Main Street Gorge.
Street artist Mary Snyder Behrens teeters on the brink of her creation.

Main Street Gorge

Dysart, Iowa

Dysart is a farm town in the middle of Iowa, many miles from the nearest art museum. Its largest buildings are its grain silos. Local artist Mary Snyder Behrens felt that just because there wasn't a local building for art didn't mean that there couldn't be local art.

Main Street Gorge.
Lisa Asmussen's second grade class at Dysart-Geneseo Elementary joins in the dizzying fun.

She convinced the town that the paved surface of Main Street was a perfectly suitable canvas, and painted on it Main Street Gorge, an anamorphic illusion and Dysart's first piece of public whimsy. It was completed in June 2018.

The town likes Main Street Gorge so much that it plans to commission more street art, and hopes to be known as an art destination by its 150th birthday in 2023.

Main Street Gorge

Address:: 333 Main St., Dysart, IA
Directions:: From IA-21 turn west at the church onto Clark St. Drive west five blocks. Turn right onto Main St. The gorge stretches north in the middle of Main St. just north of its intersection with Clark St.
RA Rates:: Worth a Detour

Nearby Offbeat Places

World's 2nd Largest Collection of Salt and Pepper Shakers, Traer, IA - 9 mi.

George Preston Gas Station Remains, Belle Plaine, IA - 19 mi.

Nathan's Miles Glow Trail, Vinton, IA - 15 mi.

In the region:

Large Ice Cream Cone, Ackley, IA - 47 mi.

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