Buckner Building: The Winter Palace

During the middle of last winter i was contacted by a Canadian author. He was interested in a picture from my Buckner Building Post a few years ago. In particular, he was interested in calcite formations leaching out of the concrete ceiling. He was working on a book related to that subject. Unfortunately, i didn't have a full resolution file of the image he wanted, in fact, I didn't even take the picture, Maree did, so i told him i'd just go take a new picture of it, and look for similar items of interest while i was in there.

The Green Room

It was the dead of winter, early February. I had never been to Whittier in winter, because..... well.... there's absolutely no reason to ever go to Whittier in winter. But i got lucky. The timing worked out so that when i was able to go out we had a freak warm front complete with Chinook winds. The temperature that day was about 42 degrees, delightful!

Since the Buckner Building is condemned, the snow plows ignore it. There are no nice shoveled entryways, you have to climb up out of the street and find a way in.

This was the first room i entered from the outside. Looked like a cafeteria.

The warm weather of course made the ice roads in Whittier extremely slippery, I was wearing some grippy springs on my shoes (they were a lifesaver) but i hadn't accounted for the amount of snow Whittier gets in winter. They had over 5 feet of snow when i arrived. Many of the first floor rooms had snow ramps coming in through the windows, and i had to use one of these to get inside.

I believe this was part of the adjoining kitchen area. Beyond this room it was very dark for a long time of searching.

These rooms divided by the the joints were cool because the snow on the ground in many of them was so clean. The room would generally be very dark and the light would be coming down through the joint illuminating this very pure looking snow.

As i've mentioned before, much of the Buckner Building is flooded. I wondered what it would be like in winter, and, as i had heard, it was very slippery. There was about two inches of solid ice in the flooded areas, and the warm weather had melted a few millimeters on the surface. This made the ice a mirror under the right lighting conditions. It was pretty cool.

This time i found the rumored jail! The jail had some very tall, narrow cells in one part of it.

In a dark area of the building this single wall was illuminated by a joint in the ceiling. Some very strange stuff was going on with this wall. It looks blurry but it's not. On the right are calcite formations and everywhere else are strange ice formations.

Deeper in the jail. I brought a remote flash that i was playing with. All these half open doors are frozen into the floor.

From that point on i spent the next few hours looking for the calcite formation. I couldn't find it anywhere. After about two hours of wandering around i heard other people. I ended up coming upon them in a large dry area on the third floor. They were doing some kind of teenage goth fashion model shoot. We talked a little and i could tell they were familiar with the building, but they had never seen what i was looking for. Eventually i had systematically explored the first 4 floors of the building and it was almost sunset. The last place i decided to check out i found it! Maree's description, from what she could remember, was off by 3 floors.

Some jerk left the door open to the high radiation area.

Also of note: I found the floor where the elevator is open. No way was i going in there. The sign inside says "Off Limits To All Troops."

This is what all the effort was for. It might seem strange, but it's really pretty rare to see a door with a complete calcium column attaching it to the ceiling. I was glad i brought the flash because it was pitch black here.

In a nearby shower room i found these light fixtures. If you look close at the distant one you can see.....

A light bulb encased in stone! That's not wax or paint, it's calcium carbonate. I don't know what's crazier, a light bulb inside rock or an unbroken light bulb in the Buckner Building.

So i got my shots and had to run back through the building to get to my car in time to make the next tunnel opening. The light would be gone soon and i didn't want to be stuck in Whittier in the dark. The fashion shoot guys got out right before me. I was stuck behind their truck the whole way back to town. It was a good time.