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Location DB >
United States >
Texas >
Sweetwater >
The Compress
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Publically Viewable |
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This location has been labeled as Demolished, and therefore can be viewed by anyone.
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This location was on a fairly busy urban street adjacent to an active rail yard and active municipal water supply company.
It consists of 1 small (approximately 500 sqft) detached building and 2 very large (approximately 75000 sqft) buildings connected together. These are wood framed, corrugated metal buildings on a giant concrete slab on about 3 acres of land with an abandoned rail spur.
Most all salvagable equipment has been removed and there was some relatively minor vandalism. The ground around back was littered with pieces of broken machinery and discarded parts. Some interesting artifacts were found including a few silver coins.
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Type: Building
Status: Demolished
Accessibility: Easy (so easy a coon could do it)
Recommendation: forget it
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Its large size, giant machinery and total solitude was what I found interesting, lots of room to roam around in here.
Apparently only 3 raccoons and a couple of bums know about this location.
The slightest brezze flexes and rattles the loose corrugated steel panels around causing all sorts of creaking squeaking and banging noises.
2X rating from 1-5 = XXXX a worthwhile 2 hours of exploring here.
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Nolan County Texas didn't offer searchable online access to their public tax records at the time I explored this. And companies like the Sweetwater Compress Inc. didnt bother with websites or home pages either so the history of this location will require more direct research than I can bear.
Remains of several other concrete foundations stand in mute testimony of a much larger building complex than the 3 existing buildings on this property today. The brick smokestack also leads me to believe it began operation during the age of steam.
There is evidence this business was still active at least as late as 1998. Any coal fired-steam driven equipment had long since been replaced by natural gas. An enormous hydraulically driven press was at the center of the operation here compressing loose cotton fiber into large tightly compacted bales for transport or export.
It would appear that maybe 7 or 8 years ago, the cotton bale compressing stopped and the employees walked out for the last time leaving a few artifacts and documents behind in the building.
Maybe the droughts of the last decade in the southwest dried up the cotton business or maybe federal pesticide restrictions and increased importation of cotton from developing countries without pesticide restrictions lead to the demise of Sweetwater Compress Inc.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2015: satellite views show this ones been gone for a while
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The moderator rating is a neutral rating of the content quality, photography, and coolness of this location.
| Category |
Rating |
| Photography |
8 / 10 |
| Coolness |
9 / 10 |
| Content Quality |
9 / 10 |
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This location's validation is current. It was last validated by
Mike Dijital on 10/18/2015 8:43 PM.
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on Oct 18 15 at 20:43, Mike Dijital validated this location
on Oct 17 15 at 23:52, Explorer Zero changed the following: Description
on Oct 17 15 at 23:24, Explorer Zero updated the main picture
on Oct 17 15 at 23:22, Explorer Zero updated gallery picture Boiler graffiti
on Oct 17 15 at 23:21, Explorer Zero updated gallery picture Wood structure detail
on Oct 17 15 at 23:21, Explorer Zero updated gallery picture Uh oh entry details
on Oct 17 15 at 23:20, Explorer Zero updated gallery picture Hole shot
on Oct 17 15 at 23:20, Explorer Zero updated gallery picture Coon scat
on Oct 17 15 at 23:19, Explorer Zero updated gallery picture Cotton gin tags
on Oct 17 15 at 23:19, Explorer Zero updated gallery picture Press box
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