Hello everyone,
I am a young lad about to leave my beautiful homeland that is the Twin Cities for college in North Dakota. I have always been an adventurous soul and stories of tunnels and caves underneath the very city I live in have intrigued me since I first heard of them many years ago. I've spent the last 5 years roaming state parks and the banks of the Mississippi looking for cool stuff, some of which I have found; cool graffiti (emphasis on the cool part, I don't respect shitty spray paint tags, you know good art when you see it) limestone formations, small caves. However the best is yet to be discovered.

Unfortunately my desire to act upon these urges to explore the more intense places is new, and I must leave for the frozen wasteland in less than 5 weeks time. I do plan on going on a few adventures before I leave though. There exists in STP some former railroad property that houses ancient caves, awesome limestone formations, a view, an abandoned building and a massive sprawling marijuana farm, which was an interesting touch seeing that this land is now in the process of slowly being turned into a nature sanctuary. I'm sure many of you who are the order than my age of 18 know of the area well and perhaps you remember infiltrating it when it was not open to the public. If I can, I'd like to enter the abandoned building it the main goal is to explore the cave and its ancient lake via inflatable kayak. I will post pictures of the places I am talking about once I am home from work, for I must go now.

Happy exploring!


Here are the pictures I promised, they're not super exciting and were taken with my cellular potato so forgive me. http://imgur.com/a/XU5xl

Pictures:
1)The abandoned building
2)The Sand Castle
3)The house of the Great Spirit
4)Cans of beans. Everywhere. Up, down, left, right and probably in directions that do not exist in our three-dimensional plane.

OTHER NOTES:
Does anyone have thoughts on the Ford Motors Sand Mines? As Action Squad has showed us, it is very difficult to get inside the mines and they had to break into the active plant to get to them. Now with the plant gone and the space it once occupied a large concrete field, perhaps there is an opening again? I found maps of the floor layout of the old plant and found the transformer room Action Squad used to get into/out of the mines, and I also found maps from the EPA that detail the inner workings of the mines. My thoughts on this are this: Who wants to pay security guards to guard an open concrete field all night every night? And could there be entrances (especially where the transformer room was) still there now that they are exposed to the outside world? I must investigate, perhaps a few of you will too?

http://www.startri...d-plant/236625011/


There have been lots of issues over there.

Who cares? The same people that paid for the trail cameras.

Upon reading further reading and some pms from some helpful users here on the site have made me come to realize that it's probably not possible and is definitely something someone with my skill level would have trouble with.. I scoped iit out a little bit and saw nothing but a small cluster of construction trailers in one corner if the lot. And another one or two in the center of the property. They have bright lights but they are shining down upon the trailers and not much else. It just makes me think that perhaps there is just a manhole cover of a hatch, specifically where the transformer room use to be, that would.lead down. Another user told me that there are motion sensors in the mines themselves which is also another problem. It all boils down to me not wanting to deal with that much shit.

Also, the ladder down from the transformer room is 60 ft of sketchiness...

You better be good at hide and go seek.

dude! smoke that shit!

cdevon, I modified your post so the image wasn't so big it broke the thread.

Posted by NotQuiteHuman Also, the ladder down from the transformer room is 60 ft of sketchiness...

No longer an option.

Sometimes I climb down the ladder, then back up the ladder, repeatedly.
Just to remind myself that the ladder is still an option, if you only want to see the ladder ;)

Jk, I concur with Dalmaticus.
There is a lot of other good stuff in these parts though.
Welcome to UER!

Posted by -Kaz- Sometimes I climb down the ladder, then back up the ladder, repeatedly. Just to remind myself that the ladder is still an option, if you only want to see the ladder ;) Jk, I concur with Dalmaticus. There is a lot of other good stuff in these parts though. Welcome to UER!

Thanks for the response! Yeah from what I've been told, even with the plant gone the mines are still very hard to get into and I do not plan on attempting at this point. I plan on exploring with w0nka sometime iin August go get a taste of what the Twin Cities has to offer. I look forward to being a part of the community!

Go climb the ladder if you enjoy running from homeland security. That extra federal level cat & mouse makes you run extra fast.

Posted by shotgun mario Go climb the ladder if you enjoy running from homeland security. That extra federal level cat & mouse makes you run extra fast.

You talk about this as though it has happened before =P

...aaand the maze actually is 100% done now!

Indeed! I need to make it out to sandland one of these weekends. I want to start entertaining the idea of an alternative dumping system. Ive got some ideas, but no plans drawn up yet.

Great to have you here. I live in Chicago, but now I know where to go if I'm in your hood.

Posted by Bilvavi Great to have you here. I live in Chicago, but now I know where to go if I'm in your hood.

Absolutely, you do.

Posted by Bilvavi Great to have you here. I live in Chicago, but now I know where to go if I'm in your hood.

do try.

Here to confirm that you should absolutely try.

I heard about some secret lesbian eskimo midget albino conventions they've been having in the Ford Mines quite regularly lately. If you make it in without getting caught, you'll probably get to see all the cute little lesbian eskimo midget albinos doing their thing. I'm not kidding. Check 'em out!

The ladder was totally safe back in the Action Squad days. I climbed up and down it nooo problem along with like six others and I'm fat...oh wait I was bone skinny back in those days.

Posted by w0nKa Indeed! I need to make it out to sandland one of these weekends. I want to start entertaining the idea of an alternative dumping system. Ive got some ideas, but no plans drawn up yet.

Speak with Macsbug. He intends on moving the zip line so the end is at a higher elevation = more vertical room to dump sand, and it starts from the winch point just inside the shoring so the winch can be used to pull sand up the slope in one direction and then the winch can be sent out the other direction to pull the sand up across the zip line to be dumped higher above the parking lot. I think it's doable, but will take a lot of time and resources to accomplish. Sure hope he plans on spending a lot of time on it. He could use your help too if you're interested. Or throw your idea in the hat and let's discuss and see if we could optimize a combination of all ideas or something abstract like that.