11,000 Acres

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.

The new concrete workhouse, as seen through chickenwire.

From the bottom of the skyway I looked back, my eyes tracing the vines from the marsh up the smokestacks to the perfect Midwestern sky.

The train loading tower (left), and elevators. Check out that giant flagpole/lightning rod.

You first.

The pipes above sprayed water onto the hot coke.

Looking at The Windy City from the top of the coal tower. The pond you see is the former ACME Coke coal yard.

A morning shower made the plant’s metal siding shake… probably nothing, though, compared to when the furnaces were blasting. The objects on the ground are molten ore containers.

Taken from the arm of the pocket loader–note the tree growing out of the conveyor belt. Often where you see old piles of taconite, trees are springing up. The byproducts of the pelletization process break down and make a really fertile mix, especially with all the iron content!