EAST BUTLER - Castle Rubber's three massive boilers have been cool for almost a year; the plant, quiet.

A spiral notebook used to chart boiler levels of pressure, fuel and oil is on a desk, as if the recorder just walked away.

On the page dated Sept. 26, 2003, the measures are dutifully listed for each hour, starting at 6 a.m. and running until 1 p.m. Then the words, "Shut down," appear and the writing stops.

That log book reflects the feel of the plant, like everyone just left in the middle of the day and never came back. Time cards line their slots. Hard hats and lab coats hang from pegs waiting for their wearers. Open manuals lay next to equipment.

Castle Rubber, with its remaining 100 employees, closed its doors almost a year ago. On Thursday it was auctioned off piece by piece.

Footsteps echoed in the cavernous, maze-like building to the rhythm of an auctioneer as machinery, tables and racks - everything was going, going and gone - just like the 77-year-old company.

Castle Rubber began its East Butler operation in 1926 when it moved from Ohio, after it found success here manufacturing products for oil wells, which were still in high production in the county at the time.

In its heyday in the mid-1970s, the company employed more than 400 people making a variety of rubber products, including foot pegs for Harley Davidson motorcycles, Kirby vacuum sweeper belts, gear shift boots for Freightliner trucks, spring mounts for automobiles and strain relief boots for oceanic fiber optic cables.

Then came hard times in the 1980s and '90s with layoffs followed by a brief closure of the plant in 2002 and a rebirth with a small group of investors.

What actually happened to Castle Rubber is still a mystery to the public, with those in charge silent in the company's final days and unreachable in the time that has followed.

Some employees wonder how the company was managed. Others blame the economic downturn of recent years and the continuing loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs in general.

The best explanation came late Thursday, from an overheard conversation, that when the local group gained control of the building "everything simply went wrong."

Whatever happened that led to the company's filing for bankruptcy, happened, leaving Kent Roberts, former plant manager and a 31-year employee as well as many others like him without a job.

"I started here sweeping the floor," he said Thursday standing in the plant that was once his daily home, explaining how he worked his way through the ranks.

Now he is unemployed as is fellow Castle Rubber alumnus Harry Bortmes

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who spent 34 years in machine maintenance at the plant.

Bortmes talked with friend and former co-worker Frank Cockroft Jr.

"I just haven't found anything and my extended unemployment benefits are almost done," Bortmes said, adding he believes there's just not many jobs available.

Cockroft, one of the lucky ones, found a position with Dunhuntin Machine Shop in West Liberty that is similar to what he did for 29 years at Castle Rubber.

"He (Bortmes) tore the machines apart and I put them back together," Cockroft said, which led to a laugh for both men.

The machines the two men and their co-workers took care of through the years were quickly being sold Thursday as the former workers remembered the not-so-distant past.

About 100 buyers attended the sale, looking for bargains. Cell phone conversations discussed delayed flights from Chicago or the price a press sold for. Some conversations were in languages other than English.

The group of mostly men, were dressed plainly, standing with arms crossed or scanning the sales book provided by Blackmon Auctions of Little Rock, Ark., which ran the auction for a man who had bought the plant's assets - machinery and equipment - from a holding company in Cleveland, Ohio. The property and building are still owned by the holding company.

Wearing a clean straw cowboy hat, Tom Blackmon, owner and head auctioneer, rode through the crowd on a small cart seated on a chair. His assistants pushed him through the old plant that began as a small building and then was added onto as need arose, wherever there was room or not.

Long and low, for the most part, small rooms can be found tucked into corners. In those, Blackmon's assistants took over the job of selling desks and chairs, giving Blackmon's voice a rest.

Jim Berresford, owner of Valley Rubber Mixing in Akron, Ohio, made the two-hour trip looking for mixing equipment at a "worthwhile" price.

He recognized some of the buyers as those who buy at auctions and resale the machines either in this country or overseas.

"It's a good deal for them to buy here and sell over there," he said. "But I do see American buyers here too, and I think American manufacturers are still here. But it was sad to hear about Castle Rubber closing its doors."

The auction took nine hours and sold about 900 lots, with a lot being one or multiple items.

By 6 p.m., most of the buyers had settled their bills and were gone, back to their homes and livelihoods.

Those who had worked at Castle Rubber took one last look through the main door and left the building, the business that helped many workers buy houses, feed families and pay for funerals. Now the building was silent once again.