Equadome ten years gone

[SubLunar]

Yeah I know this place has been gone for over a decade, but I thought I'd compile everything I've found about it here.

I only went a few times before they tore it down around 1998. It was massive and there was much of it I didn't get to see. There was a substantial underground portion of which I only saw the first one or two levels. It was much larger than Carondolet Coke (rip). I searched this site and determined it deserves a page of its own.

None of these pics are mine-I didn't even own a camera back then.

These pics are all from this guy: www.jasonpettus.com

More pics and history found here:

http://www.sobejogger.com/subdomains/Te ... uaDome.htm

http://www.jasonpettus.com/photos/equa.htm

http://www.sonicatrophy.com/abt/equa03.htm

http://www.lm.doe.gov/land/sites/mo/weldon/weldon.htm

[crazydrummerdude]

I miss that place.

[Chris]

Never got to see it.

Looks like an incredible location, too.

[crazydrummerdude]

PS: I'm not exactly sure if you got that first picture right. That looks more like the ordinance works than the equadome. (I would assume both were connected, though.)

[SubLunar]

Yeah I wasn't completely sure. Alot of the sites and articles use "Equadome" synonymously with "Weldon Springs Ordnance Works".

[crazydrummerdude]

Never got to see it.

Looks like an incredible location, too.

Oh, man! Yes.

I explored it probably 3 times. The first two times it was in it's completely abandoned state, and the last time, it was partially demolished. It was built to be bomb proof, so it took a lot to take it down.

The last time I explored it I was 12 years old. Imagine running into a 12 year old at a location. Haha.

I remember we went up to the top level of one of the buildings. To get to the roof you had to climb up in a hopper and run up the side of it and jump up to a ladder and climb up from there. We also went 2 or 3 stories underground. I found a flashlight down there, and it worked after I replaced the batteries. But, we didn't go all the way to the bottom. Probably not enough light.

The big vat areas were impressive and frightening.. and there was a huge tower right next to them, with a wooden ladder on the side. I think I remember hearing that someone died when they fell off the ladder into the vat.

Ah, memories..

[crazydrummerdude]

Yeah I wasn't completely sure. Alot of the sites and articles use "Equadome" synonymously with "Weldon Springs Ordnance Works".

Yes, it is the ordinance works.

[hijack]

That place was amazing. Something like 1000 buildings during it's hey-day. So contaminated and nasty that after abandonment a security guard watched the place 24/7 up until it was torn down.

The tour in the "interpretive center" is interesting.

[hijack 2]

Man, I want to explore Howell. 2 female friends of mine (who are relatively trustworthy) told me stories of a tunnel they found under the school one day when they asked to go to the bathroom. They said they accessed it from a panel in a wall that was somehow supposed to look inconspicuous. The last time I was in there, back in 2004 (when I was a high school student myself, although not there), I didn't have a chance to explore it too closely.

There is also a rumor that one day yeas ago, a student there was pissed at his teacher, and slammed his desk against the wall. Supposedly, part of the wall crumbled, and part of a tunnel was exposed.

I've been thinking of just shaving and cleaning myself up to look like a teenager and making some sort of name tag, and just walking around in there.. lookin'.

[/hijacks]

[redox]

Terrible loss of a great rappelling spot.

Wonder who "TEAM REPO" was? lol

And wut's this about a high school and a tunnel?

[silverstreak]

There ARE tunnels. Although some, like the access panels in the floor were filled in. went in them nearly 10 years ago while in a class. The school is gonna all be torn down eventually to make way for a new one though. So you would lose the old gym, cafeteria, and basement there with the tunnel access. There are some cool things like ghosts though. Teachers would hear "thrown desks" when alone in the building. and huge crashes in halls. M_M and I used to kick it around there back in the day!

[crowamonghens]

this is my first post here. i joined after doing a websearch on "equidome" and found this great place.

i visited the equidome in 1989 and again around 1990-91. one thing that vividly stands out in my memory is finding an open trapdoor in the floor with "hell" and an arrow spraypainted next to it. when i shone my flashlight down there, all i could see was some standing water at the bottom of a sub-basement, with what looked like thousands of baseball-sized, orange puffballs. it scared the living crap out of me, and to this day i still don't know what i saw.

[redox]

this is my first post here. i joined after doing a websearch on "equidome" and found this great place.

i visited the equidome in 1989 and again around 1990-91. one thing that vividly stands out in my memory is finding an open trapdoor in the floor with "hell" and an arrow spraypainted next to it. when i shone my flashlight down there, all i could see was some standing water at the bottom of a sub-basement, with what looked like thousands of baseball-sized, orange puffballs. it scared the living crap out of me, and to this day i still don't know what i saw.

Welcome crowamonghens. That is freaky. Probably a highly contamniated area. I wonder if that sub-basement still exists?

[silverstreak]

I do know that "Heaven and Hell" would be played regularly by the kids out there. This was /is similar to Capture the flag, and one would have to make it to the upper most floor of the place, and swing on a dangling rope hanging from the top of a multi story area. Many un-accounted deaths happened due to these "trap" doors, and much like a horror movie, the regulars were aware of them, but when chasing newbies etc, accidents were known to happen. Never visited the dome, I visited a sister site at one time with M_M that is now on Govt Property out by the old lost town of Hamburg-at Lost Valley Bike trail.

[crazydrummerdude]

I visited a sister site at one time with M_M that is now on Govt Property out by the old lost town of Hamburg-at Lost Valley Bike trail.

Been there too.

[Unholy_Twist]

Sorry for bumping an old topic but I was looking over the site which I found trying to find stuff about this topic and the old asylum now apartments in Normandy.

The place was incredible. I went probably 10 times back in the early 90s. I was scared out of my mind the first time and I wouldn't even go in the first building off of the path in. When I finally "manned up" it was one of the greatest places I had ever been to. I remember the trap door to hell and remember going down in it. It was wet and a little muddy but that place had a lot of standing water in it.

There was a spot in the back off of the main building that was just a four by four square. And it had a bunch of iron rungs as a ladder. we went down it and it felt like it was fifty feet but was probably only 25. Bunch of pillars and near the back of the place we found what looked to be a newer wall compared to the rest of the place that leads me to believe it went over to the Ammunicitions plant once long ago. lots of trash and debris down there too.

My favorite spot was the towers between the mixers. there was this one that you had to crawl into like a duct or something. Might have been the hopper previously mentioned. But when we went the ladder was accessable without running once in. It went straight to the top of the tower. I almost fell out of the top of the tower that is shown in one of the pictures. it was late at night and I couldn't see that the room ended. another few steps and I wouldn't be typing this now.

Back in the old days if you went up to the top of the water twer you could actually get into it. It was spray painted like most of the place and was a nice little hang out. last time we went they had sealed it off.

Legend had it of caves in the place where the local "satanists" would habg out do rituals but we never found those caves. One of the last goes there we stayed all night and went through every opening of every tunnel we could find. Lots of cool graffetti and in some spot we were wading through the water just to get to spots. Not the smartest thing we could have done.

Wish I had owned a camera back then. So much cool stuff was there. I only went twice during the day though so I don't know how nice they would have been. We'd go there after scouting trips to the old quarry that was alittle across from there and down the road from the "new" quarry. Found some intersting things at that place too.

Aso anyone else ever search those fallout shelters in Busch Wildlife back in the day? Or visit the old graveyards there?

[crazydrummerdude]

Wish I had a camera back then, too.

I've been in a bunch of the "bunkers" in Busch Wildlife, as well. Most were empty, and I remember them hanging open. Now they're locked.. but still have very little in them.

One was a barracks, but it was completely trashed. They all had a vent shaft on the tops of them. There are several in the woods down closed off roads.

I remember finding a few bullets/casings in one once, but it was probably not "original."

Never been to the graveyards, or the actual Weldon Spring. Probably should..