I've had on my hit list an old Migrant Labor camp just outside of Lamesa, TX for quite some time. (2Xplorations as usual did a GREAT writeup on the place and can be viewed here:
http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=26316 )
I arrived early yesterday morning and honestly it was pretty underwhelming. Below are the few shots I took of the place:
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I then headed into town to see if it had any possibilities. It didnt take too long before I saw a smokestack. Jackpot! I pulled up to the place and it was gorgeous! Unfortunately it was also now a feed store. Driving around back I saw a pickup parked in front of an open bay door so I got out and met a great guy. His name was Mr. Brown and he was an older gentleman who retired from the Lamesa police department after 30 years. He has a workshop in the back of the old building that he piddles around in to keep busy and hide from Mrs. Brown.
He explained that the building was the only remaining (of the two ever built) egg processing facility constructed during WWII. His shop was in the cold storage area and you could see by the door that the walls were insulated with cork. After the war the place sat idle, still owned by the government, but unused. They had a guy who lived there for a couple of decades and maintained it before it was sold to the current owner who converted it into a feed store.
Mrs. Brown called and he had to go...So I headed over to the Lamesa police department and spoke with the dispatcher on duty. He had lived in town his whole life and offered no leads. As I was leaving, one of the on-duty cops stepped off the elevator and I asked him if he knew of any sites. He was quite interested and friendly (which made me a bit suspicious) and offered some of the "touristy" spots in town to see. He then asked if I had any photos online and gave me his private email so I could send him a link to my Flickr account (ok now I'm REALLY suspicious) which I agreed to do with no intention of following through.
He then asked if I was leaving and I said yes and he offered to walk me out. At this point my paranoia is in full blown melt down mode. When we got outside, he said that he didnt want to say anything in front of the dispatcher and offered me several locations in town that he knew and how to get in them! He said that he and the sergeant were the only ones on duty so if he got a call about a suspicious person poking around he knew it would be me. I thanked him for the leads and headed off to one of the places he offered (see below):
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This place used to be an arcade and there were screens for the games scattered all over the place. After this, I decided to hit the next spot the cop recommended but it had been locked up. Pondering my next move, he drove up and asked if I had any luck. I told him yes and no and asked about the 3rd place he had recommended, an old swimming pool at a park. He said that he would take me to it:
13. Police Escort When we arrived, he got out of his vehicle and escorted me to the old swimming pool. He said that it used to be where the "colored" kids used to swim and pointed out that back then this meant Hispanics too. He wasnt sure when it was shut down but that he and his friends used to come to the place to hang out and it was abandoned then so its been over 30 years. The rumor at the time was that a kid had drowned so they shut it down.
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While we were heading back he said that when he was a kid, there was a grain elevator (which he pointed to) that they used to go into all the time. He said that he couldnt recommend that I go there but he saw earlier in the day that the gates were wide open. I laughed and told him that I would make sure and avoid the place as it would be wrong to trespass. He laughed, I thanked him and headed straight for the place.
It wasnt hard to get in and I snapped a couple of photos on the ground level of the conveyor mechanism that honestly weren't worth processing. I turned around to head for the stairs to get a view from the top of the place when something caught my eye. I saw a small flashing red light on a box attached to a pipe. The light was part of a panel with a Flashing digital message that read, "Alarm Sent". Oh shit. I looked at it a bit more and saw that there was a motion sensor pointed right at the door and on the back of the door was a magnetic strip for the alarm. Needless to say I got the hell out of there as fast as I could.
I then headed up to Mungerville, TX to visit an old school (I'll post those later). It was now getting close to lunch so I headed back into Lamesa but just as I entered town I noticed a place off to my right that looked like it had some potential. One of the doors indicated that it was once owned by a cotton company:
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And so ended my fruitful morning in the lovely town of Lamesa. I hope you enjoyed the pics and story.