Today’s breakfast called for getting some kicks along Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas at the Cadillac Ranch. You’ll find it off the frontage road along I-40E – just look for the graffiti and hordes of tourists.
Access is very easy, just park off the shoulder and take a short walk past the locked gate. The site is open to the public and maintained by the city but it is on private land.
So what exactly is this place? On the surface, it’s a bunch of cars buried nose-down in the dirt and covered in spray paint. That’s as much information as I knew when I arrived because typically I like to visit a place knowing nothing (or very little) ahead of time so I can learn as I go. While I was there I can recall thinking not much of the entire attraction, even feeling disappointed that a tourist trap so dumb could fool me again.
Now that I’m back home and read more online, I have more respect and interest. Apparently this was created in 1974 as an art installation by a collective known as Ant Farm. Hey…happy 50th anniversary! The cars were aligned in order of Cadillac tail fin evolution and buried at an angle to resemble the pyramids of Giza. It was created on the land of and with permission of eccentric millionaire, businessman, philanthropist, and prankster Stanley Marsh 3 (no relation to the character in South Park?).
It’s difficult to tell by reading online but I am not sure if the cars were painted by the creators during the original creation. Either way it appears to have continued organically by visitors as part of the counter-culture and free expression style of the piece. Some websites say that it allows the art to become a living, breathing thing through visitor participation. Some call it art, some would say vandalism. You could wax poetic all day about deeper meanings to the thing…and that in itself means the artists were successful even thought it may have came from nothing but a doodle and a love for Cadillacs.
Technically speaking I don’t think spray painting the cars is “legal” and you could get busted for participating but hey I’m not a lawyer or a cop so use your brain. Big thing is don’t litter and I think using environmentally friendly paint is strongly encouraged. Or just look at all the caked-on layers of glop that everyone else has left behind and pretend you did it.
Time now to drive out into the middle of nowhere and find some natural history and culture in the Texas Panhandle.
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