The Coordinates series celebrates lesser-known locales worth visiting across the state.

If you’re driving along U.S. 90 between Van Horn and Valentine, you might see something sparkling in the distance toward the mountains of Mexico. Giant silver tumbleweeds? Maybe. Detour down Ranch Road 2017, and you’ll come upon dense, metallic jumbles rising from the sun-blasted desert floor: Broken Mile and Mile Dark, sculptures completed in 2023 and 2024, respectively, by Marfa artist Matthew Gray . Both works, anchored to foundations made from 20,000 pounds of concrete, contain a mile of aluminum in the form of 250 hollow rectangular bars bolted together, each roughly 21 feet long. Gray is almost done with a nearby third piece, Mile Quartered, which should be finished by December and wi

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