Deere Graveyard

Years ago there was a small ancient independent gas station near where I worked, also run by a "cranky antisocial" old guy. The wooded property behind the station was littered with dozens of old 1930's era cars; all overgrown with weeds, one with a tree growing through its open hood.

I did ask the guy once about the possibility of looking them over & maybe buying one. He said no, as I expected, adding "they're all gonna be worth a lot of money for me someday".

Several years later, the station was closed, & I heard that the old guy had died. At some point, I drove by & there were bulldozers & bucket loaders crunching & pushing all of the cars out of the woods & loading them on flatbed trailers. Probably a common story.

stevedore said:

Years ago there was a small ancient independent gas station near where I worked, also run by a "cranky antisocial" old guy. The wooded property behind the station was littered with dozens of old 1930's era cars; all overgrown with weeds, one with a tree growing through its open hood.

I did ask the guy once about the possibility of looking them over & maybe buying one. He said no, as I expected, adding "they're all gonna be worth a lot of money for me someday".

Several years later, the station was closed, & I heard that the old guy had died. At some point, I drove by & there were bulldozers & bucket loaders crunching & pushing all of the cars out of the woods & loading them on flatbed trailers. Probably a common story.

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The kids probably inherited it...

stevedore said:

Years ago there was a small ancient independent gas station near where I worked, also run by a "cranky antisocial" old guy. The wooded property behind the station was littered with dozens of old 1930's era cars; all overgrown with weeds, one with a tree growing through its open hood.

I did ask the guy once about the possibility of looking them over & maybe buying one. He said no, as I expected, adding "they're all gonna be worth a lot of money for me someday".

Several years later, the station was closed, & I heard that the old guy had died. At some point, I drove by & there were bulldozers & bucket loaders crunching & pushing all of the cars out of the woods & loading them on flatbed trailers. Probably a common story.

Click to expand...

Stories like that are very common. Or they say im going to restore that someday while it sits in a field rotting into the ground. Eventually it rusts to nothing. Happens all the time. Collectors have a herd rotting away outside and when they die their kids have it all scrapped. I've seen it happen many times.

I'd save that 265. Mine has 3000+ hours and still runs fine. I just passed on one that was out in Ohio with 2600 hours in running condition with a 2 bagger. The one in Ohio looked garaged.

When I was at MDU I went to a walk in dentist. On my way a section of woods had been dozed. There were a bunch of big old 1920's Sedans with wooden spoke wheels. When I came back about 3 hours later all that was left was a big bare spot on the ground. They dug a hole and burried all of them. I was near tears when I told my room mate. He said he wondered why I wasn't laying in front of the dozer trying to save them. Turned out every car guy on campas knew about them but me. He said there were several Cadilacs, Packards and Olds. Old cars mean nothing compaired to new houses.

Jeff is outside said:

The kids probably inherited it...

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Me………..