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Me and piplol headed to the deep south to check out this enormous piece of derelict property that has been home to many uses throughout the years, mainly as an airfield. It takes a little trek to get on property and navigate throughout the whole area. The owners also live on property, and thankfully the brush and undergrowth wasn't hard to walk through, yet high enough to facilitate the 'stop and drop' technique, which needed to be employed on several occasions. From a historical standpoint this place is amazing, but from an exploring standpoint it was a lot of work and risk for not that much except foundations and a few empty buildings, some from the original Army training base, and some from the industrial plants and surface mining that took place on the runways. A sad state for what should be one of Alabama's biggest and coolest National parks.
HISTORICAL STUFFS.
The Army purchased $74,550 worth of land covering 1,650 acres for the purpose of constructing a WW2 advanced air training base in 1941. By 1943 there were 4 runways and 225 buildings. Some of the planes used for training at the base include the PT-17 biplane basic trainer, the BT-13 monoplane advanced trainer, the AT-6 Texan advanced trainer, the P-40 Warhawk, and the TB-25 Mitchell. At the end of the war many of the buildings were moved or abandoned. sometime in 50's the base re-opened as a civilian airfield, with only one of the four runways in use. Throughout the 60's till the 90's the land changed ownership and usage, at various points being used as a dragstrip, a sand and gravel quarry, a concrete pipe casting plant, an oil refinery, all of which left their own abandoned buildings and imprint on the former runways and land. In the 1990's the airfield was the target of a superfund clean-up, and subsequently the land was abandoned again. Sometime in the early 2000's the airstrip was activated yet again as a privately owned airstrip, the owners building a newer and thinner runway next to the only section of the original four runways left, and other parts of the property were used as a quail hunting preserve by the new owners. The only active part of the land for the time is the owners house, leaving the rest of the land to slowly waste away again.
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A few historic aerials showing how massive this place is.
[last edit 6/11/2016 3:29 AM by Sheavy - edited 2 times]
Purveyor of Sinister Whimsy to the Wretched | |
Lots of overgrown goodness...mmmmm Good write up on the historical stuff! Nice post bud!
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I'll go ahead and ask, what is the "stop and drop" method?
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
- Leonardo da Vinci | |
It's like the rhythm method but less effective...
See More on Flickr!
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Cool story.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
- Leonardo da Vinci | |
only 1 of the runways is visible now.
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http://urbanexplorer.co
dot CO... not dot COM | |
piplol for the win
Kabbalah is an undramatic tradition that requires great patience and stability. One of the reasons for this tempo is that everyone has to mature his potential gradually and thoroughly at his natural pace. In this way his life's work unfolds at the right moment in his own and the cosmos's time.
Z.B.S. Halevi -- Kabbalah | |
Awesome shots
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Thanks guys!
Posted by Darendor
I'll go ahead and ask, what is the "stop and drop" method?
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A silly way of saying we had to get down on the ground to avoid being seen.
Purveyor of Sinister Whimsy to the Wretched | |
Aha. The more I know.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
- Leonardo da Vinci |
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