While poking around the river with my little boys a few nights ago, we found this ancient (by their standards) wreckage poking out of the dirt beneath the cliffs of Double Ditch. What kind of car this might be is indistinguishable to all but the most trained eye. It appears as though it has not only been here a long time, but was also likely buried for an extended period as well. I surmise that the dirt covering it was scoured away by the massive flows of the swelling Missouri River last year.

Plenty of dirt remains caked into the recesses of the engine and what remains of the frame and drivetrain of this artifact of automotive archeology. It just goes to show that nature will eventually reclaim what we leave behind.

I don’t know why people of the last century seemed to think it was a valid idea to pitch their cars into the drink, but it seems that there are a lot of old cars from the 40s through 60s rusting away quietly along the river in various places. Thankfully this practice doesn’t seem to happen often any more. As for the relics that do occasionally appear along the river banks and from beneath the river’s surface, they’re just another noteworthy and even somewhat familiar part of life along the Big Muddy.