Cavorting at Carhenge

Friday morning we headed about 3 1/2 miles north of the town of Alliance, Nebraska, so that we could feast our eyes on this unique sculpture.

view from the road

This, my friends, is called "Carhenge" and is the brainstorm of a man named Jim Reinders, who studied Stonehenge while living in England. It was his dream to one day recreate Stonehenge in size and proportion. That dream came true in 1987 with the help of many friends.

Carhenge consists of 38 cars - those standing upright are buried in holes 5 feet deep - those on top of other cars are welded together. The diameter of the circle is 96 feet. Carhenge was built as a memorial to Jim Reinders' father, who once lived on the farm where the sculpture now stands.

Jim sure looks cold!

Be not afraid! That car won't fall on me, right?

This is a poem that was written on the bottom of one of the cars. I felt it could apply to Jim and me, traveling from AZ to IL!

You may notice that the sign at the entrance also states, "Car Art Reserve."

That is because there are other sculptures made out of pieces of cars, such as this Spawning Salmon.

and Dino.

I didn't realize that the next three pictures were part of a group. I just snapped away. I was impressed by this double decker. The front said, "The Fourd Seasons".

This certainly isn't the pink Cadillac that Mary Kay cosmetics offers to their saleswomen!

What the...! Is that a picture of a, well, you know, on that car? My, forget TEXAS! I guess things are BIGGER in NEBRASKA!

So, the story of "The Fourd Seasons" is that it is supposed to represent the four stages of wheat grown in the area - green for spring, yellow for mature, pink for after harvest in late summer, and white for winter. I found this out AFTER I visited the site. So here is a picture (courtesy of www.carhenge.com) of the four cars together for the full effect.

I am not sure if this is supposed to be a coffin and I'm not sure of all the words painted on it. This is what I think it says.

"Here lie three pieces of foreign cars. They served their purpose while Detroit slept. Now Detroit is awake and America's Great!"

I got a kick out of this piece of graffiti on another car:

Party Hardy Rock & Roll
Drink a 40 smoke a
bole. Were the class you can't
controle. Heres your sign were
the class of 2009.

I LOVE how ironic THIS is!

"Learn to spell before defacing property."




We were the only ones wandering the grounds at Carhenge, and the only sound was when either a car passed by every once in awhile, or when the wind blew and these metal "bells" clanged.

The original "station wagon" called the Carnastoga.

A sculpture made out of an axle and who knows what else!

The first thing I thought of when I saw this was, "You've got some 'splaining to do!"

Even the park benches were made from car parts. Looks like the seats are doors and the legs are wheel rims. How clever is that!

There was a gift store there but unfortunately it was closed. I could order merchandise on line (or you, too, if you prefer) at the above link.

I would highly recommend a visit to the little town of Alliance, Nebraska to see this odd sculpture....it was well worth the drive!

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