Some cool finds from a north west Michigan junkyard.

[Boardtrack fan]

My friend Ambman and I went to the junkyard that Greystoke mentioned in a earlier post. Thanks for the heads-up Greystoke! After driving nearly 4 hours to get there we spent almost another 4 hours hunting. Unfortunately the stuff has been sitting out in the weather for a very long time and has been picked over pretty good. We didn't find any Twin flexes or Cycle planes, but I got a few cool bikes and some parts. He has close to a thousand bikes in piles all over the 50 acre yard. If you are in Michigan and are looking for a pre-war straight bar bicycle or a cantilever frame he has hundreds.

Unfortunately the whole rear triangle was rotted off of this motorbike

Hard to see, but there were piles of handle bars under the stuff on the right.

Not sure what this was, but it had a few fragments of a block chain left on the sprocket. Most of it was completely rusted away, but the crank still turns and is in usable condition.

Picked up a couple of these Hawthorns.

Some art for the garage wall.

Sprocket says YALE. Made by Rollfast?

A 28" camel back. Mead?

From right to left, Columbia crank, NOS pedals from one of the buildings, half of a CWC tank, Elgin crank, and a skip tooth ?

 

[TheFlyingDingo]

looks like i might be going on a roadtrip...where is this again?

 

[kingsting]

Patina! :roll:

 

[Boardtrack fan]

It is actually near a small town called Fremont. You will need to get in touch with the owner Lowell. It took me almost a month of repeated emails before he finally called me and we set-up a visit. His prices seem to be all over. He charged me $50 for a pile frames and parts, but then wanted $30 for a bike that the only usable part was the crank. Still, I think I got a pretty good deal on everything. You can reach Lowell and view some more pictures on his website.
http://www.webstermusic.com/

 

[hotfoot]

Oh dang, I love and hate places like that. Great for finds, but really sad to see so much old iron rusting away and there's not much you can do about it. Looks like you got some great stuff though!

 

[thesuicideride]

sweet finds! good handful of skip tooth goodies in there. likin the ford v8 hubcap :mrgreen: . is that the fremont by lake james and all the other lakes around the indiana, ohio, michigan borders?? i hope so

 

[schwinnmesa]

Wow, awesome, thanks a lot for sharing. Cool stuff. :mrgreen:

 

[Greystoke]

Hey Boardtrack, Glad someone else got to see that amazing junk yard. Lowell is a good guy but I went through the same thing. I paid way too much for a frame but got a good deal on some gauges for my panel truck. It is unbelievable how much stuff is there. You really have to pick through it. It is spread out over 50 acres I think. Piles here and there. But mostly really rusty. I had a tank frame for 25 and exchanged it for a complete bike for 50. Still way too much being the beginner that I am. The cars that he has there are really cool to look at. Like the hubcaps. This junkyard is in the Fremont/Hesperia area about 20 miles NE of Muskegon MI. I could of given you quick directions. It took me some time to find it too. Thanks for the pics. Brian

 

[SSG]

So that's where all the prewar stuff went...

 

[rico]

that's what i call a day at the park :lol: that is wonderfull pictures i think you had a great day looking around at history at is best , i wish i was there i love going to junkyards and loking at cars that at one time were riding around and now is so hard to see them any more. thanks :wink: i had a great time loking at the cars on the web thank to you :!: keep on hunting and posting i am sure members will thank you like i have, i live in PUERTO RICO and here junk yard owners dont let any one walk in there yards i miss been in the states had alot of fun while i was there i lived in conn, phila and florida maybe i move back let me know if you will sell any of thouse parts :roll: :!: att . mike

 

[sensor]

too bad the majority of it will end up an orange stain on his property :x
saw about 5 cars that id kill for and even partial remains of a 31 like mine......
whats a 3 bedroom/2 car house run out there?!?

 

[Boardtrack fan]

With the way our economy is in Mich. you could pick-up a 3 bedroom ranch with a 2 car garage for about $50,000. A fixer upper for less. Most people I know can't sell there house for what they owe.

 

[sensor]

hmmmmmmm........maybe i can talk my wife into moving to where theres snow

 

[Rustinkerer]

It's like a 50 acre "Yard art"! :lol: ~Adam

 

[ambman]

It was amazing and overwhelming how much stuff was there, most, like Boardtrack said, is pretty rough. It was a lot of fun looking around, pretty exhausting and there was a constant haze of mosquitos and poison ivy everywhere but even after 4 hours of looking around I feel like we just scratched the surface of what is in there, we didn't even check out the cars and most of them were full of various items, there are also several caved in buildings that if we would have had more time I think we would have been able to pull some neat components out of there.

 

[Greystoke]

Hey Boardtrack and Abman, If you guys go back to Lowell's again, drop me a pm on this forum and I'll try to meet up with you there. I wonder if late fall would be better when the weeds are down but before the snow comes. Lowell said that he will probably scape the place out in about a year. I might grab some more parts for my Chevy while I'm there. Brian ( in Holland, MI).

 

[Boardtrack fan]

I would like to go back again. I might even try pulling out a bunch of Schwinn cantilever and straight bar frames to resell. Ambman is right, I bet the buildings have a bunch of great stuff in them. I got to thinking "hey where did all the parts go that were missing from the piles of frames outside"? I'm guessing they went into the buildings. We were able to see piles of wheels and handle bars inside some of the collapsed buildings. I grabbed a pair of NOS pedals off of a shelf in one of the partially collapsed buildings. I found a couple of old wood Coke boxes full of chainguards, but they were supporting what was left of the roof! If I go back I will give you a PM. I want to take my dad out to see the place. They have some cool old Nash cars that he would be interested in. After researching a bit I have determined that the badly rusted away bike with the thin chain wheel is a Racycle. The model number tag is still on the head tube. The camel back appears to match a ad I found for a Hawthorne.

 

[ratina]

Man that place looks amazing. Its really a shame that its all just tossed randomly over 50 acres and its all rotting away. If he organized a bit he could make some money I bet. Prices seem kind of steep for the condition, but I'd still go there and dig around.

 

[TheFlyingDingo]

i think i might need to take the time to go out there...my dad would love to see that kind of stuff too...

 

[Re-Cycle]

Omg dude, brilliant finds! i can feel my lil' green monster stirring =P Rust is wat im going for with my build, i gotta find me a scrap yard like that!