• Entrance

    Entrance to the facility - and my car!

  • Machine Shop

    Judging from the abundance of 440 volt hookups in the building, this likely was some sort of machine shop.

  • Safety for All
  • No Entrance

    Back door to the machine shop.

  • Ore Silos

    Rusting silo between concrete silos for holding iron ore. It looked like there was more machinery on top of the silos that had rusted away and collapsed.

  • Overgrown

    Tree blocking a doorway.

  • Garage Door

    Outside view of another building showing the decay of the area.

  • Burned Steps

    Even older looking stairs - the mine has history back to the 1800s, but this is probably not that old. The building on top of it appears to have burned, leaving behind electric wires and boxes.

  • Abandoned Excavator

    ...With no bucket. Likely a Massey Ferguson 450.

  • Abandoned Excavator's Engine
  • Machine Shop Roof

    Outdoor view of the first building, the roof on this side is nearly rotted through. Most of the buildings were built with cinderblock walls, metal trusses, and wooden roofing.

  • Workshop

    Inside another building, some sort of workshop.

  • Worker's Desk
  • Transformer Gauge

    The guts of the transformer were missing, probably stolen by copper thieves.

  • Office Building

    One of the few two-story buildings, with major fire damage inside.

  • Another office.

    Some sort of office area, completely rotted out.

  • Bathroom and Sink

    Likely decimated by vandals.

  • Outside

    The office/bathroom is inside this building, and the first building in the album is visible through the trees in the background.

  • Exit (Entrance)

Benson Mines is a long-abandoned iron mine near Watertown, NY.

The mine was shut down in 1978 and the buildings and have been left to nature ever since. It's a great visualization of nature slowly reclaiming it's land.

I stopped by with a friend on a rainy day on my way back to Rochester from the Adirondacks. The rain was moderate at times and the buildings were alive with the sound of dripping water.

Without futher ado, the album:

Tags: 
Photography

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