On The Hunt For Abandoned Vehicles III

I had a friend in high school who took his beat up Subaru to Rhode Island for a weekend of fun. He was never gentle with this car - in fact, this was the first car in my life I ever went airborne in - and at some point during that trip the thing just up and quit on him for good. After realizing he wasn't going to be driving it home, he pushed it to the side of the road, wrote "Free" on a piece of cardboard that he tucked under the windshield, then bummed his way all the way back to New Hampshire. I've always chuckled when thinking back on that story, and I've always been fascinated with abandoned cars I've come across in my explorations. And I wonder if any of them have as many interesting stories as my friend's old Subaru did.

Watch the side of the road while you're driving. Not exclusively of course, just keep an eye out for beauties such as this one, which I spotted while passing through the town of Nelson, New Hampshire. Even though I was in it, Nelson is a town I didn't even know existed until I plotted this picture on a map that night.

Powderhouse Hill is an ingenious little tow-rope skiing hill in South Berwick, Maine. Between its pulley system made out of tire rims, to its once being powered by an old truck, the entire operation seems to have been constructed out of parts from a junkyard. The engine has been upgraded over the years, but although this truck no longer drives the rope that will tow you up the hill, it still serves as a great reminder of the creativity of working on a very small budget.


Every summer we take our family to Ferndale Acres in Lee, New Hampshire. It's a fun little campground with swimming, fishing, a playground for the younger kids, and horseshoes and beer for the older ones. Recently we were driving down its mile-long entrance road when I spotted something out in the woods, something I'd missed on our first dozen years of coming here. The next morning while the kids were riding their bikes I convinced my wife to talk a walk, and in those woods we found a pair of abandoned vehicles. The amount this one has sunken into the ground will give you an idea of just how long it's been rusting away out here.

If you're of the same generation I am, you may remember the Home Improvement episode where Tim dropped a beam on his wife's car, turning it into a giant hot dog bun. Something very similar to that happened to this second car. I assume it was a large tree that crashed down on it, but then where did it go? Being so far in the woods, it doesn't make sense that someone would have cut it up and removed it. So did the tree rot away to nothing, or did the car get crushed somewhere else and then dragged out here to be left?

We drove to Washington New Hampshire two years ago in search of Captain Jones' grave for his leg, which he lost to amputation following an accident moving a barn. But although that was our mission, anytime we're in a new town is an opportunity to drive new back roads. We spotted this truck while in the midst of that wandering, and through the snow I trudged to get this picture.

This vehicle I spotted from the passenger seat while my wife was driving through Ogunquit, Maine. It sat perhaps 50 yards down a trail that could almost have been a dirt road once. My wife is a great sport, because I once again convinced her to turn the car around and take another walk through the woods.

This last vehicle is one of my favorites. After watching a YouTube video where a guy explored an abandoned garage and found this circus looking car in the basement, it wasn't long before I'd located the place on Google Earth and set out to find it myself. I tore my jeans climbing through the window, but that was a small price to pay in order to get this picture.

On The Hunt For Abandoned Vehicles
On The Hunt For Abandoned Vehicles II