I had decided to visit a paper mill in southwest Michigan, as the building had been set for demolition recently. Homeless residents informed me that the building hadn't been torn down as a bald eagle was nesting within

This is the boiler building, it once had five boiler units, but two had been disassembled and repurposed. I took this particular photo on top of an oil tank.


Someone had wanted to bring home this chunk of spiral staircase I assume, but were unable to get it out of the building


There was a lot of space under the boilers, many different offices, rooms with gauges and such


Here's one of these rooms, these places are all very dark because the boiler building's windows were all bricked over


The paper mill closed in 2000, and had been voided of asbestos, following OSHA regulations. They even had these warnings on the smokestacks


There were also stairs that went all the way to the top of the building, some of the grates were missing, but the way up was sturdy. I've seen similar decaying pipes akin to this huge steam pipe, silica just unravels and eerily hangs around everything


Progress!

I used to visit this place all the time when I was going to school in Kalamazoo. The boiler building was always super creepy. Some parts of it stay pitch black on even the sunniest of days; I'm pretty sure someone was living in there the last time I went through because a beer bottle came flying out of a window towards us as we approached the building. Either way, amazing photos of a really cool spot with some interesting history and connections to the paper industry and the legacy of environmental contamination in SW Michigan.

Posted by Findloo I had decided to visit a paper mill in southwest Michigan, as the building had been set for demolition recently. Homeless residents informed me that the building hadn't been torn down as a bald eagle was nesting within

That is such a cool place, awesome pics!