The Cadillac Ranch and How it Holds to Be a Panhandle Icon

If you are a fan of road trips and come in to the Amarillo area from New Mexico or California you may have stopped by this tourist attraction in the past to make some memories on a vacation. Cadillac Ranch has become a big hotspot for people to get their picture taken by a line of spray painted cars. Many times people have even had a chance to spray a design of their own to make a mark in the community. I have not seen this place up close and personal but it may be on my list of places to go later on in life since this is a treasured Panhandle landmark. The legend has it that this area once was just a vacant grassland before anything was done to the property where the attraction sits today. Back when they were making spaces for the special cars to go into the ground trenches of a mass depth had to be dug deep enough that a whole half body of a car could fit inside.

The roadside icon has been in the same spot for at least over a decade and numerous people have come to make a name for themselves. If I went there and got to make a spray design it would likely be a music note and probably some headphones next to my name. That is what makes this such an iconic place to leave a legacy that can basically live on for years at a time. It’s cool to see the other designs that are there already because it shows the diversity of the communities that have traveled to Amarillo in the past. Pulling up to a line of cars sticking up out of the ground just has something historical in that they can trace back decades of who might have put the particular color of Cadillac up for display.

Maybe one day I will finally have time to make a trip out here and see this soon. Hopefully I can take some pictures and show them off to my friends and family that may or may not know about the ranch of cars that sits out in the open country of the High Plains. If one family member sees a photo of a certain place they may think back to childhood and start remembering when they were there to see the icon in all of it’s glory. Then they might share some favorite times when vacations were taken and sights were seen.

Hopefully this icon lasts for more decades to come. What would you like to see in a future version of Cadillac Ranch?