Island Station Power Plant is a decommissioned coal power plant on the Mississippi River less than a mile up-river from downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. St. Paul Gas & Light Company commissioned construction of the plant in 1921. In 1923, before construction was even complete, a more efficient technology for burning coal was developed, rendering the plant obsolete before it even opened.
The plant came online in 1926 and operated at three-fourths the intended capacity until 1943 when it was shifted to an off-peak use and only produced power 6-10 weeks per year. In 1975, Northern States Power Co. (who acquired the plant shortly after it was finished) decommissioned the plant and used it for storage.
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By the mid-1880s, 25 flour mills, a woolen mill, a sawmill, and the city waterworks lined an extended canal. The mills were surrounded by machine shops, cooper shops, and other milling support industries. Railroad tracks were interspersed among the buildings paralleling the canal.
By 1890 the platform sawmills were gone and hydroelectricity was the up and coming industry at the Falls. The flour mills continued to dominate the district until the 1930s Depression when a number of them were torn down and Minneapolis lost the lead in flour production.
In 1960 the west side canal was filled-in during the construction of the Upper Lock and Dam and many of the mill ruins were soon covered with gravel. Flour production on the west side ceased in 1965 with the closing of the Washburn A Mill
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Posted on July 11, 2010 in:
News
We’re still here looking for new things to get our head lights and cameras into. Expect some updates shortly!
A crew started scraping the earth off the Dale Reservoir, a 30-foot-deep, 5-acre concrete tub completed in 1918 and meant to hold water for a city that had grown by more than 400 percent since 1880 and was expected to grow even more.
While the city did become larger — albeit at a slower rate than expected — the way it stored and supplied its water changed. Within a few decades, the Dale Reservoir would become a 30 million-gallon dinosaur in a world of 10 million to 20 million-gallon water tanks. It was a remarkable structure for the time: 19,264 cubic yards of concrete and 1.1 million pounds of reinforcing steel, built into a hilltop in what was then Rose Township. Laborers worked alongside horses over two years to complete it.
But after the completion of the Dale Reservoir in 1919, the city started building smaller reservoirs closer to the neighborhoods they served — including reservoirs of 18 million and 10 million gallons in Highland and a 10 million-gallon reservoir in Hillcrest.
By the 1960s, the Dale Reservoir was used for Roseville almost exclusively. By the 1980s, with water use on the decline, the need for a giant reservoir was gone particularly because Roseville used only about 5 million gallons a day, and with costly repairs imminent including patching cracks in a wall and the ceiling the water service decided to scrap the reservoir. It was taken offline and drained last December (2009). read more »
Posted on April 16, 2010 in:
Caves
Santas Cave is the sister cave to Satans Cave under Nicollet Island. Your run of the mill Beer Lagering Cave. Nothing to special when it comes to Sandstone caves. It’s the second largest cave known under Nicollet Island. There are rumors that up to 5 caves exist under Nicollet Island but no evidence that I am aware of exists of these 3 other caves.
Sealed and lost for many years, Local Explorers through research and industrious methods reopened the Cave.
Later during Mouser Week 2009 they furthered the cave by digging a tunnel bypass to the collapsed section of the cave allowing access to the collapsed chamber.
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Posted on February 19, 2010 in:
News
Facebook Conversation..
Brute
thinking of useing the 18lb vest to walk around there in
ToXiC
Go for it
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Posted on February 17, 2010 in:
Drains
The Amphitheater Drain has been known by taggers & explorers alike for years. It has an unique feature unlike other drains, namely, an above ground Amphitheater. Im not sure why it does however its a great place to chill and watch the river from.
Not only does it sport the above but it also has a lift gate which I haven’t come across yet at other drain sites.
The drain itself is relatively plain. Featuring a few side tunnels and a healthy amount of tags. The walk is also unexciting. At the end, if you travel all the way you’ll discover a dropshaft that boasts a waterfall. Beyond that I havent heard anything.
If ya do, let us know.
I’m curious.
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Nicollet Island was originally the site of an Indian maple sugar camp, and there’s still a street named Maple Place reflecting this. The Islands woods were “so dense with timber and undergrowth, that it was impossible to penetrate it,” according to one early visitor, who also reported of thousands of passenger pigeons. Half a mile long and shaped like a battleship, the islands fifty acres were purchased in 1848 by Franklin Steele, the founder of St. Anthony.
John Orth, Hennepin County’s pioneer brewer and one of the founders of Grain Belt Beer, dug the first caves in the sandstone under Nicollet Island beginning in 1850 for use as beer storage cellars. By the 1880’s Orth had built an icehouse to replace the cave; the cave was used for mushroom growing as late as the 1920’s. Later under the guise of Satan’s Cave, it became a well-known rendezvous for urban explorers
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Photo Courtesy of Greykat
For most of the 20th century, the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States Government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral resources.
Founded on May 16th, 1910, through the Organic Act (Public Law 179), to deal with a wave of catastrophic mine disasters, the mission of the Bureau of Mines expanded over the years to include:
- The conduct of research to enhance the safety, health, and environmental impact of mining and processing of minerals and materials.
- The collection, analysis, and dissemination of information about mining and processing of more than 100 mineral commodities across the Nation and in more than 185 countries around the world.
- Analysis of the impact of proposed mineral-related laws and regulations upon the national interest.
- Production, conservation, sale, and distribution of helium for essential government activities
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The Saint Paul Municipal Grain Terminal, also known as the head house (a six-story grain elevator) and sack house, sits on piers over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was built between 1927 and 1931 as part of the Equity Cooperative Exchange and is a remnant of Saint Paul’s early history as a Mississippi River port city. The Saint Paul Municipal Grain Terminal was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
The structure is nationally significant as the first successful grain terminal elevator owned and operated by a farm cooperative in the United States. At one time the facility included 90 grain silos, a small mill, the head house for loading grain onto barges and train cars, and the sack house for sacking milled flour.
Currently the complex is unused and in serious disrepair. There have been plans to restore the buildings and turn them into a restaurant and interpretive center.
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Island Station Power Plant is a decommissioned coal power plant on the Mississippi River less than a mile up-river from downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. St. Paul Gas & Light Company commissioned construction of the plant in 1921. In 1923, before construction was even complete, a more efficient technology for burning coal was developed, rendering the plant obsolete before it even opened.
I'm ToXiC. I consider myself the main auther but the TCUR site is more of a collaboration of its members experiances. Others like Brute & Neur@l write logs, take photos and contribute. Please enjoy our website and safe 'splorin!