We were heading northwest from Darwin, MN on our way to a small community campground in Barnesville, near the North Dakota border, when we happened upon this outdoor sculpture park.

Ken Nyberg (1938-), a retired construction worker, started creating sculptures out of scrap metal in the late 1980’s and soon after, he began to incorporate lawn mower blades (both new and used) into his work. While he has sculptures located throughout Vining, he also has a number of commissioned works. A small collection of his work (we counted 30) is located on a corner lot at May Ave (State Route 40) and Minnesota 210 next to Big Foot Gas & Grocery.

Our favorite was the dancing knife and spoon couple. Check out their jaunty footwork in the photo below!

Below are photos of a dozen other sculptures at this site.

One of his sculptures is of his daughter who was an astronaut. Karen flew to the International Space station twice, once on the Space Shuttle and then on a Russian Soyuz mission.

At 88, Ken is still creating sculptures.

Ken’s workshop is at 22019 Tepee Circle, Vining, MN, just a few minutes from the park. Sadly, we did not think to call ahead to arrange a visit and thank him for his terrific public art.