Sterns & Fosters Factory:Part II “The Sub Zero Visit”

What better to do on a day when the ambient air temperature is 0F and the wind whipping through “the Lockland Canyon” is being fanned by the trucks and the cars that race down I-75S in the mad rush of the day.

The building is slowly being demolished as men in HAZMAT suits roam around the site that is active but soon to be only a memory. The cold weather seems to inhibit the process little and the ice and frost formations turned out by a giant water cannon, are beautiful in some winter wonderland kind of way.

Once again as we toured around the outside perimeter we were asked by someone to whom’s property we were on, could they help us? As always honesty is the best policy as most of the locals seem sad to see the old eyesore being carved up before there eyes. There does seem to be a melancholy atmosphere around the building, as an era of American industrial and commercial power is revealed layer by layer and then destroyed.

As we were able to zoom in with our cameras we could see artifacts of industry and economical competition and might inside. An occasional blackboard, cork board and even a couch could be seen. All these left inside to suffer the same fate as the building that housed them for so long.

It was a bracing day and we had a limited amount of time before dark, the end of the work day and the cold took its toll on us but we found it not only exciting but essential to document the death of not only the Sterns & Foster building but an era as well. HINT: when you go out to do an investigation dress properly for the weather, it’s hard in such bitter cold but layer up, hats, scarfs, gloves and a good pair of waterproof boots are essential for you to have on, you could be injured without them and it’s no fun when the weather drives you away.

There is plus side of our little foray into Lockland are many on this cold day and it seems every time we visit. The HAZMAT personnel were very cool, even taking poses on the rubble so we could get some apocalyptic shots…thanks guys!! We are also given the opportunity to learn local history, visit the few open shops that remain, such as “The Glass Menagerie,” a cool little antique shop right across form the police station and make new friends and reconnect with our cool past!

The building is now 3/4’s gone and is in its final death throes. I asked one gentleman who was interested why we were out there, how long he though the old girl had? To my surprise he thought mid-March. Lets hope they leave something standing, like the gothic smokestack, as a reminder to us all of what once was the life blood of a prosperous community and the promise that it can be again.

The ice and frost of a sub zero day are haunting

From across the freezing Lockland Canyon

Two giant demolition back hoes work in the cold and almost nothing stands in their wake.

The work around the smokestack so maybe it will be the last man standing

There is a certain beauty in the destruction as frost painting appear from the icy water of a huge cannon

Hazmat workers roam the site and pose for their favorite Urban Paranormal Commandos

Ironic sign when paired with someone’s great sense of humor

The old couch sits alone and unused on this day because in this cold who wants to sit down?

America and its beauty are sometimes haunting as Old Glory stands up and salutes in the strong and freezing winds

The bizarre but welcoming sign “dead Pet” still greets me on my way home but for how much longer…?

We will hopefully have the chance for a couple more trips before its all gone and then come back and see what the future has in store so watch for our updates………

The Lockland, Ohio Incinerator Not for the Faint of Heart

Time to go parting shot

Weird graffiti going down

All my pictures in these wood had motion blur but I was standing still and camera setting had not been altered

Side view as sun goes down!

Possible sub-basement looking down on it from above…see deppression

3rd Floor graffiti

Top floor with hole in center goes down to the basement

Graffiti opposite side basement wall

Generator in basement

Someone was living here and seemed to demateriailze from sleeping bag and left all their stuff

Brilliant graffiti in basement

Next to furnace room used for who knows whar

Large furnance inside first floor. Boards to walk across debris on floor

First furnace entry lrvrl

Looking straight up the smokestack

This is the inside view of what we have seen so many times from the highway.

Our trips to the Lockland incinerator this year (2014) were fun, scary and bewildering. We travel down I-75S all the time and have always seen a smokestack of to the left as we emerged from the “Lockland Tunnel.” Both me and Marsha always wondered what it was and vowed to find out. Using Google Earth, an invaluable tool for the Urban Explorer, we found out what the smokestack and building were and more importantly, how to get there undected.

I DO NOT recommend this place to light day trippers or the psychically sensitive! It’s on private property and it not only looks dangerous but it is, there are holes in the floor three stories up, it is frequented by transients and taggers, the footing is unsure and I’m just going to say this, the building itself and the woods surrounding it seem to posses a certain menace that is active, strong, and powerful.

The first time we went in we parked across the street from the now gated entrance and prepared our equipment, getting it from the car and loaded it on our persons in some semblance of order. As we started walking in a gentleman that lived in the house on the corner approached and asked us what we were doing. We introduced ourselves and chatted a bit he was nice, informative and not about to call the police after he realized we were there only to explore and not cause any trouble. We were also informed that the police do ride by for a look every now and then and that if we were caught we would probably be charged with trespassing.He could have sat in his house and called them but he didn’t, thanks brother for being cool about it!

It’s a lot closer to the entrance than we thought and after walking less than a 1/4 mile we came to the old road’s bridge, which was in disrepair but sound. People had torched off portions of the steel guardrail to sell and it is about 40 feet to the creek at the bottom, so be careful. Then there is a short path that parallels the highway, it’s probably kept clear by the people that service the billboards you can see from the highway? The noise from the rushing cars was loud and in fall and winter you can clearly see the cars rushing by. There is an abandoned tunnel, to the right, that at one time before the highway or when it was smaller led to a complex of buildings on the other side. it’s creepy and the sign painted on it is still visible, it says something like, “trucks must stop on hill for pedestrians.” The clue that told us that the incinerator was connected to industry across the road.

Not far is the incinerator in all its dark, bleak glory! Its big and the furnaces are inside, the smokestack still has a ladder that goes up the side and the inside is treacherous with debris all over. There is some really cool stuff inside. The furnaces are still there, there is some kind of huge generator down the treacherous stairs and there seems to be a covered over sub-basement that has been filled in with junk and is only visible from above. I also discovered a privy in the back. The top part (3rd floor) is missing most of the roof but when the sun shines in the images sprayed on the walls are quite striking. It’s all dirty brick until you walk down one side and turn a corner and BAMMMM!! a brilliant purple mural can be seen in the basement, since the roof or floor above had long ago rotted away. We also found behind the furnace a long small room with a sleeping bag, books, backpacks and food but the dust was so thick we could tell it had all been left behind some time ago, but who does that? An eerie feeling came upon me when I first rounded the corner and saw the sleeping bag which I thought for sure had remains in it. The thing looked like there was an entire body in it that had somehow just dematerialized out of it, very strange. Then going down the debris filled stares to the basement I looked and saw what appeared to be a person sitting on a couch facing away to me but when I brought up some light on it the apparition transformed into the rusty old generator but I clearly saw the couch and its occupant..some much so I gasped when I looked.

We had little time to explore that day as we had a late start but we had found some intriguing things we wanted to check again. We also heard there was a derelict boat on the grounds and we wanted to find it before it was gone. But the first rule we use is when it gets too dark and you are out where you shouldn’t be its time to break off. TIP: always check the time of sunset for that day, even though you should have flashlights, it gets dark earlier under the forest canopy and you just don’t want to be in a dangerous setting after dark. Since the gentleman we first encountered knew we were in there we felt a little better, but we vamoosed and planned a trip back.

The second trip was just that, a trip! You could feel the bad vibes of the place immediately this time, so something had changed.  Marsha was affected so strongly by the malevolence that she wanted to leave right away and although my feelings and perceptions remained neutral I did something I never do, I went on my merry way while Marsha was frantic to leave and on the verge of tears. TIP: Always listen to your own voice and respect others voices when tell you they have to leave!

I again toured the incinerator and then decided to investigate the woods and look for the previously mentioned boat. The woods around the facility are creepy and every picture I took, standing still, with no change to my camera settings, was weirder that the last. They all had some kind of motion distortion in them and when I saw it later I was uncertain as to how this had happened unless the forest itself was in motion? Also in the back standing near some dead fall I heard a cow “moo?” Wow cows in the middle of the highway green space? By this time Marsha was frantic and in tears. I was fine and felt more exuberant than I should have, I even stopped for a half hour digging out an old milk bottle that had been exposed to the surface near some ancillary structure. Now that I look back on Marsha’s dread and my “happy” feelings could have been the same force trying to keep me happy, calm and indifferent to Marsha’s suffering to keep us there for some reason unknown to us. Marsha’s fear and her definite sensitivity to these incursions finally broke the spell and we high tailed it out of there.

We see and feel plenty of unexplained things on our outings and as we are both sensitive  and the two of us together always ramps up the activity higher than normal. We debunk what we can and the rest well you have to be the judge.

Advice here it’s a cool place with lots to discover but be smart and go in with your psychic radar up and working. This place is physically dangerous but we both agree there is some kind of entity or force that is malevolent, hostile and strong that is attached to this location. This is why it’s not for the faint of heart, casual day tripper or a person open to the “paranormal” activity there.

I plan on a return because of the “sub-basement” I want to uncover and the boat I have to find but Marsha said she was not going back after her experience with the force that reside among the ruins! This time I have to agree with her. I will update this report on what happens when I go in with another colleague of mine…stay tuned…