Cadillac Ranch

[Kevin]

For those who haven't been to Northern Texas and Amarillo, Cadillac Ranch is just west of town. We drove through Amarillo last week and stopped. I've never been to Amarillo, and for the life of me couldn't figure out why people live there, or what they do for a living. I looked it up and the largest employers in Amarillo are the city, then the school district, and I think Wal Mart was next. So I still have no idea what people do there, or why they live in Amarillo, which is surrounded by flat earth.

I guess the Flat Earth Society would love it there.

Anyway, Cadillac Ranch, I'm not sure what the point is, or why, but it was fun. And Windy.

Note the Flat Earth Horizon.

And No, I didn't wade through the muck to spray paint them.

 

[Mike J]

Never been to Amarillo. Used to visit relatives in Andrews, Tx once a year when I was a kid. It would take me a couple of days to get adjusted to how flat everything is there. It always liked it out there. Need to go back soon.

 

[bobski]

I guess they would wonder why youd want to live in dallas.

??

 

[sfhogman]

Did my basic training at Amarillo AFB in 1968. Could never come up with a good reason to go back out there....

Jeff

 

[Snake45]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dG3jc6fzPY

 

[Kevin]

I guess they would wonder why youd want to live in dallas.

??

But I know why I live in Dallas.


It’s just a constant question I always ask when driving somewhere…. the idea that why some people live where they do. There is a small town I drive through before getting to my gun range. It’s just curiosity on my part. The idea of: “why right there.”

 

[Fox Mike]

Never stopped there but have flown over it while ferrying some OH-6As across country. Lots of 'not much down there' but flat land.

 

[Gator89]

They feed out a lot of the beef that gets eaten in the USA in the Amarillo area.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

I've never been to Amarillo, and for the life of me couldn't figure out why people live there, or what they do for a living. I looked it up and the largest employers in Amarillo are the city, then the school district, and I think Wal Mart was next

From Wikipedia . . .

This is a list companies in Amarillo, Texas that are headquartered or have a large presence in the city.

Corporate presence
Amarillo Design Bureau, a company specializing in tactical and strategic board wargames
Amarillo National Bank, one of the largest privately held banks in the US
Pantex, nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly

Major companies in Amarillo
ASARCO, copper smelter
Bell Helicopter Textron, helicopter and tiltrotor manufacturer
Big Lots, retail
BNSF Railway, railroad
Owens-Corning, fiberglass
Tyson Foods, beef processor
Weyerhaeuser, paper and packaging
Xcel Energy, electric provider

 

[Bob Wright]

When Nita and I were first married, I asked her how far west she had been. Her reply was "Jonesboro, Arkansas." I told her I was going to fix that.

In 1989 we got our first real vacation, and we drove from Memphis to Yellowstone National Park, via Tucumcari, New Mexico. She didn't have too much to say until we left Oklahoma City and entered Texas. Then she commented "If you were to tell me we were on the Moon I couldn't argue with you."

Now, heading west and leaving Arkansas, I tell her to get one last look at real trees.

And, as for flat, Arkansas has some mighty flat land. Good for rice paddies.

Bob Wright

 

[RSIno1]

We took the grandson and some spray paint by there in 2017

 

[txramfan]

Stanley Marsh 3 ( yes 3) is the man responsible the Cadillac Ranch.
Amarillo was part of my sales territory 30 years ago , I finally stop to see Cadillac Ranch 4 years ago, after driving by it too many times to recall. It was relocated a while ago, moved it west from the original location further from town.
Odd thing I learned is people take paint that has peeled off and make jewelry.
I believe there is still a Helium storage facility north of Amarillo that at one time was a National Reserve.

 

[bobski]

well....all one had to say was that a (nuke assy plant) was there, and there ya have it.

 

[blume357]

What's keeping those ugly caddies from tipping over... looks like a good possibility of a domino effect .........

and why would you plant them in a mosquito pond?

 

[Cordwood]

South of Amarillo is a place you need to visit. Palo Dura canyon is beautiful and unique with quite a history.
One of my favorite places to visit
Butch

 

[bobski]

blume....it normally the desert out there, mud as hard as a rock.

 

[Colonialgirl]

I always wonder why anyone would want to live in Austin, Tx let alone Dallas.

 

[jgt]

If you had lived there in the early seventies you wouldn't have had to ask. After developers ruined San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston, they just could not leave the Capitol untouched. They turned it from a nice place to live into a nightmare.

 

[Jeepnik]

Did my basic training at Amarillo AFB in 1968. Could never come up with a good reason to go back out there....

Jeff

You must have been among the last to go to BMT there. They shifted everything to Lackland after the December 1968.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

When I was a wee rat, we lived in San Diego but a lot of the family was in Wichita KS, and we made a couple of trips I remember back to see them. Two great aunts and their husbands lived in Amarillo, and the best part of the whole trip was stopping to see Uncle Fred and Aunt Jo. They had a hardware store, one of those that had absolutely everything a person from 2 to 90 could ever want or need: hardware, auto parts, toys, furniture, sporting goods and on an on.

Aunt Jo had an old Winchester .22 pump (61-62:the exposed hammer model), sitting right next to a door that took you out back. When she wasn't doing anything more important, she'd grab the .22, crack the back door open and knock off a couple of jackrabbits. Rumor was that old rifle had been used so much you could see light thru it from four directions. I dunno about that, but I do know being a jackrabbit within about 100 yds of the store was a bad job! The coyotes were fat, though.

This all took place between about 1955-60...

I last went thru Amarillo at night in 1980, and just zipping thru on the Interstate the lights told a story of tremendous growth since I was there as a kid, drooling at all the cool stuff in the hardware store.

Rick C