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The first thing that struck me about the Harding-Jones Paper Mill was the age of the building. Most of the buildings I had explored up to that point were mainly from the 20th century; this was presented as one from the Civil War era. Of course, now know that this is not true; while the company was founded in 1865, the mill that stood was from 1871. But still, getting the chance to explore something from the mid-19th century was a real treat. Plus, it is one that is easy to explore and, despite structural concerns, an easy mark with a lot of history tiedRead More →

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The local explorer scene called it George’s Funhouse; I’m not sure why or who George is or was, but one thing is for sure, the American Enka company in Lowland, TN, was a lot of fun. While INAAP was a much larger space to explore, it had nothing on the Lowland plant in terms of the amount left and the variety of items left. Lowland offered up everything in a smaller but much more densely packed location, as someone who loved the ample empty space, along with some exciting things to see and read. The American Enka Company traces itself back to the Netherlands andRead More →

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If you had to pick the epicentre of abandoned buildings in the American Rust Belt, many cities can claim that title. The 1970s were not kind to North American industry, and cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and many more still feel the sting of that troubled decade. Then there is Gary, Indiana; you can throw a rock in many parts of Gary and break the window of an abandoned building. And despite the stories I had heard about the city being a murder capital with rampant crime and watching not only your car but your wallet. I never once felt uncomfortable in Gary, unlike Detroit,Read More →

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Among explorers, there is always a favourite type of location to explore, photograph, and visit. Some love abandoned houses, others prefer industrial buildings, and then there is the institutional. Here in Ontario, we don’t have too many surviving institutions from the 19th and 20th Centuries; there are some, but most were all torn down or replaced with modern hospitals. So a chance to check out the Muskoka Regional Centre was one I was not going to miss when I met up with strangers from the Internet to drive nearly two hours north to Gravenhurst for a rather epic exploring adventure and eat at a questionableRead More →

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There is always a plus of having inside information; you must be careful when exploring former government sites, especially those used by both the military and the police as training locations. So when I got word that a former Cold War radar station was open for exploration, I jumped to head up to the Barrie area to check it out. Sadly, the base had been an adult occupational centre longer than a military base. While there were still plenty of military buildings around, there were only a few clues to the base’s history. Almost as soon as the Second World War ended, a new ColdRead More →

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It’s been a long time since I thought about the Darnley Grist Mill. It wasn’t until I saw a memory pop up on Facebook that I was heading out to kick off the start of my War of 1812 project, which included a stop at the Darnley Grist Mill. I ‘discovered’ the location in a book with a list of different sites related to the Anglo-American War of 1812. Oddly enough those shots never went into the project despite the connection of the mill to the war. But despite touching on the subject of mills and local supply lines, I never used those images. HavingRead More →