Tucked away on the outskirts of Fresno, California, Turner’s Auto Wrecking isn’t your average junkyard. Founded in 1960 by Jerry Turner, the family-run business has become something closer to a living museum—a sprawling collection of rusting classics and vintage muscle cars that seem to be waiting for one last joyride.
While many junkyards crush cars into scrap, Turner’s preserves them. California’s dry climate helps keep decades-old steel intact, allowing visitors to wander through rows of relics representing the full arc of American automotive design. “This place isn’t just about parts,” Turner once said. “It’s about stories.” And those stories are everywhere—from the chrome badges to the cracked vinyl seats that once carried families and dreamers across open highways.
Among the treasures, visitors might spot a 1950s Kaiser Manhattan equipped with a rare factory supercharger, or a 1970s Chevrolet Cosworth Vega, one of the sportiest compacts of its era. There’s even a 1930s Ford modified for dirt-track racing, its hand-painted numbers fading but still proud. Elsewhere, a ’69 Mercury Cougar shows the scars of its long service, while a ’54 Willys Jeepster sits like a forgotten soldier from another time…