NODAK FLICKERTAILS

MAY 14-16, 2010

Submitted in June 1, 2010

Regent, North Dakota

NODAK FLICKERTAILS STATE CLUB

    By Helen Evans

The first campout of the North Dakota State club, Nodak Flickertails, was the best weekend ever.   Eighteen members found their way to Regent, North Dakota.   We did not have snow or rain and the sunshine was not too hot.  We arrived Friday afternoon.  The hosts for the weekend were John and Cathy Hilley and John and Helen Evans.  Shortly after supper, the artist of the metal sculptures in Regent, Gary Greff, stopped in to welcome us to his home turf.

 Saturday morning after the pancake breakfast, we were treated to tours of four of six museums buildings.  The four buildings are filled with amazing heritage artifacts that took us back in time.  However, our guide, Don Wagendorf, was extremely knowledgeable of all the artifacts and was able to answer many of our questions.  There were so many things in the museums that writing about them would be impossible. There were old time farm machinery, a doctor’s office, the drug store, grocery store, a country church, country one-room school, military memorabilia, also German/Hungarian and Norwegian Heritage and one-of-a- kind Native American artifacts and hundreds of things worth remembering.

After lunch, we caravanned to The Enchanted Highway the entranceway to Regent, ND to get a close-up look of the metal sculptures.  The Enchanted Highway is truly a unique traveling experience featuring the world's largest metal sculptures produced by artist Gary Greff.   Just before you enter the entryway, of Interstate 94, Exit 72 there stands a one-of- a-kind humongous metal sculpture name “Geese in Flight.”  It is in the Guinness World Book of Records as the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world, and was erected in 2001.  It weighs over 75 ton, the sunray is 156 feet long, 110 feet tall, and the largest goose has a wingspan of 30 feet. At one time, Gary Greff was a school teacher and principle before building sculptures.   You have to see the all of his massive sculptures including the “Tin Family” built from farm equipments.  In the evening, we gathered at the Saloon in town for dinner. We were shown a few bar tricks; one was how to get $1.00 to stick to the ceiling and there were many dollars on the ceiling.  After supper, we went to the Enchanted Highway Gift Shop that Gary opened for us for ice cream, to purchase a few souvenirs, and to pay for the weekend camping. 

Sunday morning we held our business meeting with discussions on what to do at GNR, which also included how to promote the State of North Dakota. President Leier also told us that the club received a letter of congratulations from WIT General Manager, Doug Formanek and a 10-year patch celebrating the club’s 10^th Anniversary.   The patch has already been sewed onto the flag by Chris Hesse.  A group picture was taken of the first weekend campers.  It does not seem like it has been 10 years since the club had been formed.  Congratulations to all!