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UER Forum > Rookie Forum > What's the story behind your first location? (Viewed 91381 times)
mvanburen 


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What's the story behind your first location?
< on 8/2/2013 3:17 PM >
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Don't name the actual place; just a general description of what it was. I'm curious to find how most people got into UE and what their first time was like and I couldn't find a similar thread.

For example mine was an old abandoned sawmill that my friends showed me after they stumbled upon it in the woods. It was relatively untouched by graffiti but, being next to the water for so many years, nature had taken a bigger toll on it than humans could have. That being said, all of the mechanics that kept the saws running were still intact, although the creek that powered it had since been dammed. It had been built in the late 1800s, right after circular saws had started to be implemented, but judging from the cans of oil and other tools I think it was used well into the mid-20th century. There were still some boards that had never been shipped out, most of them stamped with prominent names from the town that the mill was located in. The glimpse into history and the sense of adventure that I got while exploring there got me into UE and I've been trying to establish myself ever since.

So, what was your first location like? And did it spark your interest in UE or did you find it after you discovered what UE was?




Evilbunny 


Location: San Leandro,Ca
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They're here, and they're watching.

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 1 on 8/2/2013 3:28 PM >
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I liked the idea because its like a museum no one else ever gets to see. A couple of friends were going and asked if I wanted to tag along. So I did and it was awesome so I decided I wanted to go to more places like that.




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fiftyone_eggs 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 2 on 8/2/2013 5:59 PM >
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I was a 16 yr old skate punk and we built a half pipe in an abandoned rug mill. I was the only person out of my crew who spent any time poking around the rest of the mill. I was amazed then and still am about how few people care about what's inside abandoned buildings.




Watchfire 


Location: Indianapolis
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 3 on 11/5/2013 2:59 AM >
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Abandoned insane asylum. It was amazing. There were underground tunnels, all kinds of stuff around, and an abandoned power plant that used to power the facilities. I spent two whole days there on separate occasions in the same week and still didn't cover all the ground. My friend was really nervous cause he saw some cops snooping around so I was pretty peeved when he wanted to leave.




jonrev 


Location: Lake Wazzapamani
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 4 on 11/5/2013 11:54 AM >
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Can't explain without saying the location, so...

It began with the demolition of Lakehurst Mall in Waukegan, IL - which led me to Deadmalls.com, which led me to their writeup on Dixie Square Mall, which probably led me to a site called Chuck's Photo Spot. Chuck Janda was part of the DSM Documentary that was never finished, so at some point I wound up on the site for that, and it sort of picked up from there...

Several years later, after dicking around some random unremarkable places and ruins of a farm in the woods around the block from home, DSM was my first major explore. Interestingly, it was with Chuck and the documentary crew.

In short: this is an offshoot from being a retail nerd.



[last edit 11/5/2013 11:56 AM by jonrev - edited 1 times]

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ISO640 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 5 on 11/5/2013 12:32 PM >
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I was in kindergarten when I did my first explore... no, seriously. My parents rented a house that had this storage building on the property and I used to explore it constantly cause it had really neat junk in it and there were no kids around to play with so me and my imaginary friends hung out in the building going through the junk.

My second "adult" explore was St. Nick's. I think I was 18 or 19. So, over 20 years ago. My best friend said she'd heard about this place she wanted to check out. So off we went. I'm still haunted by the boots and the clothes hanging from the hooks in the bath area. I took pictures but as with most of my film photos, I have no clue where they are.




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Malthea 


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Quiet as a shadow. Calm as still water. Fear cuts deeper than swords.

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 6 on 11/6/2013 4:31 AM >
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ISO, your post reminds me of when I used to play in an old abandoned button factory as a kid. I'd search through the rubble and find these mussel shells with holes in them where the buttons had been punched out.




supersidalicious 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 7 on 11/9/2013 10:25 PM >
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A friend of mine showed me a flickr page that was filled with pictures of abandoned buildings and drains. We thought it was the coolest thing, so we started getting in little drains around our town and I was hooked ever since! We would look at google maps for hours trying to find new drains, it was always the best of times.




Unusual 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 8 on 11/10/2013 12:09 AM >
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About a year ago I explored a two-story abandoned house next to my band's practice space. It was a very old, rickety, brick-walled building that had been vandalized all to hell and had bullet holes in the wall. We were actually there to shoot a DIY music video and had to covertly run about 300' of extension cables out to this location. It was really fun checking it out and walking on eggshells when we were upstairs. (the floor was very unstable) While we were there, a man walked up and asked what we were doing. Since we had our Tascams and boom lights and such it was pretty obvious. He was a good guy and helped watch out for the cops. A couple of friends of mine smoked with him later and found out that he was all tatted up with swastikas, iron crosses, and that sort of thing. It was shocking, but hey. He was still really cool to me, and I'm pretty brown. Can't remember his name, but I'll always remember my adventures with Whatsisname the Lovable Skinhead.




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PKIDelirium 


Location: Xenia, Ohio
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 9 on 11/11/2013 3:23 AM >
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Was at a Taco Bell nearby when I noticed the fence around the mini golf/arcade/batting cages/etc place right next door, which was being demolished, had been taken down. So I just walked over and went around the golf course for a while, which was already partially ripped up.

Doesn't seem like much, but it got my interest and I went back not long after with my camera. Unfortunately that year of photos was mistakenly deleted ages ago, but I kept the hard drive in hopes of being able to recover the files at some point.




whelve 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 10 on 11/12/2013 2:47 PM >
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Back in 2008 my friend mentioned to me one summer evening at our weekly BBQ that he had seen the coolest old apartment building, and did I want to go check it out with him the next day. I instantly said yes!
Once we got there we realized that while the front was totally boarded up the fence in the courtyard was breached and all the doors were open so we spent a good hour poking around and enjoying ourselves. We incidentally dubbed the place "The House of Harm" based on a trashy paperback horror novel we found in the garbage heap that had taken over the courtyard space. I decided we needed to come back with cameras and we should look around this area some more. We poked around abandoned places for a good 3 years before we realized that it was called "urban exploring" and that there was a whole subculture dedicated to it.




Stina_lou 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 11 on 11/21/2013 7:31 PM >
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long story ahead!


I got into UE by way of geocaching and through a community on instagram that posts pictures of decaying paint and graffiti...


my first 'location' (not exactly an abandoned structure but was my gateway to UE) was an epic graffiti wall under a bridge. I ended up there by chance while looking for a geocache http://www.geocaching.com.

This was the spot




after this, I noticed another 'graffiti wall' across the river from there...



after a little trial and error, I found this spot...



and started to take interest in not just the graffiti, (though I will always love graffiti) but in the decay and abandonment here..

1.


2.


3.

basically that's how I got started, from there it's history!
At one point I was interested in going in the abandoned mill buildings near this area, but got reprimanded by a creepy voice coming from a trailer at one point..
I haven't been back in awhile, wonder how the spot is doing...
started with graffiti, moved into UE and RE, and clearly I am now hooked.

Thanks for checking out my story!













Jared Kat 


Location: Colorado Springs, CO, USA
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Coming to a drain near you!

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 12 on 12/8/2013 3:42 AM >
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Honestly, from a high-school dare to go crawl through a little 2 foot RCP drain, and well, I was the kid to actually do it. From there, online research and more draining, hiking, and the like, found this website, and on from there, an interest in all other aspects of urban exploration became interesting. (Unfortunately not too many abandoned buildings around, though some exist).
The next step is photography.




In a society that has destroyed all adventure, the only adventure left is to destroy that society
voyagerfan99 


Location: Tolland County, Connecticut
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 13 on 12/9/2013 3:49 AM >
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I have a friend that's into it. I'd seen his photography and wanted to do it. So one day during spring break freshmen year of college (spring 2010) I drove up to visit him and we went exploring to an abandoned old people home in Maine. Been doing it ever since.




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afterdark 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 14 on 12/9/2013 5:19 AM >
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been into photography for a while. ive rooftopped alot of the campus buildings here at school but my first real explore was actually climbing a construction crane in france. theres a thread with the photos i took around here somewhere. havent been able to do much exploring since my second explore which was also in france, since i dont have a car here at school. Im looking at doing a few over winterbreak and in luxembourg when i study abroad next semester. let me tell you though, that crane was exhilarating.
It was right next to the dorm i stayed at in france, and i told my friends i was gonna climb it and none of em believed me. So that night at around 2 i rolled a j and walked over to the site. my dumbass activated both of the motion sensing lights on the way in, but thankfully there wasnt a guard and nobody noticed. I climbed up, took some photos, and took immense pleasure in being the highest person in the immediate vicinity. loved craning ever since that moment.




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Kurt 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 15 on 12/10/2013 7:27 PM >
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First place I ever "explored" was the ruins of the New Manchester Manufacturing Company in Lithia Springs, Georgia when I was 15 in 2007. I was hiking in Sweetwater Creek State Park this was along the main trail a ways in. The fence didn't stop me and I went in. The history is really cool. It was torched during the Atlanta Campaign in the Civil War and this is what remains today.







"What is your favorite thing about Belchertown?"

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Crvna 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 16 on 12/17/2013 12:05 AM >
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I think I was always kind of prone to wander around, as my mom often kicked my brother and I outside when we fought too much or she had work to do. We lived in a poorer neighborhood, so there were open canals that ran under the yards and we would go down under our neighbors yard when it was running and use it as a fort. She always freaked when she caught us, but we were fascinated with the idea of getting into the sewer system next. It never happened, and eventually we got to big for our "fort" but I caught the bug for trying to get into isolated areas.

However, I didn't explore much until I went to Bosnia after high school. We worked a 9-5 day and had free time on nights and weekends. All throughout my neighborhood were abandoned houses and around town were construction sites that had been abandoned because of the war. We nicknamed one of the houses "The mystery house" and would discuss its mysterious past daily. We ended up exploring old houses and driving to a destroyed castle that had been used a hide out in the war. I think we spent an entire day sketching, taking pictures and climbing to out of reach areas. The gentlemen that lived nearby were confused at our interest and insisted we sketch them. Coming back to America was rough, there's not nearly as much to explore where I'm at. This was pretty typical for when I went, functional and fixed up at the base level. Still destroyed on the top floors, complete with bullet holes.1.






johnnycanuck 


Location: Near Erie, Pennsylvania
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That Bubble Blowing Bastard

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 17 on 1/4/2014 3:24 AM >
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Well, visiting America for a few months, my first exploration came about when my girlfriend was driving us downtown to show me around. The first thing that I spotted was a smokestack, with worn letters going down the face. I asked her about it, and she said it was abandoned in the mid seventies when the city's industry crashed. So, I gathered a companion (she's not into this stuff) and we poked around. The adrenaline was fierce! I hope to keep this amazing hobby well fed.




Send4Help 


Location: A biology lab far, far away...
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No time for the old in-out, love.

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 18 on 1/4/2014 11:37 PM >
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Nearly a decade ago RenegadeofFunk and I saw a coal breaker and wondered what was inside.

The rest is history.



Interesting note, my avatar used to omit the "e." Why you ask? The e refers to a clue where I hid the bodies of 400 urban explorers that leaked entry information.







The Durango '95 purred away a real horrowshow - a nice, warm vibraty feeling all through your guttiwuts. And soon it was trees and dark, my brothers, with real country dark.
Ozymandias 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 19 on 1/5/2014 11:56 AM >
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Everything that could have gone wrong on my first explore absolutely went wrong. Two other friends and I decided to check out an abandoned school that had been turned into a storage facility. We had to enter through a second-story window, which was fine. We checked out the second floor, and everything was fine and it was really cool to see all of the decay and whatnot. Once we went down to the first floor, however, everything went downhill. As soon as my friend got down the stairs and began to look around, an alarm went off. Needless to say, the three of us sprinted back to the window from which we entered and got back onto the roof. Adrenaline was pumping pretty heavily, so all three of us just jumped off of the roof. Once we got back to the car, it would not start. The battery had died because my friend left the keys in the ignition. Luckily, someone came and helped us out despite the alarm ringing right next to us. We left and everything turned out fine, but we were all rattled a little bit. This mishap didn't deter me from further pursuing urban exploration, though.




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