The emptiness of the vast, quiet place near SSCS holds many secrets.

There’s a place near Salinas, California, home of SSCS, that’s hidden in sight, amazing given it’s a sprawling area, 28 square miles all told.

Most of it is blanketed with native vegetation that seems to absorb every sound—a place vast enough that the uninitiated can easily get lost and find themselves walking for miles with no direction known:

You should know, however, that this place is far from completely deserted, which only adds to its eeriness. We’re not talking about the local wildlife; it’s pretty benign…

No, we’re talking about settlements long abandoned…

…schools no (living) human would attend…

…snack bars that make it difficult to tell what (or who) the snack would be…

…not to mention passageways left better unexplored, lest you run into unique and unexpected tenants…

So what is this place, exactly?

It’s Fort Ord, and it was one of the U.S.’s biggest Army posts before being shuttered in 1994. For years it remained deserted and run-down, to even more of an extent that what we’ve captured today.

But Ford Ord is anything but dead; it’s been reborn in many different ways, a ghost that’s come back from its past of neglect to be transformed into something different or, more accurately, somethings different.

What do we mean? Continue to Part 2 to find out!