Everything Is Bigger in Texas. Except This Buc-ee’s.
Locals hope the remote spot will gain a cult following worthy of its name Locals hope a tiny Buc-ee’s standing along a remote stretch of U.S. Highway 90 in West Texas will draw visitors. Sarah M. Vasquez Sarah M. Vasquez By Joseph Pisani Updated July 16, 2023 11:02 am ET Leighanne Rodriguez was heading down a West Texas highway when she spotted what she was looking for: a baby Buc-ee’s. “If you blink, you would have missed it,” said Rodriguez, who went out of her way to stop at the roadside attraction during a drive from El Paso to Austin, Texas. The tiny Buc-ee’s, in a remote part of West Texas, doesn’t sell anything. The real Buc-ee’s, the Texas-based rest-stop
Leighanne Rodriguez was heading down a West Texas highway when she spotted what she was looking for: a baby Buc-ee’s.
“If you blink, you would have missed it,” said Rodriguez, who went out of her way to stop at the roadside attraction during a drive from El Paso to Austin, Texas.
The tiny Buc-ee’s, in a remote part of West Texas, doesn’t sell anything. The real Buc-ee’s, the Texas-based rest-stop chain with 40 locations and a cult following, says it has nothing to do with it.
It is the work of an anonymous artist, who put the Buc-ee’s name and its cartoon beaver on an empty shack in the middle of the desert last month. It sits along U.S. Highway 90, about halfway between Sanderson and Marathon, two towns where about 1,000 people live in total.
‘If you blink, you would have missed it,’ said Leighanne Rodriguez of the baby Buc-ee’s.
Photo: David Badillo
The mini Buc-ee’s looks more like an outhouse than the real deal. The actual stores are a rest-stop mecca, with aisles of snacks, rows of gas pumps and what the company says are the world’s cleanest bathrooms. Nothing Buc-ee’s does is small. The company says it built the world’s largest convenience store in New Braunfels, Texas, the world’s longest car wash in Katy, Texas, and the world’s largest gas station in Sevierville, Tenn.
The baby Buc-ee’s has its own big ambitions: Get people to visit it and go to Sanderson.
“I’m happy that thing’s back,” said Nick Ryza, co-owner of the Desert Air Motel in Sanderson. “Anything that can give the town a little bit of extra publicity or bring it into the public eye is really good for us.”
The tiny Buc-ee’s first appeared last year. The sign lasted three days before it was taken down from the one-story structure by ranchers who were afraid visitors would knock down a nearby fence and let their cows free.
Keirstin Pratt,
an artist who runs an Instagram account to promote Sanderson, said it was a community effort to bring the Buc-ee’s back.“I think having this little Buc-ee’s is just one of the reasons that it’ll get people back to our town,” she said. “Buc-ee’s is an iconic Texas staple.”
The area has had its share of attention-grabbing projects riffing on famous stores. A fake Prada shop—an art installation by Elmgreen & Dragset, filled with shoes and bags from the Italian luxury brand that can’t be bought—attracts crowds and influencers traveling to Marfa, Texas, about 110 miles west of Sanderson on U.S. Highway 90. A miniature Target popped up three years ago in Marathon and then disappeared.
Pratt knows the artist behind the project but declined to give a name. She later said in a text message that she got permission to give a hint: “The mural in Lobo and the Buc-ee’s might be connected,” the text said.
Artist
Matt Tumlinson, who painted a mural in the ghost town of Lobo, Texas, said in an email he didn’t put up the Buc-ee’s sign.“If I did know the artist I bet he would say the installation is a lighthearted jab at the self important Prada store crowd and another lighthearted jab at Walmart/gas station hybrids and America’s propensity for ever expanding excess….or something like that…I don’t know…” he said.
On the phone, Tumlinson said he didn’t make the sign. But he said he did build a wood-and-barbed wire fence around the structure to appease the ranchers and keep cattle from escaping.
An anonymous artist put the Buc-ee’s name and its cartoon beaver on an empty shack in the middle of the desert last month.
Photo: Sarah M. Vasquez
A plaque was also added declaring it the world’s smallest Buc-ee’s. “This Buc-ee’s location served the area,” it says, “despite its lack of operating hours, bathrooms, employees or a home decor section.”
Tumlinson said the artist may be scared the real Buc-ee’s will sue. “I don’t know how the artist feels about it,” he said, “but in my own personal opinion, I wouldn’t want to poke that bear.”
Buc-ee’s doesn’t plan to sue because the site doesn’t sell anything, says Jeff Nadalo, who runs Buc-ee’s legal department.
“I find it amusing, and we’re flattered,” said Nadalo. “As long as it remains art, it’s not infringing.”
When Nadalo heard the mini impostor was back, he sent a person to the site dressed like a Buc-ee’s worker and toting a mop and bucket. “We had to check it out,” Nadalo said. Buc-ee’s posted a photo of the stunt on Instagram, where it has more than 260,000 followers.
The closest Buc-ee’s gas station is 300 miles from Sanderson. A real one isn’t coming anytime soon.
“There’s no people to buy anything there,” Nadalo said. “It’s literally a sleepy little town.”
Write to Joseph Pisani at [email protected]
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