During my 30-plus years of desert wanderings, I have seen many things – some of them sobering (human remains); some of them frightening (drug smugglers); many of them inspiring (rare plants and animals); much of it amazing (spectacular desert vistas). But one thing that never ceases to amaze me is coming across an old vehicle out in the middle of nowhere, and I’d like to share some of these finds with you. I’ll not only tell you where I found each of these, I’ll even give you a link – click on it and zoom in and you’ll be looking at the exact spot where I found it. Oh, one more thing – as you’ll see, there’s not much left of many of these cars. That makes identification extremely difficult, and for me, quite impossible. I had to rely on the opinion of an expert, and my go-to guy is my brother-in-law, Lee. This guy is a walking encyclopedia on old cars, and has forgotten more about the subject than most of us will ever know. He wanted me to say that he might be wrong on some of them, they’re only his best guesses, but I think you’ll be impressed at what you’re about to see.

Here’s the location of the first one – just click on the link to open a map, and zoom way in.

http://listsofjohn.com/qmap?lat=32.7410&lon=-112.4246&z=12&t=u&P=300&M=Desert+Mountaineer

It’s located in the Sonoran Desert National Monument in southern Arizona, about 60 air miles from the Mexican border, near a dry watercourse called Sand Tank Wash. There is an old road that goes through the spot, but monsoon rainstorms have destroyed it. The old truck sits a few feet downhill from what’s left of the road. Many years ago, the road was used by cattle ranchers and miners. The ruined part of the road can be bypassed by driving in the wash, so nobody would even drive by this spot any more.

Not much to look at, is it? Here’s another view.

And an up-close view.

So what do you think we’ve got here, Folks? Well, there’s not much to go on, but the answer is a Ford truck, built somewhere between 1937 and 1941. Anything inside the monument is protected, so you couldn’t retrieve this truck if you wanted to.

Next, I want to show you one of my favorite spots for old vehicles. Here’s the link.

http://listsofjohn.com/qmap?lat=32.5103&lon=-112.4767&z=12&t=u&P=300&M=Desert+Mountaineer

You can zoom way in, and even switch over to a satellite view. Use the +/- symbols to zoom in or out (in the upper left corner); use the controls in the upper right corner to switch between Caltopo (for a topographic map) and Satellite (for a satellite view). If you zoom way in and switch to the satellite view, you can see an old car quite plainly. In fact, there are several others there, but not visible in the satellite photo. This location is deep inside the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation and is 55 miles from the Mexican border. This is a very odd spot – all 6 of the cars are parked off to one side of the road, within 100 feet of it. My guess is that once upon a time, the road was well-traveled, a route north to the town of Gila Bend before the military bombing range was established. That still doesn’t explain why all of the cars are parked single-file along the road, though. Were they no longer running, and just parked there to ditch them? Your guess is as good as mine.

Here’s the first one, a 1937 Plymouth.

And another view of the same car.

Pretty cool, huh? I can visualize one of these motoring along this old dirt road eighty years ago.

Have a look at the next one – not much to go on, right? This is a 1940-something Chevrolet pick-up.

This next one was probably a pretty nifty ride in its day, a 1940 Mercury convertible. To quote Stevie “Guitar” Miller,

I tell you what I’d do
I would go downtown
Buy a Mercury or two
Cause I’m crazy ’bout a Mercury
Cruise up and down this road

Here’s what one of these would have looked like when it was new.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Eight

Moving on, here’s another one of the group, a 1946 Pontiac, which seemed a bit more intact than some of the others.

 

The next one of the group is this beauty. Can you guess what it is (or was?)

If you guessed a 1941 Mercury, you’d be right.

There’s one more I found at this site. Here it is, the 6th and final one.

This one is a 1937 Chevrolet. Don’t get any ideas, Folks – all land on the reservation is off-limits to any outsiders. I was there as a guest of the Tohono O’odham with a permit.

There’s a place on the Barry M. Goldwater bombing range that is known as Javelina Camp. Years ago, a rancher lived there and ran cattle over a large area – he had corrals and wells scattered throughout his grazing area. Javelina Camp was his base of operations, and this old classic is one of the remnants of his glory days. Check out these photos of this very cool old truck.

Don’t get any ideas about hauling this beauty off, though, unless you want to do battle with the United States Air Force. Here’s where it’s located, for those who are really curious. Oh yes, it’s a 1946 Chevrolet 2-ton truck, about 45 air miles from the Mexican border.

http://listsofjohn.com/qmap?lat=32.5609&lon=-112.5899&z=12&t=u&P=300&M=Desert+Mountaineer

Here’s another good one, also on the bombing range, and this is where it’s located, about 50 miles north of the Mexican border:

http://listsofjohn.com/qmap?lat=32.6401&lon=-112.6537&z=12&t=u&P=300&M=Desert+Mountaineer

Any ideas what you’ve been looking at here? If you said a 1935 Plymouth, you’d be right. It too is located deep inside the bombing range, so no luck getting it out of there.

Recently, I was climbing in a very remote spot where I came across three more old vehicles. These are actually inside the bombing range, but only 100 feet away from the boundary of the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. They lie along an old road which hasn’t been used for decades, and are all within a 100-yard stretch of each other. Here’s the first one.

The previous 4 photos show a 1950 Mercury – did you guess it correctly? – I sure didn’t.

So try and see if you can get this next one. By the way, here’s where this group of 3 is located.

http://listsofjohn.com/qmap?lat=32.5055&lon=-112.5788&z=12&t=u&P=300&M=Desert+Mountaineer

So what do you think – did you figure out this was a 1946 Hudson?

Finally, here’s the last one of the three.

Did you successfully identify this 1947 Plymouth? Not much to go on, is there? The old road they sit beside perhaps was used as a back way into the reservation long ago, but now vanishes completely only 500 feet away.

Here’s yet another one, found at an old mine about 65 miles north of the border. There wasn’t much to look at in this case, but Lee came through once again.

This one was identified as a 1935 Chevrolet 5-window coupe. Amazing, right?

So far, every one of these vehicles has been located along old roads. The last one I’m about to show you isn’t, though. It sits out in the desert all by itself, deep inside the bombing range. There’s no doubt that it was used during the commission of some crime, probably moving drugs into the country from Mexico. It may be my favorite of the bunch. We found it in a patch of brush during a long walk across the desert.

This one is a 1961 Buick Electra 225 convertible. It was a lot more intact than some of the other ones I’ve shown you, mostly because it’s newer. I’m not going to tell you where it is, because we shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but it is a mere 35 miles from the Mexican border, out in one of the loneliest, remotest chunks of desert I’ve ever visited.

Why these vehicles are sitting in the spots I found them, it’s hard to say. Did they break down? Were they on their last legs and the owners just said “Forget it, I’ll park it here and walk away.”  Who knows. Back in the 1930s and 40s, did people have a different attitude about these things than they do now? In any case, I never get tired of finding these old vehicles, and I hope to find many more. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.