Mines are strange things that never appear as they are, at least not on the surface. They are powerful enough to found cities and feed families when they are young, but are very often left to be forgotten in plain sight when they retire.
SUBSTREET
history under ground
Sunday Lake Mine
Sunflower Ordnance Works
DeSoto, KS
What can be done if you want to cover thousands of acres peppered with abandonments? Swap that 20mpg for a proper 10-speed, chuck it over the barbed wire, then take off with a camera on your back. There’s nothing like biking through the abandoned military-industrial complex, so do you think you can keep up?
Superior Entry Lighthouse
Superior, WI
Superior Entry Lighthouse was built in 1913 and has not been manned since 1970.
Protected: Taconite Harbor, MN:
Its Ore Dock and Ghost Town
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The Eagle Zinc Mine
Gilman, CO
Left hand, grip the left rail. Right hand, grip that other one. Feet, for God’s sake remember how to crabwalk; we have a cliff to descend. Come with me into the tunnels under a Coloradan ghost town to see what was once the world’s largest zinc mine.
The Ghost Town of Pommenige
Germany
Brown coal is plentiful in central Germany, but it lies under its farms, towns, and people. By the time you read this article, the town I took pictures of will be part of a mine pit.
The JB Ford Ore Boat
Lake Superior
I couldn’t believe it took me so long it took for me, having lived in Duluth, Minnesota for five years, to get onto an abandoned laker. Still afloat, the JB Ford launched in 1904 to carry iron ore and was later converted as a floating concrete carrier. Welcome aboard.
The Sattler Theatre
(Broadway Theatre)
Buffalo, NY
Eliot warned about cities built on the ruins of other cities–maybe the same rule goes for theaters. Never forget: location, location, location.
Treasure Mountain Mine and Animas Forks
Colorado
Mother Nature refused to give up her gold in the San Juans to the men of Treasure Mountain without a fight. Now, after a century of hard rock mining in its steep gulches, she cannot let go of the long abandoned mines or its ghost towns.
Twohy and Osborn Blocks
Superior, WI
Since the 1890s, little has changed on North First Street. The Twohy and Osborn buildings have survived a century just a block off the beaten path, just out of sight of downtown. A few good stories hide there; these are some of them.
Universal Atlas Cement Co.
Gary, IN
Construction of this plant, which would become the largest of its kind in the world, began in 1903. It processed byproducts of US Steel’s blast furnaces into Portland cement for nearly a century. Donald Trump and a partner bought half of the complex and demolished it for a hotel in 1995 and the city bought the other half in 1999. What wasn’t demolished is still abandoned.