Those who’ve driven by the iconic Cadillac Ranch on Amarillo’s west side in recent days may have noticed some changes there lately, including food trucks near the art installation.
The food trucks and a Cadillac Ranch merchandise trailer began parking near the site when warmer weather and bigger tourist crowds arrived this spring. The food trucks’ first day there was Saturday.
Here’s the Cadillac Ranch merch trailer:
Bryan Brumley, general manager of Cadillac Ranch, wrote on Facebook Messenger the food trucks will be there on the weekends for now and possibly weekdays if the crowds are big enough. He said a shaved-ice trailer also would park there on Wednesdays.
Brumley said the food trucks probably would appear there regularly until school resumes in August, at least.
That’s not the only thing that’s been going on at Cadillac Ranch in recent months.
“The entrance gate has been replaced with a gate that is much more handicap accessible. The first half of the path has been redone to help with mud and accessibility! Lots going on out there!” Brumley wrote. “There are A LOT of maintenance things in the works right now. Some taking place now and some ongoing through 2022.”
Brumley said he wasn’t at liberty to describe those future improvement projects.
Cadillac Ranch now is owned by a trust after the death in 2014 of longtime owner Stanley Marsh 3, an eccentric tycoon in Amarillo who was under criminal indictment on four counts of sexual assault of a child, eight counts of sexual performance by a child, and two counts of indecency with a child.
Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, part of the Ant Farm art collective, created Cadillac Ranch in 1974 by planting 10 vintage Cadillacs into nose-first into the ground. Marsh sponsored the project. Graffiti on the cars has been encouraged for years.
Cadillac Ranch in 1997 was quietly moved two miles west after Amarillo sprawl encroached on the installation.
Save for the possible exceptions of Palo Duro Canyon and the Big Texan Steak Ranch restaurant, it remains the area’s most popular tourist attraction. It’s become a part of popular culture, including the “Cadillac Ranch” song by Bruce Springsteen, inspiring the Cadillac Range mountains in the Disney-Pixar movie “Cars,” and has been featured in countless videos, photographs and television shows.
(Hat tip to Allison Renee; top image of Cadillac Ranch by David via Flickr; image of the Cadillac Ranch merchandise trailer at Cadillac Ranch courtesy of Bryan Brumley)
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My family and I visited the Cadillac Ranch several years ago on a cross county trip and some improvements are certainly in order, in my opinion. The cars could hardly be reached due to to standing water, but that was OK. Graffiti on the cars is one thing, but it seems to be acceptable to discard your spent paint can on the ground near the cars and walk off. There were hundreds of paint cans just laying around the cars and in the field on the day that we were there. It was unimpressive to say the least and downright embarrassing considering the amount of foreign tourists that Route 66 attracts. Hopefully the owners will address this as well.