Thank you very much for watching my videos and if you would like to help this channel grow further, you can make a donation here:

https://ko-fi.com/staticspaces


Walden North

Hidden away on the east side of the Coast Mountains within British Columbia, Canada, lies this fortress of an #abandoned house. Sitting atop a cliff overlooking a creek the mansion which was built in the 1970s by Vernon Pick, is slowly rotting away.

Vernon was born in Wisconsin in 1903 and left home at the age of 16 and joined the US Marines a year later. He was a gold miner in Manitoba before running an electrical company for 17 years in Minneapolis, then moving back to Wisconsin, there he built a hydroelectric generator to power a derelict flour mill which he then converted into an electrical workshop. In 1951 a fire destroyed his workshop, so he and his wife Ruth bought an Airstream and headed west.

Then at the age of 48 he spent nine months prospecting for Uranium in Utah Canyonlands. When down to his last $300, he then lucked out and struck it rich, this catapulted him into wealth and nationwide fame.

He sold his mine for $10 million and with this new found wealth, he bought an estate in California and renamed it Walden West, he converted it into a research facility and staffed it with scientists to try and develop a cheap source of nuclear power.

In 1965, with the Cold War era in full swing, Pick chose to abandon Walden West and decided to build a compound in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains of BC, since the area would be heavily protected from nuclear fallout. He named it Walden North, there were two homes, a workshop/laboratory, a hydro electric dam as well as his mansion on the cliff that was accessible by a tram.

Vernon died in 1986 from cancer. Pick's belongings and equipment were auctioned off and the mansion has seen little use since.

The property is active with the hydroelectric dam still producing 16 MW of power which is enough for about 8000 homes.

As for Vernon's home, the current owners have built stairs to the roof, presumably to do repairs, hopefully this house will get to live another day.


Follow me:
  / 0staticspaces0  
  / james.hackland  

Email: [email protected]

A huge thank you to the very generous Ko-fi/Youtube supporters!!

Joanne
Stefan x3
Polly x3
Terri
Michael
Anita


Music:

Title: Night Owl
Author: Broke for Free / https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Br...
Source: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Br...
Licence: CC BY / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

#abandonedplaces
#abandonedmansion