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What are urban explorers? · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know?
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Speaker 1: From house Stuffworks dot Com? Hey, you welcome to the podcast.
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Speaker 1: I'm Josh Chuck. Say Hi, Hi Josh. This is stuff
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Speaker 1: you should know. You put chucking eye together in a
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Speaker 1: room and press record and you get stuff you should
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Speaker 1: know just like that. Yeah, we should put like a
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Speaker 1: star twinkle in there, um Chuck. Yes, Josh. Have you
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Speaker 1: ever passed by, like an old store or something like
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Speaker 1: that and you you just felt drawn to go look
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Speaker 1: in the window, just kind of peer in it. An
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Speaker 1: old store that's closed down, like yeah, exactly, I'm sorry,
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Speaker 1: an old unused store of some sort, like an old
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Speaker 1: grocery store, and you look inside and really it's just
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Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, some pillars that hold the
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Speaker 1: ceiling up, maybe, if you're lucky, a couple of shelving units. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it's about it, right, I do. I'll get into this
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Speaker 1: little later, but I'm way, way, way turned on by
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Speaker 1: this subject. We're gonna be talking about this. I'm way
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Speaker 1: into it and I've done it turned on. Well yeah,
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Speaker 1: sure intellectually, okay, I guess yeah, it's like that's a
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Speaker 1: weird thing to be turned but have you ever Okay, well, wow,
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Speaker 1: my holy intros just shot, let's talk about urban explorers.
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Speaker 1: So sorry to derail. You know, you're fine, You're fine. Um,
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Speaker 1: So okay, so we're talking about urban exploration. Uh, and
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Speaker 1: let's just give a little background here, a little definition
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Speaker 1: right here. Well, urban explorers are people that it doesn't
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Speaker 1: always have to be urban meaning city. It's basically when
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Speaker 1: you go and explore any abandoned structure, almost always abandoned,
1:43
Speaker 1: almost always abandoned structure, and you see what's there. There's uh,
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Speaker 1: there's some ground rules. You know, you're not supposed to
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Speaker 1: take anything. No, there's some real codes of conduct that
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Speaker 1: that have cropped up that are like really strict. So, um,
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Speaker 1: basically you got urban exploration really kind of starting in
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Speaker 1: earnest in the nineteen seventies right there in the San Francisco. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: this group called Suicide Club and I'm not entirely certain,
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Speaker 1: but I think kan Kisi was a member um and
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Speaker 1: they used to go tour like um old utility tunnels
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Speaker 1: and old hospitals and stuff around San Francisco. They also
2:19
Speaker 1: used to do and I think this is where they
2:21
Speaker 1: got their name. UM. During storms they jump into San
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Speaker 1: Francisco Bay and apparently there was one sea wall that
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Speaker 1: had some heavy chains linked to it, so they'd hold
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Speaker 1: onto the chaine and just get whipped around by the waves. Yeah,
2:34
Speaker 1: they did other weird stuff. They had, like dinner parties
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Speaker 1: on Golden Gate Bride. Yeah, that was really cool. But
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Speaker 1: they they they And also you can even go a
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Speaker 1: little further back than that. UM in the fifties, students
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Speaker 1: at m I t UM used to tour like underground
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Speaker 1: steam tunnels on around campus and everything. But most people
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Speaker 1: credit Suicide Club is the people who really started to
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Speaker 1: do urban exploration. But it took about twenty years before
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Speaker 1: really started to catch on. And so you've got the
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Speaker 1: nineties and now all of a sudden there's that that
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Speaker 1: Code of Conduct, the Code of Ethics, right, which were well,
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Speaker 1: like I said before, you're not supposed to take anything.
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Speaker 1: What I thought was interesting is, uh, there's an old
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Speaker 1: saying with camping and wilderness exploration, which is take only pictures,
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Speaker 1: leave only footprints, and it's like that. Yeah, yeah, and
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Speaker 1: it's the same thing with urban explorers. Even though they're
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Speaker 1: you know a lot of people would just say they're
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Speaker 1: just ratty old buildings. They have a lot of respect
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Speaker 1: for it, it it seems like, Yeah, and there's a lot
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Speaker 1: of people that they have to contend with. I mean,
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Speaker 1: you have homeless people who find these ready old buildings
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Speaker 1: to provide shelter. Um. You've got people who I've never
3:41
Speaker 1: understood the compulsion to um spraying graffiti, especially when you
3:46
Speaker 1: suck at it. I don't know. I've got a can
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Speaker 1: of black paint and look I can write it just
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Speaker 1: looks awful. Now if you're a graffiti artist, totally different,
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Speaker 1: but just spray painting something for the sake of spray painting.
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Speaker 1: Don't understand it, Yeah, especially if your tag sucks. I don't.
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Speaker 1: I don't think you should do it. I think you
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Speaker 1: should either work on your tag or just quit altogether.
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Speaker 1: Um okay, So uh, they they've got all these other
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Speaker 1: people that actually probably kind of give their them a
4:10
Speaker 1: bad name urban explorers. And when I say them, I'm
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Speaker 1: referring to a vast network of people who are either
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Speaker 1: totally independent, loosely or very tightly um knit. Thanks to
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Speaker 1: the Internet, Yeah, the Internet's really helped, which is probably
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Speaker 1: why it started to really take off in the night. Um,
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Speaker 1: and these people are just like you said, they're drawn
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Speaker 1: to uh abandoned or unused or um neglected man made structures,
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Speaker 1: right I am. Yeah, but they don't they're not the
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Speaker 1: ones who are doing the graffiti. No, that's because that's
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Speaker 1: against the code of conduct. They don't break things. You can't. Yes,
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Speaker 1: you can't use wirecutters to make it past defense that. Um.
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Speaker 1: You know, you certainly can't kick in a door or
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Speaker 1: anything like that. And yeah, if there's like uh, I
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Speaker 1: read about one guy who found the Sole Mining Office.
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Speaker 1: It was like a nineteenth century office and he found
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Speaker 1: like these reams of like really personal personnel files, way
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Speaker 1: more personal than you I would hope my personnel file is. Um.
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Speaker 1: And he he just sat there and read them and
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Speaker 1: quietly put him back. Um. I think he found some
5:18
Speaker 1: X rays and things there too, of like people with
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Speaker 1: black long and it just really interesting stuff. But he
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Speaker 1: didn't take anything and put him back where he found him. Um.
5:27
Speaker 1: So that's another one too. UM. So all of this
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Speaker 1: stuff kind of forces you to get creative, right and
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Speaker 1: how you get in, how you get in, but also
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Speaker 1: you know what you're doing while you're there. If you
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Speaker 1: can't take anything to show your friends. That logically leads
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Speaker 1: to documenting it. And there are tons. If you go
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Speaker 1: on a flicker and type in urban exploration, urban explore,
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Speaker 1: urban and anything about urban whatever, as long as I
5:52
Speaker 1: has to do with UE, it brings up some really
5:55
Speaker 1: cool stuff, haven't that? Oh you got to? And of
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Speaker 1: course my favorite web site of all time Forgotten Detroit,
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Speaker 1: which I make look at probably what once a month,
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Speaker 1: hasn't changed a decade. Um. Yeah, that that's the same
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Speaker 1: thing too. It's one of the aspects of urban exploration
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Speaker 1: is to document this crumbling present that's actually very much
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Speaker 1: rooted in the past, you know. Okay, so what have
6:20
Speaker 1: you explored? I'm curious. Well, I don't know when this
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Speaker 1: all started, but I was really young and just I
6:27
Speaker 1: thought most boys were like this, but I was way
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Speaker 1: way into exploring things. Um, my dad's photographer used to
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Speaker 1: take my brother and out to the country in Georgia
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Speaker 1: to photograph old barns and things, and my brother and
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Speaker 1: I would always explore these barns. And that's I guess
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Speaker 1: that's kind of how it started. And there's something about
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Speaker 1: a large it actually does. I'm not sure you could
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Speaker 1: probably study me clinically because anytime I'm in a large
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Speaker 1: empty building, I get really excited. Like it doesn't even
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Speaker 1: have to be an old abandoned building. But I've taken
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Speaker 1: like a tour like a stadium, let's say, uh, Sanford
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Speaker 1: Stadium at U g A when no one else was there,
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Speaker 1: and being out there with no one else, it's just
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Speaker 1: there's something about it. It just I don't know, it
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Speaker 1: thrills me really. Yeah, So I mean, have you gotten
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Speaker 1: into this a little more of you taken it to? Well? Yeah,
7:14
Speaker 1: when I was about thirteen or fourteen, Uh, my family
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Speaker 1: used to vacation in Florida and Pensacola, Florida, and there
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Speaker 1: was an old fort there at the campground called Fort Pickens.
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Speaker 1: Uh eighteen forty three is when this thing was built,
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Speaker 1: and it was in service till about forty seven. And
7:31
Speaker 1: we uh made torches just like you see on TV,
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Speaker 1: with like the stuff the cloth wrapped around the end
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Speaker 1: and the battery there on the beach. You could sneak
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Speaker 1: through the bars they're like prison bars. And my brother
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Speaker 1: and I did this and we'll explored all these rooms
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Speaker 1: and tunnels from like the Civil War. Guys had stuff
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Speaker 1: like scratched on the wall and painted on the wall.
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Speaker 1: Was it like a prison? I don't really know. I
7:53
Speaker 1: actually look today to try and find out exactly what
7:56
Speaker 1: part of Fort Pickens we were in. I think it
7:58
Speaker 1: was the battery. I don't think it was a prison,
8:03
Speaker 1: but they would have the bar, so you know, obviously
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Speaker 1: the enemy couldn't get in to their stuff unless they
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Speaker 1: were fourteen year old boy enemies. But uh yeah, So
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Speaker 1: we explored the heck out of Fort Pickens and it
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Speaker 1: was really really cool. And then I did it again,
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Speaker 1: probably about eight or nine years ago in Atlanta. I
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Speaker 1: lived in some warehouses on the west side of Atlanta,
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Speaker 1: and my friend and I got into one that was
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Speaker 1: empty and kind of boarded up, and we found all
8:29
Speaker 1: these old blueprints for Marta, our subway system here for
8:33
Speaker 1: when Marta was first being pitched to the city in
8:35
Speaker 1: the seventies, and all these old plans and blue prints,
8:37
Speaker 1: blueprints and letters and things like that. Yeah. So I'm
8:41
Speaker 1: way into it. I mean that way into it. I'm
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Speaker 1: obviously not in a club, and I don't do this regularly,
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Speaker 1: but when I have done it, I just think it's
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Speaker 1: really cool. Do you have a handle? I don't have
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Speaker 1: a handle. I didn't take anything though, And I didn't
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Speaker 1: even know that was the rules. I just didn't want
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Speaker 1: to disturb anything. It sounds like, yeah, so done it
9:00
Speaker 1: a few times, and I would do it again at
9:01
Speaker 1: the drop of a hat. I mean, if someone know
9:03
Speaker 1: of a place, if you called me up on a
9:05
Speaker 1: Friday and said, hey, man, I know this empty shopping mall.
9:09
Speaker 1: In a second, I'm glad you said chopping malls. There
9:11
Speaker 1: was one that um. Actually I want to plug another
9:14
Speaker 1: site uh u e R dot c A. It's a
9:17
Speaker 1: Canadian Urban Exploration and Resources site UM. And they basically
9:23
Speaker 1: they allowed people to post, you know, documentation of their
9:26
Speaker 1: own exploration. And there was one that I was looking
9:28
Speaker 1: at in Atlanta. I think I showed you too, of
9:31
Speaker 1: the old Evandale mall right near where I grew out.
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Speaker 1: Whoever did that just did a spectacular um job of
9:38
Speaker 1: documenting this mall. It was clearly in it's heyday in
9:41
Speaker 1: the eighties. Everything's very pestelish. Um. There's like huge mirrors everywhere.
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Speaker 1: It is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen
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Speaker 1: in my life. And now it's gone. There's a wall
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Speaker 1: right there, which is another point of urban exploration. As
9:54
Speaker 1: far as I understand it. You're you're catching a last
9:58
Speaker 1: snapshot of um, something before it dies, because we inevitably
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Speaker 1: tear just about everything down, and this is this is
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Speaker 1: keeping it for posterity, not in its in its form
10:11
Speaker 1: of you know, when it was in its in its
10:13
Speaker 1: peak or or you know, functioning, but almost like after
10:17
Speaker 1: it's aged and right before it dies, you're you're kind
10:21
Speaker 1: of catching capturing that one last look. Yeah. Yeah, I
10:24
Speaker 1: guess it's at this point that we should say we
10:27
Speaker 1: do not recommend urban exploring because it is in fact
10:30
Speaker 1: trespassing and it is illegal. So we're not saying you
10:34
Speaker 1: should go out and urban explore it just because your
10:36
Speaker 1: friend Chuck ads. Not only that it's very very dangerous,
10:38
Speaker 1: it can be by definition, a neglected building is you know,
10:43
Speaker 1: it's a dangerous place. Um. You know, there's such things
10:46
Speaker 1: as building inspectors, but they only inspect functioning buildings. UM.
10:50
Speaker 1: So if you take the function out of building, there
10:53
Speaker 1: goes to building inspector and you have no idea whether
10:55
Speaker 1: you're gonna fall through a floor or you know, um
10:59
Speaker 1: have a or fall on you from above, which would
11:02
Speaker 1: make it a ceiling. I believe actually someone passed away,
11:05
Speaker 1: not too long ago. Was again in Australia. There were
11:07
Speaker 1: some kids that were exploring a sewer system and there
11:11
Speaker 1: was like a sudden storm and the stormwater just came
11:14
Speaker 1: hard and fast swept them off their feet and um
11:18
Speaker 1: pinned them against the great where respectitting into the ocean,
11:21
Speaker 1: and they drowned pinned against this great So yeah, I
11:24
Speaker 1: mean you could can be very dangerous. It can be.
11:26
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that was a good move, Chuck.
11:27
Speaker 1: I think our legal department is really gonna appreciate that.
11:30
Speaker 1: Don't listen to me. Listen to me, but don't do
11:33
Speaker 1: what I say. So so, we've talked about shopping walls, right,
11:37
Speaker 1: but there are actual like you know, there's other mundane
11:40
Speaker 1: things like that, like, um, an old office building or
11:43
Speaker 1: something like that. Um, there's just if you if you
11:46
Speaker 1: for some reason, if you take people out of a
11:49
Speaker 1: building and leave it there for ten years, anything's interesting, right.
11:54
Speaker 1: But there's also some like destination spots for been exploration, like, um,
12:02
Speaker 1: have you heard of a Danver State Hospital? Have you
12:05
Speaker 1: ever seen the movie Session nine? I have you've seen
12:08
Speaker 1: Session nine? Yeah? I've brought that up in another person
12:11
Speaker 1: I've ever I've ever met who saw Session yea. I
12:14
Speaker 1: brought that up for our asbestos article because it's an
12:18
Speaker 1: asbestos team in the movie that's going to this abandoned
12:21
Speaker 1: mental hospital. Very creepy movie. Yeah, yeah, it is very
12:25
Speaker 1: very creepy. But that's that's filmed that danvers Um. And
12:29
Speaker 1: there's another place that's in Massachusetts and it's an abandoned
12:33
Speaker 1: insane This island Um, which is just creepy enough. But
12:37
Speaker 1: this thing is huge old Gothic architecture brick. I would
12:41
Speaker 1: love to walk through that place. Well, there is one
12:43
Speaker 1: that's similar that you could walk through, which actually technically
12:46
Speaker 1: takes it off of any urban exploration list because one
12:50
Speaker 1: of the things is that it has to be off
12:52
Speaker 1: limits to truly be urban exploration. Um. There's a place
12:56
Speaker 1: called Waverley Hills in Kentucky. It's a tubercular the sanatorium
13:01
Speaker 1: and I think it was around for thirty or forty
13:04
Speaker 1: years and in that period of time, sixty thousand people
13:09
Speaker 1: died there. Yeah, it was bad. They have like this
13:11
Speaker 1: little morgue um that's still they're the White Child. There's
13:14
Speaker 1: like hospital like old time hospital, gurneys everywhere, old timey wheelchairs.
13:21
Speaker 1: It is beyond creepy and that's actually open for tours.
13:24
Speaker 1: I think there's a couple that either brought it or
13:26
Speaker 1: bought the rights to give tours there. So Waverly Hills
13:30
Speaker 1: in Kentucky would be a good place to go if
13:32
Speaker 1: you're into that. I love it. I think part of
13:34
Speaker 1: it as to do with being scared. I like that feeling. Um,
13:39
Speaker 1: it's exhilarating feeling to be somewhat frightened. I'm not talking
13:43
Speaker 1: scared out of my wits or anything. I don't like that,
13:45
Speaker 1: but there's something about an element of danger, being scared
13:47
Speaker 1: and being some large, dark place alone that just I
13:50
Speaker 1: don't know, I get a kick out of it. I agree. Well,
13:53
Speaker 1: you and your brother take your own advice. Be careful
13:55
Speaker 1: if you gonna do it, and if you did, don't
13:57
Speaker 1: say that we told you to do it. Okay. Well
14:00
Speaker 1: that's that's urban exploration. Uh. And this is listener mail. Okay,
14:08
Speaker 1: So Chuck, what do you have for us, Josh, have
14:10
Speaker 1: a couple of quick corrections this week. We're not always right.
14:14
Speaker 1: That is a lie. We did the best we can
14:17
Speaker 1: with facts, but sometimes we think of things on the
14:20
Speaker 1: fly and don't exactly have another fingertips. So we have
14:23
Speaker 1: a couple of corrections in our podcast about which one
14:28
Speaker 1: was it with the magic bullets? Where was it? Where's
14:30
Speaker 1: the best place to get shot? Kennedy? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
14:34
Speaker 1: And you mentioned that you thought it was a senator
14:37
Speaker 1: who was shot with JFK and Dallas and of course
14:39
Speaker 1: it wasn't. And you should have known this one, uh
14:41
Speaker 1: Texas Governor John Connelly, who was actually in the car
14:44
Speaker 1: with him. Why should I have known that one? Because
14:46
Speaker 1: it's that was a big event in our nation's history.
14:49
Speaker 1: But wow, I'm not scolding you, but I didn't know
14:52
Speaker 1: it either, So what am I saying? And who is
14:54
Speaker 1: that from? That was from Dave Barton? Thanks to Dave,
14:57
Speaker 1: and then Carrie Clinger, who was a dentist here in
14:59
Speaker 1: atlant Anna actually says she wanted to comment on the
15:03
Speaker 1: inconsistency with the one about the f d A and
15:06
Speaker 1: herbal substance regulation. We compared tile and all over the counter,
15:12
Speaker 1: taile and all the time, all three which you need
15:14
Speaker 1: a prescription to get. And the reason you need a
15:16
Speaker 1: prescription is because time all three is regular thailing, all
15:20
Speaker 1: with codeine added, which is a narcotic. I don't I
15:23
Speaker 1: don't even remember saying that can we play the clip
15:25
Speaker 1: real quick exactly, like, think about how you perceived tile
15:30
Speaker 1: and all, and then how you perceived tile and all. Three.
15:33
Speaker 1: That's stuff with Cody, right, which is pretty much like
15:36
Speaker 1: Migrants of Taile at all, think something like that. That's
15:40
Speaker 1: from Carrie Clinger, And like I said, she's a dentist,
15:42
Speaker 1: and she said, it's not a matter of a difference
15:45
Speaker 1: in dosage. It's a much different drug with a narcotic
15:48
Speaker 1: in it, and so it's subject to regulation. And she
15:51
Speaker 1: says that she prescribes it whenever she takes a tooth out.
15:53
Speaker 1: And I'm actually in the market for a dentist, so
15:56
Speaker 1: I'm look, I've got one for you. Well, I want
15:58
Speaker 1: to go to Carrie Clinger here in Atlanta. Okay, get
16:00
Speaker 1: some coding. That's that's awestuff. You're med seeking. You realize, Oh, well,
16:05
Speaker 1: I'm in case I need it, in case at a
16:07
Speaker 1: tooth out. Have you noticed we're huge in the dental community.
16:10
Speaker 1: That's two letters from Dennis. Yeah, that's weird. All right, Well,
16:13
Speaker 1: thank you to Carrie Clinger and uh Dave, thanks Dave
16:18
Speaker 1: um And if you want your letter red, make sure
16:21
Speaker 1: it's witty and clever and send it to Stuff Podcast
16:26
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com for more on this
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