Urban Exploration: The Illegal Activity that is Fun for All Ages

It's 2 AM, and the police are responding to a call about a group of individuals trespassing in the old abandoned hospital on the north side of town. It is assumed these "visitors" are vandals, or maybe even thieves seeing what items of value they can find at the site. The officers find two cars parked in a very "inconspicuous" spot, and decide to wait for the drivers to emerge from the building. Spotlights explode on in an instant, and the officers are faced with a group of four college age males carrying flashlights and cameras and wearing dark clothing. The police find nothing incriminating on them, and after questioning the trespassers claim to be urban explorers.

This scene is becoming more and more common, although most will never hear of it. Urban exploration, or UE as it is referred to by enthusiasts, is an ever growing hobby, but remains very much a fringe or "underground" activity. Interestingly, this is how most explorers would rather keep it.

In our modern age, there are very few undiscovered places left on Earth for the adventurous to explore. We seem to have lost the sense of mystery and discovery that those who have come before us surely lived with. Urban explorers are rekindling that mystery by exploring the forgotten or rarely seen places of the built environment around us. Their adventures take them to abandoned buildings, forgotten subway tunnels, catacombs, storm drains, utility tunnels, or even restricted areas of active buildings. The one thing that all of these places have in common is that visiting them is, in the strictest sense, illegal. A true explorer is never turned away by a "No Trespassing" sign. An "Authorized Personnel Only" sign is even easier to foil. If stopped by someone, an explorer usually has a vague excuse already prepared: "Oh, I thought I was authorized. I spoke with the brown haired guy in the glasses." Also, pretending to be lost is used quite often.

Detractors are quick to point out this important point: Under most circumstances, UE involves trespassing. Explorers almost always realize this, which in many cases adds to the thrill of their experience. It always surprises people to learn, however, that a hobby so grounded in "illegal" activity is also one with a very defined set of ethics. Most urban explorers (or UEers) follow a simple by important commandment: "Take nothing but photos, leave nothing by footprints." They are quick to point out that, while they are trespassing, they are not thieves or vandals as some would claim. The preservation of the sites that they explore is paramount, and few UEers are quick to divulge specific information about sites or the entrances they use to gain access to them.

Most explorers also attempt to limit their transgressions to simple trespassing and not breaking and entering. They often refuse to break locks or boards or use any entrance that they have to "create." Because of this, however, many are known to scale the sides of building using grappling hooks and rappelling gear hoping to find a suitable entrance near the top of a buildings where there are fewer boarded up windows. There are always the horror stories, though. Many UEers know a "friend" who was caught by authorities and later slapped with a breaking and entering charge. The distinction between the two is often a grey area. The explorers who suffer are usually the ones who encountered a cop having a bad day. Usually, as they remember to carry their identification with them at all times, honest explorers are just asked to leave and given a stern warning.

The growth of the hobby recently can be mostly attributed to its massive online community. One of the most important aspects of urban exploration is the online documentation of one's adventures with photos and stories. Perhaps the largest website catering to explorers from all over the world is the Canadian based Urban Exploration Resource (UER). As with many urban exploration websites, UER allows anyone to view its basic contents, but limits any information users consider secretive to only trusted members.

There are also countless websites that cater to their specific areas. Action Squad is a popular website for those in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, famous for its extensive network of utility tunnels underneath the city known as "The Labyrinth." Underground Ozarks is a website highlighting UE in Missouri and much of the Midwest. Most cities that boast great exploration opportunities develop a close knit group of explorers that share an online community.

Because of the adrenaline driven nature of UE, practitioners often attempt to out-do other explorers by being the first to find new areas or by attempting an exploration that is especially "hardcore." Many in the community refer to "tourists," those explorers who only visit the locations that are easily accessible and well documented online. Often, these explorers are more interested in the photographic opportunities that these easier to infiltrate locations provide them. They appreciate the aesthetic side of the hobby. The opposite would be the explorer who prides him or herself on rappelling down buildings or dodging subway trains to access exceedingly secure and hard to reach areas. Regardless of the approach, all UEers seem to share the same enthusiasm about their hobby and the things they find on their adventures.

While at first glance, urban explorers may seem like a bunch of adrenaline junkies attempting to find a new and different reason to run from the police, but the truth is their hobby often plays an important role in illuminating the forgotten history of our cities. Many ordinary people visit the websites of UEers to see photographs of places they may have visited in their youth.

For an underground hobby, UE continues to get more and more attention from popular culture. Episodes of Supernatural, CSI, and Law and Order have all featured urban explorers. Popular author David Morrell's novel Creepers documents the exploits of a group of urban explorers. There are a number of films and documentaries in production currently that will only serve to further illuminate this hobby that no one has heard of.