I was squatting overnight in one of the buildings and woke up with the sunrise. This is what I woke up to.
history under ground
sunrises
One thing I like to do at Gopher is imagine the shape of the planned buildings based on the partial structures.
Looking out of Kurth Malt a the neighbors–the silos past Electric Steel are those of the Froedert Malt Company, now gone.
The flour mill (rear) and its elevators. The taller elevator was moved here in 1955, when the Harrisons bought it from Federal, who declared it surplus. The smaller elevator replaced an earlier smaller warehouse in 1926. Taken shortly after dawn. This one picture made the drive worth it, for me. Medium Format.
Workers’ lockers, strewn across Main Street, yet still out of the way.
Between lines of Number Sixes right after sun rose behind them. This photo shows how extremely lush the grounds are that make getting around in some places impossible.
A morning breeze pushes the last ice from the lake against Wisconsin Point.
This bridge over Eagle River is beautiful.
Sunrise over Mill Hell, and all of Kurth’s various skyways. The elevators in the foreground date to the mid-1920s, Electric Steel is behind and is a little earlier than that.
A row of security lights line the roof of the power station.
Blending the explosive ingredients was dangerous. It is no wonder that the blending house had so many emergency slides.
This electric Wellman crane was added to extract coal from ships for the power plant that Erie built beside their dock. Now, with the advent of self-unloading boats, it’s been replaced by a funnel and conveyor belt.
This ruin was once the Toltec Mine, a producing gold and silver claim that operated into the 1940s.
Sunrise in SEMI. The shadow of Kurth Malt is cast across ADM-Delmar #1. Clouds behind ADM-Delmar #4 light up. It’s cold and the air smells like train grease.
At sunrise the fog rose near the solvent recovery line. You can barely read the “XXX” warning.
One night, I camped behind the sugar mill. You can tell be the clouds that a cold front was moving out—it was a hot day.
Looking toward Sleeping Giant from the workhouse.
I didn’t test the rungs, but I bet the view was incredible.
Ducking the steam lines overhead between the mixers and compressors, a water tower says “good morning,” right past the slack power lines. This is the sleepy uptown of the war city.
C’mon and grab your friends… we’ll go to very—rusty lands…
Early bird catches the shadow of Battle Mountain blaring across the ghost town.