Dysart, Iowa: Main Street Gorge

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

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

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Main Street Gorge.

Mary Snyder Behrens turned Main Street into an artwork by painting onto it an anamorphic illusion of a Grand Canyon-like gorge.

Roadsideamerica.com Report... [07/06/2018]

Visitor Tips and News About Main Street Gorge

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Main Street Gorge

It's time for the Main Street Gorge to be repainted again. We drove there on 10-10-23 and the bottom two-thirds is just dark gray.

[Jim Hantak, 10/14/2023]

Street art suffers a lot of wear and tear. Fingers crossed that Dysart has an annual paint budget.

Dysart Anamorphic Illusions

Dysart has much more anamorphic art than the Main Street Gorge. It also has the Dysart Vortex at the intersection of Wilson and Main Streets, and an anamorphic cylinder koi pond at the City Park. There are more illusions painted on the C.R. Roberts Memorial Trail outside the Little Knights Learning Center, and artists are also adding anamorphic art on the sides of buildings in town as well. There is so much art to see! I visited with my kids on Friday, June 19, 2020, and it was amazing to see all that the town has accomplished. Locals call Dysart, "The Town of Illusions."

[Holly Newhouse, 06/24/2020]

Main Street Gorge

We drove through Dysart on Monday, April 27. Most of the painted "Gorge" on Main Street is faded. I don't know if the city is planning on repainting it or not.

[Tracye Thomas, 05/07/2020]

The Gorge was repainted to full chasm glory by June 2021.