With all the nomads wandering around America,
nobody's ever even posted a video of this place. How is that even possible?
(Theme Song)
I just left Walmart in Amarillo, Texas,
and I'm on my way to Oklahoma and I no sooner got on I 40 when I spotted
something on the westbound side.
So now I'm just going up an exit and turn it around to come back and take a
look. I'm not totally sure what it was I saw,
but it was, um, it kind of looked like a rainbow flag,
but then it also looked like this Grateful Dead t-shirt my brother used to
have. I think there was a peace sign.
Yeah, there's a peace sign.
This is my favorite kind of roadside attraction, you know?
Cause - the kind that just stops me. I don't know anything about it.
Last night I guess I drove past like the famous Cadillac Ranch, you know,
with the car butts sticking up out of the ground.
I think you have to go in a little off the road,
but also it was probably dark by the time I got there. So I didn't even see it.
I didn't even notice, but anyway,
I've seen like a thousand pictures of that place.
I have never seen even one photo of this.
With all the nomads wandering around America,
nobody's ever even posted a video of this place. How is that even possible?
Well, it looks like captain has to express an opinion too.
I guess this is the guy,
the neighbor he was talking about Richard Daniel Baker, born
June 19th, 1951.
Well, I guess if I want to hear his peculiar ideas,
I'm just going to have to look him up on Facebook.
When I went looking for you online, you were not very easy to find.
Seemed like you were kind of like this man of mystery, you know?
One person wrote, "And as for Richard Daniel Baker, the creator of all of this,
not a word." I mean, did you, was that on purpose?
Did you mean to be a man of mystery?
No, ma'am I had no idea. I've never heard from anyone,
you're the first one I've ever heard from.
So it seems like people want to know a few things about you.
There's nothing to know about me. I'm just a poor farmer, rancher
who welds and builds weird things.
I was born and raised on that land.
My grandfather homesteaded it in 1889 and
we've been there ever since,
but I mean I've farmed it all my life and then I worked for the phone company
for 35 years and farmed also. Now I just farm.
So how did this thing come about?
We had a drought, uh,
a few years ago and I had a hired hand working for me
some, part time, and he really needed some work to do.
There's not much to do farming whenever it's dry, so, heck,
I'll just build a giant peace sign out there. And it evolved from there.
So you just decided, Hey, I need some work to give this guy.
So I think I'll just build a giant peace sign?
Like what was going through your head there?
I was just messing around with the welder and the plasma cutter.
I would put on dates on there for people and I wouldn't put what they meant.
I just thought if people are curious,
they could always Google the dates and see what they stood for.
I have a lot of room to cut more signs. The next sign I'm going to cut,
there was guy named Jimi Hendrix.
He played at Woodstock and he had a good saying that said,
"When the love of power is overcome by the power of love,
then you will have peace." So I'm going to cut that out and put it up there and weld it.
But if anybody has any ideas on a sign,
I'd sure welcome input.
The first part of the peace sign is more of the Woodstock era.
And then the upper part of the peace sign is more of a religious sort.
It just kind of has my, uh, philosophy.
What exactly is your philosophy?
Peace. I want peace for everyone.
I'm a real advocate for marijuana. I have a partner,
who developed lymphoma.
I did all this research and as I started her on a regimen of CBD
pills and it caused the cancer to disappear.
The oncologist was shocked. Uh, she said she can't understand it,
but she is extremely happy. And we are too.
It's been five - over six years now. She's cancer free.
I believe in marijuana. Of course I have since I was in college.
Yeah, I believed in it in college, too.
I bet you believed in it for a different reason in college, right?
Yes, Ma'am.
Okay. I'm going to read you some things that people have written online.
And I just wanna, I just want to see how you react.
Outstanding expression in art.
I don't see it, but I sure appreciate - that's so nice of them.
Great messages of peace.
Oh, that's good. Uh, I'm certainly glad they took that away.
I'm just trying to imagine the person whose belief system reconciles all of
this,
but I think we're all complex people and things don't always quite add up and
that's okay.
That's an amazing statement that he makes,
virtually exactly how I feel about life.
This one says,
"I am a veteran and that made it even more special and thought provoking.
Thank you, Richard D. Baker for this accomplishment."
Oh, that's very good.
Ooh, here's a good one.
It is no more possible to do justice to this experience than to bring the
Sistine Chapel home on a postcard.
This one says, "Would love to meet Richard Baker."
Well they can come on down to the barn and have a party with me,
or tell them they can stand in the little circle there.
And we'll discuss things.
Now let's talk about, um, you told me that you built this as,
as a resting place for yourself, like a final resting place.
I just call it the glorified graveyard for one - mine.
How's that going to work?
I buried a three inch pipe down there with a cap on it.
Whenever I pass away,
take everything that you can possibly use out of my body
and cremate the rest.
And I've told my neighbors to drill a hole.
He's going to drill a hole in the top of the pipe cap.
Pour a little bit of me in there, 'cause it goes down in my ground.
And then pour the rest on vine weed,
that's these vicious weeds that we don't like in Texas.
And I've spent my entire life,
thousands and thousands of dollars trying to destroy them.
So I might as well go out trying to destroy them also. Pour me on 'em.
you're just going to kill that weed for eternity.
Yes, ma'am.
OK, there's a lot going on in the world right now,
between pandemics and you know, protests.
And there's a lot of old symbols that are coming down and I have
this idea that you could go and bring your welder and
replace, replace all of them with peace signs.
That's such a brilliant idea. Replace those statues with peace signs.
You should start that up!
No, you should start that up. You are the peace sign guy.
I don't have a plasma cutter.
You can borrow mine. I'll teach you.
You just tell me what to cut and I'll do it for you.
You have had a big effect on a lot of people.
Did you know that you had that kind of effect?
No ma'am, I had no idea.
Well, you're number two on somebody's list of the best things to do in Amarillo.
Boy, there's a lot more better things to do around Amarillo than that.
There's also a top 50 and you're number 31 on the top 50 from
TripAdvisor.
You have a legacy because that park's still going be there. I mean,
you're going to be in your little pipe and that park is still going to be there.
That's right. I'll be in my little pipe, and I'll watch 'em.
So what's my legacy?
What am I going to leave behind when I'm down in the pipe? Maybe this channel,
but no, it's not going to be this channel. Cause the way YouTube moves,
this is going to be old in two months. I always assumed I would write something,
make something, do something. But yeah, so far I got nothing. Well I got a bus,
but that's 30 years old already. That's not going to last.
I better hurry up and build something because I'm going to be in the pipe
eventually.
Turn back onto interstate 40 East, then turn left to merge onto 40 East.
Maybe this will outlive me.
What's your legacy?
You got that worked out?
For 122 miles, continue straight.