History Old Time Junk Yard Photos PIX 1920 to 1970

Hiya, Torr! By any chance, would this be at Bishop's yard north of Bangor in Penobscot County?

 

Some more from HAMBer Dave (screen handle "Pontiac").


Sa-WEET steering wheel!


Buick Fireball 8 ???


'63 Imp?

 

Our HAMB brother Vorhees posted almost 500 shots from this approx. 100-acre junkyard in New Hampshire. I do not say this lightly: THIS PLACE IS AMAZING!!! Below are just 3 Mopars that point up, at least a bit, how far back the yard goes. If you want a long afternoon taking a virtual tour, you REALLY can't do much better than visit his thread & tap into the link! HAMB thread: "Rhode Island junk yard getting crushed"



Can we say, surviving 392 Chrysler 300?

 

These pix were shot at Engler's junkyard near the Vermont-Pennsylvania line
in the vicinity of Hazelton and Nuangola by HAMBers PowerShifter & Norville.
More can be seen on the thread entitled, "Black Friday '09 Junk Yard Day."


Okay, WHO doesn't love a Studebaker Hawk???

 

jimi'shemi291<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_4606110", true); </SCRIPT> - Jim, not trying to throw salt in the psychological wounds created by the thought of all the vehicles in these pics being long gone, but as a side note - when my dad had his yard back in the 50's and into the early 60's, the local steel yard would not accept complete cars to crush - the interior had to be 'removed'. Common method? stack 15 - 20 cars in a pile and add 5 gal gasoline and one cigar. Talk about BLACK clouds of smoke. Controls got tighter, obviously. Went from able to burn any day of the week to one day to none. Funny thing was, there was a yard right next to my dad's place that was bought out about 1960 by Holiday Inn and burning was still allowed . They built a new HI right there and the manager had a fit on days when the wind was not in his favor! You'd have thought somebody would have scouted the place a bit closer. Anyway, as I said, burning was still allowed but the HI manager was so ticked off, he kept calling code enforcement complaining but they really couldn't do anything (plus they were friends of my dad) So after a few calls from code enforcement to 'try to make peace' with the HI, my dad decided to stack about 5 burnt out hulks on our property right in front of the bright new Holiday Inn sign coming out from town so you couldn't see the sign . It wasn't too long and the HI manager got a call from HIS boss to 'make peace' with my dad. They ironed it out and down came the cars. Not too long after that burning was outlawed and eventually my dad gave up the yard, but we have some good stories!

 

Vintage44: Dude, that IS a cool story. A bit of pre-code auto history! THANKS -- Jimi

 

Iron Indian with lighted plastic nose. Sa-weet! How early-'50s can we get?
HAMBer Red3 posted this one from a bone yard trip in his home state of
coastal South Carolina. See more vintage tin on his June '09 thread,
"Wrecking yard pics."

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuaDEwqrGZ4&feature=related:):eek:
And the related clips are pretty good too!

 

THANKS, Frankie!!! Wow, takes a while to go through it all, but those are enjoyable sites!!!

 

Elevated...

 

mratt, GOOD one!

 

HAMBer Hasty of Winnipeg posted quite an array of GREAT pics from
one of the best-maintained modern day bone yards any of us will ever see.
The thread is simply called, Lots of cars: garden of steel. vvvxx If you
haven't seen this site, OR if junkyards usally give you the BLUES ... do
yourself a favor and take the virtual tour, via his great photos!!! WOW!


When was the last time you saw a Graham Sharknose in a bone yard???


WOW, just HOLY-WOW!


Yo! Merc fanatics! TURNPIKE CRUISER???


He must have 150 more GREAT PIX. This is a must-see thread (link at top).

 

uh, the first picture is a 1939 WILLYS Sedan, Not a shark nose Graham! Sorry, Bill

 

Good catch, Billy! THANKS!!!

 

Middletown, OH, Junkyard, 1950s

The fact that these cars were in relatively good shape in the 1950s
says to me that most had been maintained during WWII, since no new
cars were built for nearly four years. (People willing to sell a well-
running car in the war years was often said to ask "a war price"!) But
when new cars became available again after WWII, many of the pre-
war cars immediately became undesirable, often unsalable, except as
junk! My dad told of visiting a steel mill in Mansfield, Ohio, in the mid-
'50s and seeing a huge scrap-steel pile, composed of nothing but crank
shafts! Surely, most would have come from scrapped '20s and '30s
automobiles.

 

Hi Jimmy. I just spent the last couple of hours viewing and reading everyone's posts here. Excellent excellent thread. Very interesting. Thought-provoking. Poignant. A compelling illustration of time itself. A mirror of the human condition...being that the passage of time is one facet of life that we all share, like it or not. These cars are as mute ghosts...with the inability to share the stories of their history...and more importantly, the history and the journey of the people who were ferried about within these chariots of yester-year. We can only imagine. And we do imagine. I believe that's why pictures such as these are so popular. To those that care, and have a respect for so many that have come and gone before us, they speak volumes. And they evoke an acute realization...not only of the history of our country or our world as a whole, but also of our very personal histories, and those of the people we're close to. The meaningfulness is inherent, and runs deep. We see ourselves, our parents, our grandparents and more when looking at these pictures that you and the rest of the guys have shared. Of course, we here have a vested interest in these derelicts of the road. Hopes of discovering a treasure-forgotten, and the chance to bring it "back from the dead" so to speak, in order that it might help us to make our own history, to write our own story, is a dream we share. This all brings to mind a thought I've had for a while. I'm sure all of us realize that at the time these vintage photos were taken, not many people foresaw these cars becoming as valuable as they are to us today. I'm old enough to remember when a '40s or '50s model was considered as simply an old car. And so it goes. Ask almost anyone if they can imagine today's cars becoming collectible, and they'd more than likely say no...no way. But imagine a future when cars are powered exclusively by electricity or nuclear power or such, and all of a sudden any gas-powered car of the past becomes collectible. Think of a future when there are possibly no cars at all......then of course, anything on four wheels becomes an artifact! It's difficult to see now...but there will come a time, when even a 1985 Cavalier will be highly valued, let alone a '32 Ford, and there will be those bemoaning the fact that we scrapped as many as we did. Kinda strange, isn't it? Thanks to all who have contributed here. And Jimi, I just wanted to say that it's nice that you've hung around, and kind of steered the thread along. That helps to keep things on-track, and keeps it from veering off and becoming something other than what you intended. I think that I can speak for others here, that your continued presence helps us to feel that our posts are appreciated, and that we're not just talking to the wall. It's threads like these that make me happy and proud to be here. Good job. See you guys. - Rick

 

^^^^^^^^Well put!^^^^^^^^^

 

Shit! RickyBop is a GD philosopher! JUST MAYBE, one man on the planet has come close to VERBALIZING just WHY the hell we like going through junkyards -- AND why we miss the ones decades ago.

All I can say now is THANKS, Bopper! Well done.

This thread has represented a labor of love for me (Post #1). Though I was ALONE as a kid going through old-time junkyards, I have been gratified to find that I was ANYTHING but alone. My time communing with the spirits of all the human beings who'd designed, built and owned the thousands of cars I looked upon was really MIRRORED by the experiences of other Americans, Canadians -- now, I know, Europeans and Australians -- probably others, too !!!

Guys and gals, I won't get soapy here or belabor a point. I just want to THANK EVERYBODY (not just Frankie, who was on from the beginning, or Ricky, who just read the WHOLE damn thread for the first time!) who has SEARCHED every resource for these old, now treasured images of junkyard JEWELLS!!!
I think we've been able to take a "virtual tour" of maybe two-thirds of the states of the union, several Canadian provines and Sled's radius in Mexico -- as well as a trip or two to places like Switzerland and the former Yugoslavia.

I HOPE everybody enjoys these pix half as much as I have! THANKS again! You have been GRRRRREAT!!!!

 

Rick, dood! I read the rest of your post, and I am floored.

Before I started this HAMB thread, I'd chased all over the 'net searching for things LIKE I'd seen as a young guy -- but DIDN'T photograph. With the support of HAMBers, I set out to pull together, IN ONE PLACE, as many of these fast-disappearing junkyard images as I possibly could -- moreover, bringing it to ONE spot so that people wouldn't have to spend a month to get a FRACTION of this experience!

THANKS to the HAMB and ALL of you guys/gals who've searched up and posted pix, the job is, for the most part, KEEN -- though I doubt it will be done UNTIL all the old tin finally, totally rusts down to rejoin Mother Nature.

I appreciate that HAMBers have SEEMED to appreciate (or tolerate) the fact that I have plucked WONDERFUL shots from THEIR junkyard trips! Now that I am old and feeling my age, I couldn't walk all the FEW still-existing good vintage bone yards (even if I could afford the money to GO to them!).

With Ryan's and the other editors' permission and forbearance, I would like to re-post the 30 to 40 BEST photos from this thread -- in a straight succession -- as well as the good links folks have provided. As we all know: A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!

 

Hahahahahaha!!! I do go on, don't I? Thanks Jimi. Thanks Frankie. I like nice people...and you two, and the rest of ya...are nice people. It comes through. And there's nothin' better than sharin' neat stuff with nice people. Don't ya think? I've said it before, and I'll say it again...Before I found this place, (the H.A.M.B.) I felt pretty-much alone in my passion for our hobby. But not anymore!!! Hahahahahaha!!! I can relate to you guys - Rick

 

Yep, Rick, when your found the HAMB, you found de RIGHT PLACE !!!

 

Posted by New Mexico HAMBer DMW56 on the thread, "Old Tin found in Woods,bushes,behind a barn etc." He's an artful photographer! See
more of his abandoned-car & truck finds on that thread of 12-4-09.


New Mexico


New Mexico


New Mexico

 

'3 Chrysler 3W coupe remains in Oregon, shot by HAMBER 117Harv and
posted 12/4/09 on the thread, Old Tin found in Woods,bushes, behind
a barn etc. He found LOTS more cars! See the rest on that thread.



You don't have to be a Caddy lover to appreciate this fine, artful shot taken in
Illinois by HAMBer Gene@GearworksMfg and posted 12/4/09 on the thread,
Old Tin found in Woods,bushes,behind a barn etc.


Without argument, an irresistible shot taken in British Columbia by HAMBer
ALCANAV8 and posted on the thread Old Tin found in Woods,bushes,
behind a barn etc. on 12/5/09. He found a BUNCH more vintage tin.
See some more on that thread!

 

'59 Big-E from one of Stan's walkabouts!

 

Expanded LINKS to GREAT Virtual Junkyard Tours!

http://s760.photobucket.com/albums/x...in52/Junkyard/

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w...unk+car&m=text

http://community.webshots.com/user/novatattoo

http://www.shorpy.com/node/5719?size=_original <!-- / message -->

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=...ke&view=videos

http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/explore.php?page=all (search for automotive)

Wyn's Auto Wrecking, Los Angeles c.1930 (courtesy LAPL)

USC Digital Archives (type in 'auto graveyards' in search window)

http://www.kameraarbeiten.ch/galerie_autofr_start.htm

http://community.webshots.com/user/s...host=community

http://www.damnyankee.com/page1/page64/page64.html

http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/caps4/00289.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90msp...eature=related

www.ClassicCarsRotting.com

http://gs169.photobucket.com/groups/...8NTL5/?start=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXU3N9wT3u0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuaDE...=related:eek:

 

Alright, Frankie, Ricky & EVERYBODY who has piped up and said they enjoyed this thread, I have heard NO discouraging votes since I said what I said in Post #290. So, I'm taking it others AGREE it's time to do a clean SUMMARY of the "BEST of the Best Vintage Tin" pix from this thread!!! (There's also anupdated, expanded LIST of virtual junyard tours you can take this winter while cooped up indoors -- or COUPED up in the garage! LOL)

I'm not saying it's OVER. Maybe yes, maybe not (kinda suspect there WILL be more, at least occasionally). But IT HAS BEEN A TRIP, AND I THANK EVERYONE WHO'S VISITED OR CONTRIBUTED! Just shows HAMBbrothers & sisters are TOUCH when seeing old clasic warhorses put our to pasture. God bless! So, HERE are (my call here):

BEST of the Best Vintage Tin (1)


Vermont woods scene, 2009


Near Easton, PA (Source credit: Shorpy)


Milwaukee, Wisconsin

 

BEST of the Best Vintage Tin (2)


Nebraska. I'm no art critic, but the LIGHT is perfect here!


Earl Browing's junkyard, Harney Co., Oregon. I provided a link to the state
historical society, because you can buy a art-quality print from the original
negative. GREAT framed for the wall! And for a quality print, the prices are
very reasonable, too.


Winnipeg, Manitoba


Cherokee, NC

 

BEST of the Best Vintage Tin (3)


North of Bangor, Maine



Kansas City, MO


Texas

 

BEST of the Best Vintage Tin (4)

Southern California (AWESOME, BTW!)


Southwestern Ohio


New York in the Finger Lakes region


Alabama

 

BEST of the Best Vintage Tin (5)


California Sierra Nevada Ghost town, Brodie, CA


Iowa


Washington State


North Carolina