Maybe you’ve seen these cars as you’ve sped along Interstate 40 through Amarillo.
If you haven’t taken time to stop your vehicle, walk a few hundred yards south of the freeway and spray-paint some graffiti on one or more of the vehicles, perhaps you haven’t quite lived a full-enough life.
Ralph Duke, a local photographer, snapped this recent picture of the Cadillac Ranch, the renowned creation of one of Amarillo’s more, um, colorful characters.
Stanley Marsh 3 and his merry band of artists stuck these cars into the ground about 40 years ago. They’ve become one of Texas’s premier roadside attractions. The Caddies are so ingrained into Amarillo’s identity, they are noted on the official state highway map, the map with the picture of the governor and his wife. You’ll see their location marked with a red dot with the words “Stanley Marsh’s Cadillac Ranch.”
One of my sons lives in Allen with his family. Whenever he comes for a visit, a quick trip to Cadillac Ranch is a must-see for him. He swears that Stanley Marsh communicated with space aliens using underground transmitters wired to the cars.
Marsh got into some legal trouble a few years ago. Some young men accused him of sexual abuse. Marsh died a couple of years ago and some residents actually began clamoring for the Caddies to be removed from their location just west of the Amarillo city limits to protest the allegations that were leveled against Marsh.
Fiddlesticks! They should stay.
Whenever I drive by them, I think of a time I had taken an out-of-town visitor to see the cars. A big tour bus pulled up and out of it poured about three dozen or so tourists. I started chatting one of them up. He was from Australia, as were the rest of his bus mates. They were traveling from coast to coast and stopped in Amarillo to gawk at Cadillac Ranch.
The young Aussie was dumbfounded. “Who in the world does this? Who sticks cars in the ground like this?” I gave him the 30-second elevator speech that it was done by someone with a lot of time on his hands … and a lot of money in his bank account.
Then I said, “Welcome to America.”
He and I both laughed.
The Cadillacs have been painted in rainbow colors to honor the victims of the Orlando, Fla., slaughter. They’ll be “decorated” again with graffiti, if they haven’t been already.
Whatever. They provide a reminder to those just passing through of theĀ brand of weirdness that canĀ make people smile.