Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Urban exploration in Missouri
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David Keetz
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Re: RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by David Keetz »

yah
I think something clever is supposed to go right here.
Willard
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Re: RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by Willard »

GHL wrote: I don't want to piss on anyone's parade, but have no problem tipping off the landowners and local agencies I work with if it becomes a problem.
I know I'm late on posting on this but if you're going to be an asshole and pull shit like this, then don't join a sight like this. We do nothing but look at things. We do not tear things up. Trespassing is a part of UEing and we don't need your help to get caught thankyou very much!
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ropingk
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Re: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by ropingk »

Willard you are right however in this situation I would be glad that some one took the time to say Hey that may not be a real good idea exploring and going into old empty building is fun and usally the cops just let you go with a warning getting arrested for real just dosent seem like a lot of fun
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Solliz138
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Re: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by Solliz138 »

This place is pretty cool. My friend's in-laws are friends with the owners and we go here to airsoft every now and then.

If anyone ever gets to go here, I would recommend watching your step, and wearing a helmet or hard hat. I have seen people fall through the floor here. There are also numerous hard things to bonk you head on as well.

The owner's and LEO's aren't really as uptight as GHL made it sound. They had no problem with my friend driving a four-wheeler into the place.
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crazydrummerdude
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RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by crazydrummerdude »

Wow, GHL needs to lighten up.

I got in that place 2 days ago. Definitely worth it.

Image

Notice the far right.. that's where he was standing in his pic, I presume.
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bobcat
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RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by bobcat »

I went in there right after they abandoned the place in the early 90's. It is an excellent place to visit. Back then lots of furniture, iron bars, control rooms, signage, and what were still in place, though i didn't have the prescience to photograph it. Looks nice and deteriorated these days. There are even 15-20 ft trees growing on the roof.

Theres a large building behind the main prison that appears to have been a recreational facility at one point, though is now used for the farmer's storage.

There used to be some folks who lived in the trailer at the end of the driveway too, but i haven't seen them there lately either.
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crazydrummerdude
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Re: RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by crazydrummerdude »

bobcat wrote:I went in there right after they abandoned the place in the early 90's. It is an excellent place to visit. Back then lots of furniture, iron bars, control rooms, signage, and what were still in place, though i didn't have the prescience to photograph it. Looks nice and deteriorated these days. There are even 15-20 ft trees growing on the roof.

Theres a large building behind the main prison that appears to have been a recreational facility at one point, though is now used for the farmer's storage.

There used to be some folks who lived in the trailer at the end of the driveway too, but i haven't seen them there lately either.
Early 90's? Damn. I would have guesses a lot longer ago than that.

I was going to check out that other building, but it still seemed a little too "alive."

That trailer.. man, I thought we got busted during part of our journey.. and the only escape would be running completely exposed through a huge, empty field. Ha.
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bobcat
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RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by bobcat »

The floods of 1993 and 1995 were quite destructive to the old prison. It sat in 10-12 feet of water for several weeks and sludge for years afterward. But you're right, it does look like hell.

I drive by that place a lot and have not seen a vehicle parked at the trailer for the last several months. I would assume that they have moved off site, though planting season is near and activity should ramp up again.
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bobcat
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RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by bobcat »

I found this on the web regarding the old Renz Farm prison. It seems that the 93 flood forced its closure.

The 1993 Midwest Floods: Missouri Loses Renz Correctional Center

Renz Correctional Center is a medium-sized (average population 550 inmates), high-security prison for female offenders situated within the flood plain of the Missouri River. The prison was opened in 1961 as Renz Farm and is affected when the Missouri flood stage reaches 29 feet. In 1993, early spring flooding was very serious along much of the watershed of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Eight counties in eastern Missouri were designated as disaster areas by presidential declaration. The early spring floods were followed by continued rainy weather and some flooding in the late spring and early summer. Renz fine-tuned its evacuation plans and prepared for evacuation several times during the spring and early summer.
By late June, the facility had moved first floor property and equipment off the floor and had begun to move some critical property out of the institution. The river continued to rise, and on July 2, the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) began to evacuate inmates to the Chillicothe Correctional Center and the Central Missouri Correctional Center. Evacuation of all inmates took 2 days and was accomplished without violence, injuries, or escapes. The Central Missouri Correctional Center was under a federal court order that imposed a population cap of 1,000 inmates. The DOC was able to obtain quick verbal permission from the court to exceed this cap because of the emergency evacuation and subsequently received a formal order granting the emergency exemption from the cap. After the inmates were evacuated, corrections staff used boats to reenter the facility and remove as much equipment as possible. They moved other property and equipment to the second floor of the three-story main prison building.
When the Missouri River reached a crest of approximately 35 feet in mid-July, the staff were initially optimistic that the institution would be cleaned up, repaired, and eventually reoccupied
in spite of the substantial damage. That was not to be the case. Heavy rains continued unabated in the northern part of the state, and the Missouri River began to rise again toward
a new crest. At the end of July, the river finally crested at 38.6 feet. Even after the crest, the water took a long time to recede. A 32-foot-high levy that protected the Renz complex was flattened, and after the water receded a new lake, 15 feet deep and spanning 15 acres, was left on the property.

Inspections revealed that the Renz facility was completely incapacitated and that restoration would be neither practical nor cost effective. Most of the property and equipment that had been moved to the second floor was lost to the floodwaters. The river had raged through the Renz complex with such force that the entire 9-foot-high security fence, including 4,000 feet of razor ribbon, was lost to some unknown location down river. The floodwaters had remained so long that locks and other security devices throughout the facility had rusted and were beyond repair. Storage tanks had disappeared, and the compressor room had collapsed. The food service and medical units sustained serious damage.
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Chris
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Re: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by Chris »

Me and some St. Louis guys went there a month or two ago. Getting in and out was easy as hell, if fact we parked in the garage!

Pretty boring though, IMO.
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crazydrummerdude
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Re: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by crazydrummerdude »

Chris wrote:Me and some St. Louis guys went there a month or two ago. Getting in and out was easy as hell, if fact we parked in the garage!

Pretty boring though, IMO.
Ha. Awesome!

My friend was driving this time, and he has this weird policy where he will tresspass, but he won't ever let his car trespass. So, we parked on the side of the highway and just walked all the way across that huge field.
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Re: RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by cooper »

colt45 wrote:Has anyone been in the prison?
I have photos from my trip on 7/11/08 here at www.thecapitalcityinsider.com as someone who has been in there on a visit you can't get in to anything as all the buildings are locked up with massive locks. So if you could get past the guards....then everything is locked tight. Razor wire, and all still there. I was give a very provate tour by Mark Schriber and with keys we had a hard time getting around.
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Re: RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by crazydrummerdude »

cooper wrote:
colt45 wrote:Has anyone been in the prison?
I have photos from my trip on 7/11/08 here at www.thecapitalcityinsider.com as someone who has been in there on a visit you can't get in to anything as all the buildings are locked up with massive locks. So if you could get past the guards....then everything is locked tight. Razor wire, and all still there. I was give a very provate tour by Mark Schriber and with keys we had a hard time getting around.
Uh, different prison, pal.
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RE: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by Arm »

Ive been there and its very easy to get in. The building is used for SWAT training. I found shell casings and even a used tear gas grenade.

Would of really sucked if we went in when the cops were training. That would been on Fark. :?
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pigeon
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Re: Abandoned prison outside Jefferson City

Post by pigeon »

my friends and I literally went there at least 10 times in like a one month span recently. the owners are a bit more uptight about people going on their property now, although no one actually lives on the grounds. here's a letter to the editor that showed up in the local newspaper. http://www.newstribune.com/news/2011/ma ... renz-farm/

there was also a fire in the building behind the prison recently, but i'm not sure if there was much damage. you can probably still sneak in through the back window.

and here are some snaps I got of the place.

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