This month's Car and Driver magazine has an article on the ultimate hoarder. A guy named Merkel has about 1200 cars stashed on a hillside in a secret location in Southern California. It's part of an 80 acre "art installation" he calls "Car Garden" a "deliberate ruin, a cultural time capsule of sorts," he describes, "a celebration of Southern California auto culture intended for the study and enjoyment of generations to come". Mind you this is in a secret remote location and he had the magazine promise not to disclose it. In order to not have to license the property as a salvage operation or register all the cars, he had to promise the state that none of the cars, or any parts of them, will ever leave the site. Many have sunk up to the door handles in the 20 years they've been there, and about 100 were burned up in a brush fire. Tom Merkel and his family are heirs to the White truck fortune and hoarding runs in the family. His brother Ben has a stash of Checker cabs in Middlefield, Ohio and brother Henry has about 30 steam cars. Their father owned a scrap yard and their mother collected African art which is now on display at the Seattle Art Museum.
Before anyone gets worked up over this what vintage are these cars? There was a guy in France with a lot of Bugattis and other high end cars that were covered in moss and rotting away. Automobile Quarterly did a feature on them. They finally were sold off and are under restoration now.
The cars are 1930s-1970s. All solid, SoCal cars. There's a picture that I tried to upload of a very nice '56 Nomad with "California patina" (original paint with light surface rust showing through), sunk up to its axles, a '41 Olds, and the article mentioned an E-type Jag, a Porsche 356 and a few Austin Healys. The car up to its door handles looks to be a '70 Cadillac, and there's quite a few trucks and buses including a 50's GM city bus and a 50 GMC shorty school bus. A bunch of Corvairs, a 59 chevy wagon that the brushfire got, a bunch of hearses, a Lincold Zepher sedan, a shitload of 62-64 GM coupes, a batch of 25 '58 chevy sedans and wagons that were courtesy cars at the Santa Ynez airport, and of all things a WGBH Boston television production van. All rust free.
WTF is up with people like that?! They'll never build 'em! Let someone else who can enjoy them have them. If they really cared about the "history" of the cars they would give them to people who can preserve them. You get the worst cases of this over here on the east coast. People are defiantly holding on to their prised rust bombs and if you can get a hold of one, you'll pay for it. .......just had to vent -Dean
Yea, he could post all of them here on the HAMB calssifieds and 100 guys would tell him how cool they would be dropped with (fill in the blank) motor but they are too far away, or that money is tight right now. Let them sit and be Yard Art. In another 20 years someone that really cares might come across them and actualy do something with them. Imanigin the thrill of hiking over the hills and stumbling upon these cars in 20 years, unmolested in a natural state! Might be the only ones left by then. Gene
Well said, my friend. There's plenty of cars out there right now to play with. Let's leave a couple of "secret stash"s out there for the future. They're in California, they won't waste away too fast.
SOOOO ah Muttley...please tell us how you really feel!! ROFLMAO!!!!!! Seriously this guy does not care about the "history" of cars,he just likes to say he has em all!! Just like the guys that say " nope aint fer sale" or "Im gonna fixerup ...someday". The state will charge him $$$$ if he sells any of it cause he will be running a salvage yard,and he has plenty of $$ is sounds like BUT he wont give any of it away to someone who DOES care about cars. I also feel what 50dodge is saying also,most who really care dont have the flow to buy the cool shit...............................
Man, I'm telling you, leave em sit. When the old geiser dies and his kids have to do something with them, they may find good homes. Between now and then, they are pretty safe resting in so Ca. The Gov can't screw with em because they are Art. Once the old man dies the kids can probably sell off the old mans Art without much hassels, then the gov will be happy, the tree huggers will be happy, some hot rod people will be happy, and the kids will be happy because they cashed in on the old man so they can buy more stuff. If the issue gets forced now, the gov and the tree huggers will win, and all will probably be crushed. The old man probably can't do anything now, even if he wanted to. Maybe the concept of saving it for the future generations was the exact intensions. Let them sit, it's ART. Gene
My room mate has the same illness.At our house resides a 61 fury two door hard top,61 savoy two door post,60 falcon with a 260 4 spd combo and various other interesting things he won't lift a finger to save.Right now there is a 2.02 1.60 head laying in the drive way and the other is laying in the garage.They had less than 2500 miles on them when he got them.Then there's the 354 hemi that used to be a runner that now sounds like a water barrel.I hate him
what a dick. sounds like hes the same sort of guy that would drain the oil out of a 426 hemi and run it til it blows, just to see how long it takes. i put this guy up there with other sickos who like to beat their wives and dogs.
hes not an old man... i raed that the other day while waiting for a haircut. all i could think of is how bad i wanted to kill that freak!!! what a waste. if that is art, then the hamb is the smithstonian. the guy is such a deranged dickhead you should all read the story for the hell of it..
ART, Fart, my ass!! I argue about things like this all the time with my wife, who by the way has an Art degree from OU, and thought the bed sheets that Christo hung in Central Park were art. Used to have an old man down by Shawnee, OK who had a collection of Harleys and Indians he wouldn't turn loose of. He died, thay all disappeared. It's just a cryin' shame!!!
I bet the city or county has a record of who owns what property, a natural part of the automobile deterioration process is parts will fall off and disappear....
No one likes to see a good car go to waste, but these post crack me up. They are his and he can do what he wants with them. Just as you and I can take a antique or collectible and cut it up into whatever rolling art we want.
Nothing is antique or collectable unless there's a small supply. If there are enough of these guys out there my 4 door Impala will be worth.... a hundred million trillion gazillion dollurs !!!!!(insert Dr. Evil laugh here)
Cracks me up how one thread will be something like; "There oughta be a law that says this guy shouldn't be allowed to just let all these cool cars go to waste in his back yard!" and the next thread says; "Why doesn't the government and my nosey neighbors mind their own damn business about the bunch of old cars I have "stored" in my back yard?" You should be more worried about China now having enough capital to try to BUY up and control Corporate Amerika... (You do read about current events, don't you?") (But I don't own or control Corporate Amerika either so should I care?)
i just hope they do someday go to good homes and not get crushed to build some bridge in China or be let to turn to firtilizer. i would like to see this place, or at least an arial (or satelite) photo.
I agree, but still.... it's the 'you always seem to want what you can't have' syndrome . That's why the waitress is the sexiest woman in the strip club.... geez am I sick or what...
HE bought them, he can do what he wants with them, but what kind of ass makes the comment "But does the world need yet another restored E-type, 356, Healey, or Nomad?". The reporter is an idiot.
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