World Trip 2002 - Detroit
Day 10
Detroit,
the motorless city.
This place was David's stomping ground. Detroit, once home to a massive automotive industry was now a shadow of it's former glory. Detroit is a city that has well and truly lost it's past wonder. The place has dozens of abandoned buildings right through it, even down town. But that only makes it all the better for Urban Explorationrs.
David of Forgotten Detroit drove me across from Chicago, stopping in at Gary along the way. On the way we passed the legendary giant Uniroyal tire that other Urban Explorers had once had a party in. I had always thought it was a real tire from some huge Earth moving truck that was left by the side of a road somewhere. This was a four story high specially made tire that was once used as a Ferris wheel. This thing was huge. We were past it before I had time to photograph the thing.
We chatted for most of the trip, about all sorts of stuff. Some trivial, some significant. I've always liked David's web site. It was one of the ones that came on the scene looking professionally done from the start, slick design, nice feel. His photography has always been brilliant. He obviously takes a lot of time to pick and choose good shots. It makes me feel down right amateurish taking photos of everything in sight. Sure I do take the time to compose a shot, but I know with a digital camera I can take so many pictures that often I don't even look through the viewfinder.
One thing that struck me about Michigan was that it was so green. It was summer there, warm weather. We passed thousands of trees, all green and healthy. Field after field passed buy full of healthy corn and oats. Probably beans too. In Australia, a drive of this length would probably involve going through some bush, which is drier, less green, less vibrant.
We arrived in Detroit, with David driving downtown. I was surprised to see steam emerging from manholes, just like in the movies. Davis pointed out abandoned buildings, some surprisingly big. We're talking abandoned and disused skyscrapers here. Not just one or two, but quite a few. David pointed out the Statler Hotel, one of his favorites. He pointed out the old Motown Records building. Then we arrived at Michigan Central Station.
I've wanted to visit the Michigan Central Station ever since I first saw pictures of it in 1999. I wasn't at all disappointed that I never got to go into it. Just to stand there in front of it and realise how BIG that place is. It is huge! It is one hell of an impressive place. Level on level of abandoned building. I counted at least fourteen stories, there was probably sixteen. It was amazing, looking up at rows of broken windows, seeing light shine in from smashed skylights on the top floors. It would have been great to explore, but the razor wire and the fact that it was owned with plans for redevelopment stopped me. I wasn't here to get detained and my trip plans put on ice. Besides, there was more to explore in town.
The Fisher Body Works was a place I had heard about, but only seen a few pictures of. It didn't look that impressive outside, but inside, that was a different matter. It had a couple of dodgy staircases from hell in it. I'm scared of heights, I admit that. But Urban Exploration Exploration gets me into many buildings with dodgy staircases so I'm getting over my fear of heights. Mind you, with the first three levels of the Fisher Body Works being exciting but a bit lackluster I wasn't so keen to head on up further. I thank my lucky stars that David went on up ahead of me and called down about the incredible machinery on the top level. I would have missed out on a gem had I stayed below.
Fisher was a brilliant abandoned building. It kicked ass! The paint drying sections were brilliant. The little railway where cars must have trundled was terrific. The place was very atmospheric. I could picture scenes from a horror movie being shot there. Heaps of big chunky machinery that would be impossible to remove remained in place. It was solid stuff, almost vandal proof. Good dun stuff to explore. I'm sure you will get the idea from the pictures.
Day 11
I ended up staying in the Corktown Inn just a couple of blocks from the Greyhound terminal. I didn't get a wake up call despite asking for one. I was going a bit deaf due to not quite having equalized inner ear pressure on the flight from Phoenix a few days before so I had opted for the wake up call instead of my watch alarm which was a bit quiet. As a result of missing the wake up call I at least got a chance to have a look around a bit more of Detroit, taking a look at the old Tigers stadium. I was a bit troubled by partial deafness for a week and a half later.
After leaving Detroit on a Greyhound I headed south west through Toledo and Ohio into Indiana to Fort Wayne.
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