Head north from Atlanta and, eventually, you will stumble upon a rusty signboard reading “The world’s oldest junkyard.” Step inside this North Georgia forest, and you will find a 34-acre compound with rows upon rows of mostly rusted American cars, trucks, vans, and even school buses. You have reached Old Car City, the world’s largest classic car junkyard. There’s a lot more to Old Car City than its collection of over 4,000 cars, some of them dating back to the 1930s. Old Car City aside, there are some cool junkyards across America, like a Porsche junkyard in North Carolina. Or a 10,000-car pick-and-pull in Phoenix, Arizona.
Old Car City is now an open-air museum situated on 34 acres of forested land — a haunting piece of American car history — and a place where nature and cars have become intertwined. The place so huge that it takes several hours to walk through it all. The unique nature trail inside Old Car City costs $30 per person. Some degree of fitness is required for attempting to check out all the cars here. Before we talk more, let’s begin with where it all started.
Store to museum
The story began in 1931, when the Lewis family opened a general store selling everything from clothing to gasoline and car parts. The switch to the salvage business came courtesy of World War II. The war brought scarcity and a shortage of rubber and metal, as most available resources were devoted to military expenditures. Identifying a need in the market, the Lewis family turned their general store into a salvage yard, where they would bring in scrap cars to sell their parts.
There wasn’t always a huge amount of cars on the lot. In fact, in the ’70s, the number of cars stood at just 40, growing exponentially since then. It was the world’s largest classic car junkyard until current owner Dean “Mayor” Lewis decided to stop selling salvage parts and convert the entire lot into a museum. It is a one-of-a-kind museum where you walk around nature and rusted cars feel like art installations. In a lot of places, there are trees growing through the cars. When you park cars in one place for over 30 years, Mother Nature does take over.
Dean Mayor Lewis
When you own a place like Old Car City, it’s only natural that you be called Mayor. Mayor Walter Dean Lewis grew up around his parents’ salvage yard business, spending his life around classic cars and trucks. So, when he inherited Old Car City from his parents, Dean had a plan to save and preserve cars rather than sell off their parts. Over the years, Dean spent a lot of time and money buying crashed and junk vehicles to add to his collection. He’d buy from everywhere and everyone — individuals, salvage auctions, even recycling yards…