Behind Campbell 16 theater

[Johnson]

As you drive along Campbell you can see in the trees what looks like a small sinkhole type area with a lil brick/stone looking well house? Has anyone actually walked down to it to see what it is? I always wonder what is down there every time I drive by, but have yet to stop and take a look.

[Willard]

I think this has been mentioned elsewhere in another post but I'm to lazy to look. However I do know where you're talking about and the ruins used to be more intact when I was little and there used to not be so much overgrowth. It was a barn or some sort of farm type building about 50 to 100 years ago and I was told that the farmer who owned the land which originally went to the corner of Republic Rd and Campbell Ave. was the farmer who had the columns from the Baldwin Theater on display on the corner after the theater burned down. He also had many other building artifacts on that corner but I can't recall what they were now. No one had been able to tell me what happened to all of these artifacts either.

Back to the ruins, I know at one time there was a mini silo type tower thing that was part of the structure.

[BROUSER]

I think the thread is called the WTFarm or something like that. I'm too lazy to look too. There are pictures.

[Willard]

I think the thread is called the WTFarm or something like that. I'm too lazy to look too. There are pictures.

Right you are! Yeah I'm lazy too.

23

[White Rabbit]

I've been in there. Raven determined that the place was called Young's Farm, and there is indeed a sinkhole there. It's kinda neat. You gotta wonder why it's still standing, though. It had to have been cheaper to tear it down than to put up that chain link fence around it.

[Jesta]

Has to be some kind of story why they havent knocked it down since there where two bigger silos not 100 feet away. I used to play in all that stuff in the early 70s.

[BROUSER]

I would guess a contamination of groundwater issue. There are very strict laws in place when it comes to what you can do around a sinkhole.

[Sertile]

Right you are Brouser! I have also been there (I made my friends late for Willy Wonka by luring them back there, and we ended up having to sit in the front row), and I can confirm that it is part of a chain of sinkholes which includes a small cave nearby, the Erie St. sinkhole featured on this site, and the ominous "sinkhole area" nearby, on which buildings and motor vehicles are not allowed. This area actually used to be more developed, but a lot of homes had to be moved after the city realized they were building over a sinkhole chain.

The holes have all been fenced off now, or somehow designated, and it would be my guess that this is the reason the WTFarm has been left (relatively) intact. They either A: weren't allowed to demolish it because it was in a sinkhole, B: weren't allowed/able to get construction equipment into the sinkhole, or C: decided it wasn't worth it, since it was on a worthless piece of land that could never, ever be developed. I'm guessing "C."

[BROUSER]

There is a sinkhole over behind Freightliner on Kearney and 65 by the entrance to Prime that is a thorn in the owner of Prime's side. He bought the land looking to develop it and then found out that he couldn't do anything with it. No cave entrance there, I've been down in it.

[mjames]

Is that the mill house that connects with the cave that has an opening behind that Walmart?

[RaccoonCC]

the one where we saw the possum-sized rat?

[Sertile]

Um... hmm... Well, the "cave" behind Wal-Mart I'm thinking of is the Erie Street Sinkhole (featured in one of the galleries on this site), and I didn't think that one connected to anything else. I was just under the impression it was a big hole. Then again, I've never actually been to the bottom. WR has.

Which Wal-Mart are you talking about? Also, where is this mill house?

[mjames]

I am refering to the Walmart on Campbell and the hole behind it which has rebar "gate" on it and leads into a small suprisingly straight cave that was at one time a spring. This cave heads underneath Campbell and ends up in a small shack on the other side.

[White Rabbit]

I am refering to the Walmart on Campbell and the hole behind it which has rebar "gate" on it and leads into a small suprisingly straight cave that was at one time a spring. This cave heads underneath Campbell and ends up in a small shack on the other side.

Mmmm... It didn't go anywhere when I was in it. It's been about three years since I went down to the bottom, but I'm positive it didn't go anywhere. It didn't look like it had caved in or anything either, because it was pretty much solid rock on either side. There was a little spring down there, though, and some old pipe where someone had pumped water out of it.

Where did you hear that it went underneath Campbell? And where's this shack, because I'd be curious to poke around it and see what's up.

[greekspeak]

Raven determined that the place was called Young's Farm.

I can second the veracity of Raven's claim. When I was home recently, I drove past with my dad, who has lived in Springfield for most of his life. He says it is the Young farm, and that it was a dairy farm. The remains seen today from Campbell Avenue apparently had to do with the dairy operation itself. Milking facilities, perhaps, or storage.