A gleaming 190-foot-tall cross stands sentinel over Groom, Texas, a dusty small town – population 552 – about 40 miles east of Amarillo. Just to the north across the interstate, the blades of a wind farm lazily turn, and on the south side of town stand a row of grain silos, but one’s eyes are naturally drawn to the shining steel cross. From 20 miles away, travelers can see it as they approach Groom, some regarding it as their port of call and some astonished by what is looming in the distance.
The Groom Cross was constructed in 1995 by Steve Thomas, a man offering an alternative view to the adult business billboards spread along the east-west stretch of I-40 through the western plains’ Golden Spread. Today, whether viewed as a Christian symbol or as a roadside attraction, like the Britten Leaning Water Tower just three miles down the road, the Giant Cross has grown into a 10-acre religious campus, a spiritual destination on its own.
Along America’s highways, everything large and unique turns into a tourist attraction— think muffler men, the Gateway Arch, the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle, the Space Needle. These giants are each a place to photograph and post on social media before being relegated to the back burner of one’s mind after the return to everyday life from a vacation. But some travelers, possessed with a historical bent or observant of their Christian values, take a more mindful approach to a roadside stop such as this. The Giant Cross, at a minimum, is a place to be respectful of Steve Thomas’ inspired vision. But the journey of his life to the point of envisioning and constructing such an enormous project began with twists and turns that would have deterred many an individual. But somehow his life story seemed to lead him exactly here.
Shaped by Tonka Trucks, a Signpost, and Domestic Violence
Structural engineer Steve Thomas knew since he was a child what his career would be. “I was playing with my Tonka trucks in a dirt lot. We [kids] were making roads with our hands, and all of a sudden four or five guys looked over and asked why I’d dug a hole for a post. ‘That’s a signpost,’ I said. They asked, ‘What’s the sign say?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I never did know, but God had a plan for me back then.”
But that was not the only experience that shaped Thomas.
Growing up, his family struggled with extreme poverty, and his parents were both alcoholics. His father had violent tendencies. When Thomas was 17 years old, his father went on a rampage, attacking Thomas’ mother and sisters. They would recover, but afterward, his father, unable to come to grips with what he had done, committed suicide. A decade later, Thomas’ mother would do the same, forcing him to step up to complete the task of rearing his younger siblings before moving on to build his own life.
We are all influenced by our past and after a childhood of fear and uncertainties, Thomas was committed to building for himself a very different kind of life. He worked hard and earned an engineering degree from Texas Tech, after which he racked up a series of professional successes, including hitting oil with the first well he ever drilled, designing the world’s largest drilling rig, and establishing his own successful company. Armed with determination for a life well-lived and empathy learned from personal experiences that most of us have never had to endure, Thomas was able to move on from his troubled childhood and start a family with his wife Bobby (they have now been married over 50 years). Sons Bart and Zach were athletic from a young age, and Zach went on to become an All-Pro linebacker for the Miami Dolphins, while daughter Katina served as Miss Amarillo before winning the swimsuit competition in the 1997 Miss Texas pageant.
A Focus on the Cross
In 1995, Thomas was comfortable. He had retired, selling the oil and gas business that he had operated for some 35 years. He and Bobby were settled on their ranch, where they would regularly sit out on the front porch and watch the Panhandle winds blow the dust. He had time to think, and he thought about how blessed he was and how he had wanted to become a missionary. But he did not want to leave his home and his ranch, and travel around the world. So, what was the right path for him? Inspired by God’s leading, he decided that he would bring the world to Texas instead. And so, he did.
Thomas decided that it was time to create a spiritual billboard as a counteraction against those adult billboards along I-40. But then “in a V-8 moment” he realized something: “It’s like one of those commercials where you slap your head.” It hit him that it was well within his capabilities to build a giant cross instead of just a billboard after his wife Bobby’s discovery of a 100-foot-tall sheet-metal cross – 300 miles south of them – ignited the idea within both of them.
“It was in our local newspaper, but the cross was in Ballinger, Texas. I was like, oh my gosh, we should check that out,” Bobby said. “I showed him the story and we just kind of realized that was the Lord’s plan for him. Since he was a civil engineer and he had designed one of the world’s largest drilling rigs, it was perfect practice.”
But the search for a place to erect the cross was not so easy. After crossing Pampa and Amarillo off their list of possible locations due to a variety of local restrictions there, a chance drive past Groom one day called the Thomases’ attention to property there that might be available.
“I’d been trying to build it in various cities and my wife said, ‘Why don’t we just build it right along the interstate in Groom?’ and I had another V-8 moment. I mean, why not?” explained Thomas. “I knew one person – Chris Britten – in the area, and we pulled into his office on a Saturday afternoon. I told him, ‘You won’t believe what I want to do. I want to build the world’s largest cross along Interstate 40 and I’m looking for land.’ And he said, ‘I’ll just give you 10 acres.’ So that’s how we ended up in Groom, Texas.” (Chris Britten is the son of the late Ralph Britten of the Britten Leaning Water Tower family.) And so, Thomas was ready to design and build the biggest project of his life. He was well equipped with everything that he needed to accomplish such an enormous feat: he was a structural engineer, he was a millionaire, he was a man of deep-seated faith, and he believed that he was chosen by God – perhaps readied because of his childhood traumas – to build this cross.
Engineer Thomas oversaw eight months of construction in two separate shops in Pampa, Texas, keeping over 100 welders busy on the project. He had borrowed the design of drilling rig masts, with which he was well familiar. White corrugated steel, the kind used for industrial warehouses, was transformed into a 2 ½ million-pound steel cross. Initially constructed in three separate, but huge, pieces for transport to its new home at Groom, the cross was finally completely assembled, where it stood as tall as a 19-story building. On the day that the huge foundation was poured, sales of ready-mix concrete to other customers screeched to a halt in the Texas Panhandle.
In all, the cross costed Thomas half a million dollars, but he would have spent even more and built it even taller if objects higher than 200 feet had not been subject to FAA regulation. The original goal was to have the cross constructed and standing tall by Easter of 1995, but they simply could not get it done by then. But in July 1995, Steve and Bobby Thomas watched as the two-and-a-half million-pound cross was finally erected on the 10-acre plot, just off Exit 112 in Groom.
Soon travelers began to stop.
The Cross Ministries Complex
But the Thomases were not done. Initially standing alone, the cross became the centerpiece of the Cross Ministries complex, but after the installation of the giant cross, a small building was constructed for greeting visitors. One day, while working at his drafting table, Thomas was trying to work out a design for a path from the cross to the parking lot and the right spot to arrange the stations of the cross – one of the most important additions to his huge undertaking – but his plan did not satisfy him, and he threw it in the trash. He needed some guidance. Picking up the phone he called a friend Demetrio “D” Martinez, one of the welders of the cross, and a man he considered to be his spiritual partner.
“We got together and prayed for God’s vision about laying the stations out and D’s eyes got real big. He said, ‘You got this, don’t worry. It’s good to look at Scripture. Come on, Steve, that’s all you need,’” Thomas explained. “I blindly put my finger down as I read Ezekiel Chapter 1. It basically says, ‘I see a wheel within a wheel with many spokes,’ and that’s how we built it. And then we went back and read the Scripture again and it says, ‘I see many eyes along the outer wheel.’ Sounds real strange, but if you see this plaza from a narrow view, the stations are sitting on oval smooth concrete forms, and they look like eyes, because the sculptures are bronze, and each one shines just like a pupil over there in that oval form.”
Thomas did not stop with the stations of the cross. Over the next eight years or so, an exact replica of the Shroud of Turin, a life-sized Empty Tomb, the Memorial for Innocent Unborn, a bronze sculpture of St. Michael the Archangel, and The Ten Commandments Monument were added.
The complex now also includes a 20,000-square-foot building which houses a state-of-the-art 225-seat theater, gift shop, restrooms, offices and counseling center, the Divine Mercy Fountain, and the Divine Mercy Reception Gallery, featuring paintings of the Apostles by Texas artist Kenneth Wyatt. Sometimes on a weekend, a barbecue station is set up outside, indicating that a private event such as a wedding or funeral is taking place. And, unlike many attractions, travelers are welcome to stop for the night to sleep in the parking lot, adequately sized to handle big rigs and RVs.
“This is a 24/7 preaching effort,” Thomas said. “It’s open at night. You can sleep here. There’s enough lighting so you can read the plaques all over the site and see the facilities. So, it’s still a lot of visualization whether we’re here or not.”
Illuminated at night in the dark Texas sky as a sort of modern-day Star of the East, the cross is seen each year by an estimated 10 million people, who, as the Thomases’ Cross Ministries likes to say, “makes people think about Jesus Christ, if only for a minute.” The grounds and parking lot are open 24/7 to visitors and travelers, and many of the 10 million people who drive by on I-40 each year stop.
“Although it has its own following because of its religious meaning — it’s a roadside attraction as well —but it’s so different from most other attractions,” said Dora Meroney, secretary-treasurer of the Old Route 66 Association of Texas and owner of Texas Ivy Antiques on the 6th Avenue alignment in Amarillo. “They’ve made it very nice, and they’ve turned it into a destination.”
Into the Future
Although the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ Ministries states that it is not affiliated with any church, and therefore has no set congregation, its goal is to continue to minister to the millions of souls from all around the world that drive by it every year. That goal impels them to continue to grow and expand. Currently, they are completing the Last Supper sculptures and need to commission three more Apostles to finish the exhibit. Ground has been broken for a separate chapel after a thorough design process. When the chapel is completed, those seated within it will look past the altar to see a view of the cross through a wall of glass.
“We’ve put it under plans right now and my take is in two or three years we could really start on it,” Thomas enthused. “It will be a beautiful facility because when you’re in that chapel in your pew, you will see that big cross, you will be able to see Calvary and the circular stations. We think it will be an amazing spiritual experience. You know, we’re used to going into a church and seeing what’s kind of before us, behind the altar, and this will be an extraordinary sight.”
Also on their to-do list of future plans is a Bible History Museum and gardens with biblical scenes cast in bronze. Thomas has stated that, although he is in his 70s, he will keep adding new features for as long as he can.
“On its own it has a following, you know, on its own aside from 66,” said Meroney. “So, it’s helped bring a different group of people to 66, and when it was the largest cross in the northern hemisphere that was pretty cool. But then Illinois beat us out!”
Hailed at its construction in 1995 as the tallest cross in the U.S., it was bypassed a few years later when the City of Effingham, Illinois, assisted by Steve Thomas, built a cross just eight feet taller. (The Effingham cross is, in turn, dwarfed by the 208-foot-tall cross at Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine, Florida.)
But for travelers across the Texas Panhandle, the Groom Cross is plenty tall enough to satisfy their needs, whether they are on a spiritual pilgrimage or a hunt for the “giant” constructions of the American road, such as the leaning water tower not far away.
“We get a great variety. There’s really no typical visitor,” said Bobby. “Some people just don’t want to leave, because it’s so peaceful here.”
A giant, but peaceful, roadside attraction, situated in a dusty little Panhandle railroad town that ended up on U.S. Highway 66. That could be a tourism trope, or it could be just the stop that you did not know you were waiting for along the world’s most famous highway.
