Yesterday, I took some friends who were curious about urbex out to a new location, one that I myself had never explored before. The location in question was an old agricultural genetics research laboratory, where they conducted experimentation on live goats and sheep. Given how often the term "bloody lymph nodes" came up, I suspect they were researching immune systems.

We only had time to explore the main laboratory building, but there were at least two other buildings on site that I'll check out during my next visit.

1.

One of the laboratories


2.

An equipment sterilizing machine, seen in picture #1


3.

The administrator's office. Upon the desk sat hundreds of financial records.


4.

A box of test tubes.


5.

A cabinet that I suspect was used to store X-ray supplies.

6.

Four samples in jars. The two top jars contained flesh samples of some kind. The two bottom jars contained a gravel-like solid. Naturally, I decided against opening them up to investigate further- though based on the research notes, it's possible those flesh pieces are lymph nodes.


7.

A dead bird found on the floor of one of the labs. There were an unusually large number of dead birds in that room- at least half a dozen. I suspect they flew in, couldn't find their way out, and starved to death.


8.

The laboratory with all the dead birds


9.

Another laboratory.


10.

The attached barn where they kept all the goats and sheep for experimentation. There was a separate building labeled "isolation unit" that I didn't have time to investigate, but I suspect this was where they kept the healthy animals, while the isolation unit was for animals that they were experimenting on.


11.

An exterior view of the main laboratory building at sundown.


There were also hundreds if not thousands of documents scattered around the main laboratory building. These included textbooks, financial records, experimental data, researcher's notebooks, and safety procedures. Someday I hope to be able to sit down and photograph all of them, but here's what I got so far.


12.

Equipment orders


13.

Safety information


14.

Researcher's notes


15.

Experimental data


Expect to see more of this place soon, because I certainly intend to go back and finish exploring it. I've also got the names of some of the researchers and administrators who worked there, so if I can get in contact with them I might be able to ask them about their work.

Thats an incredible location, good god.

Your friends that you took for their first UE, must of been totally freaked out by this location or now they are IN....Hook, Line, and Sinker! lol. The latter, hopefully!! Cool location. Kind of hate the experimentation on animals though, but hopefully it was for cancer research.

Very morbid, and a job well done. 👍👍👍👍

"That's downright Macabre"

What an insane place. Who decides one day to just pack it all up and leave everything-- all that data, all those figures, sitting out on the desks? Good find, Aran. And good luck in that document task.. this is some cool history for sure.

That's a really neat find

Glad you guys like them!

Posted by Hoover What an insane place. Who decides one day to just pack it all up and leave everything-- all that data, all those figures, sitting out on the desks? Good find, Aran. And good luck in that document task.. this is some cool history for sure.

I think only a portion of it was left behind. There were lots of empty filing cabinets and bookshelves, so I think most of the data was removed. That being said, they still left hundreds of pages of equipment orders behind, along with at least three lab notebooks full of research data, a surgical manual, a physics texbook, several smaller books, and many safety procedures. They also left behind several floppy disks, CDs, and VCR tapes that I have no way to access because my laptop is too new, and I don't know how to copy VCR tapes if that's even possible.

The facility closed when they opened a newer and larger research facility nearby, so I think they were in the process of moving everything over to the new facility, but just... forgot to finish, I guess. Maybe they intended to go back to get everything but never found the time, until they just decided not to bother.

You could bring a laptop along with a USB floppy drive to try to read some of the floppy disks, though dirty disks will just ruin the drive and get you nowhere. 5.25" disks will be harder

You might also be able to recover data from that computer's hard drive. A friend and I were able to do that with a computer we found in an abandoned mill - we brought along a laptop and an IDE to USB converter, extracted the drive, cloned it, and put the computer back together. Didn't find anything interesting while looking through the disk image when we got home but the experience itself was neat.

We brought a portable 120VAC battery with us too and the whole computer even booted!

This place is insane. Photo 1 and two is a giant old autoclave. I cant believe that was left behind when they shut down. SO COOL

I have to see that place, beyond amazing.

What an incredibly cool and unsettling place- would've definitely freaked me out (in a good way) if I were exploring it. Can't believe that they just left all those documents and equipment there, great find!

Posted by triangulum- What an incredibly cool and unsettling place- would've definitely freaked me out (in a good way) if I were exploring it. Can't believe that they just left all those documents and equipment there, great find!

Thanks! I recently went back and found a whole set of shelves overflowing with documents in a side room I missed the first time, and among them were a stack of formally published lab reports. It looks like they were also experimenting on the respiratory systems of livestock and small animals by injecting them with "sublethal dosages of 3-methylindole administered intravenously," while other documents include instructions for handling chemicals such as sodium cyanide, a known respiratory and nervous system toxin. The term "induced hypoxia" also made a frequent appearance, and they kept life support equipment on hand.

I couldn't say what exactly they were trying to accomplish, but they were definitely trying to find something- which makes it all the more surprising they left all their notes behind.

Here's a pic of some samples from the lab taken a few months ago. I was messing around with a photo editor and turned it into this.