The Carthage Underground

Urban exploration in Missouri
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Nemophilist
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The Carthage Underground

Post by Nemophilist »

Well, I semi-recently posted this on UER because they wouldn't give me full member status and somehow forgot to post it here too. This is basically a slightly edited version of a series of posts I made in that thread.


Since I am a lazy ass I'll let Wikipedia introduce the location.

"The Carthage Underground is a collection of marble quarries in Carthage, Missouri, most of which is presently owned by Americold Logistics. They currently hold 43,000,000 square feet (4,000,000 m2) of the quarry, much of which is occupied by warehouses or factories, primarily for food production. The total area of the underground is difficult to trace, but is rumored to stretch as far as Joplin, Missouri (roughly 20 miles (30 km) from Carthage). It is frequently visited by Urban Explorers due to the decrepit abandoned quarries mixed seamlessly with working underground factories and warehouses. Many of the local industries rely heavily upon the facilities to store foodstuffs there. It is also oddly present with an ecological system of its own, with underground lakes hosting turtles, fish and various other species. This could be seen as remarkable given that the quarries were utterly devoid of life before the mining industry."

I met up with a friend and local explorer by the name of Kyro for this expedition.

The first exploration of the night (other than a few interesting but otherwise unremarkable drains) was a man made storage cave currently used by one of the large factories in the area. Normally we would have headed straight to one of the more interesting locations, but the padlock had recently disappeared from the doors so we thought it was worth a look while it was still open.

The doors:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02366.jpg

From the inside:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02357.jpg

The room in it's entirety:
Image

After wandering around taking pictures for a while we decided to head out to an old fallout shelter Kyro had discovered about a week before. Getting there involved sneaking past a rail yard and walking down the tracks for a mile or so to a disused driveway with "No Trespassing" signs strung across it.

The bridge and railyard:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02368.jpg

The entrance:
Image

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02374.jpg

An old truck just outside that has clearly been flooded at some point.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02383.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02392.jpg

Getting into this place was a little tricky but after a while we managed to find a nondestructive way in. Turns out the place is a section of limestone/marble mine that has been walled off and used for storage by a manufacturing company. There must have been millions of dollars of old machinery in there. We walked around for hours and still didn't see all of it.

Machinery:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02432.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02419.jpg

I'm pretty sure this one manufactured mattress springs:
Image

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02446.jpg

Control panel:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02423.jpg

One of four forklifts. (yes it runs)
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02408.jpg

Apparently they made automotive stuff too:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02507.jpg

Trying to be artsy:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02505.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02499.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02497.jpg

An underground semi trailer:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02409.jpg
More machinery inside:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02483.jpg

Me:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02441.jpg

After wandering around this area for a while, we realized there was another door set into the back of the cavern. The high water mark on the brickwork shows just how flooded the caverns can get.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02479.jpg

Turns out it led into the underground proper.
Image
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02450.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02475.jpg

I actually don't have many pictures of the underground because by the time we found the door my camera battery was pretty drained and I realized I had forgotten the spare.

This is what happens when you dump trash in a sinkhole:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02470.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02464.jpg

Mining equipment of some sort:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02473.jpg

To the surface:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02466.jpg





Kyro and I went back to Carthage the next weekend to check out some more of the underground, but first we found a distraction.

On the way to the underground we noticed a building that seemed to be abandoned. Turns out it is a marble processing place for the marble that used to come out of the quarry.

One of two big marble cutting machines in the building:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02540.jpg

Sub-par pictures of the machinery used to run the cutters.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02550.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02551.jpg

My big tool (Yes, I'm a horrible person):
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... 2546-2.jpg

Eventually we made our way outside where there was a bigass crane we had somehow failed to notice on the way in:

Image

Well, apparently neither of us are very smart because we decided to climb the thing.

Did I mention it was windy? You can kinda see how quickly the clouds were moving in this picture. (it was a 10 second exposure)

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02555.jpg

So by the time the two of us made it to the top of this thing we were shaking and couldn't do much but lay flat and stare through the grating that made up the floor of the platform. It doesn't look that tall at all until you actually get on top of the thing :P
Unfortunately, the wind was blowing the thing around way too much to get any good pictures from the top.

We eventually made it back to the bottom and had a nice conversation composed mostly of some variation of the phrase "holy shit!" until we finally decided to continue exploring. We would have gotten some more pictures of the area at the bottom of the crane, but during our exploration of the control room we discovered that the crane is still functional and that it is powered by a nice loud motor. We shut the thing off and moved on pretty quickly after that.


As far as I can tell the section of the underground we explored the second time isn't even connected to the first, which is cool because it makes me wonder if there might be more. Anyway..

The entrance:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02643.jpg

Just inside:
Image

The ramp to the bottom level:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02575.jpg

The water is amazingly clear and an odd shade of blue:
Image

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02565.jpg

I'm assuming this pipe was used as ventilation and just had a ladder as an escape route or something. Whatever the reason, it led to a blocked off tunnel in the bottom level.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02594.jpg

Looking down:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02577.jpg

At the bottom: http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02584.jpg

One end of the tunnel ran into this collapsed/back filled passage and the other went right into the underground lake that used to be the second level.

Image

Back up:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02579.jpg

This used to be a truck until the ceiling fell on it:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02637.jpg

The cab:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02638.jpg

A bottle turned cave formation:
Image

Experimental drinking water?
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C02607.jpg


And that's it. I know I have a few more pictures from the underground, and I know Kyro has some interesting ones too, so I'll probably get those up if I can figure out what I did with them.
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Nemophilist
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RE: The Carthage Underground

Post by Nemophilist »

Oh, and we recently went back again with a bunch of the kcurbex guys. I didn't get many pictures from that trip, but I'm pretty happy with the few that I did manage to take.

Image

Image

Image

And Kyro playing with a military flare:

Image

Image


That was a great trip overall. We got to meet up with some awesome people and also made a trip out to the Spooklight and a bible camp out near Joplin.
kyro
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by kyro »

Why would you have to remind me....now we're gonna have to go back sometime soon. And take the raft 8)
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Kit
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by Kit »

lobster !
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redox
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by redox »

Wow awesome, thanks Veruth. How much of it is flooded?
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cousin
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by cousin »

Word to the wise, the first room you went into, I would probably not go there again/very often. I know excatly where it is/who it belongs to etc... They don't take kind to trespassing. There are probably only 5 people that had a key to that lock.

I do know where a couple more cool places are close to the underground, if someone wants to go with I will be more than happy to take someone along, I really don't have anyone to go with, so I am always happy to go.
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Nemophilist
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by Nemophilist »

Yeah, we decided to check it out since it was on the way to one of the other places we were heading to anyway. We only went at all because the lock was missing and we didn't think we were going to get another chance to see what the inside was like.
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by DigitalNinja »

Wow sounds like a good spot! I need to get up there sometime.
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RE: The Carthage Underground

Post by cousin »

I have been doing some more research on the underground lately and have come up with a few more interesting facts.

It doesn't extend to Joplin, but does stretch 2-3 miles to the North and West mainly, does East for a little ways, but not South.

Majority of it is two levels, but very little of the lower level is used, would have to run pumps all the time, to keep dry.

Local SWAT and Homeland Security are very well practiced up on scenarios involving the underground are regularly practice for just in case.

Carthage is one of the, if not the largest storage facility of MRE's. I was reminded with that being said, it's a federal offense and can be used if caught on property.

The underground most of these pictures is from- has no way of legally being entered. Main reason it was closed, stone in that quarry was rather weak and tended to drop from ceiling often.

There are some government storage areas, that require security clearance to get to. And other areas that have been completely walled off, and area in front of said wall intentionally flooded.
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RE: The Carthage Underground

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MONKEYMANN
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by MONKEYMANN »

Hey...I love those Artisy Gear Pictures and the one with the sunlight shinning into the cave in a big stream....VERY COOL!

Also I found a BIG WRENCH like the one you had in the picure years ago laying out in the chats. Biggist damn wrench you ever saw. I always said I was going to clean it up an have it chromed.....LOL
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testube
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RE: The Carthage Underground

Post by testube »

wow - incredible pics!

I didn't realize that Carthage had such extensive underground mining areas, almost like Kansas City. It's unbelievable that men can move rock like that...the power of explosives, eh?
cousin
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by cousin »

that one is actually the small one, if you search some of my older posts about it, you will see how big it is, i think 1.5 million square feet.

there are a couple other areas of interest close to there, just need to find time for Kyro to go with me. I have been on the other areas, but it has been forever.
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Re: The Carthage Underground

Post by MONKEYMANN »

cousin wrote:that one is actually the small one, if you search some of my older posts about it, you will see how big it is, i think 1.5 million square feet.

there are a couple other areas of interest close to there, just need to find time for Kyro to go with me. I have been on the other areas, but it has been forever.

Hey man....what about me??????? I live in your area....I'd love to go check some of this stuff out with you sometime....PM me sometime!!!!
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RE: The Carthage Underground

Post by cousin »

Right now my time is a little on the short side, I am in the process of opening a doughnut shop at stones corner. Let me get it open and I am game
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