Some guerilla art for passing drivers on I-94 East to enjoy. Artist unknown.
history under ground
squares
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.
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
My favorite shot of the 17-story Art Deco office tower attached to the train station.
Does Disney pay the school, or does the school pay Disney? #consumerism
At the extreme eastern end of the plant is a bank of modern concrete silos. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
A rare door left on the workhouse. The stairs to the left led down into a flooded basement. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
East Elevation of the Depot. Ektar 100/Mamiya 6
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.
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.
“Paint the fence,” they said, but I don’t feel like it… who cares, anyway.
This part of the workhouse was sheathed in fiberglass, but now you can see its insides from a mile away.
Vents in the boards over the windows helps prevent mold and animals from getting too crazy inside.
An engine on display outside the Montana Territorial Prison in Deer Lodge, MT. This was a typical electric locomotive used by The Milwaukee Road.
The basements of the barracks were often stone and brick, and many of them were connected by short tunnels.
Looking north from the east portal of the tunnel… a beautiful place. Wilderness. Mamiya 6/Portra 160
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
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.
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 8-foot-tall volume indicator that could be read from across the beet boiler floor–convenient when the controls are 20 feet away.
Water damage dissolved the ceiling into sludge. Pillars remain, as do the plastic light covers, now on the floor.
Ektar 100/Mamiya 6.
Looking out the window a the foundations of the demolished company homes.
A photo from the early 2000s before the conveyors were scrapped.
The only door into a large windowless concrete room, probably a storage bin. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
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.
Officers got houses and the honor of living near other officers. They call it Officer’s Row.
Model: Devan. Instagram: sextmachine
Chester Creek takes many such sliding dives where it empties into Lake Superior.
A long exposure in the wind, lit by airport lights.
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.
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 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.
You can almost make out the concrete chute through the open window. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
Looking at the tallest part of the plant from a skeletal loading dock. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
Frankie on the White Pine Mine vehicle access shaft. The mine was traditional inside… all room-and-pillar.
Watching the sun set behind downtown Detroit is my favorite memory from the building.
Looking across at the Cargill elevator.
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.
On the dark side of the workhouse at sunset, you can almost see where the walls used to be. Kodak Portra 160/Mamiya 6.
The Peavey logo, before it rusted off and the offices were demolished.
In a now-demolished building, a skylight begins to separate.
A detailed view of the side of the quenching tower, seemingly aged by its hard job.
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.
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.
A matrix panorama of the brewhouse staircase, post-scrapping. So pretty…
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.
Lessons from the day.
At the top of the elevator was a distribution room to direct the grain onto conveyor belts below.
Fluorescent lights peel back from the walls like caterpillars, rearing up and away from the glare of the sunflower-fans.
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.
This big rusty sphere hides behind the incomplete 5-stack.
Wintertime is quiet, except for the planes overhead.
A manhole cover sealing Clark House Creek below Superior Street.