Some background....

So there is a lovely little island on the river in Minneapolis that has a surprisingly complex tunnel system (in my opinion) given the small size of the island it is on, that leads to a few old brewery caves from back when that was a thing. Eager to find an entrance to these tunnels and eventually the cave, I set out with a group of friends to the island to find it. We parked and started out on our little walk. We circumnavigated the whole island, looking for interesting holes and potential entrances to the tunnel system, crossed an old train wooden train bridge and checked out some graffiti. After a while, we found a manhole near the water which led down into a little brick archway tunnel with some graffiti on the walls, and I knew we had found something. We followed this tunnel a short ways until we encountered some backfill, through which someone had dug a hole up into a small cavernous space. I crawled up into this space and discovered another small crawl tunnel, which I did not enter because this was only a scouting mission, but I knew that the tunnels were accessible through that hole. Feeling satisfied, we left and made plans to return later that night.

Later that evening....

I knew of another entrance to this little system,it is quite obvious and if you are the slightest bit resourceful you can find exactly how to get into this place, so Nate Dogg and I went there. Walked on the path into this quaint little picturesque park with a bench, a tree, a single lamp and the manhole. The tunnels appeared to be begging to be explored. We tied a wrench to a small length of rope and stuck it down the hole, then pulled the cover off with it. Nate Dogg went first, dropped his flashlight, then while fishing out his other flashlight, dropped it as well. He lost a little bit of faith at this point and wanted to leave without his flashlights. Me still being new to this hobby and slightly nervous about climbing down a 30 foot manhole in the dead of night, decided to say fuck it and went to retrieve the lights. I climbed down and found myself in the brick tunnel. Nate Dogg decided to join me. He hung by the ladder and I explored a sandstone crawl tunnel that was right near the entrance for a ways, despite it being labeled "dead end". after a curve or two, I came face to face with a little water flow and a mineral formation that was kind of cool, then turned around and headed back. Up and out we went,and again planned for a return trip.

Now the actual mission...

The night after the scout trip I returned with my friend aSaw, and we entered the manhole cover using the same rope-wrench tool we used before. We waited at the bottom for a few minutes for another UER member who was going to accompany us. All of a sudden I look up and there is another human half way down the ladder, he snuck in like a damn ninja. I introduced him to aSaw and we were on our way. We walked down the tunnel, exploring a few side tunnels and getting sprayed with water from a broken water line. Twas good fun. We learned what baby snotsicles looked like before they turn into full-blown disgusting. Eventually we found a hole in the side of the tunnel with a ladder leading down. I called out "Hey I think I found something!" Our companion yelled back, "Yeah, keep going!". We did just that, and entered a cool little cave system and walked around for a minute, and in the far end we see another human squatting in a soft pile of sand. He had snuck into the cave using a different entrance, like a damn ninja, and was waiting for us. We walked around looking at the interesting carvings and ruined brick pillars from the brewery, found some demon heads and the remains of a shrine that unfortunately someone destroyed. While crawling through a sandstone crawl tunnel dug years ago by fellow explorers, aSaw who was in the lead, had a rather intimate moment with a small bat which was amusing. It was pretty cool because we found the grinding wheel that had supposedly been used to dig the tunnel that we were in just sitting there. A cool little piece of history. We explored the sister-cave and made our exit. Not wanting to be a bunch of squares, and not wanting to slop through the shin deep nasty water from the broken water line, we decided to not go back the way we had come. We followed the brick tunnel a ways until we found a ladder leading to a manhole. We climbed up the terrifyingly thin and brittle rungs out into someones front lawn, and scampered away into the night. We talked with our friend from UER for a few minutes, thanked him for his time and he drove off. aSaw and I went to return the entrance manhole cover to its original place. Victory meal was held at a nearby 24hr White Castle.

Mission accomplished.

Didn't take many pictures, was too busy looking at cool shit. The pictures I did take are pretty bad because misty air+potatocam=mashed potato quality pictures. Here they are if you care to look. http://imgur.com/a/GIS82

Nice write up. That location is on my bucket list.

Posted by Herm Nice write up. That location is on my bucket list.

Thanks! It's really a neat little spot. The tunnels are quite extensive to my surprise, there's a sewer tunnel system and then the water main tunnel along with some side tunnels carved out of the sandstone. It's really easy to find so you should for sure check it out! Beware the copious amounts of beer cans and assorted trash-shit. Also plenty of graffiti, some of the carvings are kind of cool though.

You avoided the brick tunnel baptism?!?!

Posted by GLP. You avoided the brick tunnel baptism?!?!

If by that you mean sloshing through the broken water main water, then no we didn't avoid it. We braved it, but said fuck that on the way back. We decided that soap suds in the water your walking through probably aren't a good sign because sewer lines

Posted by Derpyfingers If by that you mean sloshing through the broken water main water, then no we didn't avoid it. We braved it, but said fuck that on the way back. We decided that soap suds in the water your walking through probably aren't a good sign because sewer lines

Those weren't soap suds, those were hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide bubbles. :B

Posted by w0nKa Those weren't soap suds, those were hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide bubbles. :B

I doubt it because its a water main pipe not a sewer line. That being said mold is the only real concern due to the water being stagnate.

That little water line has been spraying since Mouser last year. Nice to know the utilities are on top of their game.

Posted by GLP. I doubt it because its a water main pipe not a sewer line. That being said mold is the only real concern due to the water being stagnate.

And the learning experience continues.

Also as far as I know, the big pipe in the middle is a water main but there's some smaller lines that connect to houses that might carry some sewer stuff? Not sure, like I said-learning experience

I had to get a tetnis shot after going down there. After coming up that man hole that's in that dudes yard,i looked down and saw blood and rust on my hands. I wonder if that guy knows what's under his house. I want to buy that house. I wonder what real estate is like on that island.

Posted by Derpyfingers And the learning experience continues. Also as far as I know, the big pipe in the middle is a water main but there's some smaller lines that connect to houses that might carry some sewer stuff? Not sure, like I said-learning experience

You are correct about that main pipe, however its been so damn long since I've crawled down one of those off shoots I'm not certain if they carry any sewage or not.

Posted by OryonsOracle I had to get a tetnis shot after going down there. After coming up that man hole that's in that dudes yard,i looked down and saw blood and rust on my hands. I wonder if that guy knows what's under his house. I want to buy that house. I wonder what real estate is like on that island.

That is unfortunate, fortunately for myself I have all my shots up to date. I wonder that same thing, they must have seen some hooligans crawling out of that hole in their yard at least once and wondered about it. I saw a listing on a real estate website for $700,000 dollars, it was one of the nicer houses but I cant imagine any of them would be cheap.

I'm being facetious about the gasses of course, but, there are indeed pipes that still carry sewage on different parts of the island that tend to leak from time to time.

haha haven't been here in forever! going to have to make another trip soon. its back breakingly terrific!

Posted by pash haha haven't been here in forever! going to have to make another trip soon. its back breakingly terrific!

Yeah my back was absolutely destroyed after the trip, and it didn't help that I had to make a 4 hour drive back up to ND the following day.... Pretty cool little spot though, it was worth the pain and suffering.

I want to get back to this myself. Was an awesome explore with alot to see. The sand crawl in seemed to go on forever.

if anyone wants to make a trip back here soon shoot me a pm. Its been at least a year since iv been there but i would love to go back being that there is a few more areas of interest that still need to be seen.

Posted by pash if anyone wants to make a trip back here soon shoot me a pm. Its been at least a year since iv been there but i would love to go back being that there is a few more areas of interest that still need to be seen.

Im down. Theres 2 things we need to find..

Posted by Cosmic Im down. Theres 2 things we need to find..

I was told there are a few hints in the geology and such of the island that indicate there is a small possibility of an undiscovered cave? Or did you have something else in mind?

I think all the big caves there have been discovered. There's always the Gatsby Cave (old wine cellar / creamery cave), not super big but a little harder to find than the other ones