In August of this year, my good friend steph_444444 and I went on an urbex trip to northern Ontario. One of our stops along the way was the Kipawa power plant in Temiscaming, a small town on the Quebec side of the border. The plant was built by the Gatineau Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the Canadian International Paper Co., around 1920. It is now private property and in use.
Upon our arrival, we were a bit in awe of the front façade of the building, all windows and peeling red paint and private property signs. We were cautious of any people that drove in further down the road to fish on the docks. But other than the few people every half hour or so down the road, there was no one in sight and no cameras. We wandered around, looking for an entry point with no such luck. The owners really boarded up the place. We traipsed up the slope behind the building, wondering at the huge sections of metal piping that were each 15 feet high and 25 feet in length spaced every 300 feet or so up the hill. We wandered back down to try our hand again at looking for a way in. My partner was about ready to give up when I saw it: the way in.
And boy was it worth it. The basement was all cement walls and empty spaces where the turbines would have been. The main floor is now used for storage by the owners but we still appreciate the big open gallery. The top floor consisted of an office room as well as more power-generating-related rooms. A climb up a last ladder presented us with two surprises: one a (thankfully) empty eagle nest and a scattering of papers haphazardly strewn in a corner. Upon examination, we discovered that they were documents, some as old as 1920.
Overall, the place is a gem and we would go back in a heartbeat.
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(above) the local occultists had a field day.
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Above is a blurry picture of where we found the documents.