The Mysterious ’51 Hudson

We’re thinking there’s an interesting story connected to the old car seen in this post. Here’s a rare ’51 Hudson found alongside a disused road deep in the Rockies, something we discovered by chance. We were looking for one thing and found another! Given the remote location, it may not have been dumped here deliberately as they did in the old days when a car became old or troublesome. Instead, a crash could be a solid possibility. After all, it’s near the bottom of a steep grade, right before a brutal hairpin.

Our interest has been piqued!

Now the work begins. First it’s a search of newspaper archives, a long and exhausting process. Surely if an accident, there must have been an account? Right? It doesn’t come quickly and almost overlooked, it’s a tiny byline in some rag probably added as filler. Could it be? Some calculations are done and I think we have a hit…said cautiously.

The car seen is a Pacemaker and it’s the base line Hudson of the era. Never sold in big numbers it’s an uncommon beast then as now, with some thirty five thousand made that year.

Certain Hudsons were assembled in Canada in the period 1950-1954, so it’s possible this could be one of them. If so, that’d make it even more rare, in that output for use here was quite small. We’re not sure if the 35k quoted earlier includes those produced in Canuck-a-chuck, but how ever you slice it, you don’t see these often.

Hudson was one of the smaller makes of the time, an “independent” and after struggling for years merged with rival Nash to form American Motors in the mid-’50s. Late model Hudsons have rather unique styling, quite bulbous (bloated?) in form with the rear wheels enclosed by fender skirts. These design elements don’t stand out in this state, as they would otherwise. It’s not a bad looking car, but perhaps seems odd to those used to the offerings of the Big Three.

The rear axle is missing and while we looked around in case it fell off when the car tumbled down here, we came up empty. The tires are similarly gone, but perhaps these and he axle were salvaged or scavenged at some point? Otherwise it’s fairly intact. Drive it off! No money down!

When finding cars like this in the woods, the “why” is usually easily explained. In the era, the easiest way to dispose of an unwanted ride was to shove it over an embankment down some backroad and forget about it. We see examples of this all the time and while they did this might seem audacious to us all today, it’s how they rolled. Tip: when looking at history it’s best to view through the lens of the day.

We don’t think the aforementioned scenario applied here. That the car is so far from the nearest town, or any signs of civilization, questions the possibility. No one would go through the trouble of bringing it to such an out of the way place to dump it. Would they?

I guess a terminal mechanical issue at this point could be considered, with the car then shoved over the edge and abandoned. It seems a long shot though.

The old road beside further suggests a crash. The car’s near the bottom of a long steep hill, right before a sharp bend and it doesn’t take much imagination to guess what could have played out. Was the driver inattentive or was there a mechanical issue causing them to loose it on the hill? Further, did that include them bailing to the side before things got worse? Know this: at that corner just down-slope there’s a precipitous drop down to a river on one side. At that point the road’s no more than a narrow ledge and scary at the best of times.

With that said, one would surely pinball off one the far side and tumble down to certain death if they made it that far sans control. Hitting the ditch ahead of this would be the preferred option, even if it’d hurt.

While this in itself is not overwhelming evidence of what happened, it’s backed by this little snippet from a 1955 newspaper account:

XXX of Calgary apparently slid on the gravel off the road on the XXX at mile XXX just above XXX. His automobile was a total loss and he was taken to the XXX Hospital with minor injuries.

The sensitive location means we have to blank out some details.

It’s not much, but the location mentioned is intriguing and carefully measuring puts the wreck extremely close to where stated in the article. We’re talking within plus or minus a percent or two. The rest of the old road around here is pretty benign in comparison, but this hill’s another story and if something bad were to happen, it’d be along this stretch.

Too bad the car make is not named as it would seal the deal.

Why the vehicle was never salvaged strikes us as odd, but in the old days they didn’t concern themselves much with environmental things.

The date range and other factors are all contextually right, so while it fits, it’s still sparse information, so we’ll not declare it a sure thing, but instead plausible. We looked for descendants of the person named in the newspaper account, but as of publication, have not made a connection.

A dealer’s sticker helps add to the story. Car Strip was based out of Calgary and operated from about 1954 into the mid-1960s. They had a number of outlets and appeared to be a big player in the used car market. A search shows them advertising almost every day in the Herald and their listings suggest a huge number of vehicles on their lot. This particular Hudson did not show up in any ads we scanned, although we did see other examples of this make offered by the same dealer. There was a real Farmer Jonez vibe to the business.

Car Strip’s ad in the Yellow Pages (“A Mile of Values!) includes a provocatively dressed burlesque dancer and pole. If nothing, used car dealers have always been a classy bunch!

It seems Car Strip was big into the “we finance everyone” market, which of course means their lots were populated with less than desirable vehicles. You know, older models, ones downmarket, orphan (or soon to be orphan) cars, like here, and plain old junk. We saw lots of evidence of that!

So if the crash scenario played out, this car, by virtue that the dealer was only established the year before, means the owner didn’t have it for long. Certain panels, or the entire car, may have been repainted at some point with blue patches seen in hidden places and where damage has occurred.

The bumper on this car shows two pairs of guards of differing size where as most Pacemakers had two inner guards only or four like this but all close to the same size. Even our expert wasn’t sure.

Muddying the waters, we saw a couple restored Pacemakers with a centred trapezoidal shaped grill element (to frame the license plate I suppose) where the inner guards would be. It’s suggested these came from donor cars of other Hudson models as according to the guy spoke with, they were not offered on the Pacemaker line. They told us they would bolt right up if retrofitted, however.

In a mangled state, identifying this car to the model-level was made a challenge, especially considering it’s a marque little know to us. One little detail helped a great deal – on the grill – that being the lamp housings on either side. On the Pacemaker they’re different than any other Hudson, and recall, all their models were quite similar in the grill area. Thank goodness! To experts it’s an easy task, but to clueless us, the nuisances of IDing is a real chore.

Our mysterious Hudson is remarkably intact and the remote location and that it’s in a protected area has no doubt helped. It was weird discovering this find and exhilarating to know we may have an answer to what happened. Could this have been XXX’s ride spoken of in the newspaper? It seems to fit. We sure hope the person came out of it okay, and looking at the car it could have been worse. They probably walked it off…my folks told me this cured most injuries in the old days.

Here’s a useful search query if you want to know more about this make of car: Hudson Motor Company.

Stay tuned as there’s new content always being posted, and it’s awesome!

They’re saying…

”Great photos and research of abandoned buildings and sites.” Micheal Laschowski.

Old cars of all kinds…
River City Classics @ Eamon’s Garage – Then a storm rolled in!
Old Jack’s Collection (1) and Old Jack’s Collection (2) – It goes on forever.
Nash-Nash-Ford – Nash joined with Hudson to form American Motors.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: September, 2020.
Location: Middle of Nowhere, AB.
Article references and thanks: Automotive History Preservation Society, Danny Allpar, Old Calgary Phone Books @ Calgary Library and Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society, and University of Calgary Archives.

In the middle of nowhere, this mysterious wreck.

It may have crashed here.

It’s a base model Pacemaker from 1951.

Scouring old newspapers offers a clue…

…If so, the driver lost it on a hill.

Car Strip: a Calgary dealer.

If it’s the one, the occupant walked (or limped) away.