Post by archie on Aug 22, 2024 19:21:41 GMT
The night prior my friend and I had decided that we were going to get inside of this part of the property. He had informed me that he knows of a definite way inside (He lives right up the street) so I believed him. I had a feeling he was pulling my chain and I was later to be proven right.
I awoke that morning (Memorial Day 2007) fairly early. We played some hands of Gin Rummy and ate a modest breakfast.
We make our way onto the property and begin to crawl around through the thrush. We have to crawl under a cement barrier and roll over a mound of dirt.
As we make our way deeper onto the property we have to move fast to get inside because there are houses adjacent to the property. All of my friends entry points prooved to be invalid and it was up to me to find a way in.
I snap a couple of photos while my friend pokes around inside of a trailer finding nothing but old paper work and random office crap.
I observe several ladders that lead onto the roof, but sadly they cut them in half to keep people like me from climbing them. As I poke around more I notice a window slightly adjar and I pull myself up to it and notice that I can easily climb in. I call my freind over and we make our way inside.
My friend, being somewhat paranoid sneaks around seeing if anybody is inside. With it being Memorial Day I knew nobody would be inside of this part of the plant. We discover nobody and we poke around some more.
I have no idea what this place once was, but what it is now is a tire recycling plant. The abandoned parts are mainly used for storage and other small parts of the recycling process. A thick black dust cakes just about everything, we leave no footprints because it’s that thick.
A big mound of ground up tires:
Our original plans entailed that we get into this building (some shitty scouting shots that I took when I was drunk) but since it’s locked up fairly tight we had to find another way in.
The local asshat mongrels took it upon themselves to vandalize this place. Thankfully the people who own the property made it fairly impossible to get into. As for the original purpose of this portion of the property I havent the slightest idea, when I was inside I think it was just an office space.
Now this is a fairly big property:
The yellow circle represents the most active part of the plant. The red circle is the back end of the property where we wanted to explore. And the blue square is just some building with a bunch of scrap wood that they shred up, inside of that it’s fucking huge.
The green is the part of the property that I explored on an earlier date. I will be posting photos from inside of there in this egg.
As we poke around the place we realize that we have no entry point to the building that we came to see.
As my friend goes to have a look see (again) if there is anybody on the property because there are lights on. I explain to him that my father works in a factory and they leave the lights on with shit running all the time, so there is nothing to worry about. As he pokes around looking to see if there is anybody inside I tilt my head up and gaze upon a steep stair case and a ladder leading to the roof. Now I absofuckinglutely love being on the roof of buildings, it gives me a good general overview of the land around me.
I begin my acent fairly quickly (because Im that fucking 1337) and I make my way onto the roof. I notice that we’re pretty much in plain sight of the houses and I keep down a tad.
I popped a couple of shots from where we were and this was the only one that I liked:
That is the building circled in green. I couldnt find a way to climb that smokestack but I did take a photo around the base of it inside of the plant (photos later in the egg)
We gaze in wonder over the land around us, taking note of downtown Lockport and all the houses around us. I wanted to go back into the part of the plant with the smokestack but I seen a black SUV thats normally not there and decided against it. If I was alone I would of totally hit that shit up again.
We quickly climb down a ladder down the side of the building and start walking towards the building we were originally going to check out. I knew if we could gain roof acess to that building we could get in because of all those broken windows.
"Watch out for that last step, it’s a doozy!"
And it was.
(Taken from the other side)
-Me: "Dude I bet you could jump that"
-Friend: "I know I can, but I dont trust that roof"
-Me: "Word. I could to but fuck that drop, that would fuck your day up"
So we climbed up and over this:
And traversed our way across the roof to our destination.
Seen this thing on the way:
"The Horizon of American Industry"
Before I made my entry:
As we made our way though the window we had to step on an old heater to make our way to the floor. Once inside we congratulated ourselfs on a job well done and started to explore. Broken glass all over the floor and minmal water damage around the windows, all in all a pretty sweet building.
To give you an idea of how thick the dust is:
Even when we spit on the dust it barely soaked in.
Some groovy wall paper:
The entire room looked like that.
Obligatory hallway shots (both taken on the second floor, the first floor is pretty dark)
This place has some pretty cool wall designs.
The coat hanger is kind of out of focus:
I didnt bring my tripod with me, and I should of. We found the stairs to the first floor and we went down them. These fuckers are steeper then all hell, good to push your grandmother down.
As we poked around on the first floor we didnt really find much of anything. I did, however, have a photographic field day in this one room:
And my favorite shot from that day:
Whats funny about ^that shot is I seen the shot in my eye and I started to set up the exposure for the shot and the god damn clouds moved in front of the sun and it destroyed that shadow you see on the sink/wall.
"Dude just take the picture"
"Im waiting for the sun"
He looked at me like Im some kind of idiot. Im there for the history and the photos, not just to explore. Thankfully the sun came back out and I got my desired shot.
As we made our way back across the roof somebody in their backyard seen us, he looked right up at us and I decided that the best course of action would be to exit somewhere else to keep our original POE (point of entry) safe. We found a semi-open garage door and we did some James Bond shit and rolled under the door and went through that big warehouse building marked in blue. We were in kind of a rush so I didnt snap any shots of it but all thats inside is basicly piles and piles of wood and a big ass pile of saw dust. We hopped a fence and went back to his house.
Here’s another building on the property that I have yet to check out.
Taken at sunset:
(PHOTO NOT FOUND)
Taken at sunrise:
Got in and got out with out a hitch. I have plans on going back (alone, I feel I shoot better by myself and I can do so much more when Im by myself) someday.
Now onto another day on the same property.
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April the 21st of 2007. I was sitting home, bored as shit and it was a beautiful day. The sun was out and there were minimal clouds in the sky. Perfect day for shooting.
I charge my batteries, don my boots, cargo pants and grab a flashlight. With a tripod bag and 2 cameras around my neck I stuck out like an Albino at the Apollo. (stoled that joke, tell me from who!) I had my SLR with like 6-7 shots left on some expired film and my digital camera.
SLR=Canon EOS Rebel S
Digital= Canon Powershot S3 IS
Canon= < 3
My original plan was to explore an old saw mill that was abandoned due to there being radioactive material buried on site. I did happen to get inside (after my second attempt) because some cock monger that worked there stopped me on my way through the field from the road.
"What are you doing?!"
Going in there to take photos
"No you’re not"
Yeah watch me
"Yeah watch me call security"
Whatever dude
And I walk away feeling like a noob.
I see the smokestack in the distance on the property and I start my treck over there. A kind old woman was sitting on her porch enjoying the nice weather.
"Hello, how are you today?"
I am fine, thank you
"Whats with the cameras?"
Well I explore old abandoned buildings to take in the local history and to document them
"Ah I see, well you should try over on **** St"
Hahah, I’ve been over there, it was kinda cool. I was just over (pointing towards the saw mill) there and I got kicked out of the property so now Im just walking around
"Well then you should check out that building over there" (pointing towards the smokestack)
Thats abandoned?! Oh sweet! Thanks.
"Yeah you can go right through this hole in my fence"
And she leads me to the hole.
"Watch yourself, you might run into bad people"
Hahah thanks for caring, but I have a tripod to crack skulls in
I didnt take too many photos, I was too into the exploration but I feel I snapped some pretty good photos.
Some random gauges:
There was nothing good up these stairs
Except a dark room that had a sprocket
Some tires waiting to be grounded up
SPROCKET!
I did snap a shot (on film that hasnt been developed) from the roof of downtown.
I made my exit through the same way I came in, through that hole in the fence.
After that I headed back over to that saw mill and snapped some shots, I’ll throw them in to because they’re sweet.
The saw mill was turned into a steel mill later in its life and they processed uranium and other shit on site. Not knowing as much back then as we do now they just burried it on the property. This was the second time I entered the property and was most likely my last. I dont fuck around with radioactive material.
I did happen to see a fairly neat callender. One of the things it said was "I wouldnt touch that cliche’ with a 10 foot poll"
The saw mill closed sometime in the 80’s.
After that I made my way up the road to where my mom was going to pick me up. I needed to find a phone because I dont own a cell phone (I really should though) and I seen some older guy in his garage.
"Sir do you have a phone I could use?"
Yeah hold on
And I called my mom and then I asked him for a glass of water. That was the first thing I had to drink in hours, it was delicious. Right across the street from his house is an old abandoned mansion of sorts, used to be used in the underground rail road. I popped some shots on my SLR and we got to talking about it. He said the owner had just recently died and there is a bunch of cool old stuff inside. He had gotten permission to get inside from the owner.
He told me as a kid he and his friends would ride down to that mill and observe the people working.
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And thats that. I have plans on going back, when I dont know.
I know I didnt take many "documentary" shots but Im not some newb with a digital camera and an itchy trigger finger.
A big thank you to those who actually read the whole thing.
I am the self proclaimed king of UE in Lockport, NY.
All photos are ®John B.
-Clegg