Urban Exploring at ISU

[SNEDDS3]

The Shrine - YouTube

Good video I found of Youtube about this place
Me and some buddies are thinking about driving out there tonight..Friday the 13th

I thought I recognized the neighbors voice, I was right. That's funny, he had no idea he was being recorded.

 

[GrindingAway]

Someone should make a Slenderman vlog filmed at The Shrine.

 

[BCClone]

Just remembered one other "odd" place that I came across while at ISU.

IIRC, it was on the east side of Kelly, or whatever that small town south of Ames is. My roommate and I were setting up an aquarium for our apartment. We had everything, but had a homemade stand. He located a dirt cheap place for an odd sized tank down there. I think it was $35 for what everyone else was charging $75. Gotta go for the deal right.

My roommate got directions and we drove down there. The first odd thing was he told us to look for the finger pointing us in the right direction. There was honestly this 10 foot pink hand with a finger pointing up this lane. We pulled up and it looked like we had came upon a vietnam prison camp. There was a nice machine shed on the left side. On the right side was an old, almost no paint, farm house with a fenced in yard connected to the house.

The fence was about the height of the two story house and was made of what looked like large bamboo trunks. Each about 20 foot high and about two foot in diameter and tied together so there were no gaps. The tops were pointy too. The owner (think hippy) met us in the yard and walked us into the house. We walked into the porch and he took us immediately down the steps in the porch to the basement. I wasn't feeling real good about this.

It was an old rock style farmhouse basement. I grew up in one of these houses so that didn't get me, but it was dark and dingy with dirt piles scattered throughout. Fish tanks everywhere and the guy kept laughing. My roommate chatted with him while I looked at the fish. He handed a sheet of paper to him and told him to read it. I wrote a check (note to people -- use cash in this situation) while he read it. My roommate made an agreeing laugh to make him feel well and passed it too me.

It was something about this miracle plant that aliens had brought when they landed on earth, what it said not what I believe in. I started getting less and less comfortable as he stood in the path up the stairs and laughed while looking at us. When he found out we were clueless out his paper (we don't smoke weed so it didn't hit us right away), he told us to follow him upstairs.

We went outside and my roommate went to his car and I followed the guy. We walked around this machine shed and he opened the door, he turned around and yelled "Stay right there". I stopped and stood there although I thought he was going to come out with a gun and shoot me. He kept talking to himself the whole time. I could tell he entered another door within the machine shed, but I stood right there like a moron, hey, I had paid for it so I was getting my stand.

He came out jammed it into me and and I took off, he was right on my heels as I was power walking. I met my roommate at the car and we crammed the thing in his hatchback and flew out of there; the whole time while the guy mumbled to himself and watched us from his front steps.

When I got back I realized that by writing the check that I had given the freak my address and name. Figured the DEA was or this goon was going to get us. Figured he would cash the check and I would be on the gov't list as a doper or he would show up on our doorstep. Dont use checks when your in a weird situation. I know when I write this it doesn't sound so bad, but I had a silence of the lambs feeling while this happened.

I was wondering if the place is still there. Has anyone else bought something from this guy or has he been busted and is in jail?

 

[87CelicaGTS]

Wow, great read. Never thought I'd get through it all, but I just couldn't stop. I agree with many of the posters that this is definitely one of the best threads on this site.

Nothing too crazy to add to this thread, but I did work security at the library for a few years while in college. The stacks always kind of creeped me out. Maybe it was the narrow aisles, or the low ceilings, or that you could sit there for hours and never see or hear anyone else. Anyway, I'd have to close the library and lock it up for the night. It would be me and one other person shutting everything down. The last thing we would have to do was sweep the library to make sure everyone was out before locking up. You'd be surprised how many people tried to stay in that place after hours. I'm assuming some people actually lived there because there were a few people that you would have to kick out quite a bit. There are plenty of places to hide in there and it's really unnerving to think you're the only person in a building like that and turn a corner only to have someone hiding behind a desk. I had plenty of moments that freaked me out while doing that job. And i'm sure watching that library scene in ghost busters as a kid didn't help either.

 

[Doc]

Just read through this whole thread (it's awesome!) and thought I would contribute.
While exploring friley with a friend, we came across the 'haunted dorms' in the basement near Dodd's. We turned on the lights (cuz they were off in that part of the hall) and walked down to the dorms. The temp rose and we actually started sweating, then noticed on one of the doors is written 'satan's legion' among other things, we got freaked and ran like hell. Then about a week later I was showing another friend the dorms and we were stopped by some guys that live in Dodds, they told us that they weren't really haunted, just that the rooms were closed because the windows are too small, and considered a fire hazard if some one needed to escape. I don't know if this was just to make us feel better, but I definitely got the creeps while being down there.

And I've heard stories that the only room where a student hung himself was on 5th floor.

But on to a more exploring aspect, I've heard that there is a way to get to the attic of Friley through a room on the 5th floor. There's not much up there, but still sounds cool.

Yeah, when you go up the stairwell on the Bennett side of Niles Foster, it's not the room right in front of you, but the one to the left of it. The guys who lived there when I was in Friley had a projector up there to watch movies on. Nothing too special...

Also ended up in one of the small steam tunnels (the ones with the carts) in Friley once when somebody left one of the utility rooms door open. It was utility room by the entrance to the loading docks.

 

[CloneFan319]

Hey Guys, my friends and I went out to the ISU Baseball Field to play some Baseball today and from the field we could see what looked like a huge ISU Football Helmet and here is what we found...

It ended up being a golf cart with the helmet being the "cab"

We also found an old field goal post. (This is probably really far fetched, but could it be the one we tore down and threw in Lake Laverne?)

We also found old hockey arena walls.

This was all just west of the ISU Baseball Field right along the ISU Cross Country course. Anyone know any information on these??

 

[Palmer]

Wow, great read. Never thought I'd get through it all, but I just couldn't stop. I agree with many of the posters that this is definitely one of the best threads on this site.

Nothing too crazy to add to this thread, but I did work security at the library for a few years while in college. The stacks always kind of creeped me out. Maybe it was the narrow aisles, or the low ceilings, or that you could sit there for hours and never see or hear anyone else. Anyway, I'd have to close the library and lock it up for the night. It would be me and one other person shutting everything down. The last thing we would have to do was sweep the library to make sure everyone was out before locking up. You'd be surprised how many people tried to stay in that place after hours. I'm assuming some people actually lived there because there were a few people that you would have to kick out quite a bit. There are plenty of places to hide in there and it's really unnerving to think you're the only person in a building like that and turn a corner only to have someone hiding behind a desk. I had plenty of moments that freaked me out while doing that job. And i'm sure watching that library scene in ghost busters as a kid didn't help either.

there was many times I considered stowing away in the library instead of walking all the way home...

 

[ISUAgronomist]

This thing would make appearances at the football games.

 

[kevdiv48]

We also found old hockey arena walls.

This was all just west of the ISU Baseball Field right along the ISU Cross Country course. Anyone know any information on these??

To the best of my knowledge those hockey walls are probably from the old ice rink that used to be in the big field east of towers. They removed the hockey rink to make room for the new track, softball and soccer facility.

 

[WalkingCY]

Anybody ever been out to that "twisted" playground north of town where they guy built a shrine to his dead daughters, or whatever the story is.? Pretty strange.

I went there with a group of people too. We shot some footage at night for a "horror film" in German for a class project. Very weird place.

Plus our video for the class struggled too, but we still managed a to get a B. (ha.)

 

[HARMCYN]

One night while stealing drunk Road signs and being new to the area, we drove up on the Applied Sciences Complex without knowing what it was or that it even belonged to the University. The place is surrounded by barbed wire and ppl were shuffling around in the back(it was around midnight) that, with the fact of a train blocking our exit-made us needless to say scared ****less

 

[woodie]

places to explore:

go to boone,iowa and explore the hills along the west and the east side of the des moines river....

also go west of boone to the west side of the des moines river. on the above,use old highway thirty for your exploration..
when i was in grad school we took old hiway 30 thru boone and went to the west side of the des moines river.. then we went north and found an old time tavern that was about 12 miles north of old hiway 30.
the bar had to be an early iowa bar because it had hitching rings for horses. we used to go over there for a cool brew on saturday afternoons. i do not know if the place still exists or not . i have not followed that old trail for years.. i would like to know if it still exists.
if you enjoy morel mushrooms, the hills along the des moines river valley are a great place to hunt morel mushrooms on or about the last week of april or in the first week of may... boone has some interesting trees,plants,wild flowers, birds if you are interested in those things. there many interesting things around ames,too..

something to do in ames during winter chritmas vacation is get into the heat tunnels
underneath the campus. we did that one winter when we had to stay in ames for wrestling practice . the tunnels are a real maze. what else is there to do in ames over christmas. coach nichols would kick you off of the team if he caught you drinking..nichols was a great coach. wished he was still alive.

 

[mapnerd]

I've heard that the area by the Des Moines river near Boone has lots of people living "off the grid." Anyone know if this is true?

 

[Scott34]

There is a little town nw of Boone (cant remember the name) but ive heard there some strange ones. Not saying all but that area has some different things going on.

 

[geburgess]

WHY WON'T THIS THREAD DIE!?!?!

...we have followed the rules laid out in Zombieland and it keeps coming back...

 

[driegner]

WHY WON'T THIS THREAD DIE!?!?!

...we have followed the rules laid out in Zombieland and it keeps coming back...

This thread needs bumped occasionally. I'm sure someone, somewhere is reading the whole thing. Just like I did when it got bumped a few years ago...

 

[SenorCy]

WHY WON'T THIS THREAD DIE!?!?!

...we have followed the rules laid out in Zombieland and it keeps coming back...

Because it's awesome.

 

[JP4CY]

This thread needs bumped occasionally. I'm sure someone, somewhere is reading the whole thing. Just like I did when it got bumped a few years ago...

I've read every post in this thread. I can say that I rarely stay interested this long unless Snowcraig forgets his kid at school.

 

[vmbplayer]

I vote every time someone resurrects this thread everyone stops reading fanatic long enough to go take a shot.

 

[Farnsworth]

places to explore:

go to boone,iowa and explore the hills along the west and the east side of the des moines river....

also go west of boone to the west side of the des moines river. on the above,use old highway thirty for your exploration..
when i was in grad school we took old hiway 30 thru boone and went to the west side of the des moines river.. then we went north and found an old time tavern that was about 12 miles north of old hiway 30.
the bar had to be an early iowa bar because it had hitching rings for horses. we used to go over there for a cool brew on saturday afternoons. i do not know if the place still exists or not . i have not followed that old trail for years.. i would like to know if it still exists.
if you enjoy morel mushrooms, the hills along the des moines river valley are a great place to hunt morel mushrooms on or about the last week of april or in the first week of may... boone has some interesting trees,plants,wild flowers, birds if you are interested in those things. there many interesting things around ames,too..

something to do in ames during winter chritmas vacation is get into the heat tunnels
underneath the campus. we did that one winter when we had to stay in ames for wrestling practice . the tunnels are a real maze. what else is there to do in ames over christmas. coach nichols would kick you off of the team if he caught you drinking..nichols was a great coach. wished he was still alive.

I've heard that the area by the Des Moines river near Boone has lots of people living "off the grid." Anyone know if this is true?

Intrigued by both post. I'm looking around the area on Google Earth, would be fun to explore.