photo by Rich Koele, used by permission

Out in the Nebraska prairie one weekend in 1987 this mighty, prototypically American monument was raised by Jim Reinders and members of his family attending a reunion. Celebrated in news stories and in many elements of pop culture, it may be the best known of all the Stonehenge replicas. It certainly stands as a brilliant example of the Clonehenge principle: there is a human imperative to build Stonehenge replicas of anything vaguely resembling the original’s sarsen stones.

Unlike some builders of henges, Mr. Reinders had some knowledge of Stonehenge and did go to the trouble of duplicating features such as the heelstone, the inner trilithons, and the slaughter stone (Aubrey holes are still being placed). That and the grey paint used to protect the cars from rust give this henge a surprisingly authentic look considering the materials used. (This is unlike Cadillac Ranch, which is just a row of cars dug part way into the ground.)

Click around the official Carhenge website, and you can see pictures of Carhenge in many weathers and from many angles, plus the picture above, of a model Carhenge brilliantly made by ten year old Ryan Ceason of Farmington, MN, entirely from pictures without ever seeing the monument, for a social studies project on landmarks. We couldn’t resist asking permission to post this replica of a replica of Stonehenge, and we’re grateful to his mom, Mara, for getting back to us. It’s a Clonehenge to the second power!

Many thanks to Hallie Widner of the Carhenge website, to Rich Koele, and to the model maker and family. We score Carhenge itself a solid 8 ½ druids, and to the model of Carhenge we award 9 1962 Cadillacs!

Here it is on Google Street View. Not very clear, but it’s there!

And, sent in by friend of the blog David Raven, a Nebraska show’s video about Carhenge, with a little history.