The Townley Dairy was one of my first explorations and has proven to be one of my favorites. It has been abandoned since 1998. The cause of the abandonment isn’t as cool as some of the stories I used to hear. Several of them being about deaths associated with the factory. There were two deaths that are supposedly linked to the factory; One being the death of a man struck by a dairy truck in ownership of Townley Dairy, the other being a delivery man who was killed in the OKC bombing of the Murrah Building. After researching the victims of the bombing it’s clear that the rumor is untrue. The true cause of the Dairy closing it’s doors was the termination of Guy Townley from Farm Fresh who had acquired the Townley brand in 1993. Townley had filed a suit against Farm Fresh, but the case was dismissed. Farm Fresh closed down the factory soon after focusing on other properties. However the factory is still listed on several agriculture sites under the dairy directory listing. The lot, which is just over 6 acres is actually for sale. Most of the land is empty field, with the factory, dock, and several storage sheds on the corner of the lot. The City of Oklahoma is looking to secure the location, so the future of this gem is uncertain. There have been 2 fires in the Dairy, both have been chalked up to arson. Below you can check out two KFOR Channel 4 videos of the second fire, which occurred on November 23rd, 2006.
Fire video #1
Fire video # 2
Google maps satellite view still shows the Dairy in it’s pre-fire state, street view gives a more recent image of the damage caused by the fire. There is quite a bit left behind skids of plastic milk jugs, labels, office furniture, holding tanks, old machinery, paper work, manuals, and loads more things you’d expect to find in a factory setting. Most of it is damaged or scorched by the fires. The floor on the bottom level of the factory is heavily soiled with oil and flooded with water from rain. In several of the holding tank rooms you can get a slight scent of sour milk still. Definitely one of the cooler places I have checked out.
If interested in a bit of the history; here are a couple of the links I stumbled upon when doing some research on the location.
The first being an article on Guy Townley and his suit against Farm Fresh for his termination, the second being a pdf of the City of Oklahoma’s memorandum of securing the factory, and the last being the court record of Townley’s case against Farm Fresh.
- Billy
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Love that spiral staircase in pic #25!
Usually I am not a fan of graffiti in buildings, but photo #56 is a perfectly composed photo. Looks great!
Glad you guys like it! I’ll try and grab some more and more recent shots sometime when I head back down to OKC.
Glad you guys like it! I’ll try and grab some more and more recent shots sometime when I head back down to OKC.
Hey Billy, Got Milk? lol!
Yeah the spiral staircase is my fave too!
Haha, “Got Milk?”.
I haven’t heard that one in a while.
It’s one of my favorites too, along with the chair picture and the don’t fall guy.
Went here the other weekend and it was really awesome! It still smelled like it was burning. The graffiti was awesome, there isn’t much like this in the city! We also salvaged some old townley milk bottles with old adds on them.
This was my first UrbEx as well. It is an amazing place. However, I have not been able to go inside the actual warehouse too far as I have been alone and got a bit freaked out. LOL Anyone who is up for a tour of the place let me know. It is up for sale now and I want to go in more depth than I have been able to before. So if you are up for it, let me know. You can reach me through my website… 1000beautifulthings.com
Be careful around there. When we went there we saw a couple of womens panties and clothing, which I gather, because of the area equals prostitution. Also the main area up the delivery ramp with all the graffiti in a large gathering area, usually signals gang activity. We noticed this same thing at Robberson Steel. A huge area with a “grandstand” above the rest of the area. It seems the same at Townley. Just sn FYI explore with a buddy or alone with a gun! LOL
this place is located in ahigh crime area. so do make sure you have someone with you. anyway you wouldn’t want to get hurt and be all alone and the cell phone not work….just be safe!!!
i live right next to townleys abandoned factory. ive lived here before the two fires were set. ive been inside there so many times, i know my way around the whole place. if anyone wants to go in, let me know and i will show you the creepiest spots. I remember back when i was a teenager me and a few friends use to run around in there and play hide n go seek.