Category Archive: Behind the Concrete Curtain

13 Mar

The Foundry

These photos were all taken with my trusty old Powershot G2. Old as in it’s from 2001. When we first set foot inside the Dussault Foundry in Lockport we had…
March 13, 2014 at 8:32 pm 2 Comments
17 Oct

Urban Decay Central

Grain elevators have become popular in Buffalo in the past few years. Most of us around here have probably heard of art shows and history tours that run through Silo…
October 17, 2013 at 9:02 pm Leave a comment
16 May

You’ve Got the Power

No text this time, instead a video with narration. I know there’s like two minutes of nothing after the video ends, it’s not in the original video, so I guess…
May 16, 2013 at 3:46 pm Leave a comment
18 Apr

Mini-Golf Mini-Post

Nature can retake man made structures and spaces very quickly. In the span a few short years sites can be buried and overgrown enough that no one remembers it was…
April 18, 2013 at 12:46 am Leave a comment
15 Mar

Don’t Get Caught

In front of you is this early 20th century brick hospital complex. You don’t see anyone around but there’s a problem. The entire property is surrounded by a fence. You…
March 15, 2013 at 6:46 pm 2 Comments
28 Feb

The Warehouse

(All pictures are screen grabs from a video made on ZR900) Over on the East Side of Buffalo, close to the Science Museum and the former site of the Orphanage,…
February 28, 2013 at 9:39 pm Leave a comment
13 Feb

Pants: Don’t leave the house without them.

Continuing on from the last post, I’ll start with pants. Most people I know who go out exploring will just wear jeans, and usually that’s fine. If it’s warm, and…
February 13, 2013 at 11:37 pm 1 Comment
10 Feb

Urbex Couture

In my last post, I mentioned frame backpacks and it got me thinking about how I’ve never quite gone over what to use and wear while out exploring. Many people…
February 10, 2013 at 12:33 am 2 Comments
08 Jan

Wasteland

Flintkote was a paper mill (later they made roofing shingles) in Lockport, NY that left behind an awful legacy. It was labelled as one of the most toxic locations in…
January 8, 2013 at 5:48 pm 1 Comment
28 Nov

Alma Mater

(All the photos taken in this blog are by two of my fellow club members and not by myself.) Sometime in the spring of 2002 there was a fire that…
November 28, 2012 at 4:52 pm 2 Comments
10 Nov

A Rough Start

What seems like a very long time ago, an era in which Arrested Development had only been cancelled for a year, I took my first foray into urban exploration. My…
November 10, 2012 at 2:16 am Leave a comment
25 Oct

Frozen Over

Sometimes the best sites come to us by accident. One cold, dead, winter day my friend asked me to go with him on a trip down Route 5 to take…
October 25, 2012 at 6:02 pm Leave a comment
06 Oct

On the Level

If you find yourself driving out towards the 400, or on a sight seeing trip through scenic South Buffalo, you might notice off to the side of the highway a…
October 6, 2012 at 3:26 pm Leave a comment
10 Sep

Burned Out

Sometimes opportunity knocks, other times it billows hundreds of feet into the air. A few years ago a largely abandoned machine-shop-turned-warehouse caught fire and chased out what little activity the…
September 10, 2012 at 11:28 pm Leave a comment
27 Aug

Invading the Radar Base

During the early decades of the Cold War, President Eisenhower’s administration had concerns that if Russia decided to send all of their bombers over the US at once and drop…
August 27, 2012 at 6:59 pm 1 Comment
20 Aug

Tonawanda Coke

Tonawanda Coke is probably the second most toxic location we’ve been to. For the past few years the EPA and a local environmentalist group named the Clean Air Coalition of…
August 20, 2012 at 3:01 pm 1 Comment
13 Aug

The Tunnel

(If you like this post you can follow me on twitter @markjamesdos or check out my gallery here. My newest article is The Foundry about the Dussault Foundry in Lockport,…
August 13, 2012 at 12:12 am 40 Comments
03 Aug

The Orphanage

The Greco-Roman orphanage was a large complex located on the East Side of Buffalo almost directly across the highway from the Science museum.  It was also the largest non-industrial site…
August 3, 2012 at 3:47 am 1 Comment
26 Jul

On Safety

Safety is important. When urban exploring one must make sure to always put their own and others safety first. No, really. People sometimes do really stupid things when you take…
July 26, 2012 at 3:16 am Leave a comment
18 Jul

An Introduction.

I’ve always wondered what I’d say to someone who asked me, “What is it that drives you toward urban exploration?” Of course, no one has yet to ask me this…
July 18, 2012 at 6:01 pm 3 Comments