Text Descriptions of the Jones Salvage Yard

The table below lists the best descriptions I can find of the Jones Salvage Yard in the Robert Arthur entries in the series. The page number references are to the American editions of the hardback versions.


Story Title and Page Number

Landmark description

"Terror Castle,"
pp. 6-7
  • The Jones Salvage Yard is located outside the main section of town.
  • A board fence surrounds the yard.
  • Local artists helped paint the fence.
  • Front section of the fence is covered with scenes of trees and flowers and green lakes and swans and an ocean scene.
  • The front gate is made of two iron gates from an old estate.
  • Green Gate One is located 100 yards past the front gate where an ocean scene is painted on the fence. A fish is in the ocean scene; to enter Green Gate One, you push the eye of the fish. Two green boards then swing up, giving entrance to a corner of the salvage yard that has Jupiter’s outdoor workshop.
  • A six-foot wide roof extends around the inside of almost all the salvage yard fence.
"Terror Castle," p. 86
  • Titus Jones sets up his pipe organ by the fence nearest his house, implying that the house is next to the Salvage Yard.
"Stuttering Parrot,"
pp. 40-41
  • The back fence of the Salvage Yard has a painting of the 1906 San Francisco Fire.
  • Red Gate Rover is located on the back fence about 50 feet from one of the corners, presumably the corner that corresponds to the front corner where Jupe’s workshop is located.
  • Red Gate Rover is so named because a dog is painted as part of the scene and was named "Rover" by the boys. To gain entrance, you remove the knothole that makes up Rover’s eye and then undo a catch inside the hole. Three boards swing up.
  • Red Gate Rover leads to Door Four of Headquarters
  • Headquarters is inside a 30-foot trailer that was damaged in a wreck and is hidden in the salvage yard.
  • Robert Arthur mentions four secret gates to the salvage yard, but only two are ever described.
"Stuttering Parrot,"
p. 83
  • The Jones house is a little white house which stands just outside the walls of the salvage yard.
"Stuttering Parrot,"
p. 152
  • There is a street corner at the rear of the Salvage Yard near Red Gate Rover.
"Green Ghost,"
pp. 67-68
  • Jupiter and his aunt and uncle live in a cottage.
  • Hans and Konrad share another cottage that is located fifty yards behind the Joneses’ home.
"Fiery Eye,"
p.85
  • The Joneses live in a small two-story house just outside the wall of the salvage yard.
"Fiery Eye,"
p. 164
  • A dark alley-like street is at the rear of the salvage yard near Red Gate Rover.
"Screaming Clock,"
p. 117
  • Jupe walks from his home to the front entrance of the yard and then beyond the front entrance down to Green Gate One.
Screaming Clock,"
p. 141
  • The salvage yard is located beyond the outskirts of town.
"Talking Skull,"
p. 15
  • The Joneses live in a two-story house just outside the salvage yard.
"Talking Skull,"
p. 17
  • Hans and Konrad live in a small house "in the back."

[Back to the Jones Salvage Yard]