Hello all, I got some disturbing news this afternoon, and here's a little background....
Last year I was driving from Tampa to Columbus OH. I decided to bypass Atlanta and go through Athens, GA instead. I had a friend in Athens. The next morning I was heading up 441 out of Athens, it's a nice road through a beautiful part of Georgia. About 20 miles north of Athens, I see this huge hillside totally covered in old cars. Hundreds of them. From what I could tell, they were lined up nicely, and included cars from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and they looked like salvageable cars to me, or at least a treasure-trove of parts cars. There were Mopars, GMs, and Fords, anything you could imagine.
I could tell that access to the place wasn't off 441, and I was in a hurry to get up to Columbus, so I figured I'd return via 441 and see if I could find the access to the place and maybe check it out. That was last year, and I did not end up back on 441 to try and find the place. But I did some internet searches, and found a place called Smith Auto Salvage, sure enough on 441 north of Athens. So I figured this glorious hillside filled with old cars was Smith's place.
Fast-forward to summer of 2019, and I'm up in Columbus again, getting ready to head back to Tampa soon. Up in Columbus I bought a '67 Chrysler Newport "street find" and got the old beauty running. But it needs a power steering pump, so I decide to call Smith's Auto Salvage, assuming they probably have dozens of pumps for old Mopars dotting that hillside. I was thinking I'd finally stop by the place and hike the hill in junkyard heaven.
The guys at Smith's were very nice, but no, that beautiful hillside of old cars was not their yard, it was "the guy down the road". And they were sorry to tell me that just about 6 months ago, all those cars were crushed. All those cars, all those parts, dear God it makes no sense.
Last year I was driving from Tampa to Columbus OH. I decided to bypass Atlanta and go through Athens, GA instead. I had a friend in Athens. The next morning I was heading up 441 out of Athens, it's a nice road through a beautiful part of Georgia. About 20 miles north of Athens, I see this huge hillside totally covered in old cars. Hundreds of them. From what I could tell, they were lined up nicely, and included cars from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and they looked like salvageable cars to me, or at least a treasure-trove of parts cars. There were Mopars, GMs, and Fords, anything you could imagine.
I could tell that access to the place wasn't off 441, and I was in a hurry to get up to Columbus, so I figured I'd return via 441 and see if I could find the access to the place and maybe check it out. That was last year, and I did not end up back on 441 to try and find the place. But I did some internet searches, and found a place called Smith Auto Salvage, sure enough on 441 north of Athens. So I figured this glorious hillside filled with old cars was Smith's place.
Fast-forward to summer of 2019, and I'm up in Columbus again, getting ready to head back to Tampa soon. Up in Columbus I bought a '67 Chrysler Newport "street find" and got the old beauty running. But it needs a power steering pump, so I decide to call Smith's Auto Salvage, assuming they probably have dozens of pumps for old Mopars dotting that hillside. I was thinking I'd finally stop by the place and hike the hill in junkyard heaven.
The guys at Smith's were very nice, but no, that beautiful hillside of old cars was not their yard, it was "the guy down the road". And they were sorry to tell me that just about 6 months ago, all those cars were crushed. All those cars, all those parts, dear God it makes no sense.