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I found an interesting picture of 4 Packards near Bath NY. It's www.changjiangunlimited.com/blog-2009.htm then scroll down about 17 pages.

This one

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Hi

Oh, I knew those poor lost Packards. That deposit of mostly V8 models was forty miles from here. I heard about them for years from other car guys, finally located them on the Turnpike Road four miles from Bath. This would be spring 1990. They belonged to a man named Dickinson who lived in Georgia, were stored at his daughter's place. He was involved with the aircraft business and a pilot, had some of the cars "stored" inside a hanger. The day I saw them, it was raining inside that hanger as much as outside. Only a few were borderline restorable even then but showed signs of having been decent original cars at one time. The cars had obviously been there quite a while, were sunk into the soft soil with weeds grown up around them. As anyone who knows what wet earth and vegetation does to wick moisture up into body structures, would know those cars were quickly being turned to parts cars.

Here's the list of what was there:
Inside the hanger:'56 Patrician, black & white 70k miles, '56 400 pink & white 74k miles, '57 Clipper Town Sedan black, and a '54 Clipper sedan, light green.
Outside the hanger: '56 400 pink & white 75k miles, '55 Patrician black & white 69k miles, '55 Clipper hardtop and sedan, '56 Clipper sedan, the last three rough parts cars.
Unfortunately, I didn't get the serial numbers off the data plates, the doors were impossible to open because of junk around them. That and I was soaked by the time I returned to my car. According to the daughter, there were more of "dad's old Packards" scattered out at the end of the grass runway if I wanted to walk out for a look. With the heavy rain I didn't.

I called the owner. It was the same old story, he had bought the cars cheap in the '60's and '70's when he lived in Pennsylvania, liked them for their advanced engineering and ride quality of Torsion-Level. He brought them to New York with him when he transferred to aircraft work in the area. Subsequently, he left to work in Georgia, stored them because there were too many to take with him just then. In the course of the conversation he told me someone had offered him $3,800 for one of the 400 hardtops which was about the price of a nice driveable 400 at the time so it was a typical bogus offer. But he had turned them down because he was about to retire, to be 62 shortly, and was going to "restore all my Packards". I had to suppress the urge to say; "only if you live to be a hundred years old and spend millions". According to other Packard guys in the area, no one who had contacted him had been able to buy any of them.

What happened to them? I drove by the place four-five years later and everything was gone. Again by anecdote, heard the owner came took some of the 'better' ones, sold the rest for junk, which by the time he did, they were completely ruined by weathering and rust. What a shame, some of us would have enjoyed those cars if the owner wasn't so selfish.

Steve

P.S If this is a recent picture, I'd like a general location so I can go look them over and report on them.

The article I read appears to be from 2009, I assume also the pictures.

58, Other than that, you don't remember much?

It is funny how the mind works, I can remember just about everyplace that I have encountered an old Packard in the wild over the last 40 years.

I will sometimes pass one of those places in my travels and remember this is where that 56 400 used to sit rotting away. Or think of the time that a 55 Clipper once was parked here for sale 20 years ago. Or there is where that old bathtub Packard used to be half buried in the riverbank along with a bunch of other cars to keep the erosion under control.

Places like that are getting scarce here in CA now days.

Hi

I remember all the places where I saw Packards parked over the last fifty years, can picture them in my mind. It's odd to think those cars gone that long but still remembered since their existence wasn't anything really important in my life.

The main reason I recall so much about that cache of unfortunate Packards is I made extensive notes about the cars and details of my call to the owner. Also, when the subject came up later with other car guys, I'd add to those notes.

If that article was published in 2009, perhaps some of those cars were moved to another nearby location, though sources in the area have never mentioned finding such. Actually, the cars in the picture look about as good as they did in 1990. If they've been subjected to another quarter century of northeast weather, they'd look considerably worse.

Steve

The Packard "Twilight Zone" haunts me regularly and this posting is no exception. When I was living in Moultrie, Georgia in the 1990's I drove my 55 Clipper Constellation to a local grocery store, and a young man approached me to tell me that his uncle had a car like mine. I asked, "In Moultrie?" He replied, "Yes, and very near here." Of course, I followed him to a dirt road near Spence Field (where our large Moultrie car show is held twice a year) and there sat a 1956 Packard Four-Hundred in Scottish Heather and Dover White. Could this be the same car? I remember being told that it was one of many Packards his uncle owned and that they were "up North".

I am now in Valdosta, some 45 miles away, but I checked on the Packard not too many years ago. It had been moved to a nearby location but was still intact.

The man's name, I believe, was possibly Harold Dickinson and his address was 228 Dickinson Road according to the Moultrie telephone directory. His number, 229.985.2988, is no longer in service as I just checked it.

This may be all conjecture, but since the owner of these Packards was from Georgia...I wonder?

OOps, and I forgot to mention that Maule Aircraft Manufacruing Co. is a stone's throw from where I first saw that Packard 400 in Moultrie. Maule is famous for its amphibious small planes and the factory is right at the foot of Moultrie's Spece Field. Dickinson was in the aircraft business...so here's another clue!

Hi Esquireman

Yipe! Harold Dickinson Sr is the same man I talked to in 1990! He was at Combinaire Co., Spenence Field, Moultrie, GA. I have his son's address as Holly Hills, FL and his phone number at the time.

So, now I know at least one 400 was taken south but it ended up just as I suspected it would. What a shame!

Steve

PS: During a phone conversation with Bobp last evening, I was reminded of a lead to another cache of Packards near Avoca, NY which are stored inside, owned by a reclusive owner who has only shown them to a few people....the search continues!