Dennis’ Mystery Quarry – Part 1

Today and tomorrow's posts are by historian and longtime blog contributor Dennis Thompson. 

Dennis is one of the best researchers around and a nice guy too. Besides helping me solve several mysteries on this blog over the years (including the mystery barn photo), Dennis devotes a lot of time identifying photos on the Vintage Aerial website as a sort of public service to other users of the site. 

A while back, Dennis ran into a mystery of his own while reviewing photos on VintageAerial.com. He shares his interesting story with us, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at his research techniques, in this two-part post.

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The Mystery Quarry

The Mystery Quarry – Part 1
by Dennis Thompson

Lorain County has long been known for its quarries. Most are located in South Amherst, but a vein of sandstone extends to nearby Berea. It passes through Olmsted Falls and Columbia Township. 

I found the above photo of what looked like a quarry while identifying unknown Lorain County aerial photos on the Vintage Aerial website. 

After viewing the photos, I made a database of any interesting locations that I might be able to ID: gas stations, country stores, unusual intersections, railroad crossings, schools – and that mysterious 1969 photo of a building floating in a pond.

I spent countless hours over the course of a year or so tracking down photo locations, but that one eluded me. I finally was determined not to leave the computer until I found it. 

It’s a long process. I start with a photo of an identified location. (I have catalogued more than 700 of them in the county’s unknown rolls of film.) Then I look at the next photo in the roll, and compare the buildings to present day aerial views from Google and Bing. I use old county directories and high altitude aerial photos from the Historic Aerials website to pinpoint and identify the buildings. 

Of course, over the years many of the buildings are remodeled, replaced or just torn down. New buildings are added. 

To make identifying photos even more challenging, there is no way to tell from the roll of film on Vintage Aerial whether two locations are next door to each other or a mile apart. I just keep tracking down each adjacent photo, all the time noting the shadows in each photo to tell when the plane changed course and “flew around the corner.” 

But after much searching for clues in my effort to identify the floating building location, the result was the same: nothing. I even lost track of the plane's flight path from either direction.

Going back to the original mystery photo, I noticed that this adjacent photo (below) on the roll of film showed a junkyard and greenhouses near the intersection of two roads. 

But this time, I noticed the small bridge on the left hand side of the photo; it had escaped my attention. It is the type of bridge called a “pony truss.” 

Knowing that Lorain County’s bridges are well documented on Bridgehunter.com, I went through each pony truss bridge in their index and looked it up on Google maps until – bingo! It was a bridge over Plum Creek on Osborne Road near the corner of Jaquay Road. 

A glance at Google showed the floating building was still nearby! I was so excited I drove over there on the Saturday that I located it. The small quarry, abandoned for 80 years, is nestled with two others across Jaquay Road and surrounded by overgrown brush and a dense row of trees – and an 8-foot tall, heavy duty chain-link fence still partially topped with military grade barbed wire.

Tomorrow: The Cold War Comes to Lorain County