class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>
For some it is heaven on earth. For others, it’s probably the largest pile of junk in the world. In the US state of Georgia, less than an hour’s drive from metropolitan Atlanta, the Old Car City lives up to its name: more than 4,400 junk cars are rotting here in a 14-acre forest—some as old as the junkyard itself.
The parents of current owner Walter Dean Lewis parked the first wrecked cars here in 1931 to cannibalize and sell their spare parts for a profit. They also operated a small gas station behind which they lived in a small cottage. “Life is not easy,” said Lewis, 86, in an article published in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” newspaper. When the son took over the junkyard from his family in the 1970s, the collection consisted of just 40 vehicles. Today, according to its owner, the Old Car City is the largest car cemetery in the world.
The symbiosis of metal and nature
Most of the cars are American vehicles from the 1930s to the 1970s. Lewis says he wouldn’t be interested in anything that took to the streets after 1970. Vintage cars are parked across forest roads or tucked into trees; Branches and trunks make their way through bumpers, roofs, and rotten cloth seats. The old paint has been replaced by rust, moss and fungus spread on metal surfaces. Lewis doesn’t seem to take it very seriously when it comes to environmental laws. According to eyewitnesses, there was a strange smell of engine oil and forest air in the area. This is also evidenced by the oil stains covering the floor in many places.
Ten kilometer track
As an unbearable sight for classic car enthusiasts and environmentalists as the car cemetery, it is a paradise for amateur and professional photographers from all over the world. Walter Dean Lewis noticed this at some point, and in 2009 turned his auto parts store into an open-air museum where visitors can walk about ten kilometers of conventional trails. If you want to go on a journey of discovery in this mystical and sometimes even surreal forest with its strange structures, you have to pay an entrance fee of 20 dollars. In the age of smartphones, it’s $30 with a camera that every viewer carries with them anyway.
Lincoln from Elvis
Some photographers would spend a few days in the car cemetery, there is so much to admire in the Old Car City. Various television channels also regularly visit Lewis: NBC, ABC, Disney, Fox News – even an episode of the zombie series “The Walking Dead” was filmed on the site. One very special vehicle among the thousands of corpses is a Lincoln Continental Mark V, stored in a separate saloon: rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley (1935-1977) is said to have bought the mighty American car a few months before his death. This is how Lewis describes it. The retiree also gave some thought to what would happen to Old Car City after his own death. Both daughter and son would be interested in maintaining the huge car cemetery – maybe another 50 years.
Source: Blick
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
