Name: Stelwire Location: Burlington, Ontario Status: Demolished Accessibility: Easy Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Where's the turkey? On Thanksgiving the explorers Trains and I were driving through Burlington looking for a large factory under demolition after reading a tip online. It wasn’t long before we spotted the factory, construction crews absent and demolition well underway. The two of us got out and did a quick walk around the fence to see if we could spot security or any workers; neither of us was particularly enthusiastic about exploring the building. From our vantage point we could see through one side of the building and into the other, and it was empty. The two of us decided we’d check it out anyways, it would be easily accessible and low risk, the sun was setting and we would probably get some good ‘magic hour’ photos from the trip even if the building was a waste of time. We spotted a warehouse for lease on the west side of the building and parked out behind it opting to not park at the back of the Voortman’s cookies lot. This of course meant we had to walk through a small field of burrs before reaching the building. Hilarity ensues. The buildings walls facing the west, north and south side had been scrapped, making entry incredibly easy for the two of us and the sun was being more than co-operative with the lighting into the empty factory. I spent a few minutes wandering around the empty warehouse before walking toward the north side of the plant, which actually had some machinery left behind. The conveyors, cranes, annealing system, and kiln were all left for scrap and the upper walkways and catwalks were still in good enough condition that you could climb around and explore some of the higher up parts of the mill. It wasn’t until our daylight began to wane that we headed toward the control room and Trains started to snap a few photographs of the various control panels. This was of course followed by us riffling through the drawers for books, papers and any other information on the building and how the mill operated. Unfortunately I had already ran out of camera memory before reaching the offices and main control room. Night had finally snuck up on us and we decided that we were done with the building; Trains mentioned he might come back the next day just to follow up on a few parts he may have missed. As it turned out Thanksgiving Monday was a popular day to explore Stelwire as some three different groups happened to explore around the same time. October 12th, 2008 BACK