History Old Time Junk Yard Photos PIX 1920 to 1970

Joe, these shots are FANTASTIC, man. Where in the world did you come by them? Just awesome!

 

Kansas City public Library

http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/explore.php?page=all

Just search for automotive

 

WickedGoodRodder posted another cool "artsy-fartsy" shot of VT up at Bishops in Maine on Gigantor's ALERT thread "Heads Up Mainers! BAD
NEWS!" Hopefully as many guys can get there ASAP while there's still
time to rescue some stuff. These 80-year-old cars won't be around for-
ever. Studying the details in GoodRodder's pictures makes a guy feel as
he's RIGHT THERE already! Good shootin', man!

 

These were posted before on here but they are good shots. I especially like the sign junkyard.

 

There has been a flurry of news on the HAMB in just the past few days about big
changes happening at a VERY old bone yard called BISHOP's, apparently north
of Bangor Maine in Penobscot County. It's reportedly just outside of a town called
LaGrange, roughly between the towns of Ellsworth and Hudson, if you study the
Maine map. If you can locate LaGrange, one HAMBer said the yard is on the on
the right side of the forest road, just a mile or two north of the LaGrange Fire House.

For further reference as to the HUNDREDS of '20s to '40s cars in the yard, AS WELL
AS contact guys who live in that area, SEE these recent threads:

"Heads Up Mainers! Bad News!"
"Crushing News"
"Circle of Life"

 

Anybody remember the KING automobile? At one time, they were a MAJOR U.S. brand, built by Charles Brady King. Among other things, King and Cadillac were just DAYS apart in introducing the first U.S. V-8 engines. Here are three KINGs, rescued from ol' boneyards.


1915 KING Model D touring in junkyard (got restored!)


1916 KING Model EE


1917 KING Model EE

 

HAMBer Artiep posted this appealing shot on a thread
called "Barn Finds . . Why Would Ya?" on Sept. 23. Said
he shot it on a drive through Burlington Co., NJ, adding:
"They're still OUT THERE!"

 

i have lurked around this site on and off for a little while now. a friend just linked me to this thread and i thought it was about time i sign up and share some photos. I'm an automotive photographer in my spare time and I am working on a personal project of shooting as many old junkers as i can find before they are all scrapped. I love the history behind all these old cars and personally think these old yards should be preserved, not crushed.

anyway, feel free to browse my collection, its not big yet but it will keep growing.

http://www.dslocum-photography.com/Automotive/Grave-Yard/7609186_8W9fP#492007537_oGoWP

 

nvr2low, man, I'm with you on the history. When one really bothers to look at the development of the automobile over about a century, he/she can't help but realize how quickly design and technology CHANGED. And, the cars Americans DROVE (directly or indirectly, sometimes BOTH) MIRRORS the mood of society as a whole, during each succeeding era.

THEN, there's the personal history of the individuals, couples, families who bought each and every car, spanking new, and actually made them a PART of their daily lives and, often, used them as a veritable extension of their own personalities, hopes, dreams.

I am glad that you are young enough to have the energy to pursue your photo project. Though I LOVED roaming junkyards when they were great in the '60s and '70s, I NEVER thought to take a camera, and now I can only regret. BUT, after searching everywhere for old junkyard and abandoned-car pix, it hit me to start this thread and, hopefully, make it a TON easier and more pleasant for guys and gals to take a "tour" of oldies scattered all across North America.

Best of luck in your work. Enjoy the "ride" along the way! -- Jimi

 

Judging from a plethora of coffee table books full of color photos of America's "Vintage Tin," rusting in bone yards, farm fields and woods, that seems to explain why people have looked at this HAMB thread over 6,000 times and posted a hundred times. But almost nobody has gone to the top of the page and voted a numerical rating! Help this thing along, folks. If we show blue stars on one of the main pages, maybe even more HAMBers will view the thread AND dig up pix of their own -- we've seen some RARE ones come out. Wouldn't ya like to see more??? Takes a second to vote a thread rating.

 

Florida HAMBer 5WCoupeHunter just posted this
sweet 5W (0/14/09) in a post about an auction
upcoming. Thread: "Who's looking for old cars?
Look here"

 

"Old Time Photos of Junkyards"

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

 

Carl, man! I am again blown away by pix going back some 80 years!!!

What an operation Wyn's must have been. When you see all of those cars neatly lined up, WAITING to be destroyed, it's easy to believe the TIME Magazine report from 1930 that old U.S. cars were being junked at the rate of ONE MILLION PER YEAR!!!

Carl, any MORE pix from that trove you drew upon? Thanks again!

 

thanks, i could only wish i was around to see those yards in their prime! I now have a hard time finding much more than scraps in the local yards now over run by cars from the 80's and later that have no character. To me there is just something cool about stumbling on to an old car, or group of old cars and imagining the history behind where its been.

 

HAMBer "Utah Dodge" just posted this pic TODAY (10/16/09) on
his thread, "Carnage - check out this car graveyard!!" SAD AND
ARTISTIC ALL AT ONCE! He's a GOOD photographer, no? He may
be a newbie, but he's a HAMBer, through and through. The dump
was/is in a canyon on the Bear River in southern Idaho. GO check
out his photobucket! Over 150 shots, wow. You can spend a couple
of HOURS ogling the old VT, guys! THANKS, Utah Dodge!

 

Here's a few more from The USC Archives
(Main St and 15th was where to go to get parts for your hot rod)
link:
go to USC Digital Archives and type in 'auto graveyards' in search window

 

Oh! - My - God! Carl, I have NEVER been in a junkyard THAT well organized!!!

And, HELL! If it were still like that today, I'd have to take my camping gear, 'cause I wouldn't come back for a WEEK! LOL

 

cool

 

I could just live in there and be happy for the rest of my life.....

 

"Poor, RARE RODDER! When I came back from MY week-long camping trip in the Time-Warp boneyard, I had to leave 'Rodder' behind. But he'll be OK, folks! He looked VERY, VERY happy!"

 

Here's a lonesome Hernando DeSoto sitting in a junkyard
either in Ohio. This quite artful (quite POIGNANT, in fact!)
photo was taken by HAMBer CornGrower32 of "CinciNasty"
and first posted 12/21/08 on his thread, "SECRET JUNK
YARD TOUR with lots of pics. Car's back to the 30's."
Check his thread out! Fun virtual tour, but frustrating 'cause
owner won't sell crap! (Even in this shape, these '50/'51
illuminated hood ornaments bring $75 and UP nowadays.)

 

HAMBer Spook498 of LeMoore, CA, posted this junkyard shot
of a '39/'40 Chevy panel truck on another thread titled "Re: Old
Milk,Bread,Panel Delivery trucks."

 

Thomas Bruce (online persona, "TRBPix") of Ithaca, NY, shot
this great artistic view of a bullet nose Studebaker in a large
"back-country junkyard" near Trumansburg, NY. This shot is
part of his rich and varied photo stream on Flickr. Besides being a talented photograher, Thomas Bruce is also an educator at
Cornell University, Ithaca. If someone wishes to contact
Thomas, perhaps he'd sell a print of this image for framing.
Worth a try! (http://www.law.cornell.edu/) Thanks! to
HAMB member "Buildy" for the Flickr suggestion!

 

From the bowels of NJ...

 

More from same NJ location...

 

The photos I posted were all from one man's yard that closed to the public in 1959. Most cars were complete and not picked thru. 99% of the cars were sold off just a couple years ago to one buyer. Who bought them all?? See buyer in next photo.

 

IsettaJohn, this is enough to make
a grown man cry. First the GREAT
pix you got of the virtually UNDIS-
TURBED oldies! THEN, seeing how
all that quickly ENDED!!!! I can only
imagine how it must have saddened
YOU to see such a special, unique
place disappear, friend! Sigh. -- Jimi

 

Yes Jimi, it was disturbing. First of all the old man was one of those people who wouldn't sell anything to 99% of the people who asked. This yard was behind his gas station and he let no one in. These photos were taken on Sundays, the only time he wasn't there and you could sneek in and see the treasures behind the walls of junk. I have way more photos I took during all the seasons. In the end the guy was going into a nursing home and there was something that he couldn't own anything except his suitcase of clothes or some sort of thing and the family had 2 weeks to dispose of it all. Those who came by over the decades and heard of the crushing did save a handfull of cars but most were not. I pretty much found out near the very end from someone who happened to drive by and kinew I went there.

 

Yeah, man. SOUNDS like the old man actually CARED about all those cars (even if it was, at best, a sort of antique automotive "art park"). I just went and stopped by my FAVE junkyard from when I was 17 or 18 last weekend. I wasn't surprised to see that the old man had died, and ALL the cars from the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s were GONE. They were replaced with well-kept woods and mowed areas.

Yes, I UNDERSTAND the realities, BUT it is still SAD, Sad, sad.


BTW, how MANY cars would you estimate were in this yard?

 

Here's a link to my "Junkyard In The Woods" album. The album was created Dec 3, 2001, on a beautiful Central Michigan day. Last heard the place is closed. Have a look.
Bob