward Regent as its population and economy declined. The sculptures use farm and oil-field scrap at monumental scale; Geese in Flight alone rises about 110 feet and spans 154 feet.
Drive south from I-94 Exit 72 and treat every work as a separate road stop. Signed parking areas and kiosks provide the safe viewpoints; wind, farm traffic, limited services, and long distances make the travel lane a poor gallery. The route ends in Regent rather than looping automatically.
- Route
- 32 miles from I-94 near Gladstone to Regent
- Artist-builder
- Gary Greff, beginning in 1989
- Material and purpose
- Scrap-metal monuments built to help sustain a small town
Quick guide
- Drive north to south
- Begin with Geese in Flight at Exit 72 and finish in Regent
- Use every pullout
- Park fully, read the kiosk, stay off structures, and re-enter traffic carefully
Read the Enchanted Highway as sculpture, road, and town project
- Begin at Geese in Flight
- Leave I-94 at Exit 72 and use the designated viewing arrangement rather than stopping on the interstate.
- Follow material across the series
- At each signed county-road pullout, look for reused tanks, pipe, wire, farm equipment, and oil-field steel.
- Keep the county road functional
- Park completely in the provided area, watch for farm vehicles and wind, and never stand in the travel lane or climb a sculpture.
- Finish with Regent
- Continue to the town rather than turning after the final roadside photograph.
Good to know
The empty miles are part of the composition. Greff designed oversized silhouettes for a prairie road, but the destination is also social: every stop is meant to carry attention toward Regent.
Notice these
- Thirty-two-mile sculpture route
- Gary Greff’s town-revival project
- Monumental welded scrap
- Prairie-scaled pullout views