I used to visit a old dump site on mount hood 30 years ago, used to be able to drive in. On the right hand side of the road was a quarry that has a gate, locked of course, a quarter mile in the road goes down left to the quarry where they shoot the hell out of everything, and a small road to the upper right area was a dump from the thirties, over a edge all the car bodies rolled to the bottom with fenders an such kinda stuck on the hill side half way, it was a hundred feet down at the most. The forest service cut a road halfway in the face of the hill to the Salmon river and berried a lot of cars. It was a hot spot for bottle diggers, I took out a pair of nice 1931 2 dr ford sedan quarters, a roadster cowl, there were coupe quarters and sedans. The road cut covered cars that you could sit in if you opened up the passenger door and slid over. I was there about 7 years ago and the road is a walking trail, the ferns have taken over, but you can still feel the cars parts under foot some still sticking up. If you are going up Hood after Brightwood but before you get to Wemme Oregon, Its called miller road now. If you are ever fishing the Salmon river or Hiking stop by there and take a look there might still be a few Cowls, rear tubs etc. I would not make a special trip, It might be gone now.
That's cool ! My dad and I used to quarry rock by hand when I was a kid at the end of Wildcat Mt. rd on Mt. Hood . There is another old dump site just south-west of Prineville Oregon with a ton of tin, it's off the top of the big hill as you are heading towards Redmond and goes down into the valley. about 22 years ago some friends and I dug some cool stuff including the rear half of a Model A coupe out of the dump west of Tonopah Nevada.
I spent a whole day digging out a Goodyear tire porcelain sign out near the top of this dump it was too long to fit in my truck came back a day and a half later it was shot full of holes and bent, on the lower road I drug out a couple of GM cowls and a touring body, it got to snowing so I had to wait a few days came back and yep gone. One car part buried by the road was a two door sedan dark blue with yellow accents not a GM or Ford it had a steel roof.
I know the area well as my wife's aunt lived off Miler rd. But I never knew the dump site even existed? Might have to take a drive there just for fun, and see if I can find it these days? Not that far from my place.
My daughter lives on the mountain (extreme snow boarder and hiker). I will have to ask her if she knows this place. This is her summiting the mountain with her board so her and her friends can ride back down. I don't know where this gene came from, milkman must have been an outdoorsman.
I well remember in the 60's, a place outside of Albany, where cars were pushed over the bank of the Calapooya River to try and stop erosion. This is/was just North of where Queen Ave crosses the river. I watched some guys roll a 46-48 Ford coupe on its side so they could get the rear axle out then pushed the body over the edge. Must have been 20-30 cars along there.
Maybe 10-15 miles east of Umatilla on the Columbia river there are a bunch of cars as erosion control. You can't see them from the highway, only by boat or knowing where where they are and clambering down the bank. Nothing good left though. For years I heard rumors from multiple people of a guy "out in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Oregon", who restored cars and then lined them up in a field to rot again, but I have never found it !!!
I know a guy about 10 miles from me that pulled a 1930/31 Model A coupe with a 392 Hemi out of a local river bed. Pulled the oil pan plug and out came the water . It’s yard art with the hemi still in it. Won’t sell the body .
My son and I are always on the lookout for old dump sites. We were told about quite a few sites that had cars but every one of them ended up a wild goose chase. One day a coworker said he knew where there were some cars and took me to the site. Sure enough there was iron! There were about 6 vehicles sitting off the side of a small section of road. One was a Dodge Power Wagon, I believe, fairly complete. The one I wanted was a Chevy COE pretty much complete minus the engine. My son and I went back 2-3 times and hauled parts out; it was about a 3 mile hike into the area, the access road had been washed out years ago. One day we went back and the area had been completely cleaned up, everything gone. What did they use a helicopter??!
I am currently chasing a couple here on the coast, they will be crusty critters, but a inside stream bank 30's 40's on their sides, and tri five hardtops shot and occasionally flooded all on farm land. I will get pictures so we can all shed a tear.
There used to be a few private yards in this area, mostly farmers that used vehicles until they were deemed too expensive to fix. They would drag them to the back of the property to rust in peace. A cousin of mine ran across a horde one time, mostly Buicks from the late 40's to late 50's, with a few others tossed in. I got a CJ2 jeep, a 26-27 T sedan, and a 36ish Ford truck cab and frame. There was also a bullet nosed Stude I wished I had of got. This was pre-internet days, so parts were hard to come by. The Jeep got scrapped as it was above my skills level at the time, I sold the T for $100, and traded the truck for a 48 Ford coupe that I later sold for $800 to some crazy guys from Wisconsin that came and picked it up on a trailer that was just barely long enough to haul it! Cousin sold most of the rest of it to a scrapper, although he kept some of the nailhead stuff. If I had of had the internet and the HAMB at the time, I'd made a fortune on Buick parts, as was, I only netted about $1000, still pretty good for stuff I only had time and gas money invested in....
The Jalopy Journal
