If you are in Texas, and you are driving along Route 66 the legendary Mother Road, in your car, you may see a strange installation in the distance. It looks to you like cars planted in the ground, at an angle. Such a bizarre vision that you think it’s a wildly vivid dream, or that you are on the set of a remake of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but set in Texas.
Don’t worry, all the weirdness you encounter on Route 66 in Texas (and not only) are realities that, over the decades, have contributed to the creation of a mythical image, which goes beyond the purely historical-artistic reasons of interest. So, what is this installation? It is Cadillac Ranch, one of the most famous attractions in Texas , and along the entire Mother Road. But what can you see at Cadillac Ranch, what can you do and how do you get there? In this article, we want to tell you a bit of history (just to help you enjoy your visit better) and give you some tips.
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How to get to Cadillac Ranch
Cadillac Ranch is located on I-40, west of Amarillo (Texas), in the direction of Tucumcari-Santa Rosa. You will need to take Exit 60. At that point, you will simply drive south on old Route 66 for a few miles and turn left, continuing east for one mile. You will find Cadillac Ranch on the road, behind a gate. Admission is free. The map below shows you the address of Cadillac Ranch.
What is Cadillac Ranch?
To talk about it, we have to go back to 1974, a time when the hippie spirit was in full swing and manifested itself in an endless series of original, anarchic artistic expressions. Cadillac Ranch is the brainchild of Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, otherwise known as Ant Farm, a group of hippie architects from San Francisco who decided to give shape to an idea they had from The Look of Cars, a children’s book dedicated to cars.
As true lovers of Cadillacs, they decided to dedicate a very original tribute to them. How? At the beginning, it was necessary to raise funds, and the three eccentric hippies drew up a list of millionaire entrepreneurs who might be interested in the idea. In the end, they chose Stanley Marsh 3, an extremely rich man from Amarillo who was immediately interested in contributing to the realization of the project.
That same year, Marsh had ten different Cadillac models brought to his land west of Amarillo, ranging from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville. The three artists/architects burned half of the cars, leaving only the rear portion intact, then buried them, following the chronological order of production, and arranged the cars at an angle to the Great Pyramid of Gaza, facing west.
People passing by the Cadillac Ranch could feel free to stop their car, approach the Cadillacs and “graffiti” them, leave a note or a card, or even take away a piece as a souvenir, contributing simultaneously to the creation, enjoyment and destruction of the work of art.
In 1997, as the city of Amarillo was expanding, Marsh decided to move the installation two miles west to a cow pasture area. However, the charm remained unchanged, and even today, though they have aged – and along with them, the legendary aura surrounding them – the Ant Farm Cadillacs still attract a considerable number of nostalgic people from the time when art outdid itself and challenged itself, while encountering American popular culture.
What to do at Cadillac Ranch
Visiting Cadillac Ranch is an experience that pleases the eye, but there’s more to it than that. With the passing of time, visits to Cadillac Ranch have taken on the value of real processions, with their own specific and fascinating rituality, almost as if those Cadillacs had become post-modern menhirs before which to venerate a certain concept of pop art and American symbols: it is no coincidence that Bruce Springsteen, artist and indestructible icon of “American-ness”, dedicated a famous song to this place, “Cadillac Ranch”, on his album The River (1980).
So what do you say to reconstructing your own personal, unforgettable scene? Maybe driving down Route 66 with Bruce Springsteen’s song blaring, your arm out the window, your sunglasses on, Allen Ginsberg’s poems resting on the dashboard…
Once at Cadillac Ranch, you can have fun taking pictures like the one below, pretending to be the victim of an absurd incident with the hippie culture of the 70s, or arm yourself with a spray can and, anarchically contravening the dictates of Texas law, contribute to the legend of Cadillac Ranch by creating your own personal graffiti on one of the 10 cars.
Don’t worry, everyone does it! In fact, that’s why we suggest you take a picture of your artistic product, because most likely, a few hours later, it could be covered by another hippie’s graffiti, and, well, goodbye legend!
Where to Stay in the Cadillac Ranch area
As we already mentioned, Cadillac Ranch is located very close to Amarillo, where you can easily find a place to sleep. Check out the link below for a good hotel search.