--where everything is silent except the wind or a passing tractor or an occasional prairie songbird--you may find Carhenge. If you happen to be driving along Route 385, the main road between Chadron and Hemingsford, and you look east at just the right moment, you might catch a glimpse of a ring of broken cars, painted a dark gray that almost fades into the clouded sky, planted upright in the sandy soil of what was once no doubt a corn field but now holds something far more mysterious.

If you were I and you saw such a thing, you would have to turn your truck around and return to take a look. You would perhaps stand silently in the dirt of the parking lot, shaking your head with some disbelief. You would read the sign explaining how Carhenge came to be, and then perhaps you would sit down at the picnic table just to look across the grass at this strange and wonderful creation. You might watch the summer clouds drift through the sky and for a few quiet moments ponder the quirks of the human spirit.

Eventually you would have to stand and walk out among the cars, be drawn into the center of the circle where the cross-set cars lie overhead, inspect the small dunes of sand which have accumulated in the cracked metal, peer around corners at the patterns formed by the silty gray pipes of their exposed underbellies. You would certainly get down on your knees to look at the way the sand engulfs the cars, cutting some of them in half, turning them into the spiritual mates of the menhirs of ancient Europe.

After a time you might turn outward, leave the protection of the circle and notice the clumps of cars along the edges of the field. Carhenge has inspired others to make art from old cars, and the Car Art Reserve is filled with other oddities. Though none of them hold the strange power of Carhenge, they are well worth the time it takes to walk out to them and around them, if you have the time to spare on this cloudy summer day.

Then you will be on your way again, along 385 towards whatever destiny you follow. Yet as you travel you will always carry Carhenge with you.