Skip to main content

The Iron That Helped Build America - Part 1

About a mile north of Emerald City on Route 67 is a boneyard of old heavy iron machinery.  It is at the location of a junkyard that at one time when we were kids probably occupied maybe a couple hundred acres of old cars.  It was haunting back then - thousands of junk Packards, Dodges and Chevy's and, who knows, maybe even some Lincolns, Caddies and few trucks sprinkled in for good measure.  At some point they stopped allowing folks to go in and look for parts - the looming shadow of litigation, no doubt.  

Then the EPA got involved and shut down hundreds of old cool junkyards across the country.  I used to subscribe to Cars & Parts magazine that featured a different boneyard each month.  Here, all the cars are gone but for some reason they kept some old road graders, bulldozers and other equipment, and turned it into a drive-thru museum of sorts.  Some of it is over a hundred years old and on some they have signs giving information.  There are one-of-a-kind items here and why they are rotting in the elements instead of being restored is a question.  

















This one of my lazy posts.  I wasn't motivated to get any particular information on these old relics - didn't really care what brand or company since I wasn't really into whatever these things did.  Actually for me the true beauty of these things is how they look now: the patina of age.  The evolution of machine. 

Time has been good to these heavy laboring tools.  They may no longer grade roads, move hills or plow fields, but they are still here while most of their contemporaries have long since vanished.  And here to see new sunsets everyday.  More than likely they will be here after I have seen my last. 

Comments

  1. Oh the things we built to build America. Where did we go off the rails? Great pictures.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...

Flashback Friday - Cold Case - Part One

53 years ago today, Gordon "Peel" Duncan walked into the dark post office in Seaton Illinois and was brutally assaulted by an individual or individuals.  He died two days later.  The murder was never solved.     Gordon Duncan was one of the publishers of the Seaton Independent, a weekly newspaper in town that started in the late 1800's and stopped publishing in the 60's.     We  boys were just young children when this took place, but we have been fascinated by it ever since.  The imagination of kids, I suppose or maybe the fact that it was unsolved.  Regardless, this was a big deal in our little lives.  For our parents it tended to shatter the idea that Seaton, our town, was safe.  That it could fend off the forces of evil in the world, that in our little universe we would be impervious to harm was gone forever.  For us kids I don't suppose we were old enough to know real fear.  Fear for us was not getting our list ...