InsaneBunkers in the Boston Globe, IB Comments

[skully]

To start, I will be straightforward.  I am posting the entire article, Getting Caught in the Past, published online and in the Boston Globe on January 3rd.  I have not asked permission from Canadian-born writer Donovan Slack to do so.  I won't be asking either.  She did not ask usfor permission to post material from this site.

It all started with a broadcast email went out to all of the core members last Sunday, January 2nd at 12:25PM stating:

i'm doing a story about urban exploring for tomorrow's paper and was wondering if you can tell me about spelunking in new england?
no names necessary, just need info...
please help...

At 3:28PM I replied with:

Mr Slack,
I'll speak for the group here.  Sorry but we have no comments for you regarding the hobby.  Thank you for your interest nonetheless and good luck with the piece.
-skully

At the time I didn't know that Slack was a Ms, not a Mr.  Anyway, Dakiel and I have a similar impression when people contact us with requests like this:  they will make a hack story about urban exploration (UE) and draw unwanted, negative attention to InsaneBunkers.  This request seemed to be no different.  After all, Ms. Slack was asking for information on a story that was due tomorrow.  Did she already have an accurate, well prepared story?  Probably not.  After all, she called UE "SPELUNKING"!   I've only used that term a couple times in my life while talking to my cave exploring buddy at work. 

If only she was sincere and prepared.  If she wrote an email expressing interest in understanding UE, how it has been misrepresented in the past, how there has to be something more here that has been missing in other accounts... well maybe there would have been room there for some anonymous conversation. 

She would only have to look at our bunker segments or even the Charlestown Nuclear account to realize that there is more.  If you are into UE you must have been to a site and like a T.V. show, for a split second you could imagine any decrepit place, whether it is a bunker, tunnel, an old factory, or abandoned mental institution, in it's hay-day, bustling with people.  History.  Live, like going to Gettysburg or Ground Zero.  You consider the people of past, what technologies were available then, where they may have lived, eat, traveled from, what medical or mental condition they were being treated for.  The land or structure.  How it was built, how it has held up.  Lots to consider, lots of interest, lots of enjoyment for those that have the capability to enjoy those aspects of UE. 

Dakiel called me on Monday and alerted me of the bad news- a poorly written, inaccurate article written about SPELUNKING and STEALING in Massachusetts.  Wow, bound to be a combination of trouble.  Now we've been mentioned in print and in online news articles before, but this one struck me as containing gross inaccuracies of what UE in New England is all about.  It in no way captured why we and so many others like us take the time to head out and explore.

I'm posting the article now with commentary.

[Shown picture of Shawn DuFour in shed plastered with stolen signs all over it]
Shawn Dufour, a graphic artist from Whitman who sells photos online from his urban explorations around Massachusetts, displayed some of his spoils on a shed behind his home. ''I'm a chronic sign stealer,'' he said. (Globe Staff Photo / Justine Hunt)

Getting caught in the past
Urban spelunkers find rewards worth risks
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff  |  January 3, 2005

It seemed the perfect day for a little urban spelunking -- exploring abandoned buildings or, in this case, a construction site, for signs of times gone by.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  What the hell is a perfect day for a little urban spelunking anyway?  What's spulunking?  Who gave you this article to write?

But as the cold, stiff mud closed in around Steve LaRochelle's head Saturday, he didn't have time to think about the discarded pottery he had hoped to find at the Lowell construction site. Instead, he concentrated on jiggling his head back and forth, making a little pocket in the collapsed earth to breathe..[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  Steve LaRochelle is obviously not the brightest bulb in the box.  What's he doing in ditches anyway.  All I can imagine is the scene from Poltergeist with the pool ditch in the backyard.   

"I heard movement, I heard shoveling, so that was a good sign," recalled LaRochelle, nursing a cracked shoulder blade and a few bumps and bruises at home yesterday in Dracut.
It was 30 minutes before rescue workers freed him from the mud, which had collapsed on his 6-foot frame while he and two friends foraged for urban artifacts Saturday at the East Merrimack Street site. [/size][/font]
SKULLY: "Foraged for urban artifacts "??? OK there Indiana Jones.  To me, there is nothing urban about a ditch.  I believe it's called archeological thieving.  Sigh..

LaRochelle is part of a growing subculture in New England of urban spelunkers, a term adopted from cave exploration. It is usually an illegal pastime, requiring the breach of trespassing laws, but the practice has exploded in popularity in recent years, fueled by the region's abundance of defunct institutions, abandoned factories, and rich history[/font].
SKULLY: LaRochelle is NOT part of anything.  He's an embarrassment.  I love how Slack goes on, obviously milking her source for some history on UE.  Spelunkers?  Sigh...  I love the last sentence too.  Nice technique.  She says "usually an illegal pastime" followed by "requiring the breach of trespassing laws".  To the fast reading eye, she makes out UE to be all about breaking the law.   And she never really explains WHY the popularity has exploded.  Maybe people are more interested in history?  Maybe with the US becoming more technology-based and less manufacturing-based, old factories are becoming historic sites, worthy of a look through an open door?

Spelunkers say new websites chronicling expeditions in the region came online during the past year at the rate of two or more per month, far more rapidly than the one or two per year of the previous decade.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  Who said this?  Who are "spelunkers"?

"I think the young kids found a hobby and realized it's the latest cool and hip thing to do," said John Gray, who last year published "Abandoned Asylums of New England: a photographic journey," chronicling many of his expeditions during the past decade.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  Finally, a credible statement.  I could only wish that John straighted her lingo out and set her straight on what UE is for so many of us.

But there also are bankers and pharmacy technicians, convenience store clerks and advertising executives. Some explore abandoned subway tunnels, others steam pipes, police stations, or schools.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  OK...

They do it for various reasons -- some for the rush of going where no one is supposed to go and others for unique finds that offer clues to past inhabitants.
For many, it is an adolescent compulsion they never grew out of, like the urge to check out a purportedly haunted house at the end of the block, said 34-year-old Shawn Dufour, a graphic artist from Whitman who specializes in subway tunnel exploration.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  It's an "adolescent compulsion" according to her.  She may be right on this one.

"I started out doing it when I was on my BMX bicycle," said Dufour, who sells photos online from expeditions at the Armstrong Cork Co. in Braintree, a farmhouse in Westminster, and a now-demolished mill in Fitchburg.
Urban spelunkers follow a loosely held set of ethics, according to the self-styled Institute of Urban Speleologic Studies & Archeology: "Take only pictures, leave only footprints."[/size][/font]
SKULLY: I hate to hear that damn "take only" mantra.  It looks like they ripped off Donnabhain's site too.  I wonder if Donavan asked Donnabhain for permission or did they just break into a pronunciation discussion.

And explorers have adopted their own jargon, catalogued on another website, Infiltration.org. "CIHY" is short for "Can I help you?" -- a query frequently fielded by urban explorers. [/size][/font]
SKULLY:  Never seen nor heard of "CIHY".  I must be a UE-noob.

Practitioners even had conventions last year, according to Infiltration.org. Roughly 65 explorers from across North America met in Toronto in June, under the guise "Office Products Expo." In July, a smaller group met in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and called their meeting NEOPEX, or North East Office Products Expo.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  Great, it's fucking Star Trek or CES.  Where's the porno convention?

Urban spelunking is innately secretive, since many practitioners explore abandoned sites without permission, sneaking onto premises and ducking security guards and police. One online forum based in Rhode Island, InsaneBunkers, features advice for novice spelunkers, such as, "As long as you look like you belong there, no one questions you."[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  InsaneBunkers is not a forum, it's a site.  On top of that we gave no permission to use that quote.  This was advise to an individual in a threaded conversation, not general advise.

The same posting advises explorers to wear black at night, but to dress age-appropriately.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  Again, the advise was for an individual on the forum, not a featured advice column from the main website.

A key component to the practice is chronicling expeditions so they can be shared with other explorers, said one spelunker, who identified himself by e-mail only as Matt Fallout. For some it is posting photographs online, for others it is writing a weblog of sorts about the adventures, and for others it is collecting small souvenirs.
"I'm a chronic sign stealer," said Dufour, who displays his spoils around his home and on a shed out back.[/size][/font]
SKULLY:  Dumbass

LaRochelle, the Dracut man buried in mud Saturday, said he is an amateur urban spelunker at best, with only one year under his belt, though he has collected the odd chipped teapot and displays his finds on a shelf in his living room.[/size][/font]
SKULLY: "amateur urban spelunker"?  How about "NOT an explorer".

"It's sort of like fishing," said LaRochelle, 41, a senior vice president and chief commercial real estate lender at Lowell-based Enterprise Bank and Trust Co. "It's mostly a waste of time, but a chance to get some fresh air."
He says he likes to scour the 3- or 4-foot-wide dirt troughs -- like the one that collapsed on him Saturday -- between newly poured foundations and the craters dug to house them. His two friends were able to free his head before rescue workers arrived to pull him out.
As scary as the experience was, LaRochelle said he may not be done spelunking. "I'm just very opportunistic," he said. "If you see stuff, you check it out."[/size][/font]
Our 2 cents.  Time for bed.  :o  Later folks.

[MovingUnit]

When I read this the other morning at work, I was so pissed.  The article gives the impression to the public that we're just a bunch of adolescent pilferers out for a cheap illegal thrill.  I hate that.  The "writer" obviously did a minimal amount of poor research and whipped up a quick article, and I'm sorry she chose to unwillingly mention IB in it, especially in the way she did.

I cancelled my business' subscription to the Globe after reading it.

[PaExplorations]

Seems the only thing credible in that is JOhns comment...glad i dont read the globe...some people just have no clue..i have also been contacted before. and i always decline...

[metalwitch]

Spelunking is a "new" term I have been hearing about from various sources.
If the writer from the globe took all this info from various sources, with out permission, isn't that plagarism???

A reputable writer would know better or would they?

[skully]

For those who did not get to see it.  Make sure that you are running the latest  Adobe Reader or Acrobat.

http://insanebunkers.com/images/misc/Globe_010304.pdf

[Rally19]

you got an email addy we can respond to?

[skully]

It's at the very end of the article.

[Rally19]

ah yes i got it, thanks :)

here's what i wrote for all those interested

I am writing in response to the article you wrote, "Getting Caught in the Past", where you in accurately portrayed the Urban Exploration community as a whole.  As well as my web community Insane Bunkers, I in no way represent the website or any of the members.  Though I do feel that potraying me as well as my fellow UE'ers (Splunking or whatever you call it is not used by real UE'ers none of us on the website have ever heard of that termed used, nor have we hear of CIHY).  None of us are kids, we're all mainly adults who aren't stuck in our "adolecent ways"  if you were to ask any of the members on the forum why they like UE, the would all pretty much say the same thing.  To enjoy the history of it all, nothing can quite describe the excitement of walking down a newly found tunnel at my favorite spot and just thinking what it must have been like when the place was still in use.  What kind of people would have used this area?  What was the main purpose of the tunnels anyway?

Unlike the person you interviewed who got himself stuck in a ditch, no real UE'er is a collector.  When I come upon an interesting document, artifact, or sign, I take pictures to document it leaving everything where I found it.  That way UE'ers like myself can enjoy just what I had seen like I had seen it.  To many places are ruined now and days by people like the one in your article.  They are stripped, ransacked and graffitied by people who aren't UE'ers.  Nothing makes me sadder than seeing the buildings smashed and torn apart.  Its destroying a part of history.

UE'ers are of no threat to the property on which they explore.  When a real UE'er has explored an area, you would have never known s/he was there.  I've come so that security knows me at one spot, they no that I am of no harm to the buildings or them.  Though I have never had conversations with them, they see me, nod and carry on.  I've seen to many people in my favorite spot that antagonize security, playing games and carelessly vandalizing the property.  When I see others there I will sometimes offer to guide them through, to help them appericiate what it is that they are seeing.  Most people never have the guts to venture inside, but when they do it's amazing to see how some will react.  Some are petrified, some are awestruck, but either way they all leave enlighetened with a smile and one hell of a story to tell in the morning.

We UE'ers aren't vandals, thiefs, or immature.  We're sort of protectors of the past, whether the past be a mental institution, or just an old run down farmhouse.  We document it for people to enjoy and remember.  Before you know it half the places we explore will be torn down, and after that is done, only our pictures and stories will remain.

[MovingUnit]

Not too shabby Rally, not too shabby.  A nice and very mature response.  I'm wondering how many emails the writer has gotten since the article appeared.

[MysteryMeat]

Before you know it half the places we explore will be torn down, and after that is done, only our pictures and stories will remain.

So true.  

Good letter, Rally.

[metalwitch]

Would love to know what the response, if any, to Rally's letter.
Before you send it, seal it with a UE kiss.
No explanaation needed. ;)  

[Megster]

Screw writing to Slack.  Alert the Boston Globe that she did not ask permission to take materials from this site or use its name.  

[Megster]

but before my last message gets taken the wrong way, I DO like the email that's already been written to her :)

[Megster]

A friend of mine and I just googled Donovan Slack, and you'd be surprised at the results we got.

It wasn't a surprise to see her name tied in with an article about GI gang-raping of Iraqi women, along with photos that turned out to be false...taken from a porn site!

[Rally19]

Technically she cant get in trouble for siting our website, as far as i know there is no legal copyright to it, and these are public documents, ment to be read by the public.  So there is really nothing we can do about that.

[Megster]

Having once been a reporter, I understand that. However, the Globe should still be alerted that her reporting techniques are poor.  And if nothing else works, maybe writing a letter to the editor would at least redeem IB.  

[skully]

Yeah I saw that too.  Another one where she did not do her homework.  

The Boston Globe is a fucking joke posting fake photos of our troops abusing Iraqi women.  Figures.  The soyour momt BG has a track record of hating the United States.  I don't read it personally, that liberal crap.  The only real conclusions from that story is that Boston city councilor Chuck Turner and activist Sadiki Kambon are a couple of traitors accusing our troops of abuses when the picture came from a freaking porn site!

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1135235/posts

[Megster]

I wouldn't be surprised if she turns out to be the next Jayson Blair.  And it wouldn't be the first time that happened for the Boston Globe.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2082741/

[PaExplorations]

Spelunker--
a spelunker, technically, is a person who goes in caves. Originally derived from the Latin spelunca, (and the related Greek speleios), it comes from the Middle English word, spelunk, meaning cave or grotto. The word, spelunk, apparently went out of common use about 1600, though the adjective, speluncar (pertaining to caves) continued into the mid-19th Century. The name of the French bulletin of Le Societe de Speleologie*--founded by Edouard-Alfred Martel in 1895--was Spelunca. The first modern usage of spelunker in America was probably that reported by Clay Perry in Underground New England in 1939, describing a group of men and boys engaged in "a more or less systematic study of the caves and old mines of the area" who called themselves Spelunkers.

[metalwitch]

Is this site not copyrighted?

[skully]

The site itself is but the content on the forum isn't.  Here's the forum's Use Agreement that's about the extent of the legalese here on the forum.  I can't (and don't want to) own what you guys say here.  I just wish that Donovan gave some heads-up and asked us for permission.

[military nut]

once again the media has portrayed urban explorers in a misrepresented light. i wonder if this person has even explored ever in their life. i used to be the type to send in many comments to articles, especially the globe. ive given up on the liberal based media and the globe writers are the worst. ive decided that an e-mail is in order, and its to bad the reporter didnt actually take the time to do some actual research and maybe go exploring to feel what our passion is all about. you all know that they are going to take the extreme view, especially the extreme negative view. for once id love to see a reporter actually retract somthing they have printed after experienceing what they have written about and finding out they were going a 180 degrees in the wrong direction. in fact they will never do that so we cant hold our collective breaths. they ad sensationalism to everything. that pisses me off to no end. someone fooling around in a ditch, or stealing everything they can get their hands on isnt even close to what an urban explorer is all about. but consider the source. once again its sad that an opportunity to let people know that we are legitly concerned about history and documenting what soon will be no more. instead we will be veiwed as vandals taggers and malcontents. by people who dont share our passion.  

[donnabhain]

I got the email afetr I got back from vacation . . after the article had come out. So, no, she didn't get my permission to use anything off my site either. What kind of reporter sends out emails blindly to people the day before her article goes to print?

at least shawns signs are for his own collection, not to sell on ebay . . wouldn't it make a great article to hear about how UE'rs pillage old hospitals to line their pockets? oh well, the only good article about UE are the ones written by UE'rs

[MovingUnit]

There was a very well-written article I came across a couple weeks ago that Shawn was featured in as well, taking a small jab at the Globe article.  It's a fun little read that shows a little bit of respect for our hobby.

http://www.weeklydig.com/index.cfm/fuseact...8b-1484963a003a

[skully]

That article was cool.  Thanks for posting it Spacemonkey.

[dan0oo]

the problem I see here is, the person writing the article is someone who never felt the thrill of walking through an empty shell of history.  going where people once went on a regular basis, or lived for any length of time.  its a shame, but they never seem to realize, the thrill is *not* in breaking any laws, or pissing anyone off, its in *seeing* the place as it once was.  someone like this journalist will never understand, because a necessary piece of equipment for this kind of exploring, two actually, are a strong, vivid imagination, and a heartfelt respect for things that went before.  for soneone to write about such a past time for no better reason than to catch someone's eye and perhaps further a career, well, its just sad, because there is genuine interest, and in the hands of someone who cared, urban exploration could stand out in a positive light.

in my opinion, if your doing it for the right reasons, your doing it because history pulls you to do it.  its a thirst to see history as opposed to reading it.  I havent done any exploring since highschool, almost 15 years ago, but I still feel the desire.  I think its an admirable hobby.

the above does NOT apply to vandals, of any kind, you are not explorers, are the reason true explorers are looked down upon.

[Photohunter]

Well said dan0oo!
It's always nice to see when people actually get it.

This is a good place to meet people who understand what you are saying.

[Fedaykin113]

Hello again.

Although I am new to urban exploring I don't think that is a very fair article at all, for the reasons you guys have already listed.
I believe someone already mentioned the definition of spelunking, which is exploring caves more or less. It seems to me, in my browsing of every UE website I can get my hands on, that some people like to explore caves, and more related to UE, like to explore tunnels and whatnot underneath cities. It seems that some of these people have attached the name spelunking to what they do, equating the man made tunnels to caves sort of.

And I have to agree that the fun is in walking through an abandoned building where you know years ago people lived and worked. Like yesterday I went to Foxboro State Hospital, and it was creepy knowing that however many years ago there was people living there and working there.