Cabbage Patch Fantasyland

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Tucked away in a warehouse in the farming town of Griswold, Iowa, is one extraordinary collection of Cabbage Patch Kids. In 1985, Donna Brown and her family were victims of a house fire. At the time the Cabbage Patch Kids were capturing America’s fancy far and wide.

“I was collecting dolls and I just collected any doll,” Donna says. “And then my daughter wanted to start the collection again, and I told her, ‘I don’t really want to collect all the other dolls again. So let’s just pick one kind.’ And so she got that little one in the striped suit there, so we decided to collect Cabbage Patch.”

Donna built up her collection through flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, and gifts from family and friends. Her husband would stay up nights searching the Internet and “always managed to get them.” In 2008, they built the warehouse. Unfortunately, her husband passed away only a couple of years later. But Fantasyland was already set up for success.

“I joined a newsletter, and my granddaughter puts it on Facebook and stuff, and then we got the signs on the highway, and the word of mouth really,” Donna remarks. “When we first started this, we went around to all the little towns with flyers.

“When we first started, we had them in the house. Then we wanted to get them out of the house, so we got a trailer house and filled that up. Then we got another trailer house, and then we decided to make this museum. When we was building this I told my husband, ‘This is not going to be big enough,’ and he said ‘This is going to be big enough.’ It wasn’t.”

The donations have come fast and furious.

“We got another car load yesterday,” she says. “Of course I’m known as the Cabbage Patch lady, and anybody that don’t want their Cabbage Patches, they bring them to me.

Cabbage Patch Kids were invented by Xavier Roberts, an art student from Georgia, in 1978. He created soft sculptures using the German technique for fabric sculpture and developed an idea for adoptable dolls he’d call “Little People.” They were made for family and friends and exhibited at art shows. He began selling them and in 1982 he entered into a licensing agreement which allowed for a toy replica of the Little People Originals. Those replicas, which are of smaller size and have vinyl heads, became the Cabbage Patch Kids.

If it’s something to do with Cabbage Patch, Donna probably has it: furniture, toys, accessories, buttons, magazines, lunch boxes, and much more. And she has possibly every edition made, from the rarest to the most common.

She takes me through case by case, display by display. There’s ones made for the March of Dimes (an edition which netted over $130,000 for the organization). Another was made special for Germany. There are Cabbage Patch Dolls with matching animals, ones made larger just for Toys R Us in New York (called “Tru Kids”), and dogs and cats with the Cabbage Patch face. In the Philippines, a company made its own version called “Taro Patch.”

Perhaps most interestingly is the case of the Snack Time Kids. They came out in 1996 and didn’t last long. Designed to eat accompanying plastic food, some of these dolls got mouthfuls of human hair and fingers. Donna shows me how they work, but now she’s hesitant to demonstrate them to kids.

“The other day a little boy came in here and put a finger right in its mouth and said ‘I want to know if it will bite me.’ It shocked him. I said ‘You know little kids like you is why they we don’t have them.’ Scared me to death.”

A Cabbage Patch Kid took a ride in a space shuttle; that doll is in a museum, but Donna has created a loving tribute with descriptions and props. Another display celebrates Cabbage Patch Kids being the mascot of the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. There’s a school, too, complete with Cabbage Patch coloring books and a themed bus.

Certain Cabbage Patch Kids developed dots on their skin, known to collectors as “Pox,” and Donna made a nursery for them which includes incubators. She used to think it the dots were mold, but learned it was an aberration possibly due to manufacturing error or storage environments.

She has the washing machine that really works, potty chairs which sound like a real toilet flush, and high chairs that hook onto tables so the dolls can dine with their owners.

“I say I’d like to have one of everything they made, but I don’t know what all they made,” she says. “Anytime it says Cabbage Patch I get it. So we have a lot of duplicates.”

The dolls are in a variety of conditions, depending on where or from whom she obtained them.

“If I got ‘em in the box I never did take them out of the box,” she says. “Xavier…told everybody that had him in boxes to take them out of the boxes because a baby wasn’t born in a box. I’ll never sell them, but later on you don’t know what somebody else is gonna do with them…you always get more if you have them in the box.”

Nowadays, Donna’s regular companions are the Cabbage Patch Kids and her dog. “I was so lonely, and I got him,” she says about her four-legged friend. “He’s grown so attached to me. I’m the only one he knows. The vet said I’ve never seen a dog so close to anybody. He can be a pain…but at least someone’s there moving around, you know?”

A guest book proves how Fantasyland has touched the hearts and sparked the imaginations of people far and wide. There’s not much else to see in Griswold, after all. She’s expecting a tour bus filled with 40 people soon, and we’re sure they’re not there to see the corn.

Additional Sources:

https://www.babylandgeneral.com/about/our-history/

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/48734

Carhenge

The Blue Charley Chronicles has moved! Please visit the new site at The Blue Charley Chronicles – Roadside attractions, small towns, museums, and more from the USA

In England, they have Stonehenge. In Alliance, Nebraska, they have Carhenge. The settings could hardly be more different. And one was built an estimated 4,000-5,000 years ago. The other in 1987. One attracts some 800,000 visitor per year. The other 60,000. But each is a spectacle to behold, with a circle of monoliths (of one kind or another) standing in fields.

Local resident Jim Reinders lived in England for seven years, and studied Stonehenge. When he returned to Nebraska, he conceived a Stonehenge of his own – only built out of automobiles. And Reinders did not envision it becoming a tourist attraction; instead, it was to be a memorial to his father, who died a few years earlier.

Over the course of that summer 30 years ago, Reinders and a cohort of family members put up 39 classic American cars in the same proportions as Stonehenge. Whether buried partway in the ground, standing alone, or joined with others as part of an arch, the autos are all spray painted gray. They came from local farms and dumps.

“It took a lot of blood, sweat, and beers,” Reinders, who was 89 as of this past August, has said.

On the Summer Solstice in 1987, he and his family dedicated the work with champagne, poetry, songs, and a play written by the family.

Since then, a gift shop and additional metal works of art by local artists have sprouted up beside Carhenge. Four years ago, the site was gifted to the city.

“He was a chemical engineer,” Diane of the gift shop tells me. “He really became enamored with Stonehenge. The more he looked at it, the more he thought ‘You know, I could do that,’ so he came home and got with is siblings and they did it. He says, ‘When I did this I never had a clue what it would be.’”

What it has become is a roadside mecca that has attracted people far and wide to this modest Nebraska town of 8,500 people that is also known for its ties to railroad history (specifically, it’s connection to the coal lines taken from the Powder River Basin).

“Look at this book,” Diane says, pointing out the locations printed in the guest book in just the last three months. “This is bizarre.”

Carhenge has brought traveling enthusiasts in search of roadside lore (like me), but its visitors run the gamut to folks who just happen to drive me—and can’t ignore the towering Cadillacs and other vehicles standing high on the plains.

The recent solar eclipse brought lots of traffic into Alliance. The geography of the area, the lore and fascination with the American automobile, and the rarity of the celestial event made it a draw for star-seekers and car-lovers alike.

Reinders himself came up from his residence in Texas to see the eclipse at Carhenge, but he doesn’t buy into the mania.

“I’d like to say it was all part of the greater plan, but I’d be lying through my teeth,” Reinders said when asked by the Washington Post if he envisioned his work to be connected to an event like the eclipse.

He doesn’t know why Stonehenge was built, but figures “I like to think they’re like people today. They want the universe to know they were here.”

Carhenge was not an immediate success, as many in the community declared it “a vertical junkyard,” as Reinders puts it. But it came to be accepted, and then promoted.

“Some people actually come to Carhenge expecting a mystical, magical experience,” Kevin Howard, head of Alliance’s Visitors Bureau told NPR. “Carhenge is whatever you want it to be to you.”

With the site now in the hands of the city, Carhenge won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Could it last as long as Stonehenge? Probably not, but already achieved a legendary status in its own right.

Additional sources:

http://carhenge.com/history/

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/10/541583064/as-eclipse-madness-sweeps-u-s-a-stonehenge-made-of-cars-prepares

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2606

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/08/21/carhenge-builder-has-the-last-laugh/?utm_term=.4a29177b2748

[Note: all quotes by Jim Reinders drawn from the article in The Washington Post]

Wall Drug, a Mother of Roadside Attractions

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Wall Drug vaulted to a tourist destination by virtue of three little words: free ice water.

Ted and Dorothy Hudstead purchased the drugstore in the little town of Wall, South Dakota in 1931. Economic and weather conditions had taken their toll, and business was slow. Neighbors, a pastor, and acts of goodwill kept it going, but a long-term solution was needed.

On a hot summer afternoon in 1936, with two children at home and no relief in sight, Dorothy had an epiphany. Travelers were driving across miles of prairie in the heat and must be thirsty. Wall Drug had water and ice. The couple could offer free ice water. To get the word out, they’d put up clever signs along the highway encouraging travelers to stop by. Just like that, an idea was born.

Soon signs sprouted up along Route 16A: “Get a soda…Get a root beer…turn next corner…Just as near…To Highway 16 & 14…Free Ice Water…Wall Drug.”

Within hours, they came – for ice water, ice cream, directions. And that was the promising beginning of what has since become a tourist mecca.

Free ice water fueled the business, but it’s the signs that today make Wall Drug known the world over. You can find them on every continent, even Antarctica, with each displaying the corresponding mileage. On this trip I’ve seen Wall Drug bumper stickers on RVs and even on a metal railing guarding an overlook in the Yosemite area.

Wall’s population is a little under a thousand people, and has only grown by about 100 since 1970. But it’s not unreasonable to think that Wall Drug is responsible for keeping it a town. After all, the hamlet had its largest percentage increase in population in the same decade that Dorothy and Ted Hudstead hatched their “Free Ice Water” idea. And while there certainly may not be much more to do in Wall, a hub of surrounding businesses cater to tourists, and without this roadside attraction it’s just hard to say how much of a town there would be.

On the first visit to Wall Drug, you may be confused because it appears to be an indoor shopping mall. A conglomerate of what appears to be separate stores is actually one. Western Wear, a bookstore, a pharmacy, a gift shop, a diner…yep, they’re all a part of Wall Drug. As is the giant rabbit, kiddie rides, and piano-playing and singing gorilla in the courtyard, and the T-Rex straight out of Jurassic Park that comes to life every 10 minutes in a show of steam, roars, and lit-up eyes. There’s also statues of the Wild West saving a seat for you on benches, walls and walls of family and community-related photographs, and a mini-chapel.

In between Rapid City and Wall on Interstate 90, they pop up every quarter-mile or so. They may state the mileage, have simple words like “It’s Cool,” remind you of the exit number, advertise something they sell, or slap the name of an entertainment outlet on which they’ve been featured. Most of the signs have a picture, often creatively combined with the language. For example, the one that reads “Dig It! Wall Drug” features a miner, and “Wall Drug A National Treasure” includes a treasure chest. The mileage ones dwindle as you near, and it’s impossible for the kid not to come out in you just a little bit – 105, 62, 29, 14…

Whether it’s a fun stop to stretch your legs, a dire need for Pepto-Bismol, a Buffalo burger you’re craving, a tacky souvenir, a fine pair of boots, free ice water, or yes, just about anything else under the sun that draws you off the highway, you’re far from alone. Like bees to honey, they come in droves. And if you are one such case, don’t be surprised if you walk away with a Wall Drug bumper sticker – or at the very least a silly grin on your face.

Additional material pulled from the store's website, www.walldrug.com

Enchanted Highway

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The Enchanted Highway is an altogether American experience. In simple terms, it is a series of metal sculptures along a 32-mile stretch of road in North Dakota. In a larger sense, it is a testament to progress, one man’s determination, and a vision tailor-made to a community.

The man is Gary Greff. He returned to his hometown of Regent, North Dakota, in 1989 to find a town and community withering on the vine. He also had a chance encounter with a small metal sculpture made by a local farmer. Greff, a former teacher and principal, set to work on building a scrap metal sculpture of his own despite having no welding experience. And this sculpture was super-sized, a farming family of three towering over miles of rust-colored fields.

Titled “World’s Largest Tin Family” and finished in 1991, it was the first of many Greff envisioned dotting the modest road between Gladstone, which nestles against Interstate 94, and Regent, which had a population of 266 in 1990. With the sculptures, he reasoned, would come tourists. The towns could build businesses to cater to the tourists. And Regent and Gladstone, among others, would become destination towns rather than forgotten blips on the North Dakota map.

Every three years or so another followed: “Teddy Rides Again” (1993), “Pheasants on the Prairie” (1996), “Grasshoppers in the Field” (1999), “Geese in Flight” (2001), “Deer Crossing” (2002), and “Fisherman’s Dream” (2006). The next that was to be installed, “Spider’s Web,” has been held up by land rights issue, so Greff has since turned his attention to creating a knight and dragon sculpture to be placed in front of his Enchanted Castle, a hotel in Regent that serves as a resting stop at the end-point of the highway.

             

The sculptures are expensive, and Greff relies mostly on tourists’ donations and gift shop purchases to fund the project. The humble and down-to-earth artist still has to find time to create new works in between managing an RV park and taking care of the existing sculptures, the gift shop, and the hotel.

Every sculpture is intentional, not just whims of fancy. “World’s Largest Tin Family” represents the farmers of his community; “Teddy Rides Again” is a nod to North Dakota’s influence on our 26^th President; “Pheasants on the Prairie,” “Grasshoppers in the Field,” “Deer Crossing,” and “Geese in Flight” all portray creatures which define the region; and “Fisherman’s Dream” takes place on a prairie pond (yes, fishing does take place in North Dakota—according to the state’s tourism website it has particularly fine waters for walleye). An unofficial addition to the series is “The Whirlygig,” a conglomerate of people in a house who perform animations at the push of a button.

 The Enchanted Highway draws tourists from around the globe, and despite features in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, People, and others, the much-needed extra source of funding is still lacking. Regent’s population, meanwhile, has dipped, wavering between 159 and 172 from July 2010 to July 2016. The downtown strip is sparse, consisting of little more than the gift shop, a food co-op, a Sinclair gas station, and a saloon.

The struggle to keep the project alive and well has been documented in recent years in local papers. An article in The Dickinson Press suggests Greff may even need to tear down some of the fabled structures to save money. Certain pieces have fallen to the ground or are in need of a new paint job.

Yet there’s no doubt concerning Greff’s commitment to the project, and just how much it all means to him. It’s his baby, right down to the Enchanted Highway cap he wears. When I am lucky enough to meet him in person, he is stands outside his home along with two other men. He gives me a hearty handshake and asks me where I’m from. I have to tell him just how impressed I am.

“It wasn’t high on the list of things to do in my life,” Greff jokes. “You never know what direction it’s going to go. I came back home, saw that the town was dying, and the next thing you know I go, ‘Well, let’s start this.’

“We were a farming community, and all the farms got bigger and bigger and bigger and we had less and less people on the farms, and less kids and the school closed, so pretty quick…you ain’t got the people no more. So either gonna die or you’re going to do something different. Every town wants a big factory…well a town of 100 ain’t gonna get a factory. I saw that the road from Interstate to here was paved that same year. I said, ‘Now I got a paved road. Now I should be able to get people from point A to point B some way.’

“Then a local farmer out of town made a small man holding a bale up, out of metal. And then it dawned on me. That’s what the ranchers and farmers in the Midwest are good at, they’re good at welding. We can use it to our advantage. But no one’s going to stop for normal. But they might stop for the world’s largest. And that’s how it all started. I started welding and 28 years later I’m still welding.”

             

My recording inadvertently shut down at this point. The conversation shifted to the unsettling matter of the need for state funding—and the difficulty of leading an ordinary life while maintaining an extraordinary creation. Indeed, it’s painfully obvious that the vision has not really come to fruition. Polarizing thoughts came to mind: these majestic creations need to be preserved and deserve state funding and protection; and western North Dakota is so remote it is just hard to imagine anything here becoming a true tourist destination.

Greff’s vision may be considered a bit grandiose or unrealistic, but you can’t fault him for trying. And he continues to be radically dedicated to that vision while remaining unassuming, as if the vision has run away from the creator.

“There’s people that still come out and say that they really enjoy the sculptures,” Greff told The Dickinson Press. “I think, ‘Well, it must mean something to somebody’…I’ve put a lot of sweat and work and a lot of everything into this. Until they bury me, I’m going to keep working on this project and other projects that I might have. I’ve got a lot of things I’m up dreaming about at night that I want to see done.”

          

           

Note: I did not visit the Enchanted Castle, but certainly wish I had after looking it up on TripAdvisor. If I am ever back in the area, I am definitely staying there.

Additional sources:

http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/progress/4237155-despite-struggles-gary-greff-never-giving-enchanted-highway-project

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2155

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2013/08/02/enchanted-highway-sculptures-north-dakota/2603189/

http://www.myndnow.com/news/dickinson-news/gary-greff-i-need-help-with-enchanted-highway/550924694