Stuff You Should Know - What are urban explorers?

Episode Date: January 13, 2009

Urban explorers investigate abandoned structures such as hospitals, grocery stores, warehouses and underground systems. Tune into this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about the rules, legality and appeal of this fascinating hobby. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner, the residue-free, fast-drying solution especially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like stone, tile, laminate, vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff, stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging?

They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Chuck. Say hi. Hi Josh. This is Stuff You Should Know. You put Chuck and I together in a room and press record and you get Stuff You Should Know. Just

like that. It's that easy. Yeah, we should put like a star twinkle in there. Chuck? Yes, Josh. Have you ever passed by like an old store or something like that and you just felt drawn to go look in the window, just kind of peer in it? An old store that's closed down now? Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry. An old unused store of some sort. Like an old grocery store. Oh yeah. And you look inside and really it's just kind of like, you know, some pillars that hold the ceiling up. Maybe if you're lucky, a couple of shelving units. Yeah. It's about it, right? I do. I'll get into this a little later, but I'm way, way, way turned on by this subject we're going to be talking about today. Really? I'm way into it and I've done it.

Turned on? Well, yeah, sure. Intellectually. Oh, okay. I got you. Yeah. I was like, that's a weird thing to be turned on. But have you ever, okay, well, wow, my whole intro's just shot. Let's talk about urban explorers, shall we? Sorry to derail you. No, you're fine. You're fine. So, okay, so we're talking about urban exploration. Right. And let's just give a little background here. A little definition right here. Well, urban explorers are people that it doesn't always have to be urban, meaning city. It's basically when you go and explore any abandoned structure. Almost always abandoned. Almost always abandoned. Yeah. Structure. And you see what's there. There's, there's some ground rules, you know, you're not supposed to take anything.

No, there's some real codes of conduct that have cropped up that are like really strict. So, basically, you've got urban exploration really kind of starting in earnest in the 1970s, right? Right. There's a San Francisco. Yeah. This group called Suicide Club. And I'm not entirely certain, but I think Ken Keezy was a member. And they used to go tour like old utility tunnels and old hospitals and stuff around San Francisco. They also used to do, and I think this is where they got their name. During storms, they jump into San Francisco Bay. And apparently, there was one seawall that had some heavy chains linked to it. So they'd hold on to the chains and just get whipped around by the waves. Yeah. They did other weird stuff. They had like

dinner parties on Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah, that was really cool. But they, they, they, and also you can even go a little further back than that. In the 50s, students at MIT used to tour like underground steam tunnels on around campus and everything. But most people credit Suicide Club as the people who really started to do urban exploration. Right. But it took about 20 years before it really started to catch on. And so you got the 90s. And now all of a sudden, there's that, that code of conduct, the code of ethics, right? Right. Which were? Well, like I said before, you're not supposed to take anything. What I thought was interesting is there's this old saying with camping and wilderness exploration, which is take only pictures, leave

only footprints. It's like the, that's the Sierra Club. Oh, is that? Yeah. Yeah. And it's the same thing with urban explorers, even though there, you know, a lot of people would just say they're they're just ratty old buildings. They have a lot of respect for it. It seems like. Yeah. And there's a lot of people that they have to contend with. I mean, you have homeless people who find these ratty old buildings to provide shelter. You've got people who I've never understood the compulsion to spray graffiti, especially when you suck at it. I've got a can of black paint and look, I can write. Right. It just looks awful. Now, if you're a graffiti artist, totally different. Right. But just spray painting something for the sake of spray painting it. I don't understand

it. Yeah, especially if your tag sucks. I don't, I don't think you should do it. I think you should either work on your tag or just quit altogether. Right. Okay. So they've got all these other people that actually probably kind of give their them a bad name, urban explorers. And when I say them, I'm referring to a vast network of people who are either totally independent, loosely, or very tightly knit. Right. Thanks to the internet. Yeah. The internet's really helped, which is probably why it started to really take off in the 90s. Yeah, that makes sense. And these people are just, like you said, they're drawn to abandon or unused or neglected manmade structures. Yeah. Right. I am. Yeah. But they don't, they're not the ones who are doing the graffiti. No, that's because

that's against the code of conduct. They don't break things. You can't use wire cutters to make it past a fence. Yeah, I like that one. You know, you certainly can't kick in a door or anything like that. And yeah, if there's like, I read about one guy who found this old mining office, it was like a 19th century office, and he found like these reams of like really personal personnel files, way more personal than you. Oh, I would hope my personnel file is. And he just sat there and read them and quietly put them back. Right. I think he found some x-rays and things there too of like people with black long and just really interesting stuff, but he didn't take as anything. Right. He put them back where he found them. So that's another one too. So all of this stuff

kind of forces you to get creative. Right. And how you get in. How you get in, but also, you know, what you're doing while you're there. If you can't take anything to show your friends, that logically leads to documenting it. Right. And there are tons. If you go into Flickr and type in urban exploration, urban explorer, urban anything about urban, whatever, as long as that has to do with UE, it brings up some really cool stuff. I haven't seen that. Oh, you got to. And of course, my favorite website of all time, Forgotten Detroit, which I make you look at probably once a month. Yeah. Even though it hasn't changed in like a decade. Right. Yeah. That's the same thing too. It's one of the aspects of urban exploration is to document this crumbling present that's actually very much

rooted in the past. Right. You know. Okay. So what have you explored? I'm curious. Well, I don't know when this all started, but I was really young and just I thought most boys were like this, but I was way, way into exploring things. My dad's photographer, he's to take my brother and out to the country in Georgia to photograph old barns and things. And my brother and I would always explore these barns. And that's, I guess that's kind of how it started. And there's something about a large, it actually, I'm not sure you could probably study me clinically, because anytime I'm in a large, empty building, I get really excited. Like it doesn't even have to be an old abandoned building, but I've taken like a tour of like a stadium, let's say, Sanford Stadium at UGA,

when no one else was there. And being out there with no one else, it just, there's something about it. It just didn't, I don't know, it thrills me. Really? Yeah. So I mean, have you gotten into this a little more? Have you taken it to it? Well, yeah, when I was about 13 or 14, my family used to vacation in Florida and Pensacola, Florida. And there was an old fort there, the campground called Fort Pickens. 1843 is when this thing was built and it was in service till about 47. And we made torches just like you see on TV with like the stuff, the cloth wrapped around the end. And the battery there on the beach, you could sneak through the bars, they're like prison bars. And my brother and I did this and we explored all these rooms and tunnels from

like the Civil War. Guys had stuff like scratched on the wall and painted on the wall. Was it like a prison? I don't really know. I actually looked today to try and find out exactly what part of Fort Pickens we were in. I think it was the battery. I don't think it was a prison. Okay. But they would have the bar so you, you know, obviously the enemy couldn't get in right to their stuff unless they were 14 year old boy enemies. Right. But yeah, so we explored the heck out of Fort Pickens and it was really, really cool. And then I did it again, probably about eight or nine years ago in Atlanta, I lived in some warehouses on the west side of Atlanta. And my friend and I got into one that was empty and kind of boarded up. And we found all these old

blueprints for Marta or subway system here for when Marta was first being pitched to the city in the seventies and all these old plans and blueprints and letters and things like that. Sweet. Yeah. Wow. So I'm way into it. I guess. I mean, not way into it. I'm obviously not in a club and I don't do this regularly, but when I have done it, I just think it's really cool. Do you have a handle? I don't have a handle. I didn't take anything though. And I didn't know that was the rules. I just didn't want to disturb anything. It sounds like you were a true urban explorer. Yeah. So I've done it a few times and I would do it again at the drop of a hat. I mean, if someone knew of a place, if you called me up on a Friday and said,

hey man, I know this empty shopping mall, I would go in a second. I'm glad you said shopping malls. There is one that actually I want to plug another site, uer.ca. It's a Canadian urban exploration and resources site. And they basically, they allow people to post documentation of their own exploration. And there was one that I was looking at in Atlanta. I think I showed you too. Yeah. Of the old Avondale Mall. Right. Just right near where I grew up. Whoever did that just did a spectacular job of documenting this mall. It was clearly in its heyday in the 80s. Everything's very pestilish. Right. There's like huge mirrors everywhere. It is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen in my life. And now it's gone. Yeah. There's a

wall right there. Which is another point of urban exploration as far as I understand it. You're catching a last snapshot of something before it dies. Right. Because we inevitably tear just about everything down. Right. And this is keeping it for posterity. Not in its form of, you know, when it was in its peak or functioning. But almost like after it's aged and right before it dies, you're kind of capturing that. One last look. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's at this point that we should say we do not recommend urban exploring because it is in fact trespassing and it is illegal. So we're not saying you should go out and urban explore just because your friend Chuck has. Not only that, it's very, very dangerous. It can be. By definition, a neglected building is,

you know, it's a dangerous place. Right. You know, there's such things as building inspectors, but they only inspect functioning buildings. Right. So if you take the function out of building, there goes the building inspector and you have no idea whether you're going to fall through a floor or, you know, have a floor fall on you from above, which would make it a ceiling, I believe. Right. Actually, someone passed away not too long ago. Is that correct? Yeah. In Australia, there were some kids that were exploring a sewer system and there was like a sudden storm. And the stormwater just came hard and fast, swept them off their feet and pinned them against a grate where it was exiting into the ocean and they drowned pinned against this grate. So yeah,

I mean, you could. It can be very dangerous. It can be. So yeah, I think that was a good move, Chuck. I think our legal department's really going to appreciate that. Don't listen to me. Exactly. Listen to me, but don't do what I say. In 1968, five black girls, dressed in oversized military fatigues, were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children that you possibly can. I believe Mount Mags was patterned after slavery.

I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare and how those five black girls changed everything. All that on unreformed. Listen to unreformed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars.

I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God took a walk into the devil's den. The car killed. They just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot by the name of Lamar Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island.

Chester would claim he did it all for the CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation. So Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh no, not by a long shot. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, we've talked about shopping malls, right?

But there are actual, like, you know, there's other mundane things like that. Like an old office building or something like that. There's just, if you, for some reason, if you take people out of a building and leave it there for 10 years, anything's interesting, right? But there's also some, like, destination spots for urban exploration. Like, have you heard of Danvers State Hospital? No. Have you ever seen the movie Session 9?

I have. You've seen Session 9? Yeah, I brought that up. You're the only other person I've ever met who saw Session 9. I brought that up for our Asbestos article. Because it's an Asbestos team in the movie that's going to this abandoned mental hospital. Very creepy movie. Yeah.

Yeah, it is very, very creepy. But that's, that's a film that Danvers. Okay. And there's another place that's in Massachusetts. And it's an abandoned, insane asylum. Which is just creepy enough. But this thing is huge, old gothic architecture. Oh, yeah, I would love to walk through that place.

Well, there is one that's similar that you could walk through, which actually technically takes it off of any urban exploration list. Because one of the things is that it has to be off limits. To truly be urban exploration. Right. There's a place called Waverly Hills in Kentucky. It's a tuberculosis sanatorium. And I think it was around for 30 or 40 years.

And in that period of time, 60,000 people died there. Oh. Yeah, it was bad. They have like this little morgue that's still there, the white tile. There's like hospital, like old time hospital gurneys everywhere. Old timey wheelchairs. It is beyond creepy. And that's actually open for tours.

I think there's a couple that either bought it or bought the rights to give tours there. So Waverly Hills in Kentucky would be a good place to go if you're into that. I love it. I think part of it has to do with being scared. I like that feeling. It's a exhilarating feeling to be somewhat frightened. I'm not talking scared out of my wits or anything. I don't like that.

But there's something about an element of danger or being scared and being some large, dark place alone that just, I don't know, I get a kick out of it. I agree. Well, you and your brother, take your own advice. Be careful if you're going to do it. And if you did, don't say that we told you to do it. Exactly. Okay.

Well, that's urban exploration. And this is Listener Mail. Okay. So Chuck, what do you have for us? Josh, I have a couple of quick corrections this week. Okay. We're not always right. That is a lie.

We did the best we can with facts. But sometimes we think of things on the fly and don't exactly have it at our fingertips. So we have a couple of corrections in our podcast about which one was it with the magic bullets? Was it, where's the best place to get shot? When you talked about Kennedy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you mentioned that you thought it was a senator who was shot with JFK and Dallas. And of course it was. No. And you should have known this one. Texas Governor John Connolly, who was actually in the car with him. Why should I have known that one? Because it's, that was a big event in our nation's history. I agree.

But wow. I'm not scolding you, but I didn't know it either. So what am I saying? And who is that from? That was from Dave Barton. Thanks Dave. And then Kerry Klinger, who was a dentist here in Atlanta, actually, says she wanted to comment on the inconsistency with the one about the FDA and herbal substance

regulation. We compared Tylenol, over-the-counter Tylenol to Tylenol-3, which you need a prescription to get. And the reason you need a prescription is because Tylenol-3 is a regular Tylenol with codeine added, which is a narcotic. I don't, I don't even remember saying that. Can we play the clip real quick? Exactly. Like think about how you perceive Tylenol.

Sure. And then how you perceive Tylenol-3, that stuff with codeine. Right. Which is pretty much like 800 milligrams of Tylenol. Right. Something like that. That's from Kerry Klinger. And like I said, she's a dentist and she said it's not a matter of a difference in dosage.

It's a much different drug with a narcotic in it, and so it's subject to regulation. And she says that she prescribes it whenever she takes a tooth out. And I'm actually in the market for a dentist, so I might have a look. Oh, I've got one for you. Well, I want to go to Kerry Klinger here in Atlanta, so I can get some codeine. That's awesome. You're med-seeking, you realize. Oh, well, I'm, I'd need it in case I had a tooth out.

Have you noticed we're huge in the dental community? We are. That's two letters from Dennis. Yeah, that's weird. All right, well, thank you to Kerry Klinger. And Dave, thanks, Dave, and if you want your letter read, make sure it's witty and clever, and send it to StuffPodcast at howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com.

Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.