A week or so ago, I got the latest edition of my Friends of Webster Trails newsletter. It immediately drew me in, because splashed across the top of the first page was a photo of an old, beat-up, rusting car.
I knew immediately where the photo had been taken. The car is actually one of several similarly (or worse) rusted-out cars that hikers will see when they walk the trails at Four Mile Creek Preserve, at the corner of Lake Rd. and Phillips.
I’ve been on those trails several times, and have come to love the old cars. Rather than seeing them as eyesores, their history always intrigued me. I wondered how they could show up in the middle of the woods like that. This one in particular is pock-marked with what look like bullet holes. I liked to imagine it was a get-away car belonging to some gangster who drove into the woods to escape, but who met with an unfortunate end. (The actual story of how the bullet holes got there is probably a lot less nefarious.)
So I was delighted to see the newsletter article explaining where these cars came from. It actually makes a lot more sense than the gangster story.
Trail steward Dennis Kuhn was able to track down some information. He wrote,
The cars were driven onto the property from Lake Road across a bridge that accessed farmland where the cars were last driven. It seems that some local youths decided to create a racetrack somewhat off the beaten path to have some fun cavorting around the open fields that were available at the time. If you traverse the land as it is now, you’ll have to use your imagination to see a relatively treeless landscape that existed sometime in the nineteen fifties or early sixties.
Nevertheless, the youths of the day had a ton of fun going around in circles until they ran out of gas or had a flat tire or wrecked the transmission.
If anyone knows more about the history of these old cars, the Friends would love to hear from you.
I was also excited to read in the newsletter that the Friends are developing a new trail at the State Rd. Nature Preserve, an area of undeveloped land on State Rd. just west of Salt. I haven’t seen a whole lot of details about this yet, but as I learn more about it I’ll let you know.
It continues to amaze me the great job the Friends of Webster Trails are doing maintaining our current trails and developing new ones. These dedicated volunteers bring hours of enjoyment to our community and deserve our continued support.
If you’re not familiar with all of the terrific trails we have here in Webster, check out the Friends of Webster Trails website, then get out there and start exploring. If you ARE already a fan of our trails, please consider dropping $10 for a single membership or $15 for a family. Your donation will go a long way to helping these fine folks help US enjoy our town’s natural beauty for years to come.
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webster on the web 
Looks like one of the cars we had as a kid, But that was on Woodard rd.between Salt and Basket rd. This was back in the mid ’70s