Recently I decided to take a few days off from work to get some various tasks done around the house. Going through a cabinet in the basement uncovered a photo album from the mid-1990s. The findings were simply too good to keep to myself.
This Chevrolet was captured in the midst of this grouping, as these pictures were all taken between May 1995 and mid-1997. This 1961 Bel-Air was found near Osage Beach, Missouri, and, no, it’s not pointed up that steep of a hill. This was the age of 110 film (remember that?) and the human zoom; these pictures were all taken with the same camera. Even better, my photography is on the same illustrious level now as it was then.
This Kaiser is perhaps the best find of all with this picture (and many subsequent ones) being taken in May 1995. I found it near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, parked in front of what appeared to be an abandoned building. Sioux Falls was a stop on a journey west. It was parked not too far away from a water fall where it seemed half the town was enjoying the water. Young and old, all were there trying to beat the heat.
We later stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace, to spend the night. If memory serves, we stayed at the Thunderbird Motel, a quaint little mom and pop establishment near the interstate.
We found this 1988 to 1991 Ford Crown Victoria owned by the South Dakota Police in the parking lot of the South Dakota Department of Transportation district office. The red car parked behind the Ford is a 1989 (at newest) Plymouth Reliant owned by the SD-DOT.
My paternal grandmother accompanied me on this trip. Perhaps an odd pairing, I really didn’t want to be alone and knew spending that much time with any of my friends likely wouldn’t bolster the friendship. On the other hand, Grandma was ready, willing, and had no qualms about demanding old folks discounts wherever we went.
A few nights earlier, we had spend the night in Jackson, Minnesota. Another locally owned establishment (which seem to have since become extinct), the early 30s male owner asked if we were married – well, we did have the same last name, so what else could it be? At the time I was twenty-two and looked to be about eleven; Grandma was seventy-four and wasn’t trying to hide it. When I told her of his question, she bulled up, then marched over to the office to make a big production about how she and her grandson were making a tour of North America.
He gave her a fist full of coupons.
At the time, I was a rabid connoisseur of the various auto trader magazines. One dealer I would frequently see was Motion Unlimited in Rapid City, South Dakota. So, before going to see Mt. Rushmore we had to go see some cars (or maybe it was the other way around; it’s been two decades).
This 1956 Ford really got under my craw in a good way. Nothing about it should have been so appealing; it has those ghastly whitewall tires mounted to tacky wire rims, it was a six-cylinder, and it had a two-speed automatic. However, I think it was the silver and black two-tone that really burrowed itself into my memory. This picture no longer does the color contrast justice.
Oddly, it has stuck with me more than the 1931 DeSoto that was also for sale, likely the only one I’ve ever seen.
And, that Ford has stuck with me more than the 1959 Mercury, again likely the only one to have ever presented itself to me.
To emphasize how precious film used to be, I took zero pictures of the Dodge Charger or the 1950s era Dodge parked on either side of the Mercury. Nor did I capture the 1959 Chevrolet wagon parked behind it. With film running about $0.20 or so per shot, plus developing costs, one had to choose pictures wisely back then.
Spending a few cents to get a picture of the Chief Crazy Horse Monument was a no-brainer.
It has come a long way in twenty years. This picture came from www.crazyhorsememorial.org
For security purposes, there was a 1956 Chevrolet patrol car for the Chief Crazy Horse monument parked near the visitors center. It didn’t appear to have seen any recent action as it’s been blocked in with various and assorted crap.
My automotive sightings during this trip were varied. For instance, in Yellowstone National Park, I saw this Chevrolet Sport Van. According to information provided (and I wrote on the back of this picture), the conversion process was eight hours from highway duty to snow duty but only two hours going back to highway duty. As seen, this van would cruise at 35 to 40 mph and return a stupendous 3 to 4 miles per gallon.
On the flip-side, the 1991 Dodge Dynasty I drove for this trip returned 27.7 mpg. Yes, I know many people had bad experiences with the Die-Nasty, but this one was as near to flawless as ever there was. The odometer at the time of this picture in June 1995 was 85,100; my parents kept this car until it had nearly 140,000 miles. The only hiccup was a sensor that killed the engine after running for a few seconds. That happened soon after I returned from this trip, so my timing was great.
It’s parked behind my college apartment in Rolla, Missouri. The green 1992 Ford Ranger behind it belonged to my sister. It met the same fate as the 1992 Ford Tempo that preceded it – she wrecked it.
The Dynasty is seen again here in front of the state capital building in Olympia, Washington. Seeing state capital buildings has always been a mild hobby of mine and I’ve seen many of them. The state capital building in Indianapolis is the crummiest I can remember for accessing. It happens.
A short hop away from Olympia is the Boening Museum in Seattle. At the time, this Aerocar was on display. No, it’s not a flying Ford Pinto.
However, this photo album has more than just pictures from a long ago trip west glued to its pages. One of its inhabitants is my old 1962 Ford Galaxie, seen here on my parent’s property south of Carbondale, Illinois.
My father purchased this Galaxie at an auction in August 1988 for the princely sum of $500. It had been parked next to a 1966 Lincoln Continental that I liked a smidgeon more, but this car wasn’t anything to sneeze at. Powered by a rattly when cold 292 hooked to a three-speed manual, this body and suspension was phenomenally tight. I drove it some but sold it a few years later to a guy from Hayfield, Minnesota, who turned it into an Andy Griffith special.
It’s better than being parted out. Plus, we made money on the car.
Part of me has always suspected my 1955 Chevrolet 210 was parted out, but it’s a small part. Supposedly, it was being shipped to a buyer in Sweden and I sincerely hope somebody there is driving the wheels off it. I bought this Chevrolet from the grandson of the second owner for $900 in 1996 or 1997. It had the straight-six and a three-speed manual transmission. It seems all of my older cars have had a three-on-the-tree.
I sold it in May or June of 1998 to finance my honeymoon.
There was a phase of my being a car hoarder. To keep miles off my 1996 Ford Thunderbird, I purchased this 1986 Plymouth Gran Fury in March or April of 1998 from a guy in Lawton, Oklahoma. It cost me $1,200 and I put a bunch of miles on it before selling for $1,500 in 2002.
This Plymouth had the four-barrel 318 and it was one of the most comfortable cars I’ve ever driven.
Having had a taste of the M-body, I went back to the well for another drink. No, it’s not a Dodge Diplomat or Plymouth Gran Fury despite its stark appearance.
For 1981 only, Chrysler had a LeBaron with the full-blown A38 police package. This is likely one of the rarest M-bodies produced; I once spoke to Ed Sanow, who wrote a book on Chrysler police cars. He was shocked I found a LeBaron like this as so few were made.
In the background, you can see my parent’s 1995 Mercury Cougar and my 1975 Ford Thunderbird.
I paid $200 for this Chrysler and was able to drive it onto the trailer to haul it home. It ran pretty well but I never got around to doing anything with it. This is the most bare Chrysler I’ve ever seen as it had vinyl bench seats, a rubber floor, and nothing else option wise. It was powered by a two-barrel 318 and supposedly came from Florida. I sold it to some guy in Ohio.
When I discovered it, it was for sale in the front yard of a house between Malden and Kennett, Missouri. There were some impolite letters from debt collectors in the glove box.
Since we are talking Mopars, here is a 1971 Plymouth Road Runner and a 1968 Dodge Coronet I found in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, one weekend in October 1996.
These last two are rather sad, but that’s how life goes. Both of these Cadillac Eldorados belonged to my father-in-law. Parked on the family farm near Hawk Point, Missouri, they had been languishing there for a while when I took these pictures.
When the property was later sold due to a family dispute, both of these were hauled off to the salvage yard.
Lest anyone be concerned about a great loss to humanity, they weren’t. Both were getting pretty rotten on the bottom and needed more work than was worthwhile.
So, with any luck, some more pictures will turn up again one of these days!
Nice photos Jason, although I’m afraid Jim Grey puts us to shame on our vintage photography. My 110 shots are considerably more miserable than yours.
Love that 59 Merc, that would look good curbside in front of my mid 1960’s house.
Oddly enough I was just thinking about the Crazy Horse monument this week. My Uncle is bringing his motorcycle back from Calgary in the fall and I’d suggested that maybe I ride out and meet him half way, like at the Crazy Horse monument. Why not?
Yes – when I saw the word “110 film” I instantly thought of Jim Grey! I remember those Instamatics with the drop in film cassettes when I was a kid. Both the 110 and the 126 ones.
The pictures are amazingly sharp.
My first camera was a 620 Brownie Box camera in the 50’s and have pictures of the ’50 Ford Tudor we had, don’t know why I don’t have a picture of the ’50 Studebaker Champion we had. It lasted until ’62 where the Ford was gone after my dad bought the only new car in his life, a ’59 Chevrolet SW which soured him on buying new although he could well afford to. Instead he bought mostly low mileage 1-2 year old cars at 1\2 to 1\3rd of new cost. By the 60’s cars lasted a lot longer than before(in the non salt PNW) and we used the savings to buy a completely furnished beach house in1964 for less than the cost of a new BOP. It eventually netted my mother over $150,000.in the 80’s after my dad passed away. All my life I have run 15-30 year old cars with a very low per mile cost of driving. My biggest expense has always been insurance and then only liability. I have never had any problem driving on snow & ice unsalted roads, I think that the only people that salt helps are the salt companies and automakers. Don’t really need planned obsolescence when the highway dept makes it a moot point. Here is what a 21 year old car with 140,000 miles underside looks like when you do not use road salt.
What sort of car is that underside photo of?
We were a 110 family in the 80’s–my folks had a cheap Kodak 110 (with telephoto lens!) and I had an even cheaper no-name 110 camera. Both had that particular “long skinny rectangle” shape. I think ours had long since broken by the mid 90’s though, and we’d moved on to a cheap 35mm. I’m impressed yours had the date stamp–must have been a later one.
I had a little Agfa pocket camera about twice the size of a 110 cartridge. I took heaps of photos with it, and while they’re better than just memories they’re sure not as good as these.
I guess the Bumpside Ford truck met the same fate as the Caddys…
The Road Runner / Coronet framed in the car window is a neat pic.
The older film pictures take on an interesting patina, but I’m starting to think I need to scan mine before they become a complete mess.
Our ’89 T-Bird taken in 1993 in Sedona, AZ has a similar patina.
A few years ago I scanned my father’s slide collection (starting from 1956). The Kodachrome pics were astonishingly good – they could have been new – but the Ektachrome slides were in poor condition. I haven’t checked the originals since but I suspect some of them may be pretty well gone now.
Even though most of what you shot was a little worse for the wear, they’re still beautiful cars.
I was about to comment that Sioux City is in Iowa, not South Dakota (though SD does have a North Sioux City on its side of the river, and Nebraska a South Sioux City), but then the mention of a waterfall means you must have meant to say Sioux Falls, with its famous Falls Park. A Jackson-to-Mitchell route would’ve also put you in Sioux Falls–Jackson is about an hour and a half from Sioux Falls, with Mitchell an hour past that.
Memory is a vicious thing.
Thank you; I just changed it!
FWIW, it seems that confusing Sioux Falls and Sioux City is a common thing. Apparently Bernie Sanders actually did it in a speech a few months ago.
Great pics! The city hall in Sioux Falls is an art moderne gem, designed by the wonderfully named Howard Spitznagel. Did you get a chance to see it?
One of the salesmen who worked for my dad had an ’81 LeBaron sedan as a company car – no A38, but just as plain.
“Boening Museum in Seattle”
It is actually the “Museum of Flight” which is located at Boeing Field in Seattle. It is not at all a Boeing facility but of course has lots of Boeing aircraft and local history related to the company.
And the Aero car still has a place in the MoF though it is currently displayed in a state between driving and flying mode.
What a great bunch of pictures! Your lead-off shot of the 61 Chevy looks like every single 61 Chevy I ever saw until people started “building” bubbletop 409s in the 80s. Dull paint, rusty around the edges and all around ratty. Go a couple of years in either direction, and you would occasionally see a nice one, but never a 61 – at least not in my world.
The 59 Mercury is oddly fascinating, but as a 59 model myself, I have a bit of an infatuation with cars of that year. As for your 62 Ford, WOW – that is just way too much red. I waxed my Miata over the weekend and remembered how much I hate maintaining the finish on old single stage red paint.
What was your difficulty in entering the State Capital in Indianapolis – tight security? I am starting to feel like a codger when I can remember that as a newly minted lawyer in the mid 80s, there was not a security checkpoint to be found on any public building in my state (at least one that was not a jail or prison.) Now you have to take off your belt and watch to go check on something in the Clerk’s office no matter how small and out of the way a County seat might be.
That ’62 was red through-and-through. A red/white interior, red carpet, red dashboard, red under the hood, and a red 292. Even the wheels were red. I did wax it a few times and it looked like a person bled to death on the rag.
You nailed it on the statehouse in Indiana. Easy to see, hard to find a driveway, security checkpoints aplenty. That was on my way to Auburn in late 2014. Conversely, I routinely go into the state capital building here. There is no security check at all. I even went to the House Chambers at the end of session a year or two ago and again, no security checkpoint. However, go down the street to the Cole County Courthouse and there are full body scanners upon going through the single entry point.
looks like a 55 or maybe a 56 dodge in the shot next to the mercury. Great set of pix!
Definitely a 55 – chrome headlight rings.
Nice photos , I never really got the hang of taking good photos .
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I _LOVE_ that ’62 Ford ! always have loved those , very conservative lines and the ones I had were good build quality ~ no rattles . squeaks / leaks .
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-Nate
Love cars from the 50s and 60s with my favorite of those pictured here being the 59 Mercury which barely edged out the 56 Ford (wire wheels on a car with a lowly 6 cylinder engine?)
A close runner up is that ex-police LeBaron….a “late model” Chrysler with rubber floor covering….and almost totally devoid of options?
Have had various cameras over the years, starting with a 110. After awhile I sort of gave up on taking pictures. Cost of film and development was no big deal, I just figured no one would ever find my “views” of the world all that interesting. As a consequence, pictures taken at one of the last Targa Florio run on the “old” track? Gone.
Yet I am fascinated by 99.9% of pictures here that other folks post.
One of these days I need to see the northern/northwestern parts of the U.S.
Love that ’61 Chevy; such a fascinating design, plus someone who lived in the same group of dorms as I did in college had a white ’61 sedan. Always loved seeing that as I walked through the lot, though I never found out who the owner was. I also particularly like the patina on that ’59, with the sun damage on the flat fender tops and nowhere else.
I certainly wasn’t aware that Chrysler made a police package LeBaron; what an interesting find. Hopefully it’s still out there somewhere as a distinct rarity.
Also how on earth did you score a ’55 Chevy for $900 in 1996? Yes, it’s a post sedan 210 with a relatively undesirable powertrain–but the value of the ’55 had long since taken off by the mid 90’s. I’m assuming you made some money on that sale!
Great group of photos overall!
I bought the Chevrolet from a friend of my uncles. Plus I talked him down some – he was in the process of moving to Texas and really needed to dispose of the car.
Let’s just say I did make money on that car – as I did on all the rest shown here plus my ’75 Thunderbird. Somewhere along the way my ability to make such easy money vanished.
I happened to be in Rapid City and Mount Rushmore in the fall of ’95. The Crazy Horse Monument is undergoing a rather slow progress. I saw it from the same spot.
Every time I see a Dynasty I am reminded of the Mennonite’s woman hat.
These pics give me a hankering to wander the vastness of the Mid West. Way back in 1991 before my first marriage there was a vague plan to travel from NJ to Denver, Co. and back via a Southern route on the way out and a more Northerly route on the return, but time limitations meant that that trip (and several subsequent trips between the 2 locales) were confined to I-80 and its close environs. As an East-Coaster of the most dubious order (that being the NY/NJ variety) I have lately had an inkling that I might enjoy spending some time out in the heartland. This is a new fascination for me, having long had a world view not unlike that famous New Yorker cover illustration. Thanks for fueling my wanderlust.
Always a sucker for the campy, the cheesy, or the downright hokey, I love that Real Estate billboard in the first shot above. “Spouses selling Houses”. Priceless.
And as for vehicles for long distance travel, the Dynasty is far from the worst choice one could make. Having had quite a bit of seat time in an ’89 New Yorker I can vouch for the pleasantness of these cars for highway travel. Yeah, some have had their bad experiences with them, not the least of which were those associated with the infamous Ultradrive, but I recall my trips in the New Yorker with fondness. Not a bad traveling vessel at all.
Nice collection, Jim.
Cameras with film! Yes, I well remember the Kodak 126 and more compact 110 formats, just as I remember being very selective about what I shot – had to save a few exposures in case you came across something really good!
Then there was the wait for developing to see the prints. Funnily enough that is making something of a return. Leica, the well known German makers of quality cameras, recently released a version of their digital M rangefinder camera which does not have a screen on it at all! You compose your shots through the viewfinder and don’t see them until you load to your PC. Indeed, the model without the screen is more expensive than those with the screen. Less is more?
Sorry to see the Eldorados in such bad shape. Luv the first year model with all the sharp edges. IIRC, disc brakes became available the second year of production.
Nice photos and writeup, Jason. I’m old enough–and have accumulated enough–that “finds” like this, going back decades, happen once in a while.
I did some very rough math a short while ago, and figured that the per-photo cost for film/developing (and holding that ONE print in your hand) was roughly $1 in today’s money. When my students ask me “do you have a picture of —— ?” (referring to my younger years), I remind them that photography wasn’t “free” then, and ask them how many pics they’d have taken last week if they’d cost a buck apiece.
I have a soft spot for all early-60s Fords, and so I admire your own ’63 and the pictured ’62. FoMoCo hadn’t started with the “Total Performance” campaign yet, but ’62 launched the sporty “XL,” plus the 406 that would soon become the 427:
Some great shots and thanks for sharing these Jason! On a non-car related note, I’m cracking up over that lame billboard in the first photo “George and Ebbie Bogema: Spouses Selling Houses”.
^^^^You got me curious enough to peek, Brendan: apparently they’re still at it (tagline intact), 25 years later:
http://www.lakeozarkforsale.com
Now you have me curious….I’m going through Osage Beach again tomorrow so I’ll have to keep an eye out for billboards! This is one of the few places in the Midwest where one can see a Plymouth Prowler for sale alongside the road and I’ll see a Viper drive by as I see the Prowler. Plus, there are a few late model Bentley convertibles floating around.