Cadillac Ranch

I-40, Exit 60
Phone:

East < GO > West

This is an public participation work of art, people bring their cans of spray paint and add their vision to it. But it's a temporary act because the cars get sand blasted occasionally becoming a blank canvas again. The result is the work can change by the hour, depending on the weather I guess. I've been here several times and it often takes a bit of patience to get a photo of the cars without also getting a photo of at least a few artists at work. Hang around a few minutes and you might very well be asked to snap a photo or two of them with their cameras, or cell phones. It's great fun.

As reported in the Spring 2013 edition of Route 66 Magazine, the Cadillacs, from right to left, are a 1948 Series Sixty-One Sedanette; 1952 Series Sixty-Two Sedan; 1954 Coup de Ville; 1956 Sedan deVille; 1957 Sedan de Ville, 1958 Four-door Hardtop Sedan; 1959 Coupe de Ville; 1960 Sedan de Ville; 1962 Sedan de Ville and 1964 Fleetwood Sixty Special. The cars are planted nose down in concrete at the same angle as the Great Pyramids of Egypt. This isn't the original location of the art though. It started out about two miles east of this spot and was moved here in 1997. The move was to get the cars a little farther from the city limits.

The cars are a fair walk from the I-40 Frontage Road as this picture shows looking at them from the gate.

The idea of the Cadillac Ranch came from discussions between Stanley Marsh III and the folks at the Ant Farm. Marsh donated the land and a $3,000 budget and the project was launched on May 28, 1974. Each of the ten Cadillacs were purchased for less than $1,000.

Photo(s): 2012