How long do you suppose that milk was going to last without refrigeration?
Friday, January 02, 2026
1974, Cape Lookout, South Carolina Outer Banks. Just another example of rich people (state banking commission) with insider information scamming the govt for millions, 1.869 Million to be exact (in 1973 dollars)(lifelong friend of the state senator, chairman of the state senate committee of natural resources)
According to the article in the New York Times, locals would buy old, cheap cars, put oversized tires on them, and drive them on the islands because transporting four-wheel-drive vehicles was difficult and expensive.
There were no cops, and so there was no registration needed, so the vehicles were simply left when they died, becoming part of the landscape.
I can verify from life experience that poor people do not pay to have dead cars taken to junkyards.
Karen Duggan, a park ranger assigned to Cape Lookout National Seashore. “I’ve even seen a picture of a Duesenberg out there. When the cars got stuck or no longer ran, they just left them there.”
the Historic Resource Study prepared in 2010 for the NPS confirms that a sizable tract of land near the lighthouse and the Cape was bought for speculative purposes by Charles Reeves, Jr., a local entrepreneur, who had plans for a marina, hotels and airfield
He laid out plans for a sizable second-home development and eventually sold his land for $6500 an acre, which doesn't sound like too bad a price but was probably pretty good for undeveloped rural property in this area. Before the park was created it probably was worth less than 1% of that price.
This rich landowner collected hundreds of junkyard cars, as a beach stabilizer (rip rap) to build up the dunes near his property.
A lot of locals thought he was just making a show of wanting to develop his property to jack up the purchase price when the government bought it for the new National Seashore.
In 1966 the Federal government established the Cape Lookout National Seashore, a fifty- fourmile stretch of the Outer Banks from Portsmouth Island to Cape Lookout.
A passenger ferry from Harker's Island visits Cape Lookout, but beyond that there are only a few small launches such as the one from Davis serving the area.
All food, ice, tanks of propane gas, gasoline for beach vehicles and the vehicles themselves must come over in those launches, which can handle only one car at a time. For this reason, an incredible series of automobile graveyards exists on the Core Banks.
Like nearly all national park areas in the eastern United States, CALO was carved out of privately owned lands rather than out of the comparatively trackless public domain on which most early western parks had been mapped. While most of the permanent residents of the islands had already left by the time the National Seashore was created, protracted land-acquisition conflicts with major property owners like the Core Banks Gun Club and with individuals who owned fishing or vacation cabins remind us that creating the national parks, especially in the east, superimposed Park Service-defined landscapes on vernacular ones.
This May 1971 article states that cars were abandoned here due to the 15 dollar each way fee by the ferry, and the car owners opted to abandon the cars and save 15 bucks
By 2013, the round trip ferry price was 80 dollars
https://boysontheedge.com/documents/
It's conjecture, but based on human nature, nothing out of the ordinary to say that the locally rich, making friends with the famous tourists, encouraged more rich out of towners to visit, and be guests (everyone loves to hang with a celebrity, Babe Ruth, Sam Snead, Bob Timberlake and many politicians were guests.)
Franklin Roosevelt visited the Lodge (where the Mott family found rest and refuge from their strenuous European travels and social obligations) owned by Jordan Mott, son of the inventor of the anthracite coal stove, (one time Mayor of NYC) friend of the Czar of Russia and the German Kaiser, as well as Roosevelt, a titan of industry. https://cabinculturesobx.com/jordan-l-mott-iii-177/ (image above, FDR getting into an ox cart at Mott's Lodge)
and here's one factual story of how that came to be part of the Outer Banks:
Due East of Shell Point of Harkers Island, Edwin Binney built his camp. Binney, the inventor of crayons, developer of effective black-wall tires, won medals at the World’s Fair and was an avid sportsman.
His daughter, Dorothy, flew with Amelia Earhart on several record-making flights. Their friendship severed as Earhart came to later marry Dorothy’s spouse.
Charles A. Seifert, owner of the Coca- Cola franchise in New Bern, N. C., bought two lots from the Cape Lookout Development Company in 1927 and is thought to have built the present house the following year. His brother David owned a Coca- Cola franchise in Roanoke, N. C., and he may also have had a role in the building’s development and use over the years. Historically, the house was painted red and white and almost from the beginning was given the moniker, “Coca- Cola House” or “Coca- Cola Building.”
So, that's how I spent my last 2 hours, unintentionally discovering more uber rich cabin culture, starting with a post on Rip Rap, the "Camp/Cabin culture" following recent posts on the Adirondack Cabins, and the Marquette private escape, and the Georgia quail hunting, ending with a 66 Impala commercial, and feeling like I made an episode of Connections with James Burke
Did you ever hear of the Great Molasses Flood of Boston, a 25 foot high wave moving at 35 mph? It's the reason simple basic fundamentals of engineering ought to be taught in public school, so the basics of applied engineering are commonly understood
On Jan. 15, 1919, a wood tank (similar to railroad water tanks, and roof top tanks, but the size of a tank farm that holds oil or gas) that contained more than 2 million gallons of molasses ruptured (due to making it too damn large instead of simply making more smaller ones) killing 21 people and injuring more than 100 others.
It destroyed buildings, killed animals and coated everything in the vicinity of the tank with a suffocating and hard-to-remove layer of the sticky substance.
Thursday, January 01, 2026
here's a strange one, a Gerlinger lumber loader straddle, also called a straddle carrier or straddle lift truck, that seems to be half size
the people have spoken before, and made it clear. We won't put up with higher taxes, and higher charges. Robin Hood showed us the way, destroy the machines and make it too damn expensive for cites to high tech us to poverty. Boston tea party San Diego edition
https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=robin+hood if you weren't reading the blog back when the New Hampshire Robin Hood parking meter news was posted
These meters are $2.50 an hour for a maximum stay of up to four hours, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily.
This even screws over all the residents in that area... yeah, there are thousands of people in the area that don't have garages to park in, and must park on the streets. That's about 11k a year
Of course, lets not forget, they are living in multi-million dollar houses, and can move. These are people driving Benz and Porsches
Oh, and all the cost hikes, and new taxes, and etc etc are because the City burned through cash like lighting it on fire in a gasoline and oxygen tank pit would cure cancer. I've posted about the 12 dollars an hour downtown parking fees now, around the area where people park to get to the downtown ball park for baseball or concerts
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