Ozymandias on the Plains
On a private ranch west of Amarillo, Texas, a pair of giant concrete legs rises from the prairie. Nearby lies a shattered face, half-buried in the earth. There's no plaque, no sign - just the ruins, exactly as Percy Bysshe Shelley described in his 1818 poem 'Ozymandias.' Stanley Marsh 3, the eccentric millionaire who planted the Cadillac Ranch, commissioned artist Lightnin' McDuff to build this monument to impermanence in 1997. The legs are 23 feet tall; the broken face lies where it fell. Unlike Shelley's poem, where the sculptor 'well those passions read,' Marsh's Ozymandias has no inscription - no 'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' The Texas version lets the ruins speak for themselves. The piece is on private property but visible from a nearby road, decaying exactly as intended.
The Poem
Shelley's 'Ozymandias' (1818) describes a traveler encountering a ruined statue in the desert - just the legs and a shattered face remaining, with an inscription boasting of the king's power. The irony is brutal: the mighty Ozymandias (the Greek name for Pharaoh Ramesses II) is forgotten, his empire gone, his monument destroyed. 'Round the decay / Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.' The poem became one of the most famous meditations on hubris and impermanence in the English language. Stanley Marsh decided to make it literal.
The Builder
Stanley Marsh 3 was Amarillo's patron saint of weird. A television station owner and heir to an oil fortune, he spent decades filling the Texas Panhandle with strange art. Cadillac Ranch was his most famous project, but he also installed fake traffic signs around Amarillo with absurdist messages, funded art installations across the region, and generally behaved as though the entire Texas plains were his personal art gallery. The Ozymandias replica fit his aesthetic perfectly - monumental, literary, and designed to look abandoned. He commissioned it in 1997 and placed it on his ranch where the flat terrain would echo Shelley's 'lone and level sands.'
The Sculpture
Artist Lightnin' McDuff (Gregg Renfrow) built the statue from concrete over a steel armature. The legs stand 23 feet tall, truncated just above the knee. The face lies shattered nearby, half-buried as though fallen and slowly sinking into the earth. The execution is deliberately rough - this isn't meant to look newly built. McDuff designed it to appear already ancient, already ruined. The concrete will weather and crack over time; the steel will rust. The piece is designed to decay, to become more authentic with age. In a century, it may be indistinguishable from a genuine ruin.
The Location
The sculpture stands on private ranch land west of Amarillo, near the more famous Cadillac Ranch. It's visible from Sundown Lane, a rural road, but accessing the statue requires permission. Unlike Cadillac Ranch, where visitors are welcomed, Ozymandias is meant to be seen from a distance - encountered by chance, explained only to those who know the poem. The effect works better that way. Coming upon it unexpectedly, you might believe you've found something ancient, something impossible. The Texas Panhandle's flatness completes the illusion: Shelley's 'lone and level sands' translated to lone and level plains.
Visiting Ozymandias
Ozymandias on the Plains is located on private property near Amarillo, Texas. The sculpture is visible from Sundown Lane, off I-40 west of Amarillo (take exit 75, go south). Do not enter the private property without permission. Cadillac Ranch, Marsh's more accessible installation, is nearby and welcomes visitors. The Amarillo area has other Marsh-related oddities, including the Center City of Amarillo sign (moved periodically) and various surviving fake road signs. Amarillo's Rick Husband International Airport is the closest commercial airport. The best approach is to view Ozymandias from the road, letting the distance add to the archaeological mystery.
From the Air
Located at approximately 35.16°N, 102.06°W on a ranch west of Amarillo, Texas. From altitude, the sculpture is nearly invisible - concrete structures on flat brown plains, no different from scattered ranch buildings. The legs might be visible on close approach, standing alone on an otherwise empty section. Cadillac Ranch is a few miles to the northeast. Amarillo sprawls to the east. The terrain is High Plains flat - the 'lone and level sands' of Shelley's poem made manifest in grass and soil. Rick Husband International Airport is 20 miles east.