In Northborough, theres a secret resting place for relics that once cruised the highways – The Boston Globe

How did these abandoned cars and trucks from another era get here? The forest is too dense, too rocky, and too hilly to drive a 1953 Oldsmobile 88 two-door coupe to its final resting spot, wedged tightly between trees. And could that 1941 Buick have arrived under its own power? Neither car has wheels.

The cab of a pickup truck intact at the bottom of a hill seems to have somehow found its way here without benefit of any motor, chassis, or doors.

A cemetery of maybe half a dozen vehicles, all seemingly dropped from above, sit in silence, subsumed in varying degrees by a patient but relentless natural world. And all without a hint of explanation as to their presence.

Stepbrothers Allan Bezanson and Don Haitsma, 85 and 86 years old, respectively, know the answers.

Theyd grown up here on Stirrup Brook Farm, a small dairy with maybe 20 cows and a few fields of corn and hay. Farming was hard work, but the boys found diversions when they could. They carved a track into the brush around their fields, where they raced aging automobiles bought on the cheap, even though they werent old enough to have drivers licenses. Farm kids often drive early.

And then, just a few years out of high school, Haitsma bought a used Oldsmobile, an otherwise great car cursed by an infamous transmission. Its reverse gear didnt work.

General Motors designed an advanced automatic transmission, the Hydra-Matic Drive transmission. The companys factory in Livonia, Mich., churned out thousands every day until it went up in smoke in 1953, in one of the countrys largest industrial fires. With no Hydra-Matics available, Oldsmobile had to install inferior Buick transmissions in many of its 1953 models and they had the defective reverse gears.

Haitsma recalled buying the car when it was just a few years old. I didnt have it for too long. Just a couple years. I got really tired of looking for parking places that I wouldnt have to back out of, he said.

Don got so mad at that car he drove it out behind a field and left it there and walked home, Bezanson said. The sleek sky blue coupe was parked for good before the 1960s began.

With a laugh, Bezanson fondly recalled that recurring method of disposing of the cars with his stepbrother. Cars and trucks that were beyond their useful lives wound up dumped behind the field, vandals stripping parts as the elements took their toll.

Before too long, the little dairy couldnt compete with larger operations. Over time, the farmlands were sold off or taken by eminent domain. Nature reclaimed what once had been tilled. A new forest grew up around the cars, 60 years of growth transforming the landscape. Just one field remains, visible from the cars only when foliage has fallen off the trees.

Northborough began carving an impressive trail network through private and town-owned land in 2001, now linked with the Boroughs Loop Trail and nearly 30 miles of paths in Marlborough, Southborough, and Westborough.

The Old Farm Trail named for Stirrup Brook Farm leads hikers right past that Oldsmobile and its rusting brethren, waiting to intrigue the next baffled visitor.

Lane Turner can be reached at lane.turner@globe.com.

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In Northborough, theres a secret resting place for relics that once cruised the highways - The Boston Globe