Someone had a business storing cars in the old Packard Plant. One guy I talked to, said that there were quite a few old cars stored there at one time. There is some interesting stuff around, about 20 years ago when I worked in the city I used to see an early 60's Cadillac on the road ocassionally, the rear fins were shaved off and smoothed. It was faded and looked to be a daily driver. That fire truck would make a great race car hauling rig.
The pics on those sites are amazing. How does something like that happen in the United States of America? Can anyone pretty much walk into and explore most of those abandoned sites? I would love to go urban exploring in some of those places.
a group of my friends like to go urban exploring here in the buffalo ny area, but thre arent as many places to go, deffinantly no sky scrapers to go walking aroundin a bunch of my friends have been inside the old train station, but i havent been in there yet, its a (fairly) active restoration, so the restoration team keeps it pretty well buttoned up we tend to find old factories to explore, like the dunlop ofice building or the spalding fiber plant for the dunlop building, theres a door that looks like its well retained, but it opens with some good tugs, as all the latches have ben cut, the spaulding fiber plant has a hole in the fence in a hidden location, so its a hop and a skip to get onto the grounds but around here the rule is simple, expect people to see you tresspassing, expect them to call the cops, know how to get out without getting arrested or know a good place inside the building where they will never find you for example, one building has a very large furnace .... hope you dont mind getting dirty
Remeber it's Detroit, abandoned is a realtive term. Some of those places are probably fairly safe such as eastern market but others, well, you never know who's around and some don't take kindly to others...
Bug - I've been in a lot of them. Observations: a) When going in, we'd go in groups of three. One point, two flank. Flank carried the 6 'D' cell maglites; point carried a 9mm. Flank's job was to literally guard the flank; point watched whatever was oncoming. We never had to use the 9mm - but there is ample evidence that weapons have been discharged in those abandoned buildings. One basement in particular had a wall riddled with pockmarks - good sized ones - all about chest high. Now, keep in mind I said we never had to discharge the weapon - that doesn't mean we never met any unsavory characters. when I say unsavory - I'm not talking about your average take-a-shit-on-the-street homeless...I'm talking the 'other' kind of unsavory. The kind that leaves pockmarks on the wall. An armed group of three is most often left alone. b) When it comes to abandoned 'treasure' - it's 90% gone. Urban propectors have picked over the bones pretty good. For example, the head is missin on the Hudson motor on account of it's aluminum, and can be carried out for scrap. There are entire city blocks in Detroit missing stop signs, simply because they're aluminum and easy to remove. Every year, there's a story about some poor old lady who is awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of prospectors rippin' siding off her house. They mistook it for abandoned, and started yankin.' Prospectors are pretty bold. A couple went into a DTE switch station about 15 years back, intent on stealing copper switchgear. It was a 13.2KV sub; one prospector got away - the other was still smokin' when the crew got there. c) After 50 years of neglect and prospector abuse, many of these buildings are getting weak. They're coming up on 100 years old, and many have been abandoned half their life. The industrial buildings in particular are quite scary; Albert Kahn designed them for a 50 year life cycle. At 2X life cycle, many of them are structurally compromised...they continue to stand simply because the city can't afford to pull them down. d) A significant percentage of materials in those old buildings are carcinogenic. Old facilities were steam heated; the pipes were insulated with asbestos, for example. Just walking thru there kicks up dust. I'm concerned that my time spent in them (not insignificant) will cause problems in the next ten years or so. e) If you're still interested in going in after reading a) - d), lemmetellya - NO ONE will stop you, as NO ONE patrols them, and NO ONE cares. Detroit cops take up to 24 hrs to respond to domestic disturbance calls - if they respond at all! A couple of guys pokin' around an old building isn't gonna draw any attention in a town where the sounds of summer include repeated small-arms discharge. Just remember - when you go in, you're REALLY on your own. Once inside the perimeter of an abandoned Detroit facility, there are no laws - an no one to save you save yourself. this ain't no party this ain't no disco this ain't no foolin' around -talking heads
Looks too late to be one (plus they were built in Grand Rapids, not Detroit), but Continental Motors did produce a car in 1933 and 1934. It was powered by a version of their L-head inline six industrial motor and called (what else?) the Continental. It was a continuation of the DeVaux line and looked very similar to the same-era Ford. I believe they have one in the Grand Rapids Public Museum. I have pics on my other computer, but it's not here right now. Maybe Wednesday.
The Jalopy Journal
