If you ever find yourself heading west on I-94 through North Dakota, do yourself a favor and take exit 72 near Gladstone. The highway will take you south to the small town of Regent (population 172). But this is no ordinary highway. This is the Enchanted Highway, the world’s largest sculpture project according to the Guinness World Records, and a staff pick on Kickstarter.

The man and self-taught metal sculptor behind the Enchanted Highway is Gary Greff. Born and raised in Regent, Gary returned in 1989 to a dying town. He knew he had to do something. So he partnered with a few local farmers, taught himself how to weld, and started creating enormous metal sculptures that would lure drivers off of I-94 down to Regent. Twenty-six years and seven sculptures later, the Enchanted Highway draws thousands of cars to Regent where Gary also operates the Enchanted Castle and has plans for future developments that will make his hometown a destination for travelers for decades to come.

Gary recently spoke with Jackson Ridl from Emerging Prairie, a digital-media company that supports the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Fargo, ND, and the upper great plains, about the inspiration behind the Enchanted Highway and how his newest sculpture connects eastern and western North Dakota.

You grew up in Regent, North Dakota, and returned in 1989. What called you away and what brought you back?

I got my degree in education and went on into teaching. That’s the reason I left Regent. I taught in a number of towns in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. And then what brought me back into Regent was I was in between looking for a different teaching job and I looked at the community and saw that it was a dying community and that if someone didn’t do something we’d be a dead community. I thought, “How can I help keep Regent alive?” and the Enchanted Highway is what I came up with.

You are a self taught metal sculptor. What propelled you to take up this art form? How did you learn the craft?

I was in education and I taught junior high—fifth and sixth grade. I basically looked at what I could do to help Regent and I didn’t know what to do. A local farmer welded a small man holding a bale of hay out of metal. And that’s when it dawned on me that the ranchers and farmers in the Midwest are good at welding. I thought, let’s use what they’re good at to our advantage. Let’s start welding metal sculptures. But they couldn’t be the normal size sculptures—they would have to be the world’s largest to bring people into the community. That’s when I contacted farmers and ranchers in the area that helped me that first year to learn how to weld, and that’s where I learned my welding trade.

What was the source of inspiration behind each sculpture along the Enchanted Highway? Do you have a favorite?

I didn’t want any two sculptures to be the same, so I decided I’d look at a different type of art form for each of the sculptures. It was more or less a conglomeration of a lot of ideas. I’d talk to people, I’d look at pictures, I’d do whatever, and that’s how I sort of decided what to do with the sculptures.

I don’t have a favorite. Each sculpture takes maybe between five and six years to do and so each sculpture is like a kid. Once it grows on you, each one is unique, each one has its own problems, each one has its own personality. You can’t pick one. You just say they’re all your favorite.

What was Regent known for before the Enchanted Highway? Do you think your efforts to draw people into town have paid off?

It was a farming community but there was a hunting company that worked to turn Regent into a destination for pheasant hunters. They made it into more of a business. They basically brought people in on a more regular basis.

My efforts have brought people into Regent. We do have a we do have a counter out by the Tin Family. When the highway was first put in, the road was paved. It showed roughly around 2,000 vehicles coming down the road, and now it shows between 6,000 and 8,000 vehicles come down the road every year. And we know that those extra vehicles coming down the road are not coming to Regent for anything else but the Enchanted Highway.  

You opened the Enchanted Castle Hotel in 2012 in a renovated former elementary school. You’re a former teacher and principal yourself. What subjects did you teach?

When I was in education I taught fifth through eighth grade in all subjects, plus I also had a high school degree in physical education and taught P.E. too.

You’re more than a third of the way to your Kickstarter goal for your next sculpture, a spider web. How did the whole Kickstarter campaign come about?

I was invited to a conference, Misfit Con in Fargo. It’s a conference where they bring in entrepreneurs and philanthropists and people who work on out-of-the-box ideas. I gave a five-minute speech on the Enchanted Highway and there were people at the conference who felt the Enchanted Highway was a project that needed help and they wanted to keep it going. A couple of people at the conference got together and they put together a Kickstarter program to make it happen.

You’ve said that the spider web sculpture is about connecting western North Dakota and eastern North Dakota. What are the biggest differences you see across the state and what do you think ties the state together?

To me, what ties the state together is its people. People in both western and eastern North Dakota have one thing in common and that is they’re willing to help anybody at a certain time, they’re willing to work together when a crisis appears, they’re willing to help each other out. The people of North Dakota are what really ties the state together.

What separates them is the politics of east and west. Basically, and whether it’s Democrat or Republican—regardless of what it’s called—it’s “we should get this over here” and “we should get this over here” and it’s small time bickering about what I should have and you should have and so forth and so on. The politics is what separates the east and the west.

You maintain all of the sculptures, seek funding, run the Enchanted Castle, and have plans for a water park, restaurant, and amphitheater. How do you juggle it all and what’s your hope for the Enchanted Highway after you retire (again)?

The reason I have all these other ideas is because we’re forever going to become something that everybody in the east wants to travel to. We have to become a destination. And to become a destination you have to create things people want to do—one of them is a theme park, one of them is a golf course, and so forth. With that in mind, I have all these ideas and projects and basically I hope that one day there’s people out there who see the same vision I see and they realize to make this vision happen takes more than just one man. Hopefully, they will come on board. That’s what I see for the future of the Enchanted Highway. And as far as retiring, I don’t think that will ever happen.

The Enchanted Highway: The World’s Largest Sculpture Project currently has 142 backers on Kickstarter with 14 days to go. Back this project and help Gary get to his $15,000 goal.