Something you probably need to see for yourself The owner and creator of the installation, Elmar Long, grew up in Manhattan Beach, California . Since 1952 he accompanied his father (Elmar Long, 1919-2005), an aeronautical engineer, in his private search for historical utensils on waste bays and abandoned settlements in the Mojave Desert. Long Senior targeted ghost towns and former mine warehouses in the desert to search for civilization waste with a metal detector. [3] lost interest in his collection When the father aged, he donated hundreds of old bottles and other finds his son. He had joined the Marine Corps as a young man , having spent four years in Vietnam and Hawaii. A few years after completing his military service, he moved to the Mojave Desert in 1968.

In 2000, Elmar Long Junior began building the first metal sculptures; He welded sideways approximately 15 centimeters long iron bars on upright pipes (telephone cable masts) of about three meters in height . In this Long rods put the found differently colored bottles, so that a tree-like structure ( "a modern cristmas tree") [4] was formed. (Mostly damaged) were attached finds of all kinds to the top of the stands: old cart, street signs, car parts, handguns, antlers, bed frames, toys, an old jukebox [5] , animal bones, a saxophone, various self-constructed windmills, half a surfboard, a traffic light, a carousel horse or the blue light of a police vehicle from the 1930s. [3] 2002 Long announced his previous work in a nearby lay-related cement plant [6] and devoted himself to the development of his work of art.

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In 2014, the installation consisted of around 200 sculptures. The facility may be used free of charge, donations are requested. Elmar Long is constantly expanding the installation; for the welding together of a tree scaffolding, the artist needed about 90 minutes. After his death, a son is to continue the plant.

The Bottle Tree Ranch has become a landmark. Contributing to historic Route 66 is not only guidebook must-see [7] but also reports in California and national media. So USA Today listed the plant among the ten most inspiring places on Route 66 . [8] The Huffington Post took the ranch in 2014 in the list of the eleven best art centers in Southern California outside Los Angeles on. [9] On 19 March 2006, the national television channel Home and Garden Television [10] and on 20 August 2014 in the television series SoCal Connected reported radio station KCET TV to the ranch. [2] Billy Connolly presented the Bottle Tree Ranch in the last episode of the four-part broadcast Billy Connolly's Route 66 on July 7, 2014 KPBS TV. [11]