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Few things get a gearhead more excited than seeing a field full of classic cars and trucks. Whether they’re for sale or not, there’s something about the possibility of all that old iron making it back on the road that lights a fire in us. That’s even more true when you stumble on a motherlode like this hoard somewhere in Missouri, where the Mopars fill not only fields but also one barn after another. There are so many that the owner had to start stacking them on shelves to fit ’em all in.
The collection is detailed extensively on the Auto Archaeology YouTube channel, where you’ll find a playlist of videos showing off the coolest finds. The latest 18-minute upload walks through just a portion of the parked Plymouths, Chryslers, and Dodges from the ’60s and ’70s with a few GM products sprinkled in for good measure. It’s a heyday for people who know their VINs and corresponding spec codes, but you don’t have to be an expert to appreciate the sheer number of machines on display.
All the classic Mopar buzzwords abound in this collection—Six Packs, A12 Super Bees, and so on. If I had a dime for every time I heard the host say “1971 Cuda” then I’d probably be able to afford one of these. Many of them are convertibles, too, painted in iconic colors like Sassy Grass Green. There are more than a few with vibrant interiors, making me really nostalgic for the good old days, even if I wasn’t alive when these cars rolled off the assembly line.
There’s a point where you can see entire cars stacked three deep on heavy-duty shelving, not to mention thousands of parts like hoods, doors, air cleaners, engine blocks and way more. Some people have collections, but this is a hoard in every sense of the term. And it belongs to a couple of guys who told Ryan Brutt, the Auto Archaeology host, that they had “some cars.” When someone downplays what they have like that, you know it’s going to be good.
Now, it’s a little sad that some of these are put away in permanent storage. There’s no way you’re getting to them unless you bust out a telehandler and do a whole lot of digging. But at least they aren’t being crushed, and if there’s any way to index which car has which parts that are still good for use, they can help other machines stay on the road a lot longer. Many of them don’t have engines and it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to get all these machines roadworthy again.
Instead, let’s appreciate it for what it is: A stockpile of Americana that you just don’t see every day. (Or month, or year, or decade.)
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