Pilgrimage to Carhenge (June 2003)

Somewhere in a field, not far from the town of Alliance in the high plains of Western Nebraska, is one of the most amazing, awe-inspiring, roadside attractions in all of the Americas: Carhenge.

Three and a half miles north of Alliance, Carhenge may be found. And what exactly is Carhenge? And what makes it so awesome?

Carhenge is a replica of the more famous Stonehenge. Unlike Stonehenge, however, which is made of stone, Carhenge is made of cars.

Hence the name.

These are all American automobiles from the 1960s and 1970s, repainted a flat monotone stoney gray. Each car in the "henge" was precisely placed in exact alignment with the stones of the English henge of stone.

Where the stones on the Plains of Salisbury have fallen, the Dodge or Chevy or AMC Gremlin (yes, there is a Gremlin, see it right there on the left, atop two cars) is placed at an angle that mimics what can be found at the original.

But where the stones are still standing where originally placed, the cars are standing tall, like soldiers. Well, soldiers with a car placed at a right angle on top of them and the next soldier in alignment.

It is a spiritual, mystical and, yes, whimsical, experience.

Those cars were adjacent to Carhenge, but they were not part of the "henge." They're the wrong color, for one thing. And none of the stones of the Stonehenge were placed directly above like the two yellow cars above.

And the Carhenge site attracted other whimsical art, such as ...

"Spawning salmon." I can see it. Abstract expressionism is dead in the fields of Western Nebraska. Whimsical realism reigns.

And finally, in the greater Carhenge art installation site, there was this ....

Just a metal dinosaur? Or a foreshadow of the next destination on the travel through multiple magical destinations in the summer of 2003?