AMARILLO, TEXAS -- In recent months, details of alleged abuse surfaced against Stanley Marsh 3.
Monday morning a Texas Monthly article said some panhandle people are wrestling with what all that means for one of his imprints on our area.
For 39 years Cadillac Ranch seems to have built a life of its own, it has appeared as a backdrop in magazines and music videos and even Bruce Springsteen has sung about it.
Because of alleged abuse lawsuits facing the owner of the property, Stanley Marsh 3, Amarillo could be saying goodbye.
"You could look at that and go, its private property, why would do that?" said Jeff Blackburn. "But the truth is, government has lots and lots of power, and we give it more and more power every day, including the power to do something like that if they wanted to."
Texas Monthly reported that Amarillo residents are questioning Marsh's legacy and whether the landmark should be dismantled.
Blackburn said there are multiple ways authorities could do so, condemning it, or declaring it a public nuisance, just to name a few.
"It would show that we're small minded rather than open minded, it would show we're narrow rather than broad in our thinking," said Blackburn "And it would show the fact that we are exactly the kind of provincial, dumb jerks that most people in the country think we are."
Others say it would also be an economical loss.
"There is an indirect economic impact because of the Cadillac Ranch," said Nick Gerlich WTAMY Hickman Professor of Marketing. "Stanley Marsh may not be charging admission out there but these people are stopping in Amarillo they're buying spray paint, gas, meals and perhaps staying in hotels."
When asked about the worries expressed in the article regarding Marsh's "imprint" on the community and the possible tear down of Cadillac Ranch because of it, this was Gerlich's response.
"There is no way that people from outside this area are going to tie Stanley marsh to the Cadillac ranch, locals know this for sure because we're here every day, but the folks coming from the Netherlands and Germany, or from different parts of the US, they not only don't know whose behind it, they don't care."
Although Marsh is still fighting the allegations, officials say Cadillac Ranch isn't a monument to him, but a symbol of American pop-culture.
