CREEPED OUT IN ND!
But first the backstory!
There's a sleepy stretch of road about 20 miles outside the town of Dickinson ND, that has garnered the attention of the Guinness World Book of Records.
It is idyllically named the Enchanted Highway and little did we know that this pleasant stretch of road would lead to an unusual encounter that has forever etched itself into our memories!
So, what makes this 32 mile non-descript farm road so fascinating?
This roadway is a monument to one man's quest to save his beloved home town.
Back in the 1980's hard times came to these parts. With crop yields falling and fertilizer prices rising, many thriving farm communities shriveled. Seeing his beloved birthplace succumbing to a similar fate, and tired of empty political promises, he decided to take action. He took a course on welding and began creating giant whimsical sculptures.
His vision turned into the World’s Largest Collection of Scrap Metal Sculptures!:
It's a slice of Americana that just makes you scratch your head and say, "Hmmmm.."
THE END OF ENCHANTMENT:
And here is the town that started it all, Regent (population 120):
We found little to do or see in this quaint little community. But we made the best of it. Our first stop was the Enchanted Castle Hotel, a former high school that has been transformed into a castle of sorts. The creator of the scrap metal statues is also the owner of this unique establishment.
Running is still not allowed in these halls!
Okay, on to the WEIRD stuff...
After grabbing a bite to eat at the Regent Café (sadly this eatery has since closed), we decided to visit the only open business we could find (besides the feed store), the museum across the street. Now, we love visiting small, local museums but they tend to have the same collection of artifacts: an old car or two, old clothing, old high school yearbooks, maybe the town's first fire engine, along with multiple pieces of rusting farm equipment. This museum, although larger than expected, was not far off the mark:
We are always pleased when these museums are staffed by docents who are proud of their heritage and have a love of local lore. The docent in attendance this day was a very kind and knowledgeable and we had a lovely chat as he walked us through the museum. But then he stopped at one particular display..
A particularly odd display..
And he insisted we actually have our picture taken with it!
If Chucky had a sister, it might look like this! Tell me this isn't the face of nightmares!
Having watched too many movies about possessed dolls that materialize at the foot of your bed wielding carving knifes, we were too afraid to offend either the docent or the doll!
By the way, the doll's actual name is "Bubbles" and she was ordered from the Sear and Roebuck catalog in 1928.
A FEW OTHER "MUST SEE" ATTRACTIONS IN THIS AREA:
THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK:
"I have always said I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota."
This is the only national park named after a person, our 26th President. It covers 70,446 acres and is home to bison, long horn steer, big horn sheep, antelope, wild horses, coyotes, turkeys and prairie dogs. Along with some beautiful and rugged terrain.
It's a beautiful, wide open national park with a uniquely diverse ecosystem. Add it to your bucket list.
BADLANDS OF NORTH DAKOTA:
This is our first exposure to the "Badlands" and it was awe-inspiring. We marveled that such beauty could be found amongst such harshness. Lots of hiking trails and panoramic views.
FINALLY ARRIVING AT STURGIS, SOUTH DAKOTA:
The trip from Dickinson to Sturgis carried us across some beautiful countryside. We watched the pleasantly rolling prairies of ND seamlessly blend into the pleasantly rolling prairies of SD.
Four hours later, we arrived in Sturgis, SD, and added a new state to our travel map.
The campground we chose was Sturgis RV Park which was very, very nice. Sadly, we arrived during a thunderous rainstorm and had to wait in our truck for over half an hour until it let up enough for us to unpack. This was the first time since leaving Delaware where we had to set up while it was raining.
If there is anyone that has not heard of this town, it is home to the largest annual motorcycle rally in the world. Each August the population here swells from 7,000 to over 200,000 (we were here a month before Bike Week, 2019). This event draws motorcyclists from all over the world. Being an event of this magnitude, I expected to find a large community with wide open spaces, lots of hotels and multiple RV parks.. Nope. It's a small, easily forgettable town that once a year, turns from this:
Into this:
Kind of crazy.
Accommodations become so hard to find that residents rent out their front and back yards for exorbitant sums of money.
We were there over the 4th of July and the lovely folks in these parts are so patriotic that they set off their fireworks all hours of the night (and into the early hours of the morning). Just lovely..
HOW IT ALL BEGAN:
When the military came to these hills in 1878, they built Fort Meade to protect those easterners traveling west. To cater to the vices of the soldiers, the settlement of Sturgis sprang up. When the fort was shuttered in 1940, the town struggled to survive.
Similar to the Enchanted Highway story, the dreams and determination of one man probably saved this town from extinction. That man was J. C. Pappy.
His love of the Indian Motorcycle brand, and enjoyment of hard riding, led him to create the American Motorcycle Associations' (AMA) first sanctioned motorcycle race in 1938. He built a dirt track, and invited riders to compete. In the first year, 9 riders enrolled in the event, in year two the numbers jumped to over 800; and the history of Sturgis was forever changed.
Did visiting here make me want to buy a motorcycle, yep. Would I ever do that, nope. Am I glad we visited, yep. Would we ever return, nope.
Well that's it for now. Our next stop is a landmark made famous by the movie Close Encounter's of the Third Kind. But more on that down the road!
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