I'm surprised!

[Rich Bingham]

Here's a photo of a lineup of early Ts taken on West Center St. in Pocatello, Idaho, date unknown. Our members can doubtless identify the year of the Ts, and whether that's an "N", "R", or "S" at the end if the row.

I'm surprised to see evidence of so many early Ts in southeast Idaho. There certainly didn't seem to be any survivors when we began hunting rust and relics back in the early 1960s.

[Hap_Tucker]

Rich,

Great photo. If you have a higher resolution version please post it. The forum can take a 300 mb or so photo.

The far car is a 1908 Model S Roadster. That was the only N, R, S or SR model that had the metal cowl around the firewall.

The Model T's that I can see clearly have a bill on the front fenders. That was introduced around car #2500. [Ref: https://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/1909.htm "No bill on front [fender] first 2500ish. Bill added on front. [after first 2500ish].

Those same Model T's that are easy to see - do NOT have the cross bar in the lower part of the radiator. That was added "About mid-year, 1910, a number of modifications were made, including a higher filler neck and the addition of the support bar across the lower part of the radiator core." Ref: https://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/P-R.htm#rad

That would date the photo sometime after Apr 29 - May 4 1909 (end of the water pump engines -- ref page 481 Bruce McCalley's "Model T Ford." ) to About mid-year 1910.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

[Rich Bingham]

Thanks Hap !!

[Will_Vanderburg]

Pocatello Electric is now in a corner building at 258 N. Main Street. The part of the building it occupies in the above picture is no longer there.

A. B. Bean Hardware Company is next door. A. B. Bean was mayor of Pocatello in 1894 and I believe again in 1899. The first mayor was Edward Stein, grandson of Baron von Stein, who was commander in chief of the Prussian Army during the Napoleonic Wars.

[Rich Eagle]

I see Pocatello Electric Supply Co. behind the cars. H.G. Shafer opened the original store at 340 W. Center St. in Old Town 117 years ago in 1902. This is near that spot but little remains the same. The business survives on North Main now.

I suppose scrap drives and early repurposing took most of the brass era stuff. It is encouraging to see that many on the street in that photo.
Rich
Maybe this looks more like it.

[Marshall V. Daut]

In 1969 I drove from Iowa to California to visit my grandmother in Santa Ana. I followed I-80 to Denver and then instead of heading south - as I should have done - I drove west from Denver through the mountains. The journey took me through Idaho and LOTS of winding mountainous roads. Beautiful, but it took forever to get across the state. As I am always craning my neck looking for parked/abandoned antique cars, I happened to notice behind a gas station in Cisco, Idaho, a field full of abandoned Model T Fords, mostly touring cars. There was one very sad '28-29 Model A Phaeton, but the other 15-20 derelicts were Model T's. Not being interested in Model T's until 1978, I only walked through the graveyard of Fords. Not my cup of tea back then. The drive trains had mostly been removed and I presume repurposed, possibly in local mines. So, the majority of the T's consisted of bodies with doors and top irons, with fenders, hoods and other sheet metal parts strewn all around. I didn't know squat about Model T's then (maybe I still don't?), so I couldn't identify the years of the bodies. It was just neat to see so many abandoned antique Fords in one place like that. I wonder if some of them appeared in the photo of Pocatello posted above? I also wonder how all these cars came to their final place of resting in this desert-like field. Who put them there and why? I imagine in the dry Idaho air, the bodies might still be o.k., if they haven't been picked over or removed by now.
No, I didn't take any photos because i didn't own a camera at the time. Rats!
Marshall

[Hap_Tucker]

You are welcome Rich.

Marshall,

Wouldn't it be fun to run across another "field of dreams" today? Model T Haven is a larger version and of course Mark is supplying parts to the hobby so he is always adding and subtracting from his field. See his "back lot photos" at https://vintagecarsandparts.com/the-back-lot Rich Eagle posted the photo below from the 1960s.

1960s Rich Eagle - bodies.jpg (63.09 KiB) Viewed 3003 times

Note if the Model T bodies you remember had rusty looking panels -- then the bodies would not have been from the 1909-1910 bodies from the picture above. Most of the 1909-1910 bodies were wood construction with some metal body irons. None of them used the steel panels. Some of the early style bodies made by Beaudett from around Mar 31, 1909 car # 2,026 (ref page 480 Bruce McCalley "Model T Ford") to around Sep 20, 1909 car #10,601 (ref page 485 McCalley) looked very similar to the wooden bodies, but they were covered with aluminum panels so they would not have any rusty body panels either. Beaudett, also produced the more common wooden body during that same time frame. To my knowledge all the other body makers supplying Ford only produced the wooden style bodies during that time.

As late as 1970 or so, there were still bodies or parts of Ts out in fields in and around North Louisiana where I lived. The trash heaps and piles of scrap metal on old farms in the 1960s & early 1970s would be considered a treasure find by some of us today. But back then they were often only considered in the way unless scrap metal prices went up. I bought a restorable 1926-27 touring body with all 4 doors and very little rust out back around 1971 for around $5 or $15 dollars. I had to purchase it quickly as the owner was going to put a dam across a stream and turn a low spot into a pond. He wasn't going to fool with moving that old car body which would have been submerged at the bottom of the pond.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

[Rich Bingham]

. . . The part of the building it occupies in the above picture is no longer there . . .

The entire half of that block west of the alley is no longer there. I should know but don't remember when the old buildings were razed for a new structure and parking lot which housed the US Bank (now indefinitely closed). The old wooden building that shows near the end of the line of cars, and the rest of the block east to North Main are still there.

[Rich Eagle]

Idaho has been a gold mine for old T parts. Rich B. and I drug as much T stuff home as we had room for. The dry climate was good to them except for 3 or 4 inches that sat on wet ground. The best find was a 20s touring body that sat upside down along a river. The lower portion was very nice including the lower half of the upholstery. Chassis made into hoover wagons were quite common. Even '15 parts seemed to show up. A couple friends found enough to build '13s and '14s. Now there are homes and highways built over the best picking spots.
As for the 1909 to 1912 parts a hood former for a '09 or '10 is all I ever found. I was in a junk yard with very little pre 40s remnants. Though the small percentage of early Ts built suggests there should be more survivors in Idaho, they were still expensive and most locals couldn't afford cars during the brass years. I mentioned a 1903 Rambler and a 1908 REO in a different post that survived here and the photo of the T's show they were here. Just not in the overwhelming numbers that followed in the late teens and the twenties.
Rich

[Norman Kling]

About 25 years ago after I had bought my first T, a 26 Roadster, I was looking for a rim spreader for the split rims. I was on the way from San Diego to Tacoma, so all along the way, we stopped at antique stores and looked at their old tools. When we got to Grants Pass Oregon I told the proprietor what I was looking for, and he told me about a place about a mile out of town where a man had many Model T's. We went to see him and in the acre around his home were many bodies of Model T's and chassis, fenders etc. Then inside the barn were the engines, transmissions, and rear axles. I asked him if he had the tool, he said, "No, but he knew of someone who did, down in Brookings." So we got to Brookings and found one on which the handle had been brazed. We continued up the coast and at Tillimok, we actually found a good one at an antique store! I wonder what happened to that acre of Model T's?
Norm

[Marshall V. Daut]

Hap -
Are you SURE that photo wasn't taken in my backyard in Phoenix? ?? That's what it looked like until a neighbor's realtor selling his house complained to the City that my backyard was stifling any sale. It "turned off potential buyers", so read the formal complaint. I had to clean everything out. The house didn't sell for three years after that. Yup - it had been my backyard full of antique cars that had frustrated real estate sales all along.
Marshall

[Rich Eagle]

Just a couple more. We should have taken more pictures but were too busy sorting out what we might use.

[TRDxB2]

In 1969 I drove from Iowa to California to visit my grandmother in Santa Ana. I followed I-80 to Denver and then instead of heading south - as I should have done - I drove west from Denver through the mountains. The journey took me through Idaho and LOTS of winding mountainous roads.............I happened to notice behind a gas station in Cisco, Idaho, a field full of abandoned Model T Fords, mostly touring cars.......

Marshall, I am always intrigued with such stories about Model T's left in the field and with Google Maps its fun to see if any are still there. In checking there was no Cisco Idaho but Cisco Utah which was West of Denver and would have taken you towards Santa Ana. I-70 was not completed at the time. Turns out that Cisco UT was the film location for several movies Vanishing Point (1971), Thelma and Louise, and Don't Come Knocking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco,_Utah
I-70 has since made it a Ghost Town. I found two Gas stations - nothing behind either one.

[Marshall V. Daut]

Oops! You may be correct! Good grief! All these years I have been telling people this Model T cache was in Idaho! I sure hope no one took off looking for those T's based upon my story! Now you know why I flunked Geography in high school.
Marshall

[StanHowe]

You might be surprised at how much is still out there if you know where to look!! True, probably not like it used to be but there are some pretty good stashes of stuff.

One thing we are concerned about in Montana --- the Californians and other self righteous that are moving in here want everything pristine and photogenic. They don't care if it was your Grandfather's truck or an old pickup you only use during haying season for a fuel wagon. They want it all gone. The richer ones run for the legislature and get elected, then they introduce bills to remove all non licensed vehicles from properties etc.

They tried one several years ago, I got an early morning call from a friend at the legislature (I live in the state capital) that such a bill was coming out of bill draft later that day. I got on the phone and the Internet including to a friend that has about 400 restored and original cars (stored inside) and about 1500 (stored outside) But he has about 33,000 acres under one fence, you can't see any of the cars unless you drive several miles to get in there and then you would have to know where they are.

Let's just say he was on the phone and ready to fly to Helena and go tune a couple people up. I got a call from the idiot that was going to introduce the bill that afternoon saying that "Due to overwhelming opposition she had withdrawn the bill."

But it or one like it will be back.

[kmatt2]

Stan and Marshall,
Here in the Fresno Ca area there is only Turners left of the collector cars parts yards. There are a few others up and down the central valley but over the last ten years or so most have been forced to close by the local politics, the same politics let the homeless camp in tents along the highway right of way.
A few years ago in Tulare County there was someone who had about two acres of fenced land. He had collected 1950's and 1960's cars over the years, cars that would have gone to scrap, maybe 50 to 75 cars total.
No parts were sold off the cars, they all had titles in his name, he only sold a few over the years. The County complained and gave him 30 days to get rid of the cars or go to jail, this in a State that let's people steal $900. Of stuff at a time, no crime, no problem.
The State of California was once known as The Golden State, now it is just the Pyrite State, fools gold !
Kevin in Madera Ca