Artifact!
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Okay, it's definitely summer now -- 103 degrees (39C) in the shade at 12:30pm on its way to a predicted 108 (42C) this afternoon. And that's just Beatty. They're predicting 126 (52C) for Death Valley!
I can only hike early in the early morning when it's this hot, but I do hike. A couple of days ago I set out around 6am to walk across an alluvial fan to the mouth of a canyon about a mile from the highway. I wanted to check out what appeared from a distance to be possible remnants of an old road.
I picked a random spot, pulled onto the shoulder and parked -- about a mile's walk across the alluvium from my goal. Walking across an alluvial fan is harder than walking up or down one because you have to walk in and out of all the channels that have been carved out like tiny Grand Canyons during eons of flood waters running down the fan, and believe me it's a lot easier to walk with the flow of the channels than across them.
I was picking my way carefully over the alluvium, looking down most of the time watching where to step, so I didn't see the old wreck until I practically stumbled over it, and even then I could hardly believe my eyes. What a find! Out in the middle of nowhere, with no warning, the best artifact I've ever discovered. And in such condition!
I've seen wrecks like this in the desert before -- although never so deeply buried -- but always along trails or in other spots where people go. These wrecks are all so well known that some people can identify a location just by looking at a picture of a wrecked vehicle. The well known wrecks have long since stripped by relic collectors of every possible removable piece and are often covered with graffiti and/or riddled with bullet holes from being used for target practice.
This wreck is unusual because it's not located in a place where people go, so it's in pristine condition -- no bullet holes, no graffiti, not even very many dents, and it even has a piece of trim still intact across the windscreen area. I've no idea what kind of vehicle this was or how it looked in its day, but its day was clearly a very long time ago. There is a mostly rotted wooden slat still attached in back seat area, so at least some part of it was made of wood -- the foundations for the seats, maybe?
There are so many questions! What was it? Whose was it? How did it get there/what happened? When did it happen? Why was it left there and not towed out? Who all still knows it's there today? If only it could talk!
After that amazing discovery I figured it was a good sign that I would find a road up at the mouth of that canyon, but no! It turned out to be nothing but a huge wash of gravel. Just goes to show ya about signs.
: - )
---
All photographs on this blog are my own, taken by me, copyright owned by me.
Okay, it's definitely summer now -- 103 degrees (39C) in the shade at 12:30pm on its way to a predicted 108 (42C) this afternoon. And that's just Beatty. They're predicting 126 (52C) for Death Valley!I can only hike early in the early morning when it's this hot, but I do hike. A couple of days ago I set out around 6am to walk across an alluvial fan to the mouth of a canyon about a mile from the highway. I wanted to check out what appeared from a distance to be possible remnants of an old road.
I picked a random spot, pulled onto the shoulder and parked -- about a mile's walk across the alluvium from my goal. Walking across an alluvial fan is harder than walking up or down one because you have to walk in and out of all the channels that have been carved out like tiny Grand Canyons during eons of flood waters running down the fan, and believe me it's a lot easier to walk with the flow of the channels than across them.
I was picking my way carefully over the alluvium, looking down most of the time watching where to step, so I didn't see the old wreck until I practically stumbled over it, and even then I could hardly believe my eyes. What a find! Out in the middle of nowhere, with no warning, the best artifact I've ever discovered. And in such condition!
I've seen wrecks like this in the desert before -- although never so deeply buried -- but always along trails or in other spots where people go. These wrecks are all so well known that some people can identify a location just by looking at a picture of a wrecked vehicle. The well known wrecks have long since stripped by relic collectors of every possible removable piece and are often covered with graffiti and/or riddled with bullet holes from being used for target practice.
This wreck is unusual because it's not located in a place where people go, so it's in pristine condition -- no bullet holes, no graffiti, not even very many dents, and it even has a piece of trim still intact across the windscreen area. I've no idea what kind of vehicle this was or how it looked in its day, but its day was clearly a very long time ago. There is a mostly rotted wooden slat still attached in back seat area, so at least some part of it was made of wood -- the foundations for the seats, maybe?
There are so many questions! What was it? Whose was it? How did it get there/what happened? When did it happen? Why was it left there and not towed out? Who all still knows it's there today? If only it could talk!
After that amazing discovery I figured it was a good sign that I would find a road up at the mouth of that canyon, but no! It turned out to be nothing but a huge wash of gravel. Just goes to show ya about signs.
: - )
---
All photographs on this blog are my own, taken by me, copyright owned by me.
posted by K Hubert at 2:43 PM
3 Comments:
very neat find!
Must be a Ford (Found on Road Dead)
LOL!
Well, it is a Ford, according to an expert who looked at the pics. A Model A, he said, either 1928, 1929 or 1930.
I've looked at what seems like millions of pics of Model As on Google Images, and I haven't been able to find one I think is exactly like my wreck, although many come rillyrilly close. So, it's still a mystery...
But yeah, it's a dead Ford. : - )
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