Photos of auto relics on display

OWLS HEAD — Photographs of automobile relics in John Monroe’s former 20-acre antique auto lot by Susan G. Drinker and Dick Durrance II are on display at the Owls Head Transportation Museum’s Lobby Gallery through Sept. 14.

Monroe’s 20-acre car lot was the destination of buyers from as far away as California and France. People from all over the country came to rely on “Honest John” for supplying low priced used parts and cars. Out buildings were filled to the rafters with engine blocks, axles and transmissions, all of which he moved and stored single-handedly, using only his wheelbarrow. Even his home became a warehouse, with only small aisles between the mountains of parts for him and his cats to pass through.

Over the years his collection grew to more than 3,000 cars, some having been there for 35 to 40 years. Local and traveling car buffs wore paths through the underbrush to each car, and small saplings that spouted in the protection of car bumpers and engine blocks soon grew to full trees.

John Monroe died in 1988, and the cars were removed and the land returned to its more natural setting. It is the photographers’ hope that some of the magic and mystery they found there would be saved by their efforts.