Dartmouth Woods Have Multiple Abandoned Cars

Taking a stroll down one of the many beautiful trails at Dartmouth's Destruction Brook Woods last summer, I came across a car. Odd place to find a motor vehicle, no? In the middle of the woods? I made it a point to inquire about how it got there. I remembered this week.

What I found interesting is that the car is sandwiched between trees, there is vegetation growing inside the vehicle, and if you study the photo, you will see that the car's tires are partially buried in the soil. Those are indications it has been there a while. Brilliant!

Maybe it's my training as a reporter, but several questions immediately entered my mind after stumbling upon all of this. How did this car get here, who did it belong to, and why was it abandoned in the woods?

Get our free mobile app

Maybe I've seen too many episodes of The Sopranos, but my first thought was that perhaps something, or somebody, was in the trunk. Quickly ruling that out, I wondered if the car had been stolen and dumped here – but then how did they get it so deep into the woods and so neatly wedged between these trees?

I contacted Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust (DNRT), which is responsible for Destruction Brook Woods, and learned that this is not the only abandoned car on DNRT properties.

"There are at least four DNRT properties with cars on them," said Development and Outreach Specialist Kendra Murray. "Although now many of those vehicles are deep in the woods, a lot of these areas might have been cleared or used when the cars were first parked."

That makes sense.

"At Frank Knowles/Little River Reserve, there were multiple homesteads, and much of the land near the old foundations was clear," she said, adding that the cars "were likely dumped/parked very close to the homes, and everything else around it has since filled in."

Yet some are still a mystery.

"At other reserves, including Destruction Brook Woods, the cars are in areas where we don't really know how (or) when they got there," she said.

I don't know about you, but I'm not ruling out aliens just yet!

Walking in the woods is fun, and it's healthy. DNTR has many great trails to explore, and they are pet-friendly.

It's not all that uncommon to find things in the middle of the woods and then wonder, how the heck did that get here? What are some things you might have found in the woods that have left you scratching your head? I'm not referring to mosquitos, either.