# A Minor Mystery-Why? (Junk in the park) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727 "2014-01-02T19:21:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/1 "2014-01-02T19:21:33Z")
I live next to a 44 acre woodland park. While walking through the woods, I came across some junk that some nitwit discarded. It was: -a Chevy 350 short block -next to it, a GM automatic transmission (without bell housing) -about 40 feet away, a 1970’s Chevy driver side door-missing the glass All items must have been there for years-the block has plants growing in it. My question: why did somebody go to the trouble? You could sell the block for scrap…and the site is about 400 feet from a road-and short block is pretty heavy. Pretty disgusting behavior-and irrational, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/2 "2014-01-02T19:30:06Z")
I find things like this on trail runs, also hundreds of feet from the road. I know that a couple of the parks I run in used to be private land; farms, to be precise. I assume that the auto/tractor parts/buckets/old shovels were dumped there years and years ago by the landowner. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/3 "2014-01-02T19:42:33Z")
So, you reckon those ancient Sumerians etc were just disgusting and irrational? If it wasn’t for people dumping their shit we wouldn’t have archaeologists. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/4 "2014-01-02T20:45:20Z")
serious resistance training. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/5 "2014-01-02T20:52:52Z")
Kids? When I was a kid, I used to find all sorts of cool junk in a dump near a farm and drag bits of it off elsewhere in the woods. I have no idea why ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/6 "2014-01-03T01:57:04Z")
Just because there’s no easy access now, it doesn’t mean you couldn’t drive into the spot 20 or 30 years ago - maybe someone just drove in off the road? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/7 "2014-01-03T03:38:17Z")
It’s done by the organizations like the UK’s [Bedstead Men](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM-yIBVEgF4). ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/8 "2014-01-03T18:12:02Z")
Its kinda interesting to watch these artifacts decay. the door is still unrusted-but the plastic panel (inside) is deteriorating indo chalk-like dust. the fabric and foam [adding is all rotted away, but the chrome plated parts still look new. Like I say, it took some work to tote these items into the woods, and they could have been sold for a few bucks. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/9 "2014-01-03T20:09:46Z")
A year ago, I found various parts of a car from the 60’s in the woods of a state park, along with other assorted junk - parts of a stove, a pitchfork with a tree grown partway around its tines, part of an engine from what I think was a tractor, and more Grain Belt bottles than I could count. They are all originally from 40+ years ago, when the area was homesteads. (Every farm has a “junk pile” of some sort. This junk pile was apparently just left as is when the area become state property.) I’ve been told I could probably get a few hundred bucks for the hood and trunk of the car - almost enough to make it worthwhile dragging heavy metal objects from the woods! Another interesting wrinkle is that I grew up in this park. The state used to allow DNR officers and their families to live in the park. Both of the old houses there are gone - not decayed, but moved, somewhere. But you can still see where they used to be, though it is overgrown. So, in addition to the 40+ year old homestead residue, there is residue of 20+ year old residences as well. We didn’t leave any junk piles, of course, but there’s still the slab where the greenhouse was, and a slowly-rotting bench in the field where there used to be a front yard. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-mystery-why-junk-in-the-park/677727/10 "2014-01-03T23:40:07Z")
Once on an Audubon hike near Los Lunas we found several old concrete sewer pipes near the Rio Grande. They had graffiti such as “Love is a psychopath.” We figured many a make out session went on there at night.