What made you start exploring?

[Megster]

I'm curious as to how all of you got the itch to explore abandoned places...was it something you did out of boredom as a kid, something others introduced you to...what?

When I was little I used to be intrigued by the stories my grandfather would tell about breaking into the Civil Conservation Corps barracks at Camp Lonergan, Voluntown, CT (near Mt. Misery in Pachaug State Forest).  He embellished a bit, saying there was food left on plates on the tables and 30's pinup girls still on the walls, like everyone deserted the place overnight to go to war. 

Later on, when my mom was a kid, she and my grandfather went out exploring and broke into every abandoned house they could find. 

Now they're not surprised when I come home with pictures and stories for them.

[metalwitch]

I started out as a teen partying in the woods, when a bunch of us came upon a family plot.
As I got older I became very much interested in the history of certain buildings and places.
Also the archectecture( I cant spell) and just the details of things.
Plus I love taking pics so that is just part of the fun.

[Megster]

I love family plots.  When I was 13 I discovered that there were two right across the street from my old house when I stumbled upon a book that told vague locations (like...Sheldon Cemetery is located on the south side of Rt. 14-A, 1/4 mile from the center of town")...looking back, it seems like my entire 8th grade year was spent in the woods trying to locate these.

Coventry, RI has like...200 family plots dotting the woods. Then again, Coventry seems to take up 90% of RI lol.  I found a book in their library that shows where all the family plots are, and it takes up three full pages.

[metalwitch]

You can find alot of things walking in the woods.

[Maniac]

I've had a huge interest ever since I was a kid (around 12 years old I believe) me and my buddies used to explore the abandoned mental hospitals behind Gardner prison in Gardner, Ma. Unfortunately the state tore them all down years ago.

[PaExplorations]

"I've had a huge interest ever since I was a kid (around 12 years old I believe) "

ditto!

[skully]

I started at about age 9.  As soon as I could ride my bicycle beyond our street, buds and I were off exploring.  Luckily we had a goldmine nearby.

I grew up in Cranston, RI near Roger Williams Park and local chemical factory Ciba Geigy.  If you may recall, Ciba Geigy manufactured the one popular "Binaca" breath freshener... way before those mint sheet-things came out.  Anyway, we used to fish in a pond that was within 1/4 mile of the plant.  Man, would we catch HUGE fish in this pond.   Now I know why.

We (my friends and I) would sneak behind their fences to overgrown areas.  In these overgrown areas was the Pawtuxet River which is one of RI's major riverways.  At different intervals I say exhaust pipes.  Normally, exhaust pipes are for gases.  These for for liquids, liquids that were being dumped into Pawtuxet River.  Now, I never found out what that substance was but I'm sure it wasn't good for the enviornment.  I had these dreams of being an environmental reporter and turning the company in.  Kids always seem to have a utopian view of the world- little do we know how government and business plays together.   I make an assumption in these young memories- the brownish liquid I saw flowing may have been clean water... if so, they silly me  (this is a CYA disclaimer).

After that, looking into places that were non-vacant became a hobby.    As a teenager, I found abaondoned officer's buildings in Davisville (Quonset) RI to be exciting  (even more exciting as a teenage love nest!).   That was my start.

[Megster]

"teenage love nest" hahahaa....so true. 

And ick to the pollution.  I grew up in Sterling CT, home of the three-legged frogs of Porter Pond.  People couldn't figure out for years what made them three-legged, and then I found a map that said there was a chemical plant on that very pond in the 1850's.  I don't know if they gave up or if they found the same map or what, but no one talks about it anymore.

[3rd shifterzz]

I started when I was a kid aswell, probably 8 or 9, Me and a bunch of friends used to ride our bikes every where aswell.
I grew up in Pawtucket, so we basically had just urban Legends, a few cemeteries, some factories and the devil worshipers in Slater Park..lmao
Eventually it picked up again throughout the years, and then the interest would die down again.
it really picked up when I was old enough to drive, I would start to go more abroad
I still do it till this day, and its one of the few things that takes me back to my childhood, a place where I don't have to worry about real life and the problems it brings, for the brief time me and my friends are hanging out and exploring I am free.

I don't really get into the history of things or the archtecture of buildings, but I can appreciate it, What I really get into is the adventure, I never go anywhere with high hopes of seeing anything supernatural or whatever, but its still fun to imagine though,
Most stories I heard are really dumb and hard to believe, expecially when you hear like 20 different versions of it..lol
But its still enough to get my juices going, and put this black stealth outfit I bought at the military store to use, because even encountering cops or security guards is always just as thrilling if not more..lol
At the end of the day its all about the story..

well thats me

[metalwitch]

I grew up in Pawtucket, so we basically had just urban Legends, a few cemeteries, some factories and the devil worshipers in Slater Park..lmao

I remember that. Poor Slater's Park.  There is more to the "Bucket than just stories.

[ectocooler]

My open-mind made me start exploring.

[skully]

My open-mind made me start exploring.

Did any substances influence this open-mind?   

[ectocooler]

Forunately I was born with an open-mind.  Substances expanded my open-mind.

[DeathVegetable]

basically just started out of pure boredom; plus growing up in the metro boston area provided tons of abandoned everything. within one mile of our house was a great assortment of urban ruins:
- abandoned municipal waste incinerator
- 2 abandoned City of Newton schools (Murray Road & Warren jr. High)
- abandoned "city stable"; this is where the dept. of sanitation operated from
- old Riverside train yard with dozens of derelict rail cars & a few vintage Alco diesels
- literally hundreds of abandoned factories within 20 miles; mostly old textile mills & shoe factories.

luckily, most of them are still here 

-the DeathVegetable

[Maxx]

It's an old topic, but I'll reply anyway.... even though I'm not remotely local.

I grew up in Florida, my friends and I actually started out by hanging out in the houses that were under construction. It was fun to find a way in and see how much progress had been made, what color carpets the owners had choosen  and so on. I have also spent a lot of time in graveyards as I love to research various grave symbols, cultural practices etc. Anyway, when the word went out about an abandoned funeral parlor near my neighborhood, I was well beyond tempted... so started researching the place, checking it out, watching if it was really abandoned etc. Finally I recruited a friend and we got the nerve to sneak out and break in, it was fantastic and I was instantly hooked. I think my adolescent urges were further fuelled by living around the theme parks and learning very quickly that lots of the best stuff is kept behind the scenes, and you'll never know unless you try it.

I'm in the midwest now, most of my time is spent on paranormal investigating (yeah, yeah, throw the rotten veggies! I'm used to the eye rolling that goes on when I admit that amongst the other UEs) which means I get a lot of doors opened legally for me, but I still make time to find some that are all mine.

[elpresidente]

That's actually a really cool question.  For me, it was a couple of reasons.  I grew up near Rocky Point in Warwick (RI) and as a kid, I remember going there with my family and then later in middleschool and highschool, I used to go occasionally with friends.  I had gone off to college and when I came home, my brother showed me a bunch of black and white photos that he had taken when he snuck in there.  They were amazing from an artistic perspective, but sad for me in a way because it seemed like here was another thing that they took from us all.  I saw kind of a death of my own innocence in those pictures- they say you can never go back, but here was a literal graveyard of fond memories I had.  My family never had much money- we were working class people, and this was a once or twice a year kind of thing for us, but I didn't realize it meant so much to me until I had this unbelievable sense of melancholy just thinking about it.

I've always been a history buff, and I love New England for the amazing history that surrounds us, but not all of it is Bunker Hill or the USS Constitution, or things like that.  Please forgive me for sounding cliched here, but everywhere human beings have laughed, loved, cried, lost, or slipped the bonds of this world, I believe history resonates there.  It isn't in monuments to wars or things like that exclusively, but in hospitals where despair and compassion battled maddeningly until the balance was tipped one way or the other.  It is in the factories and mills where men and women (and sadly often children) gave their blood, sweat, and tears to make their way in the world and God willing, make a better future for themselves.  Though I am not a Christian, I believe It is in the churches where they prayed for deliverence and redemption, and the graveyards where their mortal remains lie.  My empathy is always with the oppressed, the forgotten, the working class, and those whose stories are not considered monumental enough for the history books, and with the right kind of ears, you can hear echoes of their hopes, dreams, laughter, tears, and loves across history.  You may not know the specifics, but to explore that which has gone before you and to feel and understand these things is at once humbling but liberating as the sense of ego slips away and you allow yourself to belong to the infinite tapestry of human life.

Thanks for reading. 
(steps off soapbox)

[urbanexplorer]

i started back when i was about 11 and we didn't call it urban exploration it was just called B&E but the cops were also alot more laid back and just told us to get out of there and worse case our parents were called but back then that was a BIG deal anyways i was fortunate enough to grow up in monson mass where there are a lot of old mills,schools mental hospital and urban legends hell,we even have a place called cameolot which is supposed to be haunted and theres also rock of Dundee house which had some weird goings on anyway most of these places were abandoned and date back to the late 1800s and being from a small town way back when there was nothing to do there and having a genuine interest in old buildings off i went then i took a 10 year vacation and now I'm back

[Kabli]

I started exploring becasue I lived about 2miles from Ladd. It was the thing to do. As I got older I became very interested in history and things forgotten and have been exploring ever since.