Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI

luvtolean · 02-21-2007, 06:33 PM

This is fascinating. A few guys went into Highland Park, which looks like something out of a movie.

It reminds me of the creepy feeling I got when a friend and I went under a fence and explored around an abandoned ICBM site in NorCal. (technically probably shouldn't post that as it wasn't legal, but statute of limitations must have run out on that deal)

Anyway, maybe a bit NWS because of a couple of morgue pics:

Abandoned: Fire Dept, Police Station, and City Hall - UK Urban Exploration Forums

bda116 · 02-21-2007, 07:06 PM

Is all that still just sitting there in that condition? Are the buildings/land not worth anything?
On that "missing" board was Kiplyn Davis, a girl that went missing just down the road here in 1995 (and they are just now finally getting the case figured out/prosecuted), so someone was using that place fairly recently.

luvtolean · 02-21-2007, 07:09 PM

Hopefully some Michiganders can help us out.

CBRVFR · 02-21-2007, 08:01 PM

I hear smirking from the New Jersey contingent.

Highland Park went bankrupt in about 2002, and the State of Michigan is handling its finances.

It is a very rough neighborhood, in an area known for that.
If I tried to describe the scale of abandoned housing and crumbling infrastructure in the Detroit area, you'd think I was making it up.

Picture this, though.

In the late 50's, metro Detroit was a teeming urban industrial area of 2 million with diverse neighborhoods.

The seeds of great discontent had been sowed during WWII, when a lot of people moved here from the south to get work building planes and tanks.

When the servicemen got back, there were women, minorities, and a lot of uneducated Kentuckians competing for jobs, and the hatred expressed between the groups was not to be believed.

After the '67 riots, the white flight was in full stampede. The relationship between the (mostly white) city government and the mostly black citizens was strained to say the least.

Michigan became the state with the largest KKK membership in the late 60's. White people just abandoned the city and started new ones westward. light industry followed, and the tax base went to hell.

A very controversial mayor was elected, and the city was largely abandoned by whites. Today, there are less than a million people living in Detroit. There has never been enough money to remove the abandoned structures. No gentrification is going to rebuild that city, ever.

With the state reeling from economic disaster to economic disaster, the funds from sales taxes that are supposed to be given back to the cities and townships is being reduced to near elimination. Police and fire services are becoming too expensive for all but the most prosperous areas.

What you see there will be repeated. There is no solution that I can see.

SomeStrangeGuy · 02-21-2007, 08:14 PM

Too bad no one here knows anything about it

(Interesting tale CBR)

Interesting linkage ltl...I never knew that place existed...

p.s. take any pics at ICBM land? No worries about statutes, the man says they are all filled in holes in the ground except for one preserved spot near Tucson

Heavy-Dee · 02-21-2007, 08:44 PM

That was really cool. Some beautiful buildings. Shame that "location location location" is so true.

HD

SheepOfBlue · 02-21-2007, 08:48 PM

Oh and CBRVFR understated it. Some of the cool old buildings I saw 20 years ago made me want to weep as they were rotting in place.

Heavy-Dee · 02-21-2007, 08:56 PM

Some quote from page 9. All the same guy.

Quote:

Keep entering abandoned buildings long enough in Detroit and sooner or later you will be shot. Trust me, I may be the one that scoops you up off the ground shot.

The police station there has only been closed for about 4 years, the fire station about 2 1/2. A few of our members that work for Detroit Fire Department work side jobs with Highland Park Public Safety. The PSO's have been back on the streets for the past year plus and their stations were moved to more modern facilities as the old facilities were in obvious disrepair and it would have cost way too much to bring up to code.

Not to discourage your explorations, but, you really need to watch where you are walking into within the city limits and in Highland Park. You may very well get shot or stabbed to death and I seriously mean that. I've been working the streets of Detroit for years and at the very least for your own safety, stay out of the neighborhoods at night.....you will get shot! If you don't know the hoods, the safest thing to do is stay away.

You must remember too, that a large portion of Highland Park was wiped clean by a tornado back in the late 90's and that cleared a large section of those neighborhoods out. HP may be very well on it's way to being back on the map as one of the Japanese auto makers are considering moving operations there....stay tuned.

One place you may want to consider exploring as myself and a couple of police officers and fellow medics/firefighters are wanting to check out is the old subway entry points on 2nd near the Detroit border. When Detroit and Highland Park were in their haydays, rail cars and street trollies were king and one of the areas to catch a trolly was underground tunnels located under Highland Park....before the construction of M-8, these railways ran some distance underground.

I hate to sound like a nag, but again, WATCH YOUR BACK!!!!! Folks in these hoods will just as soon shoot you as look at you. Also, you may want to consider blacking out the faces of those autopsy photos.....hate to see someone from the feds get on you over violation of HIPPA laws (Federal laws that protect the identity of patients dead or alive.) It's all good, but be carefull.

P.S.... I give this advise as someone that has sustained 2 gun shot wounds and just had a fellow medic and good friend shot in the line of duty.

The 2 rounds that you saw recovered in that evidence cup were retrieved from a dead body. If you look closely, you will see the name of the physician that retrieved the rounds. That subject used to or may still work for the Wayne County Medical Examiners Office.

Anything inside of that building that is related to a homicide case, should be left intact. Simply due to the fact that if it's an unsolved case (They may have not retrieved some of that info to be placed inside of the new HQ) sooner or later some of that stuff may be needed in court.

A few of us are looking at exploring the old subway tunnels unedr Highland Park this spring after the water levels drop down there. We have the distinct feeling that we'll discover some human remains down there.....you have to remember the area is quite hostile. Not to mention I'm sure we'll find plenty of used heroin needles amongst other paraphenalia.

I'll post those photos up here after I go down there.

bda116 · 02-21-2007, 10:55 PM

Sounds like a nice place.

CBR929RE · 02-21-2007, 10:57 PM

The abandoned Nike missile site on the other side of town has a similar look to it but not really dangerous.

I never would have thought there'd be any place like that in any civilized place in the world. Its almost like an ancient ruin but its not even a decade removed.

02-21-2007, 06:33 PM	#1
luvtolean Join Date: 12-13-2006 Location: SF Bay Area, CA Bike(s): 2008 BMW GS-A Posts: 6,731	Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI This is fascinating. A few guys went into Highland Park, which looks like something out of a movie. It reminds me of the creepy feeling I got when a friend and I went under a fence and explored around an abandoned ICBM site in NorCal. (technically probably shouldn't post that as it wasn't legal, but statute of limitations must have run out on that deal) Anyway, maybe a bit NWS because of a couple of morgue pics: Abandoned: Fire Dept, Police Station, and City Hall - UK Urban Exploration Forums __________________ The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. - Winston Churchill

02-21-2007, 07:06 PM	#2
bda116 Done. Join Date: 12-17-2006 Bike(s): . Posts: 2,113	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI Is all that still just sitting there in that condition? Are the buildings/land not worth anything? On that "missing" board was Kiplyn Davis, a girl that went missing just down the road here in 1995 (and they are just now finally getting the case figured out/prosecuted), so someone was using that place fairly recently. __________________ "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." - Omar M. Ahmad, founding chairman of CAIR.

02-21-2007, 07:09 PM	#3
luvtolean Join Date: 12-13-2006 Location: SF Bay Area, CA Bike(s): 2008 BMW GS-A Posts: 6,731	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI Hopefully some Michiganders can help us out. __________________ The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. - Winston Churchill

02-21-2007, 08:01 PM	#4
CBRVFR Godspeed, #20 Join Date: 12-13-2006 Age: 56 Bike(s): VFR750 SV650 TZ250 Posts: 5,260	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI I hear smirking from the New Jersey contingent. Highland Park went bankrupt in about 2002, and the State of Michigan is handling its finances. It is a very rough neighborhood, in an area known for that. If I tried to describe the scale of abandoned housing and crumbling infrastructure in the Detroit area, you'd think I was making it up. Picture this, though. In the late 50's, metro Detroit was a teeming urban industrial area of 2 million with diverse neighborhoods. The seeds of great discontent had been sowed during WWII, when a lot of people moved here from the south to get work building planes and tanks. When the servicemen got back, there were women, minorities, and a lot of uneducated Kentuckians competing for jobs, and the hatred expressed between the groups was not to be believed. After the '67 riots, the white flight was in full stampede. The relationship between the (mostly white) city government and the mostly black citizens was strained to say the least. Michigan became the state with the largest KKK membership in the late 60's. White people just abandoned the city and started new ones westward. light industry followed, and the tax base went to hell. A very controversial mayor was elected, and the city was largely abandoned by whites. Today, there are less than a million people living in Detroit. There has never been enough money to remove the abandoned structures. No gentrification is going to rebuild that city, ever. With the state reeling from economic disaster to economic disaster, the funds from sales taxes that are supposed to be given back to the cities and townships is being reduced to near elimination. Police and fire services are becoming too expensive for all but the most prosperous areas. What you see there will be repeated. There is no solution that I can see. __________________ "...the TV also never took away the screwdriver and shoved it up the repairman's ass." Our own Mr.2nd Amendment, explaining the difference. Perfectly. Rich Herald, the Gentle Giant

02-21-2007, 08:14 PM	#5
SomeStrangeGuy BMW Snob in Training Join Date: 12-13-2006 Location: Debt, where else? Bike(s): GS / KLR Posts: 4,062	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI Too bad no one here knows anything about it (Interesting tale CBR) Interesting linkage ltl...I never knew that place existed... p.s. take any pics at ICBM land? No worries about statutes, the man says they are all filled in holes in the ground except for one preserved spot near Tucson __________________ Come find yourself - GPS Discussion Forums Time is the ultimate currency.

02-21-2007, 08:44 PM	#6
Heavy-Dee The Murph Join Date: 12-17-2006 Age: 31 Bike(s): 2004 GSXR 600 Posts: 2,778	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI That was really cool. Some beautiful buildings. Shame that "location location location" is so true. HD __________________

02-21-2007, 08:48 PM	#7
SheepOfBlue Your tax dollars at work Join Date: 12-18-2006 Location: Huntsville, AL Age: 46 Bike(s): CBR1000RR, RC51, VT500FT Posts: 6,867	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI Oh and CBRVFR understated it. Some of the cool old buildings I saw 20 years ago made me want to weep as they were rotting in place. __________________ When the past is allowed to fade to nothing then only chaos is left.

02-21-2007, 10:55 PM	#9
bda116 Done. Join Date: 12-17-2006 Bike(s): . Posts: 2,113	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI Sounds like a nice place. __________________ "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." - Omar M. Ahmad, founding chairman of CAIR.

02-21-2007, 10:57 PM	#10
CBR929RE Christmas baby meatball Join Date: 12-18-2006 Location: at home Age: 28 Bike(s): 01 R/B/W CBR929RR Posts: 3,566	Re: Urban Exploration: Highland Park, MI The abandoned Nike missile site on the other side of town has a similar look to it but not really dangerous. I never would have thought there'd be any place like that in any civilized place in the world. Its almost like an ancient ruin but its not even a decade removed. __________________ Seamus FTW

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