Cadillac Ranch - Amarillo, TX
Yet another identical selfie, though in this one the wind was trying to kill us.
This story is part eight of my January 2022 road trip to Las Vegas. Read about our others stops here:
On the final day of our return journey from Las Vegas, Charity and I departed Tucumcari around 9:30 a.m. and stopped for breakfast at Russell’s Travel Center and Route 66 Café in Glenrio.
While the diner wasn’t anything special and I don’t really recommend it, the travel center did have a massive car museum that makes it worth a stop whether or not you need gas and food. It’s possible we just caught them on a bad day, but I will warn that the diner food was not very good and our waters tasted like dirty dish water. But the museum is definitely worth a visit!
An hour after leaving Russell’s, we finally reached Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo a little after noon.
Cadillac Graveyard
It’s a wonder none of them have ever fallen over.
Reaching out from the fertile soil of the Texas panhandle is an oddity that’s as Route 66 as you can find.
The brainchild of a San Francisco hippie artist group called The Ant Farm, the Cadillac Ranch, also known as the Cadillac Graveyard, was constructed in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez, and Doug Michels.
The project was funded by Stanley Marsh 3, a millionaire oil baby with a passion for pranks and manic behavior. He routinely commissioned bizarro art around Texas but prior to his death in 2014 his legacy was mired in lawsuits and accusations of sexual misdeeds.
Ten Caddies, built between 1949 and 1963, were half buried in a Marsh-owned field on the side of Route 66. The fleet was buried nose down to demonstrate the evolution of the Cadillac’s tail fin.
“Ant Farm was founded as an alternative architectural practice, kind of an experiment in an attempt to subvert normal corporate ways of doing architecture,” Lord has said.
The cars were relocated in 1997 to their current location, further on the outskirts of the city from their previous spot. The land is an active cattle ranch owned in trust by the Marsh family, but it remains open to the public.
While the cars were still in remarkable shape and mostly running at the time that they were buried, they have long since been weathered, vandalized, and even have fallen subject to arson. Now vandalism is actively encouraged in the form of spray paint, making the cars an ever-changing canvas for artists and tourists passing by on I-40.
Charity and I visited on a brisk January day with a winter storm barreling down on us. The 20-degree wind chill made it less enjoyable than it would otherwise be, but I hope to return again when there are more people visiting and painting the cars.
An Ever-Changing Tapestry
The beauty of the Cadillac Ranch isn’t the message from the artists, but the fact that it’s open to interpretation and it’s open to the influence of the viewer, because the viewer is also the artist. Anyone can stop by any day and paint whatever they want. And it may last for years, or months, or be covered up later the same day.
I’ve said time and time again, locations like this may not last forever. They’re exposed to the elements and to vandalism and something could destroy these cars any day. So, don’t wait to see this incredible Route 66 roadside attraction! Next time you’re in the Amarillo area, take the 30-minute detour and put your mark on this ever-changing tapestry.
