The Russian River here in N. California has lots of old cars along certain sections. I've paddled a canoe through the Guerneville and Monte Rio stretch and found a bunch including a 55/56 T-bird. I haven't been back for a long time but they are probably still there.
That was from a time when scrap iron had no value, and a 15 year old car had as much value then as a 15 year old computer does now. My dad and his buddies had a favorite ravine they used as a dumping ground for wrecks they had, back in the mid 60s to mid 70s. It got filled in in the 80s and became a housing development.... Cool pictures, thanks for posting
there are alot of cars around here used in the same way. My friends and I make a game out of walking the rivers when the waters low. We pull what ever trim we can, one friend scored a complete grill and bumber for a 50 chevy that was nice enough to bolt right on his car. fun to try to identify some of the cars that are upside down.
The railroads around here used to dump cars along the river all the time. I know of several places wehre there are a lot of 30's- 50's cars and pieces. I have a buddy who built a "river car" out of several pieces of different model a's.
Back in the 60's, when they would shut off the water to the irrigation ditches every year around Fresno, Lot's of stolen stripped cars would show up. That's a "Speck " of history.
Love the pix of the VW salvage, you should go to Greenland and look for planes! Dumping cars in the river must have been a midwestern, western thing. I don't recall ever seeing that back in NC. There, you just pushed them down a hill or left them. It's not uncommon to find cars in thick woods there where farmland got overgrown.
my dad says there are a couple of 50 something model cars buried in the backyard. He said he put them there in the early 70's
That Life photo's pretty cool. I can imagine the caption "New life for old wrecks" or something like that. Can you imagine this group coming across that pile today? Most of them look like they were in pretty good shape, just old used cars at the time.
Three thoughts come to mind: (1) Very nice pics! I was also thinking that there's a calendar project in those. (2) How many people downstream from that Life shot suddenly noticed that their fish started tasting "funny". (3) I wonder how many tree-hugger types are looking at these and starting to write that letter demanding that all those engines be pulled so "the oil doesn't pollute our pristine rivers and lakes." Ummm...I think it's too late!
My uncle did the same thing when he was cleaning up the old homestead. Took a big bulldozer, dug a big hole and push a 53 and a 59 chevy, 2 30's Moline tractors and a small house in. Covered it up and built a new house over it. Both chevys were 4 doors, we stole the ft clips and all good trim first. They had sat there for years on their roofs, seems my cousin didn't have a hoist, he'd unbolt the motors, the roll the car over with a tractor so the motor would fall out!
My brother was working in central Illinois and sent me some pics of a river bank and it was made out of hundreds of 30's-60's cars and trucks. He was told it was cheap fill for making the river banks. Pretty cool but very sad at the same time.
That reminds me of the Bighorn in Montana, 50s cars placed on the outside of the meander to prevent further erosion.
At one time in the early 70's my dad said him and his brother had 27 cars they did not want. They were from the 40's and 50's. At that time you could sell a car frame engine and the heavy iron. No one would buy the bodies. They offered them all for free to get someone to take them but no one would. They drug some in the woods and suck. He said a buddy had a backhoe so they buried a few of the bodies for the hell of it. The cars would have been used as barriers because at that time no one would want them so they could get them for cheap or free and they would make a decent barrier
They are good pics, I thought "calendar" when I was looking at the thumbs, probably because of the way the pics were laid out. It's funny to think these cars have been submersed over and over again and still faired better than that Plymouth they buried in Texas.
__________________________________________________________________ Sorry to say, but the 1957 Plymouth that was buried in the vault was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was wrapped in plastic and sealed in concrete. I think the river would have been more gentle. Having said that, I think a calendar would be cool.
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