Broken Pavement

Close Call Mill

Many people have stated that when it comes to family vacations in the west the worst part about it was the excruciating stretch across the province of Saskatchewan owing to the fact that it was mainly flat and full of wheat fields. I however liked going through Saskatchewan, particularly during my exploration years where I would constantly be on the lookout for abandoned buildings. On one such trip I spotted this mill just sitting in the heart of town but unfortunately I could not explore it as we were just passing through and my family was inclined to explore it. Two years later I was in Saskatchewan and by myself I now had the power to stop in town and explore it. As I drove past the three-story brick structure and adjacent elevator I saw only one entrance and it couldn't have been in a worse place. But I was sure that there could be another way into the building so I parked my car and walked up to the structure with all my gear ready to go. After going around each side of the building however I could not find another entrance so there was only one choice, I had to enter the building through a small hole I could barely fit into that faced a major intersection where there was never an absence of cars. Waiting for the night was out of the question as I wanted to get to Saskatoon by nightfall and explore along the way so I swallowed my fear and common sense and squeezed inside the building. Once inside, I had realized that I had gone into the basement so I quickly turned on all my lights to make sure that I was the only one in the room as that was what the basement consisted of. This room however was not boring at the least as the machinery that allowed the legs to carry the differing grades of wheat were located here along with numerous shafts in addition to the interesting stone foundation. Walking up the stairs I realized that I was not alone so I pulled out my Mag-light as my heart rate increased and my mind concentrated on being prepared to hit anyone that came at me from around either of the sides of the stairs. As I peered around the corner to my left I saw nothing and then quickly looked to the right were I saw nothing. I was greatly relieved until I began to walk towards the west end of the building where a black cat jumped out from out of nowhere and ran out of the building underneath a small opening of a doorway. In this western portion was the actual mill and on the crammed first floor machinery for the packing of flour bags and the engines to run the equipment and legs were located. In the east and newer section of the mill was simply for storage and general offices that had no real interesting features to it at all. In addition to the lack of interesting features and the large amount of pigeons who seemed to go insane at the presence of me I decided to proceed up to the second floor. What met me on the second floor was a cluttered and seemingly disorganized mess of pipes leading from each of the 12 legs into various grinders and dust collectors. Aside from that there was nothing else on the cramped floor so I proceeded up to the third floor where the top of the legs, wooden collecting bins and dust collectors were located but I could not enjoy the view much as my allotted time for exploring this place was running out so I packed up all of my gear and prepared to climb out. As I waited in the dark waiting for the right time to squeeze out again and trying to concentrate on the task ahead of me Kiss' "Shout it Out Loud" began to play in my head and soon enough I was singing out loud. As I finished the first verse the right time for escape had come and I seized upon it quickly moving through the narrow space in a quick fashion that left many cuts on my arms and legs. But it didn't matter as I had managed to get out without being caught and so I put my things down and began to take shots of the exterior. My adrenaline was now in a decline and my general perception was that nothing else would happen. How I was quite wrong as not more than 30 seconds had passed since coming out of the building when an RCMP cruiser came by and pulled in to where I was standing. I approached the car and the officer asked me what I was doing so I calmly stated that I was just taking pictures of the exterior of the building. As he looked me up I was sure that his next question was going to be about me being in the building but rather, he asked me what make of camera I had. With the pressure off me, I told him that I had a Nikon D - 70 along with its features and everything else that I could and with all of his questions answered he wished me a good day and drove off. As I stood in amazement all I could think was, "Wow, that was a close call."

Some kind of pounding machine.

More equipment.

Motors for unknown uses.

The far less interesting east portion.

Pipes galore.

The top of the legs.

The familiar sight of the wooden bins.