This Eerie and Beautiful Junkyard Will Make You Sad

While some junkyards are more about utility or simple nuisance piles, some are like collections or art galleries of a sort.

Old Car City in White, Georgia is one of those yards that qualify as a collection and an art gallery at once. It contains one of the world’s largest known classic car junkyards. The yard covers six miles of trails on 35 acres of rural Georgia in the northwest corner of the state. White is home to just 693 full-time residents.

Located in a wild and gnarly forest, some 4,000 cars (all of them at least 40 years old) are surrounded by rudimentary signs cautioning visitors to stay off the vehicles and out of the brush to avoid unfortunate collisions with possums, deer, foxes and the occasional bear.

But visitors flock to Old Car City and its landscape dotted with hand-lettered signs covering various topics and homilies. The messages include some questionable jokes, random observations and slices of wisdom. Quite a number of them are displayed on the "Tree of Knowledge," and the messages range from the utterly truthful and Hunter S. Thompson-derived ‘Gonzo means far-out journalism,’ to rock-solid scientific facts such as ‘Black pepper repels rats.’

As many of the cars are entirely draped in moss or nearly buried under thick blankets of pine needles and leaves, some look ready for the tow truck and a chance to find redemption in the shops of ambitious mechanics.

Perhaps the most famous of the cars in the yard is a singularly rusty 1939 Chevy pierced by a number of volunteer trees that have crept their way through the windshield. This truck is so unique it’s even earned a name - "The Two Ton Flowerpot."

Owner Dean Lewis says that he himself is not an artist, but his signs and paintings say otherwise. He also hosts regular photoshoots by various artists and spends his time occasionally brush-hogging paths to keep the trails open.

Lewis insists it’s the cars, trucks, vans and buses which are the main attraction to the thousands of photographers, videographers, ad agencies and media companies that have visited Old Car City USA from outlets like the New York Times, CBS Sunday Morning, the BBC and Georgia Public Television.

Old Car City isn’t the only junkyard that’s attained notoriety.

French Lake Auto Parts in Minnesota is located an hour west of Minneapolis, MN, and they’ve now been in business for over 50 years. French Lake Auto Parts covers 100 acres and while some of the vehicles are useful for restorers - and a few of them date back to the 1920s - this is a classic scrapyard.

If it’s MoPar parts you need, Wildcat Auto Wrecking is dedicated to Chrysler parts and vehicles and the yard is located in Sandy, Oregon. Wildcat says they’re the only junkyard in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to Chrysler products. It’s home to more than 800 cars, and Wildcat says many are suitable as restoration projects. The yard is famous for having nearly rust-free car bodies from the 1950s through the 1970s and the inventory ranges from bumpers and doors, glass and motors for cars and trucks.

CTC Auto Ranch lies an hour north of Dallas, and it may well be the most popular junkyard in America, and with good reason. CTC offers to ship parts nationwide and their drone footage of the yard is a thing to behold. Most of the inventory consists of American muscle cars from the 1960s and 1970s, and the Texas climate assures that the bodies and parts stay nearly rust-free.

Turner’s Auto Wrecking in California has a stunning 100 acres of vintage cars and parts and it’s been in operation since 1928. This yard was the subject of a feature in Hot Rod magazine. If you’re having a problem finding a particular part, Turner’s might be your last best hope.

Corvair Ranch in Pennsylvania is a Corvair owner’s fever dream location. This yard boasts more than 600 Corvairs on site and they also offer services such as painting, upholstery and engine rebuilds and restorations.

Old Car City is unique in that it’s more of a destination and an art gallery than strictly a junkyard. You can check out the Old Car City website here...