A sports betting firm that analyzed online data listed Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo as the seventh most-crowded place in Texas.
The Amarillo Globe-News, which flagged the study, reported that Canada Sports Betting issued the most-crowded list in the Lone Star State.
The team at Canada Sports Betting analyzed TripAdvisor reviews for Texas’ top tourist destinations, and by tracking mentions of terms like “busy” and “overcrowded,” they pinpointed the most packed locations in the state.
According to the results, Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo ranks at No. 7, with 9.95% of the reviews mentioning excessive crowds.
In case you’re wondering, Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Comal River in New Braunfels were listed as No. 1 and No. 2 by the firm.
Palo Duro Canyon, a common side trip for Route 66 travelers going through Amarillo, was listed as No. 20 as the most crowded in Texas.
For those unfamiliar, Cadillac Ranch is an art installation west of town that consists of 10 vintage Cadillacs partially buried nose-down.
Cadillac Ranch, which marked its 50th anniversary last year, was the brainchild of Chip Lord and Hudson Marquez, members of the Ant Farm art collective. The art installation was placed on land owned by Amarillo tycoon Stanley Marsh 3.
About a year later, CBS-TV correspondent Charles Kuralt shot a segment for his “On the Road” series about Cadillac Ranch, giving it national attention.
Since then, Cadillac Ranch has been cited constantly in popular culture, from commercials to a song by Bruce Springsteen.
And that doesn’t count all the thousands, perhaps millions, of photos of the site on social media.
An estimated 1.4 million people visit Cadillac Ranch annually, making it Amarillo’s most popular tourist destination.
Marsh died in 2014 after a series of strokes. He was also under criminal indictment on charges of sexual abuse of minors. His heirs own the site in a family trust.
Ant Farm has copyrighted Cadillac Ranch, so the collective continues to make money from billboards, commercials, clothing, etc.
Nowadays, it’s common to see dozens, if not hundreds, of people at Cadillac Ranch during the daytime. Many spraypaint one of the Cadillacs to make their mark, though any one painting seldom lasts more than a few hours before it’s covered by another.
The spraypainting was always encouraged by Marsh. And Bob “Crocodile” Lile of Lile Art Gallery on Route 66 in Amarillo has made a nice side hustle by creating jewelry from chunks of the spraypaint that inevitably fall from the Cadillacs.
(Image of Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, by Neal Wellons via Flickr)
Thank you for the plug.