The Dodge - Chrysler - Plymouth Collection

Rust In Peace is a collection of actual photos that were taken and the stories that go along with them while growing up in south central Nebraska as a young man in the 70’s and then traveling the United States with a lust for rust. This Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth page reaches out to the early years as well as the muscle era when we all knew the Chrysler Corporation ruled the roadways with the pavement pounding Hemi’s presented and told by the author Kevin Houtwed as he searched for the impossible over a 40 year period.

1964 Plymouth Barracuda’s

I find it interesting that they say the state of Nebraska was once covered with water and basically was ocean.
I know this is true because of all the fossils they find and we all know you cannot pick up a piece of limestone without there being a fossil of a sea shell in it.
Well, this is proof positive that these 2 barracudas once lived in western Nebraska and more than likely did a little fish tailing of their own in and around the hills and canyons before being marooned on this hillside one day when the fluids that kept them alive receded from their tanks and engine compartments like the tide that never returned, leaving all those sea shells to turn to limestone rock millions of years ago in the great midwestern part of this country we call home. RIP

1970 Dodge Challenger

Remember when these Challengers were running around all over, just like all those other muscle cars and we would say to ourselves, there will never be a day when that thing will be out in the tree line.
Guess what? That day is here and this challenger has been put out to pasture many years ago and remains right were it was last parked out behind a building on a farmyard that is out of site of the passer by that has no idea it would be there.
I always think when I find one like this, how hard would it have been to take care of it and keep it in the best shape possible?
Obviously, not everyone has the building or time to do that with all of them that I find. Also, if everyone had kept them perfect they would not be in such demand today as we would all have the one we had or wanted.
This car could very easily be put back on the road and it it will be one day since the guy that has it says he would part with it.
Bright red, black or white AAR stripes, the right drive train and you too could own the street with this Mopar competition munching pavement pounder. 
It may be a little tired, but even in its sleep I feel a beautiful night mare is in its future for some guy going through the gears swallowing the highway walking away from the guy beside him that has a no idea what this car could be capable of. RIP

1952 Dodge Pickup

I was traveling through Taos New Mexico a while back when I spotted this little Dodge pickup looking like some one probably threw in the towel on it sometime in the early 80’s. Why do you think I am saying the early 80’s? Well, to me the signs of red primer in spots that has all but washed off from the weather and the style of tires and a few things on the interior kind of gave it away for me. It really does not matter when it was parked, the real truth is I am glad someone saved the best they could since these old Dodge trucks are not real plentiful when you are out in the wilds looking and I think the reason for that is Ford and Chevy out sold them and anyone fixing an old truck up through the years would have picked a Ford or Chevy over one like this. I have said forever that you can take the ones that are not that popular through the years and with all the technology and cool new things you can do to them they can roll with the best of them, no matter what make or model. I spoke with a Lady that lived in the house on this property or right next to it, she told me it was not their truck, but she was 100% sure it must not be for sale as someone stops and asks about it on a regular basis. I could have guessed that as it was right out in the open for anyone to see that was driving by on the main highway. At any cost maybe the owner of this truck has plans and those plans do not involve myself or anyone else that stops to ask, or maybe it is one of those that will sit there until the end of time watching the sun come up every morning over those beautiful Rocky Mountains to the east wondering when do I get another chance at a rocky mountain high. RIP

Early last spring I took a two hour drive southwest of Grand Island Nebraska to take a closer look at this fence that was made out of hundreds of early car and truck frames that surrounds a huge ranch that I have been told about for years. 
When I got to the location, I could not believe what I was looking at. There is literally frames from every make and model of cars from very early to later 30's that go for miles around this ranch. 
Where did they come from you ask? 
The family that owned this piece of real estate had one of the biggest salvage yards in this part of Nebraska back in the early years of salvage yards. 
This yard was way before my time and was cleaned up many years ago. 
From the stories I have been told, there was nothing like this place as there was about any kind of car or truck that was ever manufactured parked out there that could be purchased, all or parts. 
How often do you hear the high school jock say, I would give anything to go back to 1969 and show these boys how we played ball and so on. 
Well, let me tell you, while they are going back to play ball or become the genius we all did, I want to go back to this ranch and drive over the hill to see thousands of cars sitting there just waiting for me to come from the future with a check book as thick as a wire tied bale of fresh prairie hay, trucks with trailers lined up from my driveway to this location with every gear head that ever lived ready to load and save all the beautiful pieces of iron artwork that these frames that are now being used for fence posts carried down the road. 
I guess you could say the frames did get saved for something that went to a good cause.  
Could there be steel fence posts on land across the road from this ranch that were made from recycled parts of cars that may have a connection with some of these frames after being recycled multiple times since the 50's and 60's when this fence was put in?
That is a question that is impossible to answer, but one question you may have that can be answered is the fact that this is one time almost every automobile manufacture in America has ties to each other, proving when we all work together, stay straight with each other and not worry about shape, sizes, or holes from our past, we can keep even the meanest bulls on the right side of the fence. RIP

Exact model unknown

This old touring car was found in eastern, Colorado. I believe it to be an early dodge from what is there. 
Now I have think about a car like this and the real thought that is going through my mind is why is it there. This car was miles from any civilization setting out in a pasture with no roads by it, or even close.
So was this car driven out there so many years ago that it was just parked there for some unknown reason and people dismantled it over the years or did someone haul it out there to get the eyesore off the yard?
I would have to believe that back in the day this was placed here, it was not hauled as very few people had trailers to haul cars on in the 30's or 40's when this was junked.
So that leaves me to believe it was either pulled to its final resting spot or driven and pulled apart after it was parked and then the wait started for all those years for a person to come along and take this, maybe first and for sure last picture of it before it slithered into the ground one rust flake at a time.
Think of the memories that are associated with a car like this during its life as a form of transportation. You know there was little kids that rode in it in all types of weather along with adults battling the heat and cold to get back and forth to their destinations. 
90 years from now is there going to be a 2016 Cadillac Escalade sitting in a pasture somewhere completely dismantled like this? 
It would be so fun to be able to take a pile of pictures of this car and stack them and fan them like a cartoon and have it all come back to life and tell you how it ended up where it did, who drove it and the many lives it may have touched.
At any cost I am giving it another chance to be seen by thousands of people. Think about that for a minute, through this web site more people could see this car than anyone ever has since it was manufactured, driven and parked for nearly 100 years. RIP

1940 Dodge Truck

In the dead of winter, I went on a trip up through Montana to sell product for my business and search for high country rust.
Well, I had a problem, in most cases I could not get off the road or walk into any places since the snow was too deep every where.
I did find a few that I could access close to the road and this old Dodge was one of them. 
Sitting southwest of Roundup was this old Dodge that looked as if someone parked it there 30 or 40 years ago and then used it for a place to pile iron and boards around since.
It is really a pretty straight old truck for what it is. So many times in the past we have all walked right by one like this looking for that Ford or Chevy, but the way people are fixing these up now, I would be perfectly happy with this truck.
I am sure it spent a lot of time on the farmyard doing its daily chores and always being ready for its owner to hit the starter and go, just like it is now, waiting for the right guy to talk its owner out of it and get started to let it roll down those big sky highways one more time. RIP

1931 Dodge Sedan

I found this 1931 Dodge sedan in a pasture a few miles north of Franklin, Nebraska a few years ago just resting on a slope completely hidden from any body being able to see it from the road. 
These are the type of finds that will always be out there. You have to get out where they cannot be seen from any roads.
Now this probably is not the kind of car that anyone is going to haul in and spend tons of money on, but it sure is fun to find one like this that I am 100% sure has never had its picture taken. 
Think about it, every man who was there in the factory the day it was made has been laid to rest. The person who drove it has more than likely been laid to rest. The person who put it in its present location is probably resting in a nursing home. I gave you this picture so the rest of the world could see what very few will ever see. This whole cars life is about rest. All I can say is Rust In Peace my friend. RIP

1936 Dodge Humpback Delivery

It was the fall of 1995 when a friend of mine from Minden Nebraska asked me to take a day off and go coyote calling with him. 
Well, I did and guess what I called in shortly after getting to our location to try to bring in the mysterious wild dog so many hunt every year? 
This old Dodge delivery truck just popped up in that draw like the most beautiful short haired coyote you ever seen.
For a moment it was too beautiful to raise my cannon and shoot this rare beauty right before me, but like any good hunter wood do, I had to take this shot before another second went by. 
Holding that long barreled lens as still as possible, I vary quietly and slowly took that shot, knowing without a sound or any blood shed I would give this mid thirties delivery another chance to live forever once I got it home and had it mounted to add to my collection of successful hunts I have been on. 
How many calls do you think this old delivery made in that area around the country side back in its day?  
We did not get any coyotes to come in that day, but I will say this, with no tracks leading up to it, no local vacated farmyards, there really was no sign or reason why you would find a beautiful piece of history like this out in that pasture so far from its last delivery waiting to be called in all these years later. 
With the discovery we made that day, I could not think of a better or more successful afternoon being Dodged by the elusive 4 legged friend that led me to deliver this story and beautiful shot I took in that draw that day directly to the people that follow this web site. RIP

1931 Plymouth Business Coupe

When I was in high school I bought this little 3 window coupe from a man in Hebron Nebraska for $3.00. I know you are thinking, why $3.00 for a body like this?
The truth is, the guy that had it really did not know what it was or what it would ever be worth, being only the body and he did not want to ask to much. Remember, we are talking 1979.
I had driven by it a hundred times and just decided one day to stop and ask about it, thinking, everyone in the area has asked and why should I think it is for sale anyway.
The way it turned out, the man told me that hardly no one had ever stopped to ask about it and he was glad I took interest in it. 
The car was one that had been driven by some elder in his family many years before and then taken apart for some reason or another and all that was left was the main body you see in this picture. 
That almost blew me away, that no one had stopped, even back in the early years of my hauling home, the rusty unwanted.
We stood by the body that was sitting in his yard and decided, it has 3 windows, so $3.00 would be a good price as long as I was not just going to junk it out and destroy it.
I paid him and hauled it home, set it on this iron rafter you see here to keep it out of the dirt. Of course, never did anything with it.
One day a guy saw it at our farm and asked what I wanted for it. I told him $30.00. That was simply because it had 3 windows that I thought should be $10.00 each, instead of $1.00 each that I paid for it a few years earlier. 
I have always said the craziest things happen at funerals, weddings, and graduations. I can also add during the sale of an antique car, if you listen while the deal is being done or the story is being told, you will find or hear the craziest thoughts and ideas to why, where or who, that can possibly come down the pike. RIP

Last winter I took a Saturday afternoon and went down to southwest Nebraska along the Republican river and found these cars along with hundreds of others that had been used for river bank erosion control somewhere back in the 60's and probably early 70's.
As I walked along that bank that cold winter day, I could almost hear those cars, some on their last breath as though they had just pulled themselves up from the bottom at the last minute and some that had just given up knowing this is where I will spend eternity, begging me or some other person to take one last part from them and let at least one small organ from their body make another shine that was lucky enough to be kept in the hands of someone that cared enough to keep it from an early grave like these cars and trucks met up with back when all they were worth was landfill.
It really does look like they are reaching out holding on to any limb or mound of dirt they can grab to keep from slipping away into a frozen for sure death. Maybe that is how I feel they are still alive in one form or another. 
It would be like walking through an orphanage back in the 30's or 40's and trying to pick out that one special little kid you want to take home, you know they all wanted to be picked just like these cars wanted to be taken to a good home before they got to old and just left to the elements. 
A few months back I had a man walk into my office and sit down and told me about how he ended up in central Nebraska.
As a young boy he was left in an Orphanage 3 miles south the Canadian border in Montana sometime in the late 1930’s. 
A family from Lawrence Nebraska had decided to drive their brand new 1941 Ford sedan to that Orphanage in Montana to pick out a child to adopt. As he told me this story I could not believe someone would drive that far back in 1941 to pick a little boy out of an orphanage. Lets be realistic the town was around 1,125 miles from Lawrence Nebraska and it was 1941. Just stay with me and you will understand why they headed that way.
He told me that the kids always new when someone was coming and were told to be on their best behavior and look their best.
Guess what? that was his day. That family adopted him and took him outside to head out to start his new life as a young man that was going to be from Nebraska instead of Montana. He could not believe when he got outside and saw this brand new 1941 Ford car sitting there waiting to take him back to Nebraska. 
He was sure it was all a dream. But as they were leaving they explained to him they were on their way up into Canada to find a long lost Uncle that was getting very old and that they needed to see him before it was too late.
He told them that was fine, but when do I get to see my new home in Nebraska? Soon enough the father replied, but you need to meet this man we are going to see, as he has been a bear hunter and trapper all his life and basically lived off the land in the back woods of northern Alberta, Canada.
They traveled for hours and came to a small town in Alberta where they stopped to stay the night. The next morning would bring the hike to this old mans cabin a reality for this young man that had hardly ever even seen a bird fly over let alone a true mountain man living like Grizzly Adams out in the wilds.
As they left the motel they drove for about 30 minutes to a very remote area on a road that was barely passable by this brand new 41 Ford. 
They came to a stopping point where they all got out and headed up a little trail that was a little more than 1 1/2 miles back in the woods. There they were welcomed by the man this little boy had been told about. 
6' tall, wooly and very rough with his language, that old man greeted them and was very glad to see the family he was sure had forgotten him years ago and meet his newest member to that family.
He kind of scared me at first the old man sitting in my office told me, but by the end of the day they had became buddies and I realized he just was not used to being around a lot of people, let alone a 5 year old kid. 
There was hides and hunting equipment hanging all around this cabin and its surroundings. It was really something to see, when I think back about it, he said. It really was just like the movie Jeremiah Johnson that stared Robert Redford back in the late 60’s he told me.
Later in the years, that family received a letter from the local authorities that the old man had been found dead at his cabin area and they needed to come up and collect his possessions.
When they got there, the old man had left a note that he wanted all his traps to go to the young man he met and was so impressed with that day back in 1941. That was me he told me sitting across from my desk.
To this day that 5 year old boy that was chosen at the orphanage that day still lives in Lincoln Nebraska and has 11 of those huge grizzly bear traps you see from time to time and other smaller traps and odds and ends, that the old mountain man left him years ago.
Like the steel in those traps that obviously trapped many bear along the streams of Alberta Canada, to be traded or sold for their hide, this dirt, ice and water has these beautiful old bodies trapped in the banks of that river in southwest Nebraska that will eventually hide their steel forever. RIP