Cadillac Ranch

When Hubby said we would be going through Amarillo, a stop at Cadillac Ranch was on MY Must Do List. We saw Cadillac Ranch when we drove through the Panhandle in 2010 on our way from AZ back to SD in the spring, but we weren't geocaching then. Now that geocaching comes into play, we stop at places he may not have in the past. My Canadian friend Dianne posted about Cadillac Ranch on her blog when they went through that part of Texas. After seeing her photos, I have wanted to see the Cadillacs once again.

the place has become so popular a tour bus was there 

when we stopped

10 Cadillacs planted nose down in the ground

people come with their cans of spray paint

to decorate the cars...

...and the sorghum

unfortunately many leave their empty cans of paint 

lying on the ground

WHY?

WHY are 10 Cadillacs buried in the ground?

"The Cadillac Ranch, located along the tatters of historic Route 66, was built in 1974, brainchild of Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owned the dusty field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west 'at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids."

"Cadillac Ranch was originally located closer to the city in a wheat field, but in 1997 the installation was quietly moved by a local contractor two miles to the west, to a cow pasture along Interstate 40, in order to place it farther from the limits of the growing city. Both sites belonged to the local millionaire Stanley Marsh 3, the patron of the project. Marsh was well known in the city for his longtime patronage of artistic endeavors including the "Cadillac Ranch", Floating Mesa, "Amarillo Ramp" a work of well known land artist Robert Smithson, and a series of fake traffic signs throughout the city known collectively as the "Dynamite Museum". As of 2013, Stanley Marsh 3 does not own the Cadillac Ranch.

Cadillac Ranch is visible from the highway, and though it is located on private land, visiting it (by driving along a frontage road and entering the pasture by walking through an unlocked gate) is tacitly encouraged. In addition, writing graffiti on or otherwise spray-painting the vehicles is now encouraged, and the vehicles, which have long since lost their original colors, are wildly decorated. 

The cars are periodically repainted various colors (once white for the filming of a television commercial, another time pink in honor of Stanley's wife Wendy's birthday, and yet another time all 10 cars were painted flat black to mark the passing of Ant Farm artist Doug Michels or simply to provide a fresh canvas for future visitors. In 2012 they were painted rainbow colors to commemorate gay pride day. The cars were briefly "restored" to their original colors by the motel chain Hampton Inn in a public relations-sponsored series of Route 66 landmark restoration projects. The new paint jobs and even the plaque commemorating the project lasted less than 24 hours without fresh graffiti."