Grain Sorter

Pillars painted red indicated firefighting supplies. Fire was a very common enemy of early rail facilities, and many roundhouses burned down because of a combination of dry wood, hot, fire-breathing machinery and countless oil-saturated surfaces.

I made this picture to give the reader a sense of the slope between the mine buildings and the base of the concentrator. The whole area was really steep, and sometimes required scrambling to get up and down the Picayune Gulch for short distances.

Graffiti by a crew member of the Algolake.

The buildings were level with one another, so one could look through as many as a dozen factory floors from one window.

This used to be the main entrance of The Orpheum, before Orpheum Garage on Superior Street was converted into a new entrance.

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.

Above the offices is this little section of factory that still has strips of wood flooring. This may be where the upholstery was cut.

A typical stretch of the assembly line.