Watch the birdie! Even the pheasants are large along the Enchanted Highway near Regent, North Dakota. (Photo by Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

At the very southern edge of North Dakota, a strange vision emerges.  Enormous metal sculptures of fish, pheasants, a tin family and more — like toys left behind by a species of giant children — are scattered every two to four miles along a 32-mile stretch of road north of Regent known as The Enchanted Highway.

The tin family consists of a 45-foot smiling farmer father in blue overalls holding a giant pitchfork. The mother, who holds a basket of metal flowers, is 43 feet tall and their son a mere 23 feet tall.  My daughter Natalie and I stood on the farmer’s feet and didn’t come up to his shirttail.

Further up the road we saw a 70-foot-long and 40-foot-tall rooster and a group of other giant metal birds.  And then a “pool” of 30-foot-long fish: a walleye, a bass, a salmon and others. A 70-foot-rainbow trout jumps through the surface of the water, signified by a suspended blue metal water line.

According to the Enchanted Highway Web site, Gary Greff, a local schoolteacher, thought they metal sculptures would bring tourists to Regent, which had 160 people by the count of the 2010 census. He planned a motel and café.  We saw a couple of other cars stop by the sculptures, but there was no sign they had stopped in Regent. We stopped at an ice cream shop that was selling Enchanted Highway knickknacks. Nearby a billboard proclaimed that the town was the former home of former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D). We bought some water and a couple of postcards and moved on.