Demolition

The demolition of the former Midwest/Standard Oil of Indiana Refinery on north Cedar street began at the end of June, 2014. I’ve been granted access to document the demolition, and to try to provide a day-by-day record of this activity. The first phase of the demolition is being carried out by Stonehouse Earthwork Services of Laramie. More information about Stonehouse can be found here: stonehousewyo.com

As I process the images, (to date, I’ve made close to 4,000 of just the demolition), I’ll post them on this page. I’ll be posting all of the images with the date as a means of identifying any and all changes. All images will appear in chronological order, so regardless of when an image gets processed, it will be added accordingly. I’ve been photographing every day that Stonehouse has been working – rain or shine, and doing more in-depth photography on the weekends.

The first structure to be razed is the former United States Yttrium plant, with the south factory floor and storage area having its roof and walls removed:

United States Yttrium – 2July2014

United States Yttrium – 3July2014

Through the Stills 1 – 3July2014

United States Yttrium, North Side – 3July2014

Northwest Production Building of the Midwest Refinery – 3July2014

United States Yttrium Building; north garage, east side – 5July2014

West Still, (inside the U.S. Yttrium plant) – 9July2014

United States Yttrium – 10July2014

North Wall of the factory floor, United States Yttrium – 13July2014

Inside the northwest production building – 14Jul2014

Brandon Markle of Stonehouse uses a pulverizer to tear into one of the Midwest Oil Refining Company stills – 15July2014

U.S. Yttrium, north side, east lab and garage area – 16July2014

Northwest production building; tunnel, interior – 17July2014

Northwest production building; tunnel,exterior – 18July2014

U.S. Yttrium, east garage area – 20July2014

The east wall of the east lab from the U.S. Yttrium plant – 3August2014

Detail of the door frame – 3August2014

United States Yttrium – 6Aug2014

West wall, (still base) of the United States Yttrium tower – 7Aug2014 (north view)

West wall, (still base) of the United States Yttrium tower – 7Aug2014 (south view)

East side (formerly interior) of United States Yttrium – 14Aug2014

The next phase of the demolition is focusing on the Standard Oil of Indiana production buildings, these along with the original control building of the Midwest Oil Refining Company, (later used as the pilot plant for United States Yttrium), will be razed. The concrete will be used to continue to construct the ramp seen above to start the demolition of the tower section of the United States Yttrium plant.

Production building 5, Standard Oil of Indiana. Original control building of Midwest Oil, later the pilot plant for U.S. Yttrium on left – 20Aug2014