Watching the sun set behind downtown Detroit is my favorite memory from the building.
history under ground
squares
Model: Devan. Instagram: sextmachine
At the extreme eastern end of the plant is a bank of modern concrete silos. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
Away from the rest of the plant–as if forgotten, or hiding–is this little stamp press. Yes, this is little by press standards.
Portraits of great men.
At the top of the elevator was a distribution room to direct the grain onto conveyor belts below.
A 8-foot-tall volume indicator that could be read from across the beet boiler floor–convenient when the controls are 20 feet away.
On the boarded-up first floor of the house proper near the door to the chapel, the last pew sites next to a wet box of Bibles.
The basements of the barracks were often stone and brick, and many of them were connected by short tunnels.
A primitive intercom system connected the various wards to their respective nurse’s stations. They looked hand-made and likely originated, in part, in the FFSH carpentry shop. They were often placed high, like this one, to be out of patient reach.
Frankie on the White Pine Mine vehicle access shaft. The mine was traditional inside… all room-and-pillar.
Each fireplace in the Administration Tower had a different design, color scheme, and little features to make it unique. One thing held true, however: none of them looked decent next to the disgusting 1990s cubicle farm carpet.
Ektar 100/Mamiya 6.
Looking out the window a the foundations of the demolished company homes.
The Peavey logo, before it rusted off and the offices were demolished.
My favorite shot of the 17-story Art Deco office tower attached to the train station.
Tunnels interconnected all of the complex, carrying power, steam, laundry and food throughout the hospital. This is a typical causeway that would have been very busy when the hospital was operating. In some places, signs still point to defunct areas of the hospital.
No wonder the factory shut down; everyone was scheduled to work 9 to 5 and the clock’s broken! (In all seriousness, this is/used to be a beautiful timepiece, especially for a utilitarian factory like this.
A manhole cover sealing Clark House Creek below Superior Street.
The individual ovens are skinny to allow even and fast heating of the whole interior. Numbers are cut into signs because no paint could withstand the heat or corrosive emissions from the coking process.
This big rusty sphere hides behind the incomplete 5-stack.
Shelves in in the coloring department, where hundreds of different mixer lids are splashed with hardened glass dyes. Color thanks to a yellow-tinted skylight.
You can almost make out the concrete chute through the open window. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
Some guerilla art for passing drivers on I-94 East to enjoy. Artist unknown.
Looking across at the Cargill elevator.
East Elevation of the Depot. Ektar 100/Mamiya 6
Kat dancing down the trestle, which is one of the highest in the state, standing about 100 feet over the road. Mamiya 6/Portra 160
The shaft house, where hydraulic steel doors allowed or denied entry into the mine shaft. Overhead is a light and alarm. If it sounds, the mine is being evacuated, and you best not go in and best stay the hell out of the way. Locals dump tires here, now.
Does Disney pay the school, or does the school pay Disney? #consumerism
A photo from the early 2000s before the conveyors were scrapped.
An engine on display outside the Montana Territorial Prison in Deer Lodge, MT. This was a typical electric locomotive used by The Milwaukee Road.
Beautiful belt wheels above the grain cribs. Getting to the spot where this was taken is now impossible, and I don’t know whether these remain or not anymore.
Fluorescent lights peel back from the walls like caterpillars, rearing up and away from the glare of the sunflower-fans.
Powdered coal would sit in these hoppers before they get mixed with water to make a slurry. Then the mixture is injected into the firebox and ignited to make a coal-powered flamethrower capable of boiling water very quickly.
A rare door left on the workhouse. The stairs to the left led down into a flooded basement. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
Water damage dissolved the ceiling into sludge. Pillars remain, as do the plastic light covers, now on the floor.
On the dark side of the workhouse at sunset, you can almost see where the walls used to be. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
Vents in the boards over the windows helps prevent mold and animals from getting too crazy inside.
Wintertime is quiet, except for the planes overhead.
A detailed view of the side of the quenching tower, seemingly aged by its hard job.
“Paint the fence,” they said, but I don’t feel like it… who cares, anyway.
A matrix panorama of the brewhouse staircase, post-scrapping. So pretty…
Chester Creek takes many such sliding dives where it empties into Lake Superior.
A long exposure in the wind, lit by airport lights.
Officers got houses and the honor of living near other officers. They call it Officer’s Row.
A steel powder keg serves as a door prop on the static-proof wood core floor. Note the ‘XXX’ marking to the left of the double door.
Looking at the tallest part of the plant from a skeletal loading dock. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
Lessons from the day.
The only good shot I have of the top of Battery A, in the upper left. Though it seemed to have been disused before its neighbor it had a lot less growth on it.
In a now-demolished building, a skylight begins to separate.
While the maps name this the compressor house, I believe, based on its size and number of heavy machine mounts, that it also housed the pumps to drain the mine.
This part of the workhouse was sheathed in fiberglass, but now you can see its insides from a mile away.
Looking north from the east portal of the tunnel… a beautiful place. Wilderness. Mamiya 6/Portra 160
The only door into a large windowless concrete room, probably a storage bin. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
The west portal of the tunnel is open, and if it wasn’t for the rough track, I would think by looking at it that a train could be coasting up behind me any moment. Mamiya 6/Portra 160