For urban explorers, an abandoned rock crushing tower on the east side of Joliet is a mecca.
“It’s the feeling that you are alone in those spaces…you can be yourself,” said Adam, a high school senior and “urb-exer” who did not want to use his last name.
He has been at the old Joliet Quarry site at least ten times he said, exploring the floors and practicing his photography, but he knows the 100-year-old structure isn’t safe.
“The floors are all rusted out,” Adam said. “They feel like bouncy sheet metal when you walk on them. Once you get to the higher levels you feel like you are going to fall through.”
Adam said he is coming forward now after a fellow student at his high school plunged to his death while exploring the building with friends over the weekend.
That young man has been identified as Tony Reed Jr., and his tragic death is being mourned by residents across Joliet.
On a social media fundraising site his family issued a statement saying, “We are heartbroken after the tragic and unexpected loss of Anthony Reed, Jr. His life was taken far too soon.”
The family said they are experiencing “unimaginable loss.”
According to the Department of Labor, roughly 300 recreational trespassers have died at abandoned mine and quarry properties over the last 10 years, with half of them between the ages of 15 and 25. To reduce those numbers, the department has launched a mine safety campaign called “Stay Out, Stay Alive.”
The Joliet tower where this weekend’s tragedy occurred was built in 1917 as part off the limestone operations at the old Joliet Penitentiarty.
It was abandoned more than six decades ago.
While it is walled off on one side, Adam says access is not difficult.
“The first time i was here i saw the floors and i almost fell through myself,” he said.
We have reached out to the City of Joliet andto the Illinois Department of Corrections about the status of the building. The city is deferring all questions to the police department, and IDOC hasn’t responded.
Joliet police say they are still trying to piece together an accurate picture of what happened the night Reed died. They talked to the friends who were with him that night, but they have been released to their parents. The investigation is ongoing.
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