The cheese making process can be broken down into four basic steps: curdling, drying, pressing, and ripening. With the addition of specific bacteria and a natural enzyme found in cow’s stomachs called rennin, milk is allowed to curdle in large vats. During the curdling process the milk separates into a solid component known as curds and a liquid component called whey. Next the whey is drawn off and the curds are allowed to dry. Those curds are then pressed into various types of molds (depending on the cheese type) to create the cheese blocks. At this point the blocks are further treated depending on the type of cheese such as being dipped in wax, soaked in brine, or even smoked. Lastly, the cheese blocks are allowed to ripen by holding them in storage rooms for several days or weeks depending on the cheese type.

Like any facility designed for making cheese, the Stella Cheese Factory would have no doubt been built with rooms dedicated to each of the steps listed above. Knowing this, we entered our first room of the factory in search of clues to its purpose - it didn’t take us long to find them.

After leaving the cavernous room on the south end of the complex, we moved through a small doorway into a smaller single-story room. The room was lined by series of window and door openings and was rather well lit considering it damp and dingy appearance. Most notable, however, was the set of four large concrete tubs laid out in two rows in the center of the room. Our first thought was that these tubs were the cheese vats themselves, and that milk was curdled within them. But the room’s exposed brick and sandstone walls - along with its low roof and dirt floors didn’t seem to be a good environment for food production. These vats must of been used for something else.

Besides the doorway in which we entered there were three other doors leaving the room - one on each wall. On the east wall a short flight of steps made its way up to a doorway opening directly outside. To the north another doorway (and pair of windows) seemed to open out to outside as well - but a large amount of debris suggested the presence of another room at one time.

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.

While the three outer walls were lined with brick, the west wall was instead made of sandstone. The doorway here opened to a much darker (and danker) room, and did not share the window bookends that the other three walls did. Looking up towards the concrete ceiling we could make out a great deal of what looks like fire damage, most likely from fires people set here in the room. The amount of soot covering the walls and ceiling made us think that perhaps the floor wasn’t dirt after all and that it was simply covered by a nice layer of ash.

In the next room we found even more concrete vats, this time laid out in three parallel rows. Compared to the well lit room we had just left, this room was a dungeon. Only one small window let any light in from the next room. Next to that lone window a stairway made its way up into the light of the floor above.

The small window in the wall led out to the large multi-story room beyond that we had just explored yesterday. This would make the room we were in very near to that large seam in the adjacent wall.

Turning towards the concrete steps we could make out a great deal of light filtering down from above. More light was filtering down into the room from a hole in the ceiling nearby. It was time to make our way to the factory’s upper level.

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