The Best Way In Mon, May 31st, 2004 posted by Avatar-X
The Port McNicoll Grain Elevator was built in the early 1900's by the Canadian Pacific Railway and primarily used to store grain. Physically, it's about half a kilometre long, about 100 metres wide, and maybe 30 metres high. A very massive concrete building. It houses hundreds of silos, each about 8 metres across. I believe it was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The elevator is located just outside Port McNicoll, near Talbot street and Armstrong street.
Some scouting around revealed someone had (somehow) pulled away some of the concrete chunks, exposing the top of a loading door that led into the basement. One by one, we squeezed through it and were inside.
Clambering back inside the basement, we decided to try to find an interior way to get up. Surely there must be a staircase of some sort somewhere! But alas, we found no stairs. However as we reached the end of the structure, what should cross our eyes but a metal ladder, leaning against the wall. Casting our flashlights upward into the closest silo, we saw a long ladder affixed to the side of the silo, with ropes tied to it. The ladder didn't look very secure, but we saw no other way up, so we decided to give it a shot.
Pilo101 made his way up the precarious ladder inside the silo, while Tekriter and I returned to the cars to fetch the necessary equipment. I had brought along some rope, which came in handy. Above us, Nvr2loud was making his way down the caged ladders as far as he could go, before they ended at a metal landing. Once he was secure, Tekriter threw the rope up to him. After several tries, Nvr2loud successfully caught the rope and secured it to the landing. Dangling one end back down to us, he indicated he was ready. Tekriter tied the rope to the top of the rope ladder, and with some heaving on the part of Nvr2loud, the ladder made its way up. It turned out to be just long enough, the bottom rung hanging a few feet off the ground. Nvr2loud made sure the ladder was secure, and before long Tekriter was climbing up. Now, I've never really climbed a rope ladder before, at least not a long one in a serious situation. So you can imagine I was somewhat apprehensive. I took it one rung at a time, making sure my hands and feet were securely placed before moving to the next rung. Before I knew it, I had reached the landing, and then quickly climbed up the original metal ladders and two-flight staircase before arriving on the roof. The view from up there was quite incredible. We could see pretty much all of Port McNicoll, which isn't much of a feat considering how tiny it is. That night there was a full moon, partially obscured by clouds, giving the whole trip a very creepy feeling. Nvr2loud had already gone ahead, so Tekriter and I made our way through a missing window and into the building on top of the silos. It was incredible. All of the silos were wide open, unlike the Malt Plant where they had small doors over the openings. Here, a series of concrete and metal catwalks on several levels stretched the length and width of the building, allowing access to each individual silo. As we reached the east end of the top, my flashlight suddenly died without warning. Good thing I carry five of them, plus the Maglites come with replacement bulbs! A quick switch of the bulb and I was on my way again. Like in the basement, there were also small concrete blocks that once held rails for machinery to move along. Moving slowly to avoid tripping, the two of us made our way to the north end of the building and met up with Kiwi, Nvr2loud, and Pilo101. There was a small office with a broken lock on the door, which we peeked into. Since we still had no idea what this place was officially called, we were looking for some sort of stationary or letterhead that might wield some clues. There were some posters for cars, a broken radiator, and some office joke sheets lying around. Finally I found a piece of paper explaining what to do if a fire occurred in one of the silos, with the heading "Port McNicoll Elevator". Finding no other useful information, we left the office and made our way up some stairs onto the roof. The view from here was even better, so we sat down and just rested. It was about 1:30 AM at this point. We discussed what we had seen so far, but one important thing was missing: There were no employee changing rooms or toilet facilities. We also found the lack of proper offices somewhat suspicious. Nvr2loud and I had a look off the west end of the roof, and spotted a large concrete slab at ground level, which appeared to be a foundation. After some speculation, we decided that when they abandoned the place they must have torn down the side structure and used it's concrete to spread around the base of the main structure. After some more exploring along the length of the roof, we made our way back inside.
It was about 2:30 now, so we decided it was time to be getting back. None of us wanted to climb down the daring ladder inside the silo, and climbing down the rope ladder can be pretty difficult. So we decided to use some rappel gear brought by Nvr2loud and Tekriter to get down from the last landing. Nvr2loud climbed down the rope ladder, and so did Kiwi and Pilo101. Then, he hoisted the rappel equipment up to Tekriter. This consisted of ropes, carabiners, harnesses, and belaying devices. I've never rappelled before, so Tekriter showed me how to put on the harness and instructed me in the use of the belay device. I stood on the metal frame of the landing, and slowly eased my weight onto the harness. Before long, I was hanging totally on the rope, with my feet on the wall. I slowly lowered myself down by controlling the rope passing through the belay device. Before long, I was on the ground! It was quite and interesting experience. I took off the harness and took a breather, and watched as Tekriter lowered himself down in much the same way. Afterwards, he pulled the rope down and packed everything away. Now that we were back on the ground, I wanted to have a look around at where the foundation of the other building was. Walking around the side of the elevator, we reached the pad and found pretty much what we were expecting: overgrown concrete, trash, some tires. There was a hole in the ground which presumably let into the basement, but it was much too small to fit into. We walked the rest of the way around the building before returning to our cars and driving back home. It was an incredible trip, one I would recommend to anyone who isn't afraid of a little climbing and driving. There are many places where you could fall and seriously hurt yourself, but only if you aren't careful. Remember: Safety first! If anyone has more information about this place, or has been inside and would like their story posted here, please email me! |