Information about the Baker Garage, Baker, CA

[Tim B]

Hi SAAC Members,
I want to ask if anyone knows what happened to the large collection of cars from the Baker Garage in Baker, CA?  I've attached some old photos I took back in about 1993 or 1994.  At that time, there was quite a collection of vehicles, including two or three Shelby's, many Mustangs, and a few other vehicles. 
Thanks for the history lesson.
tim

[Tim B]

more photos

[Tim B]

last photo

[Side-Oilers]

Yep, seen the place a zillion times, but have no idea where the cars went when it closed.

Thanks for the pix. Most of those look pretty rough.

When I was a little kid, en route to Vegas with my parents, I asked my dad why that garage had so many old cars just sitting there.

He said something to the effect of:  "Those are the ones their owners decided were too expensive to fix...by the crooked mechanics with criminally high $$ estimates/bills. So, they just left their cars behind and probably took the bus home."   

I remember hearing about a common desert gas station scam, back in the day: 
A family (or better yet, a woman alone) stops for gas.  Mechanic rushes out to warn them about something like gasoline dripping from under the car (probably just condensation from the A/C system) and that there's no way he can let you cross that big dangerous desert like that.  A couple of hours later, with nothing at all changed (just your wallet, several hundred bucks lighter) and you'd be on your way.

[Bob Gaines]

I only learned recently that Carl Baker had passed, RIP.

[crossboss]

Like Van said, it was like that when I was a kid with the parents going to Vegas. Later, on my own journeys traveling through Baker, only to stop and grab a bite @ Bun Boy (a Big Boy rip off). And off to Vegas...