Cadillac Ranch

If you Google the word “Cadillac,” you’ll get a lot of fancy cars, of course. If you search far enough, you’ll find the use of the word as a superlative, meaning “the best of its class.” You may even find the source of the car’s name, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur (French for “sir”) de Cadillac, the French explorer who founded the city of Cadillac, Maine and later Detroit, Michigan. If you add the word “Ranch” to your search, you get something a lot less dignified. The Cadillac Ranch is a work of public art in a field near Amarillo, Texas. It consists of ten Caddies planted nose-down in the dirt at the same angle as the pyramids of Giza. The tailfins are visible from Route 66; though that section of highway is now called Interstate 40. They’re on private land, but trespassing and even graffiti are strongly encouraged.