April, 2018
One sunny day in early April this year, I headed out for a drive east of Tacoma, a bit further east than usual. I have really good luck finding interesting things east of Tacoma. This day was no exception. The area that later became Tacoma was first settled in the 1840s and 1850s, so it’s not surprising that there is lots of history in the area, and lots of stuff to see.
Here are a couple of photos taken out my truck window of the countryside that I was driving through. There were houses every so often, but mostly there were just small farms and lots of trees and many of these somewhat wetland areas where mostly just grass grew and not many trees or shrubs. So pretty!
Around one bend in the road, I came upon the following.
I noticed the car right off the bat, but it was several minutes before I noticed the cemetery sign.
At home, I researched the Crawfordsville Union Cemetery. It was (and still is) located about one mile east of Crawfordsville, Oregon, out towards Sweet Home, Oregon, and was established in 1852.
Online records for the old cemetery reveal the following:
The first person to die and be buried there:
Shanks, Rodah – 1/28/1852 – buried between Leah Riggs and John J. Riggs (no date of birth given and no information about relatives).
Where birth dates were given, these three folks were born the earliest before the cemetery was established:
Splawn, Ann – 2/9/1809 – 3/3/1895.
Crawford, Philemon V. – 1814 – 1901, with Letitia S.
Crawford, Letitia S. – 1817 – 1896, “Oregon Pioneers”.
One interesting headstone reads:
Fox, George O. – 2/4/1867 – 1/14/1901 – Sgt., Co. E., 14th US Infantry, b. Readstown, Wisc., died at sea on board the US transport Warren.
One wonders why George O. Fox (who died at sea and was from Wisconsin) … why he was buried in this very tiny community in Oregon, far from any Navy base. I like to think he had family in Oregon who loved him.
But, getting back to the old car …..
One wonders (at least I wonder) if maybe this old car used to belong to someone who lived near the Crawfordsville Union Cemetery near Sweet Home, Oregon. And I wondered if someone moved up here from that area of Oregon with sweet memories of Oregon and exciting dreams of the future up here in Washington, and they brought that cemetery sign and that car with them. I hope all their dreams came true and they had a blast with this car! Think of the stories this car could tell.
Do any of you readers know how old this car might be? And manufacturer/model?
I headed on down the road from this spot, just meandering and looking and enjoying the day. As I approached the very small country town of South Prairie, I pulled off the road onto a gravel parking strip in order to get out of the truck and adjust the angle of my passenger side mirror which was off just a tad. As I walked around the truck, I realized I had parked about thirty feet from a row of truly vintage, old travel trailers. What a find!
There was a fence around the lot where the trailers were parked, so I couldn’t get in close in order to explore in detail. But the zoom on my camera managed to get some decent photos through the chain link fence.
Except for the Argosy (above), none of the trailers had any sign of the manufacturer or model name showing.
I suspect the trailer above is an old Airstream. What a mean face it had!
None of the trailers had a “for sale” sign on them. Maybe this is someone’s collection of trailers, but it seems they should be made known to other RV people and should be protected from the weather.
Do any of you readers know the brands, models, and/or ages of these trailers?
Another fun day just driving around out in the country. 🙂 I love doing that … and am always glad to have your company!
ADDITION:
The car has been identified! Ginger was first, noting that the car was from the 1930s. Then Dorin reported that the car was a late-1930s Chevrolet Business Coupe. The photo below is of a 1939 Chevrolet Business Coupe. Compare it with the car that’s in the post above. I’d say it’s a perfect match. Don’t miss the license plate on the car below …
You find the most interesting things to blog about. I love old cemeteries, and old cars as well. Just a guess on the car, maybe a 1930’s something,
A 1930’s something sounds good. With your suggestion, I googled each year and came up with a really close front end/hood design of a 1939 Chevrolet, although I couldn’t find it in a coupe model which the one in my photos seems to be. Kind of fun to look back at all those car models. I simply put “1930 car”, then “1931 car”, etc, in a google search. Oops, actually I use Bing to search, but nobody says I “bing-ed” something. The verb “to google” seems to be a part of our language now.
According to one of my neighbors here, that second trailer is likely a Vagabond maybe from the early 1950’s. He had one that was similar but without that raised center roof. He said to thank you for the memories. Me too.
That raised center roof is pretty interesting. Provides headroom and light. I bet it cost a bit to manufacture, tho. And maybe was prone to leaking so maybe that’s why not many were built. You are both very welcome for the memories. 🙂 Keep on looking through those albums!
And the last one he thinks is a Curtis Wright, not an Airstream, but he has no idea how old it is. Guess we better figure out that third trailer too and get 100%!
Thank you, both of you. I know there are and have been other brands of aluminum trailers and motorhomes besides Airstream, but my first thought is “Airstream”. Indeed, I googled (bing-ed) Curtis Wright and you guys are absolutely correct. I found several photos online of a little different body style but exactly the same mean looking front end.
We got it! That third trailer is an Aero Flite, no idea the age. Thanks Ann! You gave these two old geezers a reason to sit and look through some old photo albums and remember way back. Hey do I get that fancy Tesla car now? Heck I don’t even need it, this was fun. Sure do like your photos, keep up the good work.
Aero Flite indeed! 100%!! I’d never heard of Aero Flite but looked it up online too and found lots of photos almost identical to the one in my photos. Tim, you hang onto that old geezer buddy of yours! The Tesla is on its way!
Another great blog. Just wanted to let you know that just because you don’t always get a comment out of us in the cheap seats your effort is appreciated . Some times it can be the high lite of the day .
Oh gosh Vernon, that’s awfully nice of you. Thank you. This blog gets more than 100 viewers each day, by far most of them are either email subscribers or are repeat viewers, so most folks do keep coming back. And most of the subscribing email addresses are unknown to me … which makes me feel very humble that so many people seem to enjoy this blog. I really like it when you just sort of say hi and let me know you’re still there, Vernon. I appreciate that a great deal!
Ann – – I believe the car is a 1935 36 – 37 Chevrolet business Coupe – – the grill is a dead give away – – being a older guy as well as a old car nut I can sort of remember seeing cars like this as I was growing up – – thats my two cents worth.
“The Ancient Mariner”
Hi Dorin! I was hoping you’d be reading this. I almost emailed you first, but decided just to post this and see if any readers here knew about the car. Ginger said the car was from the 1930s. And you nailed it. It is indeed a late 1930s Chevrolet Business Coupe. I will now go add a photo to the blog of a 1939 Chevrolet Business Coupe that looks spot on to our derelict car in the bushes. Thanks for your two cents worth … they are now worth about 3.8 cents. Very good to hear from you.
I love the last picture, and boy, wouldn’t I love to have that car!
Isn’t she a beauty? She’d turn heads, that’s for sure, and be a kick to drive.