I sang "Is this the way to Amarillo” all the way to the Cadillac Ranch, and I’m sure it wasn’t annoying AT ALL.
Cadillac Ranch is a 1974 art installation created by self-described hippies Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels. It consists of ten Cadillacs, each buried at the same angle, in a line, headfirst in the ground in the middle. of. Nowhere.
The Cadillacs range from 1949 to 1963 and supposedly show the evolution of the tail fin. All the cars used were junk cars, so rest assured no operational classic cars were harmed on the artistic endeavor.
Defacing the cars with spray paint is encouraged and when we visited people were going at it as if their life depended on it! Their enthusiasm stretched out to the street, and the barriers along the service road you use to get to Cadillac Ranch are also covered in graffiti.
There are a couple of copycat art installations in the area, most notably Bug Ranch, which has a similar installation using Volkswagens.
Cadillac Ranch can be seen in several movies and is popular in music clips. Some of these projects have re-painted the cars to solid colors, but the graffiti has reappeared within 24 hours. Bruce Springsteen even wrote a song called “Cadillac Ranch.”
Cadillac Ranch sits on privately owned land, but visitors are welcome and its free to visit.
Pro tip - wear shoes - there WILL be cow poo.
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Texas # 1 -last visited October 2023