A few weeks ago, I pictorially recounted a trip to an old Mid-Michigan junkyard that had been purchased by another yard and was forever closing its doors. The cost of scrap and its vagaries, however, led to a reprieve that allowed me to take another turn through the old relics and enjoy such yard art as this early Corvair sedan and its “flying wing” roofline. Since way leads on to way and it’s unlikely I will darken that junkyard’s door again, please enjoy another group of pictures from that autumn afternoon.
This is a nice scene with a morning sun.
Here I am, surveying some Corvairs.
The unmistakable trim of a ’58 Oldsmobile
There’s some solace in knowing that the floors were likely gone when the car arrived.
Here are some more early Corvairs. Corvair values are low, but quite a few have survived anyway.
Garber is a longtime Buick dealer in Saginaw, MI. It’s still in business today.
This ’51 Buick looks even angrier than normal.
This Buick Roadmaster has the new-for-’53 Nailhead, as evidenced by its hood ornament.
This ’50-’53 Cadillac looks like a 60 Special.
Here’s a six-window Chrysler.
Check out the “Superbird” stenciling.
1956 Plymouth
1960 Plymouth
’61 Dodge Dart
Mopar Fastbacks
This is my favorite picture of the trip; I believe my wife took it.
More Mopars
This ’53 Oldsmobile has had a rough go of it.
Sad thing was a lot of parts lost to a lack of taking care of them. There is a yard like this down by me that has been in the same family for longer than I have been alive. They keep every thing up off the ground and weed eat all the grass down, some stuff is even under car port coverage.
I’d love to have the time to spend there just salvaging miscellaneous emblems and trim pieces. There’s not much worth trying to save otherwise, but I have a “thing” for the little odds and ends that often go unnoticed when part of the whole.
My favorite is the ’58 Oldsmobile photo. I added it to my Google Photos collection. It has a time stamp of Saturday, September 26th, 2015 at 9:08 AM.
Here’s another one I didn’t include.
Picture #24 looks like a black toaster.
I recall as a very young kid being somewhere in the upper half of New York maybe around 1959 with parents and relatives. I also recall a copperhead being found around where we were to which I said “what is that” curiously. Well today I know more and when I saw all those cars laying around in heavy brush I thought of snakes and do I want to go into them. Fortunately it seems Michigan has only one poisonous snake which happens to be very shy around humans.
Great to see this—so different from the Cali/AZ yards, etc.
Your comment about the 1930s Ford truck anticipated my question: what percentage of these, would you suppose, were *driven* (rather than pushed/towed) to their resting place?
Honestly, I’d say most of them did, unless they were involved in accidents. Rust seems to have gotten most of them.
I’m thinking that the owner became incapacitated and was no longer able to maintain the yard
I’d agree. He was quite old when I visited the first time in the ’90s, and he didn’t seem to get around well.
Nice photos.
When the last car was pushed into that yard it was an empty lot. Nature!
I got a very slight pang when I saw the 1956 Plymouth since I had a couple decades old one once. The junkyard one was only a flathead six though according to the trunk emblem.
Got any photos of that ’56 Plymouth? Want to see. Please.
The Barracuda glass must be worth a small fortune if it’s intact.
Came here to say the exact same thing!! 🙂
Me too! And while we’re quoting poetry: to paraphrase Carl Sandburg…”I am the weeds. I cover all.”
I was trying to figure out that convertible in the 2nd picture, and finally decided on 65-66 Oldsmobile. It is amazing how much information would be contained in that little area at the top of the vent window if it had not been covered by the seat cushion.
My other thought is that all of those fastback Barracudas had intact rear windows – those might have been worth buying and storing.
Every time I see a junkyard car like these, I always wonder what was that one last failure that finally broke the camel’s back, causing the owner to say “that’s it, I’m through.”
Great shots! I’ve often wondered beyond the obvious such as the land becoming more valuable or high market prices. What drives a Salvage Yard to sell out? Are they proactive in selling the lot or do they wait for a salvage buyer to come to them based on market demand?
Thanks for taking the time to capture these images. Great to see all this old iron, but sad at the same time for all these derelict cars. That land would take some kind of remediation to turn it from a brownfield into usable land again. Must be quite a large property.
My guess would be environmental regulations of some kind. “Get this stuff out of here, or face $$$ in fines”.
I wish I knew more about how the sale of the yard went down; another local yard bought it, presumably for the purposes of scrapping out. The last time I drove by a couple of years ago, it didn’t look like anything had been done to the property.
The Corvair pics make me sad.. Big time Corvair fan here. The mid 60’s Barracuda’s rotting away are equally dismal..
Great pics… I always loved stumbling across a rural junkyard that was accessible and the fun of discovery, and then a memory of the vehicle in better condition through personal experience or advertisements. For some reason the photo captioned 1970 or 71 Torino GT looks more like a 1966 Galaxie coupe to me. The squared rear fenders and script across made me think of it?
Thanks…regarding the picture, I was referring to the yellow car in front of the Galaxie. It does look like the Galaxie is a ’66.
Nice pictures, they bring back many memories .
Some are really bittersweet, cranky old guys who didn’t want to sell anything, just let thousands of vehicles and parts go to wa$te .
I love that ‘Barrelnose’ Ford, maybe a ’37 by the wheels ? .
I thought the barrel nose was in ’38 but those wheels were a ’37 thing IIRC .
-Nate
The grille certainly looks like a ’38, but a lot can happen over the years. I don’t know those trucks well enough to comment on specific parts.