Heading west out of the collection of vat rooms we had been exploring we pass under a gabled wall of sandstone which looks to have once been a mine building. Passing through the doorway we immediately noticed a change in building materials – and found ourselves in a very familiar environment.

Through the doorway was a large open room. The roof had collapsed long ago, but the gabled walls which once supported that roof were intact. The wall we had just crossed through featured a centralized doorway and a pair of flanking windows. The sandstone along the wall was covered by a plaster finish. On the gabled upper story was yet another central window. For what is essentially an interior wall, the windows seem odd. I would guess that we had entered one of the original mine buildings that the factory was built around. Those vat rooms we were previously exploring are no doubt more recent additions.

At the far end of the room was the second gabled wall which looked very similar to the first. This one had been altered as to close up part of the original doorway and widen the windows to more resemble loading doors.

Lining the lower parts of the walls within this room were ceramic tiles, the kind that you would expect to find in a room where food was being handled. These tiles in combination with the large open nature of the room made us think that we had finally found the cheese room itself. Inside this room would have sat the various stainless steel vats where milk would be curdled in the first step in the cheese making process.

Looking at the ruin’s site plan we can see that this room is also centrally located inside the factory. From this room it would be an easy walk to any of the four vat rooms to the east (for cheese’s requiring salt baths) or to the series of small dark rooms just to the north which we believe might have been aging rooms.

Speaking of those aging rooms a large hallway branches off to the north from the cheese room to access them. The aging rooms are to the right, while the ruins of another large room sit straight ahead at the end of the hall. Its possible that that large room was also dedicated to aging but there’s so very little left of it that we can’t tell.

Peering through the small doorway we can see a pair of narrow split level rooms. Due to the lack of windows and the dungeon like appearance these rooms would be perfect for the aging of cheese – which required a cool and dark environment.

Now turning our attention back to the cheese room, we now tackle a group of interesting relics that seem a bit out of place…

That’s right – cars. More specifically two rows of old rusty cars, sitting neatly along the rooms outer walls. The cars were in sorry shape, almost completely stripped and sporting massively crushed roofs. The one pictured above was even missing its engine. Obviously these relics aren’t original to the cheese factory, but why their here and how they got here is another thing altogether.

In most cases where we find old cars like this (and we’ve found our fair share) they were most likely dumped by locals who didn’t want to deal with scrapping them. But why take the time and effort to get your old junk heap into the middle of an old cheese factory? I’m also not sure how you could have gotten them in here since the large door on the west end doesn’t look quite big enough to do the trick.

Interesting as well is how the cars looked as if they were neatly parked here – in two straight lines. They don’t look dumped at all. They looked like they were driven in and parked. As for the damage, that could have been caused by the building’s roof collapsing, or by decades of youth boredom. The same could be said for the stripping – both of which could have occurred decades after the cars were first left here.

Finding this car with its hood removed and engine sprawled out for all to see gave me one idea. Perhaps the building was converted to a garage after Stella abandoned it, and these cars were in the process of being worked on (or salvaged even…). I’m not sure, but whatever happened we do know that in the end they were later abandoned and left here to rot.

Turning away from the doorway and down the center aisle of the room we took another look at the concrete vats. Standing a mere three to four feet in height, the vats were about four feet wide by six feet long. This room had four, marred only by the presences of two brick columns which were half buried in the concrete wall.

Turning our attention back to the Cheese Factory at had, we notice a two-sided doorway set into the rooms south wall. The right doorway was open, but the left featured a large steel door which was half-hanging off of its hinges. Why the need for such a heavy duty door in a cheese factory? We decided to check take a look in the room behind it to try to find out…

NOTICE: The Stella Cheese Factory ruins are on private property and are NOT open to the public. Please keep out!