Every explorer likes to dream of finding a virgin location, being the first one in, the first to photograph it, and the first to bring the images of a truly forgotten abandoned place to the rest of the world. While this location has clearly had someone inside (there were signs of squatters in places) it is lacking the tell tale signs of a known abandoned building. It is graffiti free. It’s windows are mostly intact. And best of all, you can Google & Flickr search its name and location till you’re blue in the face and will see nothing but exterior photographs. Now that doesn’t mean that NO ONE has been in and photographed it…but it does mean that by most explorers’ standards, this location was fresh meat until last Saturday.
BOX OF CRACKERS
Along a river in central Illinois, this location boasts the types of things that make most of us excited enough to explode. From rotting out rail road bridges to subterranean areas full of brick work arch ways; from exquisitely peeling paint to rusted heavy metal doors, this 3 building site of 220,000 sq ft stands tall in a small town…a reminder of jobs the community desperately needed.
The original bridge structure, which is part of the National Register of Historic Places, was constructed in the late 1800’s and provided an opportunity for the land between canals to be developed. In the 1920’s the land was purchased and the main structure was built. From water generated power to an electronic trolley car system within the plant; this location was at the forefront of technology in its prime.
At first scout, this looked like an easy in kinda place. Walk the bridge, walk up to the building, find entry point. Yeah, right! It’s always the easy looking ones that give you the most shit. This place required scaling down a rock wall, which I did very poorly…and have the bruises to prove it. The wall was followed by a river. Ok, maybe a really wide stream. Not too deep but with muddy (and I mean, sink to your ankles and beyond muddy) banks no less than 8’ wide which stopped at 12’ tall sea walls. I could see this would be fun.
SUBTERRANEAN
After hopping rock to rock to log to brick, and traversing the 20’ wide “river” (which of course, resulted in me having mud to my knees, slipping more times than I can count, and LOTS of cussing…we came to a dead end. Awesome. To one side was a 60 degree incline of loose dirt, sparse small trees, and rocks. Dead ahead was a wall. Not just a wall, the exterior wall of a freakin’ factory. Yeah, not scaling this…this is NOT the Candy Shop (you’ll see later, keep coming back). To the other side was a subterranean level of beautiful arch ways made of bricks and a tunnel with water running out of it. This required investigation.
Upon learning that it was a go-nowhere subterranean (yes, I like using that word) area, we opted for a climb up the 60 degree incline which admittedly was lots of fun. Up top it was high fives, Momma jumping up and down and a “let’s get inside” newly refreshed sense of adventure. The humidity was a killer but at least we were up out of the bugs that the river bed had floating in swarms. A quick trip around the exterior proved only one entrance. I looked at PIC (aka afisher) Seriously!?!?! A trash compactor?!?! Yeah, these are the things we do to get into these places. Do NOT try this at home, or without an experienced explorer with you. We are trained to check for power and other sources that could cause serious injury or death on these sites. I’m not joking, no way I would recommend some random person climb into this place without some knowledge of abandoned places.
THROUGH THE COMPACTOR
The interior spaces were amazing. Each floor was almost completely open. Some levels boasted huge breathtaking areas accessible to the floors above and cranes that would have been used to move rolls of paper/cardboard from section to section. The walls were amazingly devoid of graffiti, windows were mostly intact, even light fixtures and the always popular to smash fluorescent bulbs were seemingly untouched. The most shocking thing was finding that things were intact right down to the convex mirrors still hanging from the ceiling. Usually places that are in this condition are referred to as “mothballed” or completely sealed up. This also means those places are dark and hard to navigate much less photograph; but this location was filled with light on every floor.
INTERIOR
INTERIOR CRANE AREA
Top to bottom is the way we roll, always finding the stairs and heading as far up as we can get. Then we work our way clockwise through each floor of the building to make sure we don’t miss anything. Yes, its very systematic thanks to afisher who keeps my firework mind on track. Floor after floor we crunched across peeled paint on the floor, stepped over and around the remnants of machinery, and ducked in and out of offices/bathrooms/and mechanical rooms. This location had a different type of empty feeling. In some locations, when you stand still and are really quiet, you can almost hear the buzz and feel the movement that once occurred within the space. Other locations leave you feeling as though they’ve begun a new life; a life filled with street artists, junkies, squatters, and photographers. This place felt untouched. Like the motion in the place had just stopped and the structure was all alone, totally forgotten.
DOORS
UNDAMAGED
Fire extinguishers were laying about lazily. Knobs and cranks that once were used to the point of metal hand holds being as shiny as the top of the Chrystler building were now beginning to rust through, and as with most abandoned places, the remains of animals who inhabited the building long after people had moved on, were scattered about every so often. In a few corners were small stacks or a few boxes of product that was never shipped, a reminder that when humans are done with something…they’re REALLY done with it.
UNDAMAGED
In the basement light streamed through from areas above. Around the entire wall about 18” in, was a canal built to keep water controlled if and when it got in because of the outside power generating rivers and canals. The last place to explore was the loading stations where the electric tolley cars would have brought product to and from the building.
1ST FLOOR
HEADING OUT
After 4 ½ hours of exploration, my partner in crime and I stood looking one last time at the beast we had just conquered. There is a sense of satisfaction in what we do which is multiplied when it is a place that we have never seen photographs of. This series of stairs and halls and wide open levels that once packaged for one of the largest companies in the world, was like so many other buildings…serves reminder to the community of the industry that moved on, but represents possibility and the hope that someday the building will be filled with work for locals yet again.
*EXIT*
~Momma
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