Photo: The Milwaukee CTA Bus Did Not Stop At Burning Man

By Rachel Cromidas in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 8, 2016 3:25PM

Photo c/o Adan Sandoval

The Milwaukee Avenue CTA Bus did not stop at Burning Man (as far as we know). But amid the desert festival's acres of installation art, sculptures and "art cars," someone built a make-shift CTA bus stop, complete with a bench and a CTA sign. As if we needed more reasons to call it "the hipster highway."

First-time burner and Chicago native Adan Sandoval caught a photo of the bus stop, which he said was cheekily adorned with a large, lit-up snowflake and a bench behind it marked "BUTT STOP." Its Burning Man address was 4:30 and Esplanade (Burning Man has a special system for addressing locations in Black Rock City, its temporary, annual home), but the bus stop's origins are a mystery.

"There wasn't much else around it to indicate who or which camp put it up," Sandoval told Chicagoist. "I didn't get to meet any other Chicagoans at Burning Man, so this was a lovely reminder of home while camping out in the Nevada desert."

It's illegal to tamper with or steal working CTA signs, but the CTA periodically auctions off retired train and bus stop signs, so it's possible this sign was obtained through legal means.

Do you know more of the story behind Burning Man's Milwaukee Bus sign? Email tips@chicagoist.com, please. And what's up with the giant snowflake? Yes, sometimes it's cold in Chicago, we get it.