Grain Elevators
This church is in bad condition these days
This is the elevator we climbed. The other one was way too sketchy to even consider climbing. I do not recommend climbing old crib elevators like these. They are far too dangerous.
The flywheel. This elevator appears to have been powered by a diesel engine. This elevator appears to have closed sometime in the mid 1970's as that's when the last diesel powered elevators were either closing or being converted to electric. This facility was never converted.
These facilities were completely made of wood so fire was always a real danger. Many elevators like this have burnt down over the years.
Under the bins facing the drive shed
Looking up the plank ladder. I have to say plank ladders are really hard on the hands. I'm glad this elevator had the metal strapping on the planks so I didn't have to worry about the plank pulling away and me falling up to 7 stories. The fact that the elevator had these safety features shows it was still open in the mid 1970's when the metal strapping became necessary and was required by law on all wooden plank ladders.
Looking down the ladder from the top. The level below was just small planks with no hand rails or other safety features. I was a little shocked to see it was just a 7 floor fall into the storage bins. I decided to just skip that level as I don't really like heights to begin with. Yet again I have to stress that you should not climb a wooden structure that is over 100 ft tall and has been abandoned for over 30 years. It's just plain dumb. So don't ask me why i did it...lol
Some of the last shots I took with this camera. It never survived the trip back to the ground from up here. This is looking through a hole in the wall above the bins - over 100ft above the ground.
Looking through the missing window at the other remaining elevator in town
Looking down at where an annex would have been
The church through a hole in the wall
Looking down at the road
A house shot with a cell phone after my main camera died
Chair on second floor