How many times have you been walking along a stream when you came upon a car dump right next to it?
Chances are that streamside piles of chassis aren’t strays: they’re the solution to a real estate problem. Streams and rivers are often used as plot boundaries, which makes sense until you consider that streams and rivers move. The water velocity is higher at the outer edge than the inner edge of a curve, so the bends of a river are always pushed out and downstream. Over time, that stream or river writhes like a snake.
When people own land bordered by a stream or river, the landowner on one side of the stream owns a larger lot, over time, and the landowner on the other side of the bend loses ground year by year. Across rural America, landowners tried to stop streams or rivers from moving their beds. For most of a century, the cheapest solution was to cable together old chassis and secure them to the side of the stream.
This isn’t a dump; it’s riprap.
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