Cooldown

Spring melt flows down the rusty rock house. In the background is the frame for the shaft.

The orange bars were secured to the tunnel walls to support electric lines for the mine carts. Lower parts of the sand mines were allowed to flood. The water was perfectly still, and made for a mud so thick it could suck off your boots.

One of the last improvements to this elevator was the addition of a new scale in 1968.

The lime room was in rough shape, but its colors and textures were like raw gold and oxidized copper.

Looking north from the east portal of the tunnel… a beautiful place. Wilderness. Mamiya 6/Portra 160

Cracked gauges have a certain quality that hearkens to movies, I think. One can imagine the gauges going off the scales before dramatically cracking, throwing glass right at the camera. This damage, however, is unfortunate vandalism.

I did not take the escape ladder to the surface, but I am told it pops up in the middle of a hill next to the missile silo doors.

A century-old ghost sign for Royal House Flour was preserved after a building is built above and through it! Looking from the north annex elevator toward the headhouse.

The Beeghley was launched in 1958… you can see it unloading limestone here with its retrofitted self-unloader. Update: This ship has been renamed the ‘James L. Oberstar’ after the Minnesota Senator. [Read more on Boardnerd.com here: http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/oberstar.htm]