For most of the 20th century, the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States Government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral resources.

Founded on May 16th, 1910, through the Organic Act (Public Law 179), to deal with a wave of catastrophic mine disasters, the mission of the Bureau of Mines expanded over the years to include:

• The conduct of research to enhance the safety, health, and environmental impact of mining and processing of minerals and materials.
• The collection, analysis, and dissemination of information about mining and processing of more than 100 mineral commodities across the Nation and in more than 185 countries around the world.
• Analysis of the impact of proposed mineral-related laws and regulations upon the national interest.
• Production, conservation, sale, and distribution of helium for essential government activities

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Members: Neur@l, ToXiC, Brute, and Eca
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8.1
Written by: Neur@l
July, 2009 Trip #1

After meeting ToXiC for the first time and getting to know him, neither of us were aware that we both shared a common interest. That interest being Urban Recon. One night, while Eca and I were at the bar, we ran into ToXiC and chatted. Some how, I can’t remember who, someone mentioned recon. This trip log is to document the current TCUR teams first expedition.

After a few drinks, we decided that since all three of us shared a passion for the abyss, ToXiC made the suggestion of doing a mission that night. We all agreed and were down for it. So, yet again, us lovely drunkards cut off our tab, hopped on our bikes, and headed out into the unknown. At first we had trouble deciding were to go. I, shamefully, suggested Bunge. Probably because at the time, being a fresh Minnesotan, I didn’t really know of any good places to check out. ToXiC called his mate, Brute, on the phone and told him to meet  up with us.

No one really wanted to explore Bunge, so Brute and ToXiC put their heads together and decided we’d go scout the Ford factory while pondering our destination. We all loaded our bikes on top of Brutes motor vehicle and took off. After meeting Brute for the first time, I realized these were going to become my really good friends. As we drove we chatted and laughed, and got to know each other. Well, mainly Brute since Eca and I already knew ToXiC. Upon our arrival to the Ford factory, we drove around scouting possible entrances. We made a pit stop, checked out a spot, nothing. Back in the car Brute suggested the Minnesota Bureau of Mines. Everyone agreed and our mission was set.

Shortly after we arrived. All of us hopped out of the vehicle and ran a gear check. Equipment ready, heads held high, we began our walk into the abyss. We soon came to this forgotten fortress and began our scout. Making sure everything was quiet and safe, we began to search for our exit. ToXiC and Brute had already been there so Eca and I were waiting patiently for them to begin the tour. Brute, waiting off in the distance, had a short scare, for he thought he had seen someone. After a while of making sure our scouting wasn’t off, we decided the coast was very much indeed clear. ToXiC lead us to the entrance, and soon we were in. Brute, being the big guy he is, found a separate entrance, for he wasn’t interested in squeezing through the entrance we had found.

After regrouping inside the facility, ToXiC whipped out his trusty camera and started snapping shots. Eca and I looked around the empty facility, at the time we seemed to be in the garage or loading dock. I examined the entire vicinity in one spot and noticed a greenish light coming out of one of the rooms here. Enticed by the light I came up to a room that looked radioactive. It was empty for the most part, except for a desk with a broken telephone on it. A sign on the door reads “This Room Has Been Classified As A Class 300 Clean Room According To Federal Standard 209D”. By the current looks of it, that classification has become null and void, heh. After we were finished previewing this section of the building, as we were going to come back to it, we began our walk into the actual facility.

The hallways were in terrible condition, ceiling plaster all over the floors, wallpaper in shreds, and the tiling could use some repair. Oh, that’s right it’s abandoned. The lighting was faint, some were broken, some just went out, and every now and then some of the bulbs produced a sickening yellowish color. As we were walking down the first floor hallway, checking rooms here and there that were mainly bathrooms and janitorial closets, we came to a room that seemed to be the breakroom. Here there were cafeteria style booths set up, the ones in the far back were packed with old boxes of documents and folders. We browsed through some of them, mostly contracts or research documents. Soon we were interested in checking out the second floor, so we headed in that direction.

The second floor was more open. Windows lined the exterior of the hallway. The rooms joining it all had the basic set up of any laboratory. Sinks and shelves lined the rooms. There were also various plastic tubes lying around on the ground. The area of the 2nd floor that was not lined with windows had offices, some of the plaques on the doors still mentioned the names of people who used to work there. From here we could see the perimeter of the building, not exactly excellent cover for onlookers but at least we would know where they were heading if we needed to make a quick escape. The 3rd floor had pretty much the exact same layout as the second. This must have been where they conducted all the major experiments. It was especially more daring when Brute started playing music from the video game Splinter Cell. Soon we all crawled out through a window and headed to the roof. Here we chatted some more and smoked cigarettes. Then Eca and I kissed, which kind of threw Brute off because he didn’t realize he was exploring with a couple of homosexuals. After ToXiC explained, Brute started laughing at how obvious it was initially. We chatted some more then decided to explore the other side of the first floor. So we headed back  in.

The 1st floor ran into the front of  the building, where they had a receptionist desk and a stairwell that led up to the second and third floor “experimentation” rooms. We ended up walking into a conference room with a black board. Crummy red carpeting and tables were here, as well as a blackboard where we all wrote our handles on. We started to walk back towards our entrance down the hallway, stopping and looking in rooms on our way. These were offices for employees that once worked there. I thought it was hilarious when I walked into one of the rooms and found a bottle of Jergen’s next to the Holy Bible. Someone must really love them some Jesus. We also happened across an old O’Reilly book on some out-of-date programming language, I can’t recall but I believe it was either Cobalt or BASIC. I thought this was fun and decided to keep the book for entertainment purposes. Being a huge geek and IT guy myself it’d amuse me to read about past programming styles.

After some browsing and ruffling through different rooms and desks we headed back to the area we entered in. We climbed up the ladders lining the docking station and soon entered what shall be dubbed as “The Map Room.” Here they had blueprints and maps of the building and areas surrounding it. We spent a deal of time brushing through random prints. We then headed to a storage room filled with maintenance and mechanical equipment. Bolts and nuts here, motors, motherboards, and so on lined the counters. We played around in here for a while shifting through the random pieces and parts. Soon I headed on my own and stepped into random offices, one of which had a classic Comadore 64. Primitive technology I thought, but really fun to see. If I was a thief, and had a way of carrying it out of there, I might have attempted selling it on eBay as an antique. I just laughed in amusement at the ancient thing. After a bit more fucking around, we all decided it was time to head out. We did a final gear check making sure we didn’t leave anything, and prepped the evacuation. Cost was clear, we headed out talking about what parts we liked and what parts were boring. All in all this was an interesting mission. Our first mission together.

(Side Note: Since this was the first mission Eca and I had with TCUR it’s really hard to remember exactly to a T of everything that happened. Some parts might be left out, and perhaps some editing needs to be done. Check back frequently if you’re really curious.) -Neur@l

Sources
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bureau_of_Mines