Cars...in the Middle of Nowhere

There is little that gets me excited more than some old Detroit Iron, even if the ravages of time have pitted the chrome and rusted the paint away. Especially the era of my youth, the 50's and 60's make my heart pitter-patter just a little more. Add in a little architecture from that era, and I am practically swooning. You see (and perhaps already know from some of my earlier posts), I am a car guy. I spent my high school years working in a gas station, mainly to support my addiction to the smell of oil and high octane gas, and the texture of cast iron engine blocks...not to mention the bloodied knuckles that are the result of slipped wrenches. 

On our excursion to the remote southeast corner of Arizona, we stumbled upon the town of Lowell. Located on the south side of Bisbee (another blog post, by the way) and truly teetering on the brink of the Sacramento Pit, an old copper mine, the town boasts an assortment of buildings straight out of the 60's, complete with an old Sprouse Reitz storefront (no longer open, by the way) and various auto-related businesses. Parked on this relic of Main Street, USA are a number of cars, as though time had stopped and the dust of the desert came in and settled on the steel.

A 1959 Chevrolet Impala with the distinctive horizontal fins - one of my favorite cars of that era. Note the old gas pump on the sidewalk

Lowell has the appearance of a street in the 60's where people parked their cars and then...disappeared. First founded in the late 1890's as a town to support the Lowell Mine, the first businesses were a pair of saloons and a livery stable in 1910. Over time the town grew to include the usual accompanying businesses such as brothels and boarding houses.

The main drag through town in Erie Street, perhaps the best example of mid-century architecture, largely preserved through the "Lowell Americana Project" made up of volunteers who paint, repair and provide much of the accessories reminiscent of the era. 

What could be more representative that a caddie and a gas station? It does seem fitting, since the 1957 Cadillac Coupe de Ville was notorious for drinking gas like it was soda pop. Shell was also nostalgic for me, since my dad worked for Shell as an engineer in the late 40's and 50's, and Shell was my first credit card.

What speaks more of the open road and travel than an old Greyhound Scenicruiser, ca. mid-50's? I'm guessing that's a ca.1940 Chevrolet under the Texaco sign...let me know if you discover otherwise.

Lowell kinda dried up in the late 50's when mining slowed down, and the open pit to the north encroached into Erie Street. Most businesses and services moved to neighboring communities and the relocation of the highway (because of the pit) sealed the demise. It's largely the volunteer efforts of private individuals that help keep this reminder of our past alive and available to visit.