Truck in the Tree
Since we’re on the subject of unusually situated motor vehicles, it’s hard to ignore the truck in the tree just outside Clinton, Wisconsin.
According to TruckintheTree.com, “’Madman’ Mark Madson is the creative genius who put his 1959 1/2 ton Chevy Fleetside pick-up truck 50 foot up in a split forked tree – as a tree house for his son Luke.”
If you look at the pictures of Madson’s truck in the tree on the same website, you may come to the same conclusion I did: that little Luke had to be at least 30 feet tall in order to have a chance of climbing up to his treehouse-truck, because, short of his using a fireman’s ladder, there doesn’t appear to be any other way he could ever get up there. So we’ll just assume the truck in the tree was simply something for Madson’s son to look at, just as countless travelers down Interstate 43 have enjoyed looking at Madson’s quirky roadside contribution to the arts for nearly 20 years.
Cadillac Ranch
Cadillac Ranch, located just off Interstate 40 near Amarillo, Texas, may appear at first glance to have much in common with Carhenge. Both feature automobiles standing on end, but the similarities pretty much end there. While Carhenge may be an artist’s tribute to the ancient, the Cadillac Ranch is more a product of the hippie age.
According to RoadsideAmerica.com, in the early 1970s Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh III wanted to create a work of art to baffle local residents, and enlisted the help of hippies from San Francisco. RoadsideAmerica.com reports that “the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3’s fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza). They faced west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high for all to see on the empty Texas panhandle.”
Visitors are not discouraged from spray-painting the cars, so a visit to Cadillac Ranch may provide your best opportunity to add your own touches to an existing work of art that attracts a steady flow of visitors from around the world.
Once Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, wrote that Captain James T. Kirk was from Iowa. The super-small town of Riverside needed a theme for its yearly festival and the council thought, “Hey, why can’t Kirk be from our town?” and wrote Mr. Roddenberry to ask if it could be so. They received an official letter with his permission, and with that, Riverside became “The Future Birthplace of Captain Kirk.” A tiny, former beauty salon became the birthplace; a sad wooden plaque saying so is in the backyard. [Apparently they wanted to make a nice statue, but Paramount, which owns Star Trek, wanted $60,000 in licensing. So the wooden sign won’t be going anywhere soon.] The city also holds an annual “Trek Fest”, celebrating all things Star Trek.
Ronny: Great explanation. I appreciate the info.