Travelogue

Boy's painting desert cadillacsFrom the beginning of this year's trip, I had told the kids that today would be the highlight of this year's travels--Cadillac Ranch. I don't think they quite believed me. It was pretty cool though. For those of you unfamiliar with Amarillo, Texas's most famous landmark, it's a piece of landscape art featuring ten classic Cadillacs buried nose-down in the dirt with their upended tail fins tracing the design changes that Cadillac made over the years. The ranch is owned by an eccentric Amarillo helium millionaire named Stanley Marsh II. Did you know that 99% of the world's helium is produced in Amarillo, Texas? Neither did we. Well anyway, in 1974 he hired some San Francisco artists to create this very unique piece of art.

Cadillac Ranch is not hard to get to--in fact, it's visible right from I40. Since just seeing it whiz by from the highway wasn't fulfilling enough, we pulled off I40 onto Hope Road where we could park and get the full experience. There it was, like some bizarre Stonehenge, looming out of a very dusty field. As we strolled the 100 yards across the field, laden with cameras and camcorders to immortalize the experience, the wind picked up covering us with dust. This is not exactly a beautiful part of the country.

When we got to the Cadillacs, the kids were delighted to find spray paint cans just begging to be used--Marsh actually encourages people to make their own artistic statement on the cars. The boys added their names to the hundreds of other travelers that preceded them. Actually, Andrew only added his first initial because he ran out of paint.

Having left our mark in the art world, we continued eastward on I40 towards Oklahoma.

Description

10 classic desert cadillacsThis is Amarillo Texas's most famous landmark. It's a piece of landscape art featuring ten classic Cadillacs (ranging from 1948 to 1964) buried nose-down in the dirt with their upended tail fins tracing the design changes that Cadillac made over the years.

Cadillac Ranch is owned by the eccentric Amarillo helium millionaire, Stanley Marsh III (99% of the world's helium is produced in Amarillo, Texas). In 1974, Marsh hired a group of San Francisco artists to create Cadillac Ranch. The cars were bought from local junkyards and used car lots for about $200 apiece.

Cadillac Ranch is located just 200 yards off I-40 at the Hope Road exit, 5 miles west of Amarillo. Visitors are welcome anytime and are even encouraged to use spray paint to make their own artistic statement.

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