Urban Exploration 1 by [Insert Better Name Here], Adrian Burt, Robert Burt, .thatskarobot, JK Bobbins, Speznut Spikoo Moonkey
June 25th, 2008 6:59 PM / Location: 37.848120,-121.6331
"The Byron Hot Springs is a now-abandoned resort which was a retreat that attracted many movie stars and famous athletes in the early 1900's. The first hotel was built in 1889 and was a three-story wood building, with a few cottages scattered nearby, as well as a laundry, gas plant and ice plant, all of which were destroyed by fire on July 25, 1901. A second hotel, also three stories, but made of stucco was constructed 1901-1902, but it burned in 1912. The third and final hotel, a four-story brick structure was built in 1913 and still stands. In 1938 the resort closed, due to a series of lawsuits, probably brought about by the Great Depression, but was leased by the government in 1941 and became a military interrogation camp housing both German and Japanese prisoners of war, known as Camp Tracy, until 1945, when orders were sent to dismantle it. In 1946 the Byron Hot Springs property was put up for sale and purchased by the Greek Orthodox Church for a sum of $105,000. It served as the Monastery St. Paul for several years. It then changed hands several times both as a resort, country club and private residence. It is currently privately owned." -wikipedia
About the time of the interrogation camp, Camp Tracy:
"The four-story brick hotel was wired extensively with microphones installed in faux ceilings. The real shocker, though: it was friendly interrogation. What makes for a loose tongue better than a massage, table tennis, beer and cigarettes? It was the perfect weapon for extracting information."
The Actor

Bribing guards? Or tipping cows?

When you live in a small town, or in a small suburb, there's always a haunted place in the area, usually in farms in the woods. Brentwood has farms, so most of our haunted areas are out in the fields, like the old slaughterhouse off of the now closed Old Mine Road. Tonight we went to a place I've never been too, but have heard of quite a bit. The old Byron Hot Springs hotel is an old deserted building in nearby Byron. Robert brought along his camera to take quality photos, what with the sun going down and all. They say the old place is haunted but we didn't really see anything like that, the only thing that came close to any haunting experience was the group of kids we passed walking on the long dirt path to the resort.

It's interesting to stand in a room that so many people had been in before, from movie stars and the rich elite dining on fine food, relaxing at an expensive resort, the Nazi and Japanese POWs secretly being interrogated. I tried to imagine the room as it was, decorated and clean, with white table cloths over tables and candles set about on them as different couples all sat around various tables, laughing and drinking their brandy and what not, or sitting around enjoying Sunday brunch with their mimosas.


Robert Burt

Quite the spur of the moment adventure. I was ready and at hand with my trusty camera. All of the black and whites were taken by me, and a few colors. But anyway, it was a a cool/spooky place. When night fell, it just felt like the movies. The horror ones. Where people die. But no one died. Anyway, it was about a mile walk from where parked at the byron cafe, and then up the road and on to the second road on the actual property. Walking down the road we encountered 3 kids who were probably drunk or high. At the steps of the hotel we met a photographer and a friend who told us a bit about the place. And it was cool. There was graffiti everwhere, as you can see in the pictures, and broken tiles, wood, burned wood, metal, everything. But you can just imagine how grand it used to be. The main stair case still had its marble. In the main lobby, you could see the mouldings on the wall, and imagine how good it would have looked in the time period. It would also probably be the coolest place to paintball ever. And then we noticed all the paintball splatters. Appearantly other people thought so too.
[Insert Better Name Here]
It was definitely a new experience. I was not alarmed in the slightest. In fact, I felt calm. There is something beautiful about desertion that I can't quite put my finger on. I had an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, that I have never experienced before. Everything was so quiet, calm. I could hear myself think. Maybe there is some sort of perk to living in the middle of nowhere.
Jon Robin

Finally!
A Brewntwood Zero task from this era!
(And it turned out pretty damn LEGIT)
WhenI entered into this building, I had never completed any prerequisites for exploring haunted hot tub mansions. But it turned out I didn't need it. It was quite the adventure. The path to the hotel was pretty out of the way of civilization... Walking on the dirt road lined with trees and fields reminded me of the classic film, "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" It's just a shame Torgo wasn't at the entrance of the building to greet us with his hobbling and awkward manner. So we let ourselves in. Every single room was vandalized in some way: The Neo-Nazi fulfillment room;
The Kevin's Profound Love to Josephine Room; Several Devil worshiping rooms with pentagrams; and the Bay Area rooms complete with Area Codes and "Hyphy Thizz," (Urban Dictionary them if you don't know); Most of the walls had writing on them; the writing in which I saw the most had to of been: "Fuck You," (and/or) "Niggers." No disrespect. A few of us climbed up through a hole in the ceiling on the top floor to get to the roof. It wasn't pretty intense, because there were several large holes scattered along the roof that went straight down to ground level 3
stories below. Falling down would have been not the most survivable of experiences... For me, the building was more interesting and fun then scary. Actually, the most frightening part for me was when I stepped on a nail and it went straight through my shoe, luckily, there was no penetration of my foot. Therefore, I will survive to complete many more BW0 tasks!
EDIT:
I forgot to put our video up! My bad! - The Actor
20 vote(s)

Burn Unit
5
Not Here No More
5
Bjørn Teuleuse
5
Lincøln
5
Ben Yamiin
5
Rainy
5
Scarlett
5
Bex.
5
Jackie H
5
Sparrows Fall
5
Loki
5
susy derkins
5
zer0gee
5
Dax Tran-Caffee
5
Jellybean of Thark
5
teh Lolbrarian
5
H L
5
Beta Orionis
5
Dela Dejavoo
5
Hortvald Inki
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(none yet)12 comment(s)
This is a nice start, but I want more praxis and documentation before I vote.
This proof was un-submitted - any comments before this one are from before the un-submit.
second day looks like even more fun.
really good choices on most of the pictures. the color vs. b&w choices were really quite solid. When viewed thru th rss feed one sees a whole mass of the black and white punctuated just so, especially by the shotgun shell for example. this is a great way to see the bw0 crew signal their return to group action.
I totally forgot to put the video up, it's up now! A horrible video, but it gives you an idea of the building ina 3-d sort of way.
Ignore the actor's acting in said video. lol, I'm not sure what happened to my dialect.
Awesome pix y'all.
It'd be amazing to go back in your formal wear and white tablecloths and sip mimosas from fine crystal...
that idea was brought up while exploring the building, it's just going to take the perfect opportunity to do it.
I really like this task. And I really, really like this completion of this task. And I really, really, really like the photos that accompany the completion of this task.
Remind me not to drink myself into oblivion anymore.