{"id":612,"date":"2011-10-09T19:18:31","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T01:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/?p=612"},"modified":"2014-03-18T13:55:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T19:55:41","slug":"swift-meat-packing-ft-worth-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/?p=612","title":{"rendered":"Swift Meat Packing, Fort Worth Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Right next to the Fort Worth <a title=\"Stockyards history\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stockyardsmuseum.org\/index_files\/StockYardsHistory.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Stockyards<\/a> is a large abandoned industrial complex that used to be the Swift Meat Packing Plant. It was part of <a title=\"Gustavus Franklin Swift\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gustavus_Franklin_Swift\" target=\"_blank\">Gustavus Swift&#8217;s<\/a>\u00a0family of companies and was in operation from about 1902 to 1971. \u00a0It soon fell into disrepair due to numerous fires from\u00a0trespassing\u00a0vagrants, gang activity and graffiti taggers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?hl=en&amp;vpsrc=6&amp;ctz=360&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=204600700021198483142.0004ae697411cf589e5fa&amp;ll=32.787386,-97.342008&amp;spn=0.002774,0.002558&amp;t=h&amp;output=embed\" height=\"350\" width=\"425\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<small>View <a style=\"color: #0000ff; text-align: left;\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?hl=en&amp;vpsrc=6&amp;ctz=360&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=204600700021198483142.0004ae697411cf589e5fa&amp;ll=32.787386,-97.342008&amp;spn=0.002774,0.002558&amp;t=h&amp;source=embed\">Swift Meat Packing Plant<\/a> in a larger map<\/small><\/p>\n<p>There are still several large buildings on the property that are open to some urban exploring though care should be taken, it&#8217;s quite apparent that numerous homeless have taken up residence here. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t do this\u00a0excursion alone. I had a friend\u00a0with me as a\u00a0second\u00a0set of eyes. It&#8217;s funny but one of the\u00a0creepiest\u00a0things we\u00a0encountered was this lost child&#8217;s\u00a0toy:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 343px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226066949\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Lost Toy \" alt=\"Lost Toy \" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6157\/6226066949_c76d5fafa7.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lost Toy<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It really puts some\u00a0nightmarish Freddy Kruger\/Halloween thoughts in your head. \u00a0The first building we entered, Processing 1, was the smallest at the complex and had some of the freshest graffiti:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226128377\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Processing 1\" alt=\"Processing 1\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6098\/6226128377_fc069b61c6.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Processing 1<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The names I&#8217;m giving these buildings are for reference and based on the order we entered them or from what they looked like. \u00a0Processing 1 was two stories and except for the\u00a0graffiti, it was rather unremarkable. \u00a0Next door was Processing 2:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226609826\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Processing 2\" alt=\"Processing 2\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6171\/6226609826_8578c271de.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Processing 2<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It had a lot of internal damage from fires and the second level wasn&#8217;t\u00a0accessible. The stairs were missing and we didn&#8217;t want to chance climbing up the outside ladder.\u00a0Behind\u00a0Processing\u00a02 was the Garage. \u00a0It was a large open metal structure adjacent some storage areas. It had one of the more interesting homeless shelter setups:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226689886\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"A bed and chair!\" alt=\"A bed and chair!\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6045\/6226689886_496eb649da.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bed and chair!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Most of the doors were free to swing in the breeze so as we wandered around we could hear various banging and\u00a0squeaking which really plays with your mind. Fires and the passage of time have really done a number to the place. \u00a0Interestingly though, in around 2008 the site was used as a set piece for the TV show Prison Break. \u00a0They converted one of the structures into a <a title=\"Prison Break\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Penitenciar%C3%ADa_Federal_de_Sona\" target=\"_blank\">South American Prison<\/a> and added several guard towers:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226586805\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Prison Break\" alt=\"Prison Break\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6228\/6226586805_6358d847d2.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Penitenciaria Federal de Sona<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The grey stucco facade and windows are complete fakes but its interesting how your mind is fooled by the movie magic. \u00a0The three guard stations that were built also have paint that\u00a0mimics age but upon closer inspection you can see the timbers are new. \u00a0Its a sharp contrast to the wood that&#8217;s been around since about 1902 making up the roofs of the warehouse structures:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 343px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226313765\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"Roof collapse\" alt=\"Roof collapse\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6035\/6226313765_23d69766a1.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don&#8217;t be scared little tiger<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The remains of the roof looked like it could come down at any moment but that doesn&#8217;t scare the tiger guarding the place. \u00a0He wasn&#8217;t the last toy we came across, parked outside of Processing 4 was this little tike:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 343px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226559653\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Little Tike's last ride\" alt=\"Little Tike's last ride\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6058\/6226559653_b51dd7dc05.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Little Tike&#8217;s last ride<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If you will notice, the fourth floor of Processing 4 has no windows. \u00a0Winding up the interior stairwell lead us to a room that was behind a large heavy\u00a0refrigeration\u00a0door:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6226487081\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"The Black Room\" alt=\"The Black Room\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6114\/6226487081_5b2a88f605.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Room<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It was dark, but the sky lights let in enough light to see that the walls had been painted black causing the graffiti to also glow as if under black light.\u00a0That\u00a0room kind of creeped us out so we didn&#8217;t stick around there. \u00a0The last structure we entered was the largest and had extensive damage to it&#8217;s northern face. \u00a0The wall had completely\u00a0fallen exposing the\u00a0interior to the\u00a0elements:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/6227170240\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Exposed\" alt=\"Exposed\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6151\/6227170240_387c9c73af.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exposed<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This building is different from the others in that each large room is accessed from the\u00a0stairwell\u00a0through large\u00a0refrigeration\u00a0type\u00a0doors. It kind of implies that every floor was heavily cooled for what ever processing that went on. \u00a0It also has a large service\u00a0elevator that would have serviced all five floors. We were about out of time so we headed out to meet back up with Virginia and get some much deserved beers. \u00a0In total we spent about 3 hours there and the complete Flickr set can be viewed here:\u00a0<a title=\"Swift MEat Processing Plant\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juanoxido\/sets\/72157627852674782\/with\/6226733969\/\" target=\"_blank\">Swift Meat Processing Plant<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right next to the Fort Worth Stockyards is a large abandoned industrial complex that used to be the Swift Meat Packing Plant. It was part of Gustavus Swift&#8217;s\u00a0family of companies and was in operation from about 1902 to 1971. \u00a0It soon fell into disrepair due to numerous fires from\u00a0trespassing\u00a0vagrants, gang activity and graffiti taggers. View [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[19,110,104,42,106,103],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","tag-abandoned","tag-armor","tag-fort-worth","tag-graffiti","tag-stockyards","tag-swift-meat-packing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1MdZY-9S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}