Sad to see that early form of recycling. Years ago down here when the price of metal was a lot higher, the scrapers (Metal recyclers) would go out into the country and buy up all the abandoned cars from the farmers. They would tow a crusher and just compact (flatten) them before piling up on the back of semi-trailers and sending them to Korea for smelting. A lot of good projects were gone forever before they became Hyundai's and Kia's. The farmers couldn't care less as they made $$ and it got rid of those abandoned cars that littered the country side.
Back when those pics were taken, they were just "junk", like all those 1990's Mustangs and Camaros that are sitting in junk yards now. Still, yeah, like looking at humane society posters. at least you can adopt a critter.
OH the station wagons and the buicks.Man I would love to go back in time and save a few of them.Bruce.
When I was a we lad in Hamilton......I used to ride my bike just a few blocks north to a junk yard that had '20s and '30s cars as their front row line.....I use to go sit and "pretend drive" in lots of them...... I can still mentally smell them....
The people who took those pics, saved them in a sense, so we could enjoy seeing them today, and thats plenty good enough for me "considering". Thanks for sharing.
The only good thing about those cars being gone is that ours are now worth more. Still sad that some had to die so that others could live on.
It's amazing that even after all that cars are still being found each and every day somewhere. Imagine how big this site alone would be if that hadn't happened.
Ive noticed that a lot of prewar photos show cars in dismantled states and parts piles, not all but a lot of them do, but the postwar ones are tons and tons of complete cars. Some in the photos posted earlier have California tags...maybe that explains it lol
Thanks for posting. I now have to check back into the Mental Institution PERMANENTLY ! ! ! VR&C. (disturbed for life now).
...didn't mean to upset anyone, but this is a part of our old car history. I don't like the fact that these cars are gone forever, but interesting none-the-less.
Packards! '42 Ply and Olds. Can't tell if the woody wagon in a '42 or not. Why was the Corviar circled in the one picture?
Hate to admit it, but my first job out of high school was hauling bodies, 4 at a time from a wrecking yard to a scrap yard. I'll always remember the pristine black '40 Studebaker coupe that we flipped over, cut the frame, and loaded on the trailer. Even then (1959) it seemed just plain wrong. As if that ain't bad enough, the scrap yard had a mountain of engines probably 20 feet high, loaded with 303's, 331's hemis, etc. I used to drool over that stack every time I was there.
No point crying over squashed A's, guys. They were just crappy old piles of junk then, littering the fields & backyards of the USA.
Throw away society. And those stacks were then. They still do this today. Those far way yard's in the Western states esp.
You can thank good ole Lady Bird Johnson for a lot of the destruction. She started the campaign to "clean up" the country side and rid the US of the blight of junk cars in the 60s. You used to be able to see lots of salvage yards from the highways.
Recently in the small town I work in an elderly lady , whom many of us car guys have visited about buying her husbands old cars & trucks had the local scrap yard come clean up her place. As soon as I found out I rushed to the yard on my lunch break only to see the Henry J & the beloved 38 Plymouth pickup we've all been after smoosh'd , I went n bought the truck grille as it was somehow left intact. I'd already told the owner " a good customer of mine". Please call me I'll be quick n pay you way more than crush price. But as mentioned these guys are mostly a breed their own & I think enjoy it. Makes me sick. I sold the grille at springfield mo August swap meet , I just couldn't stand the thought of that ply pickup floating round in my head smoosh'd. I've saved a few I posted on sitting n rotting thread , for me it's not about the money its knowing it got saved! I'll never forget that Henry J n pickup. Flux
I was in Tyler, Tx. 82-84 for X-Ray School. Outside of town was a foundry that made manhole covers, and the like. There were mountains of engines, and cast iron Hydro's being "re-cycled". It too seemed like such a waste of automotive history. So, if you ever see a manhole cover with the word "TYLER" on it, it was probably once a J-2 Olds motor, or cast iron Hydro trans. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
here's one from pacific State Steel in Union City Ca. there are houses here now, all the children in the neighborhood have 6 fingers on each hand
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