I wonder how sheltered workers on this mid-level catwalk that follows the ore chutes is in storms. Note the chunks of concrete stuck in the catwalk grates–the pockets (right) are falling apart.
history under ground
rivets
Rust undermines the decade old graffiti on the steel bin.
The dock is still lit at night and it casts shadows over the rust-welded ore doors.
The turbine hall sported a beautiful Whiting gantry crane.
This is the crane that would be used to lower extra-heavy bits of copper ore into the fire of the furnace.
Fly ash, kicked up by downdrafts, rise again up the smokestack that is the signature feature of the plant. It’s a steel top hat.
In the middle of Electric Steel, dust collector vents cross-cross out of sight.
The final ball mill in the Chain O’ Mines concentrator. Behind it was a bucket of steel balls.
Looking through the trestle toward the ghost town.
A staircase threads between the top floor and the sluices, which are in the middle of the dredge-mill.
This mean-looking thing had a purpose, probably, but that function has been lost to decades of expansion.
The beet juice was boiled down to make a syrup, which would be drained down the trough to the crystalizers.
Considering the side of Boiler #3’s firebox, where it meets the boiler (between the cylinders). The top piece is where the exhaust is sucked into the chimney, one chimney for each pair of boilers.
Electric Steel’s bins reflect the sunset.
Looking down the breakwater from the top of the lighthouse. In the haze, you can see the world’s largest iron ore docks in Allouez Bay.
Standing next to the now-demolished records room.
The superstructure for the sea-leg skyways serves no purpose now… the offices are bricked up, too. Why?
Christmas lights from the time Island Station was an art studio lean against a rusty boiler.
A huge vent looks like it built in a hurry. There was actually very little in the way of bits of machinery left over… I am guessing almost anything of value was scrapped in the 1990s.
The water tower no doubt made good scrap after it hit the ground.
The whole smelter ran on gravity… elevating the various raw materials and working with them until at the bottom of the furnace, copper poured out.
Two steel hoppers supported by counterweights and springs, which were used to weigh incoming grain loads before being deposited in the silos beneath this floor. Garner is another way to say “big measuring tank”, if you were wondering. I fell in love with all the tubes and chutes on this floor.
I believe this is the push car, meaning it would push the charge in the oven out the opposite side into the train car.
These copulas made the iron for casting.
This is part of the oldest section of factory, one that hasn’t had a roof in a long time and all usable equipment has been extracted. The machines pictured would spin sliced beets in boiling water… it was a sealed system before someone cut holes on sides of each unit.
A heavy steel device locks the anchor up.
Holes were cut into the floor to extract equipment from the basements. it was interesting to see the I-beams extending through all the levels of Studebaker.
Kate in the crow’s next… very shaky by the time she got to it.
In the mid-2000s, Peavey sealed the spaces between their Electric Steel Elevator bins. What they unwittingly created was a graffiti time capsule. “Impeach Bush”.
Rivets are sexy, and this old machine has more than a fair share.
Part of the Pillsbury tunnel that brought water back to the Mississippi River.