While Mount Rushmore was created to bring money back into the Black Hills, artist Gary Greff created the Enchanted Highway to save small towns in North Dakota from disappearing altogether.
Enchanted Highway
Just like Borglum before him, Greff has created some enormous sculptures (a couple are actually in the Guinness Book of World Records) to entice people to show up with ca$h in hand. But where Borglum carved his statues of famous Americans out of granite, Greff created scenes of everyday life from scrap metal. And they are certainly impressive, size-wise.
But if I hadn’t been actively looking for something ridiculous to see… I’m not sure I would have come looking for them. And even when I did, they’re spaced out across a 32 mile stretch of highway… so I wasn’t clear about which town they were supposed to save from extinction.
So I didn’t put any money into the local economy.
I wish Greff luck in saving the small towns. But I only passed 4 other people in the several hours I spent out there. So, it appears there’s still some work to be done.
Up next… Minnesota.