Detroit’s Abandoned Zoo

My personal favourite abandoned site in the city is the zoo on Belle Isle. Founded in 1910, the Detroit Zoo (later named the Belle Isle Zoo) lasted a century before it was closed in favour of a new location. Since then the place has become overgrown and graffitied, and is pretty easy to sneak into. Just find the hole in the chain link fence, slip in stealthily, and enjoy walking through empty lion cages and finding cheery messages written in red paint like “Death is always watching”. Be careful on some of the raised platforms if you get there at night: some of them are missing or are pretty rotten. You’ll get better views during the day but goose bumps at night: it feels kind of like being in the beginning of a horror movie, without the nasty end. It’s easy enough to find: just head to Belle Isle and look for the sign. Don’t confuse it with the actual zoo. Now that’s depressing.