Road Trip #14345

The Story

This old fifties Mercury was sitting up on the bank of the state road that left it at a disjointed angle in the high weeds. The road bordered a huge junkyard in the rural western Minnesota farmlands, and the owners were kind enough to let me shoot there. And I did so, for three solid days!

This very large and great junkyard was full of fascinating automotive relics. If you can name it, it was in there. Old Winnebagos, logging trucks, school buses, cars from the 1920s with wooden spoked wheels, taxi cabs from the 1940s, farm tractors, panel trucks from the 1950s, Trans Ams, 1957 Chevy coupes, tons of old pickup trucks…you get the idea.

This particular old Mercury car sat as a welcome wagon along the main road at the edge of that wonderland of rusted Americana. This was the first vehicle shot in a string of over 1300 images taken during those three days.

I simply loved the faded yet still strong red color of this old Mercury, along with that great overall 1950s automotive vibe. The title Road Trip just popped to mind as I worked up the image in the computer. That was partly due to the seat cushions stacked up inside the car, and it could appear that it was pulled off the road to camp. I don’t believe this one will ever make it to Jellystone Park on the family camping trip, though.

Road Trip was a fitting title for this expedition too. The visit to the rural junkyard was part of a long road trip over a thousand miles distant from my Pennsylvania home. I came here to photography just after finishing one of the larger art shows in the midwest in Minneapolis. An hour or so drive further west would have put my feet in Fargo ND, and this place was closer to nowhere than anywhere.

Location: rural Kandiyohi County, Minnesota.