"The History Channel's hit show chronicles Mike and Frank as they venture out into rural towns and explore old, forgotten businesses and buildings, barns and garages. In about half the cases, the owners of "junk piles" know that Mike and Frank are coming, alerted to potential picks by their ever vigilant phone-calling assistant, Danielle. Other times, the two will just pick an "interesting place" as they drive along the road and go "freestyle". (Having rusty old sheds, cars and signs seems to grab them every time!)"
What hooked me on the show was the piece they did at Bushkill Park. In the "A Banner Pick" episode, which aired 12/12/2010, they've been alerted to an old, 17-acre Pennsylvania amusement park that suffered flooding and wind damage during the 2004 Hurricane season. Opened in 1902, Bushkill Park was a trolley park, one of hundreds built by trolley companies at the end of routes to increase their weekend ridership. This guy, Neil, bought the place, he grew up close by and always loved it, worked there as a teen even. Now he's trying to get it back up and running.
Frank and Mike found a couple of old banners featuring side show acts. The banners were to entice people to come inside the side show and have a peek. They purchased two banners for $700. When they had the banners appraised, they found they'd been painted by a Fred G. Johnson, and ended up selling them for $10,000. Frank and Mike drove back to the park, and gave Neil $5000 because of the unexpected outcome of the Internet auctions for the two banners, and because Wolfe and Fritz were impressed with the attempts to revive the park.
In the words of Mike, "How cool is that?"
If you've never seen the show, catch a few episodes.
It really grows on you!!
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