Journey to Ixtlan

On 7/12/08 I revisited an abandoned site that had previously scared me off. Previously on 1/5/2008 I wrote about the "Bad House in Clinton" with the following excerpt:

There is a two story house in Clinton SC. This location was last used as an apartment building. I first visited the property over four years ago. Back then it had a ‘for sale’ sign in front of it and I was not into photography. I inspected the house and noticed that there was structural decay and signs of squatter use. Flash forward to last year. My mate and I were driving through Clinton and I pointed the house out to her. She did not like it, sensing something “wrong” with the structure. After much debate I decided to photograph the property. Today I did take pictures of the outside of the house and never got to go inside. Part of me did not want to, but the desire to find that killer abandoned place drove me. Maybe my angels were looking out for me. A police car drove through the drive-through of the KFC restaurant across the street from the bad house. Then another police car pulled up and an officer went inside the KFC. I took the pictures outside the house and then decided to move onto other places when another police car pulled up to the first.

Well, on a lovely Saturday morning I returned to the house. This time I did not have fear of the location. Inside I found signs of classic building abandonment, squatting, and an urban gathering place. Fortunately nobody was at home! This brings to mind an issue with exploring abandoned locations. Some locations are used by squatters or perhaps worse. Besides backing out slowly (or perhaps running), what else do you do for safety in potentially dangerous environments?

Front of Abandoned Clinton Apartment House

Spooky Front Stairwell with Peeling Walls

Click on a picture to see a larger image.

( More Pictures of the Abandoned Apartment Building... )

This blog entry revisits an abandoned building on HWY 221 outside of Laurens SC. I featured this building in a past blog.  My mate wulfwalker and I returned to the site on 12/23 and found some known features of interest and some previously unseen features.  The vines growing into the house were again photographed.  I climbed into the attic and took pictures of the encroaching vines and the striking shadows of the late afternoon sun.  We then explored the yard and found two sheds.  The first was mostly intact. The second shed was skeletal with odd portions of the structure still present.

The first shed held a morbid find.  My mate identified an upside box as a military body shipment box.  A search for the designation "AGRS-FEZ" found that it means "American Graves Registration Service - Far Eastern Zone".  This zone was established in 1947 to perform the duties of grave registration.  The destination of the body shipment case was "Seawright Mortuary" in Laurens SC.  A search on the web shows that there is no longer a Seawright Mortuary in Laurens.   It was neat to find this piece of somewhat strange history tucked away in an abandoned place. Does anybody know more about body shipment cases like this or this box's possible origin date?

All 64 pictures from the exploration are featured in this Flickr picture set.

Top: Vine covered side of house;  Bottom: Labeling on military 'body transport box'

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( More pictures from the HWY 221 North Abandoned House... )