July 6.
The big story on the trip from Vega to Clarendon was the chance to see the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo. According to info from the ever-reliable internet, it is a public art installation–I had no idea of that little fact. I thought someone just had some old cars they didn’t know what to do with!
Here’s the scoop from http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220
“Standing along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3’s fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza). They faced west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high for all to see on the empty Texas panhandle.
Another photo op fatality. (Darren Collins, victim)
That was in 1974. People would stop along the highway, walk out to view the cars — then deface them or rip off pieces as souvenirs. Stanley Marsh 3 and The Ant Farm were tolerant of this public deconstruction of their art — although it doomed the tail fins — and eventually came to encourage it.
Decades have passed. The Cadillacs have now been in the ground as art longer than they were on the road as cars. They are stripped to their battered frames, splattered in day-glo paint splooge, barely recognizable as automobiles.
Yet Cadillac Ranch is more popular than ever. It’s become a ritual site for those who travel The Mother Road. The smell of spray paint hits you from a hundred yards away…”
When I was there, I was reminded of the movie, Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” They’re still coming to Cadillac Ranch, and we joined in the fun.
I also stopped in Goodnight, TX, named after Charles Goodnight. Here is some scenery and a store that was there. We learned from the shop keeper that he was instrumental in saving the buffalo, but PBS notes different achievements:
https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/goodnight.htm
