I like old stuff, used stuff, cheap stuff, and fixer-upper stuff. I have an old house that I’m constantly fixing up. I know that one of its former owners died in the room where I sleep now (natural causes), but that’s just part of its history, and I sure wouldn't hold it against the place. In fact, I love the idea of inanimate objects having a story or having lived some kind of a life through their presence in the lives of others. That’s why I love used cars -the older the better! Of course, used stuff is best when it’s been maintained and cared for over its years. Sometimes though, you get fixer uppers, and sometimes, stuff is just plain dilapidated. So, instead of shiny, new toys, we’re going to use today’s post to explore decay and ruins.
I started thinking about this just last week. I volunteered to spend Saturday morning as part of a search party that was going to pick its way through gridded sections of Theo Wirth Park here in Minneapolis in search of a woman who was missing for about a month and was believed to have hiked off into Wirth Park, as she apparently, often did. I’m pretty familiar with several sections of the park, because it’s one of the places that Pavlov and I like to hike in our urban adventures. Those of you who read the graffiti post have already seen some of the sights that one can see while following the train tracks through the park, in fact.
The good news of the situation is that the missing woman was found in the woods near the railroad tracks that Pavlov and I like to explore just a couple days before the organized search of the park was to take place. The bad news is that she was found dead of an apparent suicide. I didn’t know her and never met her, but the fact that she liked to hike around and explore the same areas that I like to made me feel some commonality with her, so I feel badly about what she decided to do with herself. Now that trail along the rail road tracks is just a bit more haunted than it was before, I suppose. But I bring this up, because when I was considering the theme of today’s post: run down, decrepit, haunted things, there was one towering form that immediately sprung to mind.
This massive, marred, crumbling leviathan is the Fruen Mill, and it can be found by following along the tracks, past the graffiti from the previous post, beyond the area where the missing woman was found, and down toward the Bryn Mawr neighborhood.
The Fruen Mill sits along Bassett Creek, and has been standing upon this site in various forms (the original mill burned down in 1920) since 1894. There have been rebuilds and updates since then, clearly, but eventually, it ceased to function as a mill and has sat, a vacant and lonely colossus, ever since. The mill is a dangerous and haunted place to be. It is falling apart, boarded up, and slathered with “do not trespass” signs. All of this only seems to make the structure that much more appealing for urban explorers, at least one of whom has died in the mill, and at least a couple of whom have sustained injuries from falls of several stories in height inside the mill over the years. There’s talk of turning it into luxury condos, and in Bryn Mawr, with it’s not-quite-really-technically-Northside status and its proximity to the lakes just a bit further South, there would probably be a good market for it… but access to the mill, or rather, the lack thereof (unless traveling by rail road) seems to be an issue.
The thing about the Fruen Mill, and the thing about the cars we’re going to look at today is that, while they’ve all been left to sit and rot, they’ve got yet another thing in common. They all have their tales, which, by and large, have been lost to the passing of time save but for a few shreds and documents here and there. If the Fruen Mill could speak, what would it say of its days of working and the people who made their living within its walls. What could it tell us about the passing seasons it has endured and its slow descent into decrepitude? Of the many adventurous souls who have dared to breach its boarded doors to explore it, or of their fates within its shadowy and deteriorating walls? What would today’s cars have to say about where they came from and the places they’ve traveled to, or the people who have traveled within them? We probably will never know, but at least we can have a poke around at them.
Let’s start with this row of Chevy sedans I found several months ago outside of a garage in a small Iowa town. There was nobody at the garage for me to talk to aside from a very large Rottweiler who was barking at me from inside the building. These are 1960-61 Chevy cars, and the ones with three tail light lenses are Impalas, whereas the ones that look nearly identical but only have two tail light lenses are Bel Airs. The Bel Air will likely have a 235 cubic inch inline 6 cylinder engine with 135 HP and 217 lb-ft of torque. Optional would have been a 283 V8 with 170 HP and 275 lb-ft of torque.
Our Sea Mist Turquoise ‘61 Impala in the foreground of the photo below could have that “Hi-Thrift” inline 6 that was mentioned or even a “Super Turbo Thrust Special” 348 cubic inch V8 with 280 HP and 355 lb-ft of torque, if it’s something special. But, we’ll never know, or at least I won’t because I lack the proper Impala specialization to know if there are any giveaways visible here to indicate what’s what -and like I said, there was nobody at the garage to ask about it.
All these cars appeared to have been sitting in their spaces for quite a while judging by the vegetation growing up between the cracks in the pavement around them, but very little to none in the cracks under the cars where no sunlight can reach. My guess would be that the person who owns these cars is planning on using them or parts from some of them to build up one or two back to an approximation of their original glory. I’m not sure which ones in particular would be the donor cars, but my guess would be that the owner would prefer an Impala over a Bel Air. These four old gals, if they could, might regale us with stories of family trips to the State Fair, rides to church on Sundays, and adventures that may have even taken them away from the small town in which they sit now, and out of the state of Iowa all together.
Next up we have a well-worn 1950 Studebaker 2R series truck in green (with some rust coloration), carrying the remnants of what I’m guessing is a 1934 Chevy pick up truck. Neither truck looks particularly functional, but at least one could hook a tow strap to the Studebaker to move both of them around.
The 1950 Studebaker truck originally had a 170 cubic inch I6 and made 80 HP or could be had with a 245 cubic inch I6 with 102 HP, whereas its piggybacking buddy, the 1934 Chevy originally had a 207 cubic inch I6 that made 60 HP. Both of these old timers were sitting in the same lot as the quartet of early 60’s Chevy sedans we just looked at. Who knows what plans await these trucks, if any at all? Rusting away in small town Iowa, it would be safe to assume that the stories these trucks could tell might center around working on a farm and hauling things to the local market.
We trek out to a metal scrap yard in North Central Iowa for our next finds -My dad directed me to these, having spotted them when he was dropping off some metal and scraps he was clearing out of his garage.
Here, we have a Willys Jeep truck. I can’t peg the year on this, but would guess it could be a 1954, which would put a 3.7L inline 6 cylinder under its hood along with 115 HP and 190 lb-ft of torque. This Jeep also had company of its same make and model hanging around in the ditch near the field overlooking the scrap yard where I found it. The guys at the scrap yard do have plans for this one and its comrades, though. They are going to use the other Jeep trucks as donors to build this one up and restore it. The time frame seemed rather loose, so it’s probably not going to happen soon, but at least there’s some promise of bringing the Jeep back to life.
I guess it’ll be a kind of race to see which happens first, the Fruen Mill being converted into luxury condos or this Jeep pickup being restored to its original form. Next time I’m in the area, I’ll make a point to stop out and see if any progress has been made on the Jeep.
Not too far away from the little Jeep truck, I spotted this 1950 Chevy Pickup (I‘m guessing 1950, and I think I‘m right, but again, I could be off here). I don’t know what, if anything, is planned for this hollow carcass of an automobile, but I do know that in its current state, it makes that 1950 Studebaker truck we spied earlier look pretty good by comparison.
The engine is there but one doubts it would turn over as rusted and exposed as it appeared. It is, however, a 3.5L inline 6 with 90 HP and 176 lb-ft of torque. I don’t really want to know what sad tale this truck would tell us about how it ended up at the scrap metal yard in this state.
Lastly, we have another pickup truck to see.
This one was in the same small town where I found the row of Impalas and Bel Airs, but at a different location. It has been sitting for a while, but of all we’ve seen today, I think it has the most promise for being turned around in a timely manner. Granted, the truck needs a new bed, but the body panels that are there appear to be in good form and are wearing a black primer as if somebody plans on giving it a new top coat. It’s missing the passenger side glass, and the windshield is degassing, which is what’s causing that white, filmy effect you see around its edges. But, put some new glass in place, fit it with a bed box, install some new wheels and tires, give the body a good spray of paint and it will be ready to hit the road again -assuming all is in order under the hood and with the electrical system. This truck could easily beat out both the little Jeep truck with its donors AND the Fruen Mill for when it can step back into the land of the living to embark on new and exciting adventures again.
I suppose today’s explorations just go to show that some things can be restored, even from horrible, ramshackle conditions. Some things will sit and rot while grand plans are made but never executed. Other things are doomed to deteriorate unnoticed and uninterrupted, while yet others are just gone, swept up into the ether. I say, if you have any plans to restore or repair something, there’s no better time than right now to start things moving. Consider it a win if you finish before the Fruen Mill becomes Luxury condos or collapses into the earth.
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