Orbits of a deluded mind

I haven't forgotten about this site or abandoned it. Life has been keeping me too occupied to post much.

Here's a preview of an exploration taken this summer. Many more to follow!


The little shack on the cliff

Sorry folks, I would have posted these photos almost two weeks ago, but I got called away on a very short notice business trip. That also why several moderated posts didn’t get approved till this morning.

Location #3 – The Swift Meat Packing Complex

It was hard to find a wall or surface that didn’t have a fresh coat of paint. If anything, as discouraged as it should be, the paint sealed walls were actually better preserved and wear was limited in those areas. That said tagging is a felony in some areas.

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Abandoned Places – Fort Worth, TX (Dec 12) – part 3

There are limited advantages to going on an abandoned site hunt on a weekday. People are at work, traffic is greater and the risk of being seen at some sites is much higher. Going to a location adjacent to one of Fort Worth’s biggest entertainment and tourist draws on a weekday worked beautifully. Being the dead of winter helped too but as mentioned, it really wasn’t cold.

Ft Worth was built as a cattle town. The stockyards and slaughterhouses processed millions of cattle and was on of the primary point that ranchers and cowboys would bring their products to market for the southwest. There were over 20 slaughterhouses and meat packing plants in and around the stockyards, but by the 1920’s Armour Meats and Swift Meat Company were the biggest and most influential.

Location #3 – The Swift Meat Packing Complex


In it’s heyday, the Ft Worth Swift plant was the company’s second largest operation (Chicago was the largest). To the north of the complex was it’s biggest rival, Armour and Company. In the 1950’s that dramatically changed when Swift bought Armour’s meat business.

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Last winter, I went to Ft. Worth to visit a dear friend and do an extended modeling shoot with her. While I was visiting this amazing lady, she indulged my passion for abandoned sites. Given Ft. Worth’s history as a gateway to the old west and its slow change from a blue collar meat packing town to a technology and manufacturing center; I knew there had to be some cool site. I researched a few places, on-line, checked several community & photo blogs and asked her for ideas of things she’d seen. The results for a day’s wander were exceptional.

Location #1 – Downtown
Fort Worth grew for up as a cow town and the rail hub. Cattle were shipped east to a hungry nation and goods were shipped west to build the growing communities on the frontier. Times change and the transportation hub shifted away from downtown leaving this monument to those days.


Texas Express Company AKA The Texas and Pacific Freight Terminal

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Last year when the tornadoes blew us out of the house and on the road, we visited family in central Alabama. Within walking distance of the house was this gem. Constructed in the 1930’s, the Calera School was the combined elementary and secondary school for farming community.

The complex is now in a state of arrested decay. The main building has been used most recently as a haunted house attraction and municipal storage. Adjacent to the brick and mortar building is a large two room school house, which was moved to this site for renovation. Plans for that seemed to be on hold for a while.


( School's out for-ever )

Here’s a blast from the past. In April 2008, I did several wanders into the desert around Lancaster with my kids. I recently recovered these images from a storage drive that failed.

These would be some of my last Southern California explorations before moving to the wilds of Northern Alabama. We explored 3 sites on this trip before the winds came up so strongly that they created a dust storm. The houses were all within sight of each other but not part of the same farm. In each case, they appear to have been departed in haste (foreclosed).



( Lost Horizons… [19 behind the cut] )

As mentioned yesterday, I was able to put together another abandoned site hunt today. It was an epic win. This time I brought along our friend Amy and her friend Kim. Lots of pics and some great finds.

Just completed a bit of year end maintenance on the community and thought folks would like to know. I removed about 350 "deleted and purged" accounts from the community. There's probably another 80 accounts which have been "deleted" but haven't reached the end of the line when LJ removes the data (and any hope of return). Surprisingly I saw two 'suspended' accounts.

Year to date, we hit our highest membership of 13187 active accounts. Using Google Analytics, not counting repeat hits by the same individual ISP/address, we had 34500+ unique visitors come to the community and view a page. This year, we only had 3 notable SPAM / Phishing attempts (all of which were deleted). We also only had four events where the moderators had to step in. You guys are great at staying civil, mature and self-policing.

The only event that truly disturbs me is the copy and paste copyright infringements by pansypoo. I've had to remove them twice from the member list despite a ban in place. I again urge people to visit her Blogger account and file DMCA complaints if you see your photos in her blog used without your permission.

Beyond that, it's been a remarkable year here in "AbandonedPLaces." Next year should be even better!

While I’m still composing my thoughts after the storms of last week, I thought I might offer this gem.

Last spring when I was out in Colorado Springs, I did a bit more than work and take nature photos. While driving around the countryside there, I happened upon an empty and well secured ranch. From what I could determine, it was broken in three rentals based on the mail boxes on the main road. With the newest (junk) mail over a year old, I felt the place was a safe bet to explore.



( Recovering [14 behind the cut] )

Continuing our exploration of the Chase Nursery complex we found some unique surprises

Chase Nursery appears to have finally foundered and declared bankruptcy in 1993. Since this was a family owned business, sorting out the business financials from the family’s took several years. Eventually portions of the property (including this one) were sold to a local university for agricultural uses.


Unpowered

( Regrowth [18 behind the cut] )