Forum Index > Trip Reports > Devil's Tower - 1/23/10 - Concrete, WA
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Gamuru
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Joined: 20 Oct 2010
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Location: Granite Falls
Gamuru
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PostTue Jan 25, 2011 8:30 am 
This last Sunday was showing a 70% chance of rain. While sitting at Ike's eating breakfast in Granite Falls, my wife and I discussed which adventure we wanted to get after. As we talked we noted the ripples in the puddles outside made by raindrops. They seemed to be increasing in frequency. Something with some cover was in order. We finished our coffee and decided on a short hike at an abandoned cement factory up north. On the east bank of Lake Shannon there sits the abandoned Washington Portland Cement Company. Several structures make up the site so traveling an hour and a half by car would be well worth the trip. We arrived at the end of the road after crossing over the all concrete bridge, the Henry Thompson Bridge, built 1916-1918, below Puget Sound Power & Light's Baker Dam, built in 1924. The road up was in rough shape from the severe rain we've had recently.
After crossing through the gate we walked straight up the hill. The first structure you'll probably see is a tin covered storage shed. We suspect this was an equipment maintenance shed for the quarrying equipment. We decided to come back to this on our walk out.
On the other side of the road--the lake side--sits a very square tower. We're really not sure what this structure was for. Perhaps a silo? Maybe it had a bucket tram filling it from out in the quarry? I really don't know.
We walked around the back side of the tower and discovered the roof of the tower had been ripped off and was now laying upside down behind it.
From this point, you're presented with a few options on where to go next. If you keep heading north along the ridge you'll come to the main factory building. If you hike west toward the lake you'll come to a loading facility for the aerial tramway. We decided to head north and work our way back.
This structure was massive! Carved into the hillside, it has eight floors. Where you approach it from the quarry level you're about in the middle of the building. To enter the building, you'll need to drop down one of the two sides. We went down the left-hand side.
Around the back, we entered through a rather large whole in the wall. The walls are made of concrete, but they're only about an inch thick with strapping used as reinforcement. I was surprised at how flimsy they really were.
We then entered a room that I suspect had a boiler or two in it. It was probably the main power plant for the operation. An overhead pulley hung from the ceiling. The next room we entered was all but filled in with rock and dirt. On one side of the room was a large conveyor that carried material all the way up to the seventh level. We figured there was probably a shaker that sorted material in this room and was filled from above through a hole in the ceiling.
Adjacent to this room was a massive area with huge round holes in the floor. This is probably where the main mixing of product was done. Cement is made by mixing together and baking limestone and clay, then crushing it into a powder. Add water and rock and you have cement.
In the southwest corner of the room was a stairwell leading below. We dropped down a level to see the under workings. It was a bit darker down there so out came the flashlights.
All along the room were concrete stands where pillow block bearings were attached. It appeared material would drop down from chutes where it was mixed together before making its way onto a conveyor that lead out the front of the building.
And that's where we headed next. On the other side of the room was a concrete slab that was pitched up at about thirty degrees. It dropped down through the floor at one end and through the wall at the other. We crawled down and followed it to the deepest region of the building.
At the end was a return pulley for the long gone conveyor belt. Chutes from above still hung above the conveyor where finished product would drop onto the belt. We decided to climb up to the upper workings before following the conveyor away from the main building. Up we went.
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IMG_1159.JPG
Almost at the top of the building was where the nearly vertical bucket conveyor terminated. Sorted product probably was raised to this level where it was dropped into crushers and screens. I can only imagine the dust and noise emanating from this building! Halfway up the narrow stairs is an opening out to the roof. We stepped out for a scenic view of Shannon Lake. On a sunny day the view must be spectacular!
To access the long conveyor leading away from the building, we exited the building the way we came in. Making our way down around the southwest corner of the building we came between the two structures. Another large hole had been punched through the flimsy concrete wall next to the steel-covered doorway.
We turned and walked up the long corridor. About halfway up cross to the right-hand side as there's a rather large hole in the floor at the upper end, on the left. At the top, the conveyor dropped product into a hole in the floor (or the ceiling depending on which side you are on) of the silo below.
We discussed options for getting down. There was a set of stairs leading up from below, but the last few sections had no handrail and were very steep. Oh, and the last section of stairs--at ground level--were broken off so you had to use a rope to make the final descent. I opted to go back the way we came. We came back around via the access road to the silo and wrecked stairs.
Looking at the stairs from below reassured me I had made the right decision. From there we entered the silo area. Built around the base of the silo was a round room where the buckets of the aerial tram tracked around and were filled. Chutes extended from the silo wall all around it. Material lay in piles about it. We stood there for several minutes trying to work out how they managed to bring the buckets in and around to fill them and then send them on their way toward town. It must have been a nightmare to get everything working correctly.
From the silo, we followed the tram road down to the first large tower. This reminded me of the towers on the ski lifts at Stevens Pass. If you can jump really high, there is a ladder leading up the side of this structure. The bottom rung is about twelve feet off the ground... so really high.
Across Shannon Lake is another tower like this one. A suppose there are several more leading into Concrete. We turned from there and headed back toward the tin maintenance shed. The structure was mostly made of wood. Really not much of interest in there. We looked around a bit then headed out back behind it. There was an overgrown road leading away into the brush. We decided to follow it to see what it had to offer. Bits of garbage were strewn about along the road, but it was on our return the yielded the real treasures. We got off the "beaten path" and picked up an even older road along the ridge line. On this we found smashed barrels that had been converted to tram buckets. There were several laying about along with cable and other artifacts including a tram pulley still wrapped with cable.
We concluded this must have been an old, abandoned tramway. They probably used it to transport material to the plant. With the proximity of the maintenance shed, the other stuff was probably just junk thrown here. Discarded; a garbage pile. We'll be going back later this year when it warms up a bit. We wanted to go down to the beach area below the main structure and wander around out in the quarry, too. There's far too much to see in just a few hours of exploration. We had a great time looking through the old buildings trying to imagine what happened where and how it all worked together. If you're into exploring abandoned buildings, this is a definite must see.

Don "The definition of a mine is a hole in the ground that belongs to a liar." ~Mark Twain
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aywolfpac
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PostTue Jan 25, 2011 11:26 am 
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Schroder
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PostTue Jan 25, 2011 12:23 pm 
Fascinating. I didn't know all those buildings were still standing. I believe all of that area was used for crushing, separating and storing the lime rock near the quarry. There were two plants down in town, the newer one on the west end that was still running in 1967. That's where the kilns were.

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Gamuru
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Location: Granite Falls
Gamuru
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PostTue Jan 25, 2011 12:41 pm 
According to what history is available, it seems there were two separate cement operations. This one and Superior down in Concrete. Superior eventually bought out Washington and used it strictly for quarrying limestone.

Don "The definition of a mine is a hole in the ground that belongs to a liar." ~Mark Twain
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Schroder
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PostTue Jan 25, 2011 2:49 pm 
There were two plants down in town. The first one was the Washington Portland Cement Plant on the east side of the Baker River built in 1905 and the Superior Portland Cement Plant was built on the west side of town in 1906. The two companies merged in 1910. I'm not sure when the original Washington Plant shut down but the Superior Plant ran until 1967 (modernized several times). Both used the quarry where the buildings are that you explored. That was the first cement plant in the state. Back in the 60's, you would know when you were getting close to Concrete because the cement dust coated the trees for several miles down the highway. There was another plant like it in Grotto (between Baring and Skykomish) on Hiway 2 that shut down about the same time.

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mike
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PostTue Jan 25, 2011 4:17 pm 
I remember those buckets coming down the hill.

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Bryan K
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Joined: 29 Sep 2005
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Bryan K
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PostWed Jan 26, 2011 12:40 am 
I could spend a whole day up there taking shots!!! I think I'll do just that very soon too biggrin.gif Thanks for sharing. I never knew this place existed. If you've got a bead on any other places like this please shoot me a PM. I love exploring abandoned buildings where trespassing isn't an issue.

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GeoHiker
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GeoHiker
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PostWed Jan 26, 2011 1:15 am 
Very cool. Excellent run down of the buildings and history. I'll have to add this to my list of places to explore. I love checking out old places like this. Looks like the taggers like it too. LOL I remember going into Concrete when I was about 8-9 and seeing all the dust. Must have been nasty after a summer shower. down.gif

You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye......Eagles
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SweetSassy
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SweetSassy
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PostWed Jan 26, 2011 8:30 am 
Wow. Wow. WOW. Awesome pictures. I'm also adding it to my list of Must-See-Places.

Sassy - a recovering couch potato
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Dalekz
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PostWed Jan 26, 2011 9:26 am 
I poked around there awhile back looking for the fossilized Crinoids that were suppose to be present in the limestone. The flat area of the quarry was huge (~1/2 mile across) and I never did find anything in the short time I had. Did you run across any area of the quarry that might look promising? from FIELD TRIP STOP 1 - North Cascade Highway (State Route 20) West of Washington Pass http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/noca/nocaft1.html The limestone deposits, part of the Chilliwack River terrane, contain numerous fragments of large fossilized crinoid stems indicating an age of about 330 million years (Carboniferous). Crinoids, or sea lilies, evolved about 490 million years ago, and numerous species exist today in all the world's oceans. They belong to the sea urchin family, but, following a free swimming larval stage, attach themselves to the ocean bottom and grow into a plant-like animal

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Obi Tony Kenobi
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Obi Tony Kenobi
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PostThu Jan 27, 2011 6:26 pm 
What a cool place, thanks for sharing!

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Gimpilator
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Gimpilator
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PostThu Jan 27, 2011 6:40 pm 
I used to go there a lot late at night and wander around with friends. It's a different atmosphere in the dark. The stairs below devil's tower were intact until about 3 years ago. Good pictures.

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Daryl
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Daryl
Big Shot Economist
PostThu Jan 27, 2011 9:43 pm 
Added to my list. thanks for sharing.

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