If your car windows get busted or you need a new yanta Mission Road got all that plus more. The gritty street starts near the 10 fwy around the vicinity of 7th street, and runs north turning into Huntington Dr. There are homes on some parts of Mission Road, but it is mostly industrial buildings and one giant man. Oh I can’t forget the El Pato Hot Sauce Factory on Mission, thanks El Pato the food I made today with you was yummy.
Google photo
I was driving down Mission just off Cesar Chavez and stopped to take some pictures. I just wanted to explore the cuts and crevasses around and see what I would run into.
I parked and walked down this dead end street called Richmond, it lead in a huge construction field.
Nopales
Nopale scribes
I ended up going into some hole in a chain link fence, and came across an unused bridge and street. It looked like it might of been used at one time by the train company that resided in the area. I looked on the map and the street name it should of been was Lemar street.
                   Southern Pacific Golden Pig Service.
(below)Â The street lead to a bridge that went over train tracks, below was a nice homeless setup.
                   They got a dining room table which is awesome. I don’t even   got that yet!
                 View from the Bridge to the train tracks below
                   Mission Road goes over the tunnel
         I ended up going down into the tracks into the third world of the LA River
                     Cesar Chavez bridge in the distance
 As I was heading back out to Mission Road, I spotted this old metal pipe with someone living inside of it. It looked kind of trippy but I guess they are pretty protected with all that metal. I just hope that that pipe is not being used anymore.
         Back out on Mission Road some shots of some clean graffiti pieces.
 Okay this is weird but this statue is ugly to me. I mean what is the point of a giant man advertising auto parts in a checkered shirt. To my surprise this man have been around! I thought he looked annoying and creepy, but he looked familiar too? I seen another statue at a golf course off 405 fwy. Maybe the company made the same looking man to fit your business. After a quick search I was laughing at the results. I guess it’s a freaken phenomenon, there is a whole website dedicated to sitings of these GIANT MEN all over the country.
It is funny, I guess they have different styles of those giant men. They have Classic, Bunyan, Cowboy, Indian and others.
Basic Types
The Classic
Gas Station Attendant, Golfer, Hamburger Man, Cowboy
Configured with all the basic characteristics, standing 21-22 ft. tall. While shipped clean-shaven, may be customized with a painted mustache or even a beard — sometimes in the style of the Bunyan model. The Cowboy version of the classic always features a removable Stetson.
Bunyan
Lumberjack, Woodsman
Configured with most of the basic characteristics, standing 20 ft. tall. The Bunyan probably existed before the Classic. Distinguishing features include a head with a molded wool cap, and a heavy beard. Bunyans are frequently sighted brandishing single or double-sided axes. Shirt may be painted in a red plaid pattern. There is somewhat shorter variation of the Bunyan that wears a hard hat or miner’s helmet.
Indian
Noble Savage, the Big Chief, or the Brave
Shoes and legs are often the same, but other characteristics of the Indian are further removed from purebred M-Man lineage. The head and arm configuration differ, except in cases where he may don a single “Brave” feather or full “Chief” headdress. This category is confused by instances of Classics that have been modified to appear as Indians.
Happy Halfwit
Mortimer Snerd, Alfred E. Neumann, S.F.B., Country Bumpkin
The gap-toothed, jug-eared Happy Halfwit is comedy relief among otherwise stern looking M-Men types. This strain shares the M-Man’s molded torso/arms and legs/shoes. Sports a straw hat or baseball cap. Original Halfwits were sold in heights as tall as 21 ft. Many of today’s survivors are a shorter, neckless variety, closer to 15-18 ft.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/muffler/types.html
        The one here on Mission Road is a Bunyan one lol, his name is Sergio haha!
I guess people send pictures of the giants they spot out all over the country.
I was obsessed with hating it and now I see there are some crazy people that love these things.
Right across the street from the hideous statue is a Barbacoa place estilo Texcoco. Basically it’s barbecued goat a popular style from Texcoco, Mexico.
   I seen and learned so much for exploring these few blocks in and around Mission Road. It is not just your everyday look, but who wants that! except I still hate the giant man Sergio.
Damn DJ, yer too funny! This is a great post, especially since I’ve been meaning to check out that area on the other side of “a hole in a chain link fence” for ever! I go by here all the time, but haven’t found the time to explore, since it’s so close.
BTW, it seems the pipe dweller has a stack of cd blanks, are the homeless connected to the mp3-cd burning era?
Awesome post Dona J., glad to see you back in action! 😉
Damn, you’re adventurous, crawling through holes in fences y todo! I hope people appreciate the lengths you go through to bring us posts. 🙂
The pipe house is crazy. It’s really done up and like El C. mentioned, I noticed the blank CDs too. Where do they plug in their stereo?
Thanks for sharing your discoveries with us, you’re a true urban pioneer!
Very nice DJ! That stretch of Mission Rd has got to be one if the ugliest, grittiest, places in LA with all the Yonke’s (junk yards) there.
But of course it’s always been one of my most visited areas, very handy for finding partes to keep my own Yonke’s rolling.
Ok, but what the hell is a “golden pig service”? I mean, sounds good, but what is it??
The Golden Pig Service is the name of the company with those piggy back trains that carry containers kind of inmagine them being like a wagon and you stack them up with cargo containers.
My mistake the piggy back trains are the flat cars that they stack containers on and the wagon ones are double stacks sorry I think I mixed them up.
flat cars
I guess back in the days Southern Pacific operated from this area.
http://stkntower.railfan.net/sppig.jpg
“Piggy back trains are the fastest growing type of freight trains in the United States, where they are also known as ‘trailer on flat car’ or TOFC trains. There are also some intermodal vehicles, which have two sets of wheels, for use in a train, or as the trailer of a road vehicle”
When I first seen the sign I also thought it was a place where they loaded real pigs on trains lol.
Awesome post DJ. That area is a trip. Go up a little ways on Mission next time and don’t miss checking out the L.A. County Morgue. That’s a field trip in itself!
Thanks for mentioning the “Big Men”, I’m a big fan of all the post-war roadside American culture. Really enjoyed the pics.
I admire your adventurous spirit to go down there! I wonder if the L.A. River gets Wi-Fi?
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/ca/CALOSmuftony_graves.jpg
Sergio’s homeboy Tony located on 4832 Cesar Chavez haha another ugly man.
I was driving around this area a few months ago. Old Los Angeles. May sound weird, but I like those old streets and bridges around Highland Park and downtown more than the new plaid colored buildings going up everywhere.
Excellent post!! Like a real reporter who gets down!!All the way down, to deliver his story!!
About the stereo I was wondering my self, I guess it could be battery operated, he could be gettng electricity from somewhere around there too there was a lot of electrical poles. HA ha WiFi hey maybe you never know there might be a connection.
Love it. I picked up a car window for a boyfriend here once. I actually really love the desolate industrial landscape there. I think it’s beautiful.
I got a windshield replaced next door to “tall boy”. The bridges and tracks was my playground besides the LA River. We would start our trek at the Wabash/Soto overpass(this was before the current bridge) by climbing down the side then come up the State St. bridge. On our way back we would cut through the County hospital to that old streetcar rightaway which is now the Hazard Park Wetlands. I miss those days when trespassing was OK and not worry too much about getting busted. A simple HEY! was enough for us and we would just run away and come back some other day.
You can get a llanta there on a Sunday, in case you need one.
Great post!
I am one of those crazy people that is obsessed with the “big man” phenomenon. They are all over the Southwest; I saw a bunch in Arizona and New Mexico. They are getting pushed out of their lofty heights due to gentrification in many places. Show some love for the big ugly dudes!
That nopale scribe photo reminded me of a long forgotten thing from my past. When I was in junior high we had a bunch of nopales in our backyard that backed up to the sidewalk. My sorta boyfriend (it was 7th grade, I think it lasted a week) fancied himself a tagger and one day I was taking the trash out and freaked out when I saw that the nopales were “tagged.” It was some pretty elaborate work too. My mom was not happy about her nopales getting carved up by some kid! I never noticed it anywhere else till I saw the photo in this post. Is this a thing people do? How many nopale scribes are out there?
@ Pitbull girl! noooooo u like that man omg! nooo lol jk haha that is crazy. I don’t hate him umm ya i do lol, he just looks scary and creepy =(…lol….
The nopale tags I think are the same type of people that carve a lover’s name in a tree trunk or engrave their name in fresh cement. I think even normal people have that urge to see their name up somewhere, weather it’s a nopal or tree trunk.
Someone once floated the idea of repurposing those train yards as a satellite UC campus for the Eastside. I thought it was a great idea. Could fit with the CRA plans to turn the LA river area into a green industry center. Anyone heard about this?