Underground history - literally
Joe H
This is one of the more interesting sites I have stumbled across. It
is a site put up by urban explorers "that climb buildings, sneak into
factories, crawl through all kinds of tunnels, spelunk old brewery
caves, poke around abandoned buildings, and run across the rooftops."
The group states that is is opposed to vandalizing or removing
anything from the site it is only interested in exploring.
While some may disagree the ethics (or just consider it very
dangerous) none the less, the people and the site are recording some
very important and more than likely soon to be lost locations. Even if
they are not lost and eventually restored it is great to capture this
stage of the sites existence.
Given that breaking and entering is illegal, should a history museum
like say, Hennepin County Historical Society or the Minnesota
Historical Society turn down photos if they were offered?
mau...@rchs.com
featured an article on this topic. The article is part of the St Paul
Underground series and is titled Stahlmann's Cellar: The Cave Under
the Castle. The article details the author's trip to the caves to
explore their history. Check out the www.RCHS.com to learn more
about the articles in the St. Paul Underground series which have
included the following articles.
St. Paul Underground- Stairway to the Abyss the Diverting Story of the
Cascade Creek and Its Journey Under St. Paul
St. Paul Underground- What Happened To the Fountain Cave -The Real
Birthplace of the City
St. Paul Underground- The University Farm Experimental Cave and How
St. Paul Became the Blue Cheese Capital of the World
Within the next year the magazine will feature a story on the
reopening of Carver Cave.
Joe H
neighborhood. I remember going through the Yoerg brewery caves which
were amazingly intact. The best part about it was seeing the stairway
going up to the Yoerg Mansion on the Cliff. The stairway was filled in
long ago and was not passable. However, it was great when I was able
to go into the Yoerg Mansion and see the door to the stairway in the
house's basement.
There are at least two other rumored houses with stairs going into the
caves. One is the Dr. Octavious Beal house. He had his office in what
is now an apartment building down the hill on Wabasha St. Back in the
1890s it was a Medical building. I was in the house but nothing in the
basement looked like a door leading to a tunnel.
The second one I never really understood where it was. It was to said
to be in use during prohibition. Highly unlikely, however the city of
Mpls. did not take seriously the rumor of prohibition era tunnels
going under 7 corners until one of their machines fell in while
relaying the sewer pipe. :)
Speaking of the Yoerg Brewery, I have some T-shirts left West Side
Historical Society printed with the Yoerg Brewery logo artwork the RHS
let us use. I should drop a couple of them off at RHS.
Do you folks need Schmidt beer bottles (embossed glass label)? What is
your organization collecting?