Photo Credit: Cape Cod Times (https://twitter.com/capecodtimes)

Earlier this week, the South Shore was buzzing about some Jeep excitement down the Cape (Cape Cod for all you Non-New Englanders). A Jeep Wagoneer that had been buried under sand and wood for nearly 40, yes 40, years was going to be removed. This was happening only a little over an hour and half from where we live and since we frequent the Cape a lot in the spring and summer, we were pretty shocked to just find out about this. But apparently, we weren't the only ones! On sunny and unseasonably warm Friday, February 24, 2017, extraction of history took place yards away from crashing ocean waves.

Down in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, sits a little town just south and east of the "tip" of Cape Cod called Truro. Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean is Ballston Beach. Facing the waters and partially covered sand dune sits a very old, somewhat collapsed garage. Over the years (and decades) and with the forever changing tides, winds and seasons, the garage buckled under the weight of the sand, entombing the Wagoneer.            

It wasn't until recently that town officials decided to remove the Jeep from its wooden and sand filled crypt. This wasn't the first time removal of the vehicle was brought up however, in the past, it was left since officials didn't want to disturb the sand dune system. They finally reached an agreement recently to remove it due to rising environmental concerns that went far past dune systems. The Jeep had been garaged since approximately 1978/79 and after a big storm (possibly the catastrophic Blizzard of '78), the dunes began to envelope it and since it wasn't running, there is where it stayed. 

We watched via several live Facebook feeds, including the Cape Cod Times, as a backhoe pulled the rust-covered, mangled pile of history out from beneath the dilapidated garage. The hood and grill were somewhat recognizable but the rest of the Jeep was contorted beyond measures. The actual extraction of the Wagoneer took less than a minute and before the vehicle was torn apart, a few hubcaps and the V8 emblem were set aside to be saved. There was no way any other part of the Jeep was salvageable by any means so the tearing apart piece by piece began and within 10 minutes, the parts were loaded up and driven away.

It's not every day your state digs up a memorable piece of Jeep history. Although we were bummed we couldn't be there for the extraction in person, it was still really cool for something like this to take place, practically in our back yard! 

**Photo Credits go to Cape Cod Times via Twitter and Live Facebook Feed