A little sun and a little moisture sprouted this grass in the middle of the steel silos, in the midst of Minneapolis’ “graffiti graveyard”. Two images of time: nature growing through industry and rust dissolving old art in the elements.
history under ground
tanks
Little has changed inside the mill, but since it was built in 1916, many tanks and ancillary buildings have popped up around it.
Sour mash had to be fermented before being used for whiskey making. Nearly all bourbon uses it.
In the middle of Electric Steel, dust collector vents cross-cross out of sight.
Looking from the mill at the old transfer elevator’s steel tanks.
A jankey ladder leads to a platform over a wooden tank. Here’s hoping my usage contributes to jankey being accepted into the dictionary! Thanks, lexicographers.
Zug Island is a US Steel plant just south of Detroit, and it really lights up the skyline.
The light next to this acid tank was perfect, thanks to a gaping hole in the roof.
Lined concrete vats in the basement of the asylum for fermenting pickles, presumable because the brine-vinegar solution was too harsh in a time before stainless steel.
The missiles were stored without fuel, to help prevent mishaps. This is the fuel pumping building and one of the tanks.
Transfer Elevator, Built 1916
Electric Steel’s bins reflect the sunset.
Looking toward the old power house, right below one of its arteries.
The American Victory next to M, seen late at night.
When it was convenient, the sugar company would pull equipment, even pipes, from one mill for another.
A big sliding fire door opens onto a train dock.
Note that the back of Stockhouse #4 is missing. A year later, Fermentation was on the ground too.
This low brick building is interesting to me.
In the days when steam locomotives required immense amounts of water, water towers such as this served the rail line as crucial rail infrastructure. This specific tower was built in 1903 for Canadian Pacific and is one of the last of its kind. Inside is a giant cedar-lined tank with a 40,000 gallon capacity. Note the rails are gone, but the filler spout remains.
In the upper left of the image you can see where the gas tanks used to be, along with the concentration equipment. Along the bottom you can also see some of the many railroad tracks coming and going from the plant–the ones visible here were incoming tracks that carried in hard coal from the eastern US.
Looking out of Kurth Malt a the neighbors–the silos past Electric Steel are those of the Froedert Malt Company, now gone.
Often the quickest way to move between buildings was to take the roof. The inside of the complex was so maze-like, I don’t know how I would have found my way around.
I found a face.
One thing that made the Eagle Mine unique is the underground mill, left of this picture. As the rocks moved down the mill, they would be turned into finer and finer powder.
I wonder how polluted that water is.
The beet juice was boiled down to make a syrup, which would be drained down the trough to the crystalizers.
A huge steel tank, one of several left over, left over from either the Ashland Oil or Allied Chemical periods.
The fantastic red elevator that is Pool #61, built 1928.
The lime room was in rough shape, but its colors and textures were like raw gold and oxidized copper.
The truck scale is closed at Lena, MB.
The command building and a coolant tank. In the distance, rain and hail pound Wyoming dirt.
From the highest roof of Ogvilvie’s, Thunder Bay looks like paradise.
A long exposure panorama of Electric Steel and Kurth from the roof of Russell Miller B, days before it was demolished.
Outside the Chateau, where the fuel oil tank blocks the chapel.
In the Lime House, the sunset picked-up the last light of day to make this image. Lime is used in the beet sugar refinement process to reduce the acidity of the beet juice mixture.
This big rusty sphere hides behind the incomplete 5-stack.
The coke plant looked more natural through a grimy window.
Looking across the whole milling operation from its dedicated powerhouse stretching across Eagle River.
One of the older buildings on the site, this is an old power house that provided electricity to the plant. I spent some time walking around it and believe it was fired with coal gas but had a diesel backup installed later.
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.
SFAAP’s iconic smokestacks. You’d notice if you drove past this on the highway.
Inside the pilot copper concentrator.
A caustic tank in one of the unremodeled brewhouse backrooms.
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.
Fermenters and mixing tanks fill this brewing room. The lighting is all natural, and is partially owed to a crumbling wall letting the sunset blast the interior in almost perfect profile.
The building behind Daisy was demolished, leaving these tanks and a pointless conveyorway. Now it’s bricked (see over door near right corner of mill) and the tanks are exposed to the elements. There are a few holes in the area that have a healthy drop, so you should avoid the area.
The head distiller could walk out of their office to this balcony and overlook the whole fermentation process in a glance.
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”.
There were three main stockhouses, two of which still exist, that are filled with tanks like these in addition to Fermentation. Each tank is the size of the city bus and few are left after the 2008-2009 scrapings.
C’mon and grab your friends… we’ll go to very—rusty lands…
Rust undermines the decade old graffiti on the steel bin.