Fifty years ago, three experimental architects and artists installed Amarillo’s iconic Cadillac Ranch, facilitated by a larger-than-life eccentric millionaire, Stanley March 3. The permanent installation of 10 Cadillac sedans buried nose first at a 60-degree angle into the dirt of a flat field within eyeshot of Interstate 40 has become the Panhandle’s No. 1 tourist destination and biggest roadside attraction.
Cadillac Ranch at 50 at the Amarillo Museum of Art, was a celebration of the transformation of the Cadillac Ranch over the past 50 years. Included in the exhibition are photographs by Wyatt McSpadden, who has documented the Cadillacs since the project’s inception, as well as two video works and various ephemera from Ant Farm member Chip Lord. McSpadden began his career in ‘74 as the photographer for eccentric arts patron, Neiman Marcus’ Stanley Marsh III. In 1992 McSpadden moved to Austin and worked for Texas Monthly, as well as many other national publications.
According to Texas Highways
On June 21, 1974, a huge party was held in celebration of the ranch, a big tent, open bar, and Amarillo notables included. Shortly after, the Ant Farmers returned to San Francisco to work on other ideas. “When it was first built, it wasn’t hyped yet,” says David Turner, who was the assistant director at the Amarillo Art Center at the time. “People didn’t know what it was. It was just this oddball group of cars some crazy rancher planted in his field.”
There was no signage identifying the site, making it hard to convey the installation was an artist-made sculptural piece. Seeing the installation up close required some want-to. “You used to have to stop on the road, take your life in your own hands, go through a barbed wire fence, and hope for the best,” says Tom Livesay, director of the Amarillo Art Center in 1974.
In 1997, Cadillac Ranch moved 2 miles west to its current location. The city of Amarillo was growing, and parking lot lights were visible at the installation. “That property was getting more valuable,” McSpadden says. “It was harder digging them up and replanting them than it was putting them in the ground the first time. From the road, it didn’t change at all. It was still the same flatland background.”
The relocation coincided with the dawn of the internet. Cadillac Ranch had become a featured attraction on RoadsideAmerica.com. Social media further broadened its reach. Cadillac Ranch remains a metaphor for the Golden Age of the American automobile, but over 50 years, it’s taken on many meanings and interpretations. A search for “Cadillac Ranch” on Instagram retrieves images of the Cadillac Ranch at sunrise, sunset, during dust storms and blizzards, and as a backdrop for selfies.
Wyatt McSpadden with an over painted Caddy for the 20th aniversary.
McSpadden elaborated in a recent interview for the Texas Standard,
“It’s public art. You don’t have to pay anything to go in there. There’s a break in the fence line. You walk in, do whatever you want. There’s no one in charge. No one’s checking anything out.
So it sort of was built for something like this. Although never did anyone expect that the numbers would be what they are now. The Amarillo Convention Center or the Visitors Bureau speculates that a million and a half people stop there every year. It’s incredible.
I didn’t believe it until I started going out there in recent years. I did shoot predawn one day and there was no one there, which is what I wanted, right? But every day, every day, it’s a constant churn all day long – people walking out there, painting.
The Marsh family has now put a trailer out there so you can buy paint there. So they finally, after 47 years of no monetizing, they’re now trying to make a little money.”
Far from pristine, they are now an ongoing public art project
PHOTOGRAPHS WYATT McSPADDEN