Dogs of the Special Forces

The Jagdkommandos are a Special Operations Group of the Austrian armed forces. These soldiers “train for operations in the most difficult terrain and weather conditions and extreme risk situations and climatic conditions.” The second training division of the Austrian special operations group – that of parachutist proficiency – was at one time was a human-only affair. These days the humans are joined by Belgian Shepherds, who have also taken on roles as paratroopers in Afghanistan and improvised explosive device (IED) sniffers in Iraq. The dogs trained to detect explosives and have become some of NATO’s best bomb detectors.

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Derinkuyu & The Underground Cities of Cappadocia

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Derinkuyu Underground City Anatolia Turkey

In 1963, a man in the Nevşehir Province of Turkey knocked down a wall of his home. Behind it, he discovered a mysterious room. The man continued digging and soon discovered an intricate tunnel system with additional cave-like rooms. What he had discovered was the ancient Derinkuyu underground city, part of the Cappadocia region in central Anatolia, Turkey. The elaborate subterranean network included discrete entrances, ventilation shafts, wells, and connecting passageways. It was one of dozens of underground cities carved from the rock in Cappadocia thousands of years ago. Hidden for centuries, Derinkuyu‘s underground city is the deepest.

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Forest Haven Asylum: Abandoned Home for the Abandoned

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Welcome to Forest Haven, one of the most deadly institutions in the United States. This asylum for the mentally ill was built not far the nation’s capital in 1925, hidden in forested acreage away from the busy city center. The campus was beautiful, however care and treatment would deteriorate rapidly as the city’s budget tightened. Under-staffing issues were common, and for decades reports of resident abuse and neglect went ignored. The District treated Forest Haven like a dark secret nobody wanted to discuss. A combination of budget cuts and lawsuits eventually forced the institution to close in 1991 after 80 years. But before Forest Haven was shuttered, hundreds of residents died and thousands more deteriorated while enduring a horrific quality of life.

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Abandoned Adriatic: Valdanos Montenegro

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Come to the beautiful crescent-shaped beaches of Valdanos, nestled in a cove on the southeastern shores of the Adriatic Sea. Wake up to a beautiful Montenegrin sunrise peeking over thousand year-old olive tree groves. Play fútbol on the grass fields or try a round of mini-golf. Tennis courts are a stone’s throw away from the ocean. Afterward grab a quick lunch at the waterside café, or take a dip in the pool! The resort has laundry, post office, and a supermarket for your basic needs. Every villa has sweeping views of the sea. For those who prefer to caravan, a full-service campground is also on the premises. Valdanos offers 240 sunny days a year, but for the restless at night the discotheque should whet the appetite. There is one problem… It has been closed for years.

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Abandoned Industrial Icon: Armour Meat Packing Plant

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The Armour & Company meat packing plant in National City, Illinois is a window into a bygone era, a time capsule with late-19th century technology still on display. During its heyday the busy stock yards of East St. Louis were the largest in the world, and known around the U.S. as the “Hog Capital of the Nation.” Advances in technology and labor disputes ultimately drove the meat packers out of National City. The obsolete Armour plant had become expensive to operate and was eventually shut down by the company in 1959. Unused since Armour & Co. left nearly 55 years ago, the 110 year-old structure still sits in East St. Louis today.

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Casualties of Copper: The Berkeley Pit, Montana

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Tales of gold rushes and silver booms are often recounted from a nostalgic perspective, driven by tall tales of adventures into the lawless Wild West. Perhaps less sentimental is the story of copper, a metal with less value but more significance to the growth of infrastructure. Copper was a major component of industrialization and essential for everything from electrifying the world to fortifying nations during war. Few mining operations could match the lifetime output of the Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte, Montana. For nearly a century, mining in Butte Valley sacrificed the earth to build and defend America. Today the legacy of Anaconda’s enterprise is the Berkeley Pit, a large open pit mine collecting billions of gallons of toxic groundwater.

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Hottest Inhabited Place on Earth: Dallol, Ethiopia

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The Afar Region of Africa, named for the people who call it home, encompasses Djibouti, Eritrea, and the northeast corner of Ethiopia. A notable trait of the Afar Triangle is the Danakil Depression, the lowest point in Africa. The territory is one of the hottest on the planet, and features everything from earthquakes and volcanoes to geysers and salt canyons. It is also home to Dallol, a remote mining camp accessible by camel. The now-abandoned town of Dallol was once a busy site, mining potash, sylvite, and salt during various times throughout its history. When U.S. mining companies were conducting geological surveys in the early 1960s, they recorded the hottest average temperature for an inhabited location on Earth.

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Texas City Disaster: Deadliest Industrial Accident in U.S. History

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Across the bay from Galveston in Texas is Texas City, a busy port with convenient access to Houston and the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to shipping, the city plays an important role in the production and refining of petroleum products. As a port with deep water access to the coast, Texas City hosts international shippers hauling everything from electronics to fertilizer.

The town made headlines in 1947 when a fire on a cargo ship reached the explosive payload and detonated. The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in U.S. history, and the disaster would claim the lives of nearly six hundred people.

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