Flywheel Room

Chicago looks in as we look out, for holes and trolls where anything goes.

Fluorescent lights peel back from the walls like caterpillars, rearing up and away from the glare of the sunflower-fans.

2005. Flavored beers are still popular. The flavor concentrates were stored in this bank of fridges.

The middle section of the smokestacks were coal hoppers, and this device would load the coal into the hoppers from the conveyor belt it rode across. The bottom section of the stacks were storage rooms while the very top were, surprise, chimneys for the power plant.

Wind blew taconite dust against the walls of these suspended control room, making even the glass appear to rust.

A broken scale in Isabella A, next to an old wood stove.

Stairs and power lines enter the abandoned depot. Shingles slide off the rotten roof. Ektar 100/Mamiya 6

The layout and design of the buildings reminded me strongly of a brewery or distillery. To the right you can see some of the retrofits by the first lumber company to buy the buildings, in the 1970s.

Part of the brewing process is sterilizing the kettles, pipes and tanks all product would touch. This was done with a caustic solution. To the left is a healthy pile of asbestos where a heating tank used to stand, insulated in the carcinogenic mineral. The tank got cut apart, the asbestos stayed here.