More Wide View in South Vicksburg (XPan 07)

In the previous two articles, we wandered around downtown Vicksburg with the panoramic Hasselblad XPan camera. This time, let's revisit the delights of the city south of Interstate 20. I have explored Hwy 61 South before, which is lined with industries and some sites worthy of an urban decay chronicler.  

The Tomato Place (30mm lens)

The Tomato Place (30mm lens)

The Tomato Place, at 3229 Hwy 61 South, is a popular lunch stop and vegetable stand. You can also buy local honey, fresh bread, cookies, and other goodies. Nice place! Mallory generously lets me photograph inside. 

Guard shack, Miller Street

The tracks that cross Rifle Range Road are not in the best condition. I thought they were unused until one day, a locomotive trundled up to me and I had to move my tripod. The locomotive was pushing a tank car to the Halcros Chemicals company. I followed this rail line south out of Vicksburg in a 2021 article. It once ran all the way to Port Gibson, but most of the track has been removed.

Here is the little peach-colored store/gas station on Warrenton Road. I do not recall it being open for business.

Fixer-upper truck (45mm ƒ/4 lens)

The junk yard at Rubber Way never fails to please. But it appears to be slightly cleaner than before. Possibly the owner is clearing out the wrecks? Where will I photograph junk cars when it is gone? Quelle horreur!

Thank you all for following along. These are photographs from a Hasselblad XPan camera with its superb 45mm ƒ/4 and 30mm ƒ/5.6 lenses using Kodak Portra 160 film. Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, developed the film and I scanned it on my Plustek 7600i film scanner. I merged the negatives with Photoshop CS6.

The Volkswagen Disposal Yard, Raymond, Mississippi

Raymond is a handsome little town southwest of Jackson, Mississippi. It features an elegant courthouse, historical buildings, and Hinds Junior College. But northwest of town on state Highway 467 is something just as unique: the place where old Volkswagens come to rest (maybe forever). To find it, drive west out of town on Main Street, and just after the Raymond-Bolton Road leads off to the right, look to the right and you will see a field full of mid-century examples of the people's car.



I have never seen anyone there, but a coworker said he occasionally sees a gent fixing a car. Also, every now and then a slightly less beat-up example appears on the grass near the mobile home, so there clearly is some sort of flux of parts and bodies.

Volkswagen Beetles are fun and plenty of folks have a fondness for them. But I'm not sure how many of these examples will ever go to good homes. This is a humid environment, so rust takes its toll.





Look at the Type 412 (the red body) in the third picture. I remember these things. They were introduced around 1973 and only came with automatic transmission for the US market. Volkswagen was ahead of its time with gauging the American public's ineptness to manage complex technology like a clutch pedal (or gauging its laziness). The 412s did not last long in the market.



In the fourth photograph you can see a US-made first generation Rabbit. I never knew why they changed the name from Golf, which was used in the European versions. The Rabbit was pretty crummy because it had been Americanized with a softer suspension, softer seats, and other compromises that took away the fun factor. Unreliability and a tendency to rust didn't help its reputation. But the diesels got 50 mpg in the 1980s.

Update: Please click the link to see a similar Volkswagen yard in Moab, Utah.

Update September 2020: The VW yard has fewer cars in it than before. I do not know if the repair business is still operating. While driving by, I saw only beetles, with no busses or other models.