We were stuck in Amarillo due to high winds (i.e. greater than 40 mph) and we didn’t want to drive our RV which is 43 feet long and 13 feet tall during the winds. I had never been to Amarillo before and we were looking for some things to do while there. I was delighted to find these crazy things!
We found that Amarillo is not a tourist location but it is along historic route 66 and it is on the main highway from East to West. Amarillo seems to be more of a stop through place as folks travel by.
We had the fortunate opportunity to park our RV on a vineyard for a couple of days while we waited out the high winds.
Amarillo Texas has quite the fascinating things to see! …and these are just the ones we saw ?
- Cadillac Ranch with buried Cadillacs https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cadillac-ranch
- Wikipedia
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Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, USA. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez, and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm.
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The installation consists of ten Cadillacs (1949-1963) buried nose-first in the ground. Installed in 1974, the cars were either older running, used, or junk cars — together spanning the successive generations of the car line — and the defining evolution of their tailfins.
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Cadillac Ranch was originally located in a wheat field, but in 1997, the installation was quietly moved by a local contractor to a location two miles (three kilometers) to the west, to a cow pasture along Interstate 40, in order to place it farther from the limits of the growing city.
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The music video for the 1985 song “Living in America” by James Brown[12] and the music video for the 2008 song “Aint No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant[13] both feature imagery of the Cadillac Ranch. The Cadillac Ranch is also featured on the cover of singer/songwriter Russell Christian’s first EP “Chassis”.
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“Cadillac Ranch” is the name of a Bruce Springsteen song on his 1980 album The River, later covered by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Status Quo.
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The band Atomic Tom filmed a video at Cadillac Ranch in November 2011
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Pixar’s 2006 animated film Cars depicts a Cadillac Range as a mountain formation; the film’s credits directly acknowledge the Ant Farm collective and the Cadillac Ranch. In a case of art-imitating-art-imitating-art, that image from the film Cars has been constructed as a centerpiece of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure
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- Wikipedia
- Combine City with buried combines https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/combine-city
- Ozymandias (legs in the field) inspired by a poem by Shelley https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ozymandias-plains
- Palo Duro Canyon https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/palo-duro-canyon
- Remnants of Route 66 https://www.theroute-66.com/amarillo.html
CADILLAC RANCH: Anyone is allowed to spray paint on the cars. I painted a car with my University logo - Clemson Tiger Paw. From what I heard, the Cadillacs were buried there because some man had the cars and land and just did it! Because this is right off the highway it seems to get lots of traffic as folks drive by.
Views of Cadillac Ranch from various angles and distances:
COMBINE CITY: Not to be outdone, someone buried combines out in their field!
Ozymandias: And why not have random legs in a field?
Palo Duro Canyon: The second-largest canyon in the United States. It is roughly 120 miles long and has an average width of 6 miles, but reaches a width of 20 miles at places
Fun stop!
#LocalGuidesUSA #StateChallenge