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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Members: ToXiC & Brute
Photos by: Brute
Written by: ToXiC
January, 2008 Trip #1

It was the middle of a freeze week in January when we set out to explore Island Station, 5 degrees during the day and -15 during the night. We opted for a day mission. Driving to St. Paul is Brutes SUV we checked to make sure our gear was set for a good couple hours in the cold.

Pulling up to Island Station we had trouble finding a place to park and after driving a bit we finally found one near another location we had previously explored. Hopping out of the car I was suddenly attacked by a fierce freezing breeze. Putting my leather jacket on I quickly felt much better.

As we were walking up to Island Station we encountered little difficulty in getting past the security fence and onto the property. Entering from a side fence that had a nice man sized hole in it we carefully walked up to the building looking for an entrance point. We had tried the front doors and looked at all sides of the building to no avail. It was after about a half hour that I finally found a way in with Brutes help I got in and went to the front door and opened it for him.

Quickly walking inside out of the wind I shut the door and re-secured it so that we wouldn’t have uninvited guests walk in on us.

Taking in the view we walked farther into the belly of the building to discover a large loading dock with a 50-ton hook that immediately caught my attention and I couldn’t help but jump onto and swing on it. After my fun we decided to head up the stairs and start from the top and make our way down.

Reaching the roof we discovered it was quite windy but we had a great view of the surrounding area. Looking up I noticed even on the roof how high the smokestack was, quite intimidating. After taking in the view we proceeded down to check the middle levels. Enjoying the different rooms and equipment I just kept wandering eventually coming to the middle of the building where alot of cross support beams were, I crossed some carefully not really wanting to go down the stairs and all the way up again just to get to the other side.

We eventually came to a room where a scrapper had setup shop, luckily he wasnt around. We generally try to avoid strangers when we’re exploring a new site. We checked out his tools and went down a hallway to an adjacent room to discover yet more scrap work in progress. We didnt linger very long in the area as we were ready to continue our exploration and get back to the warm SUV.

Exploring the rest of the loading dock and rooms on the lower levels we headed down to the basement.

It was full of destruction, decay, pools of Ice and machinery from a bygone era. Walking around we found old circuit boxes, generators and anything else you would discover in the basement of a power plant. As I was walking I was looking for something.. something I had heard about and was quite curious about. Then I found it…

THE DEAD BODY!

Additional Photos 2009

Sources
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Station_Power_Plant

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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Members: ToXiC & Squeek
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Craptastic Disposable
Written by: ToXiC
December, 2007 Trip #1

This was the same night that we had returned to Satans Cave. By the time we had gotten out of Satans and even though dawn was just breaking the sky we felt compelled to further our explorations. Me and squeek dispatched ourselves away from the group and decided to head over to west bank since a couple of days before I had noticed a chance entrance that wouldn’t be open forever.

There were a million god damn joggers. I couldn’t believe it, I had never seen so many joggers in my life at sunrise. I was faced with a dilemma. I could walk away from more exploring and return the same night or I could go now since noone was really paying attention to us and risk leaving the same way. I gave the joggers the finger and decided to head in. Squeek was fine with that.

We jumped down onto the ice before the gate, carefully opened it without making any noise and jumped in. It was quite an impressive sight. Old wooden docks rotting, floor icicles, collapsed structures, and other misc. items. I was very impressed.

We decided to head down and start exploring. We came up to a muddy side tunnel with some natural limestone walling. It was alot different than what we had seen and decided it warrented a check out. We headed town the passage to the end where I discovered another tailrace which has been buried for god knows how many years with this passage being the only access point.

I decided it wasnt going anywhere and would be worth checking out another time. We headed back to the main section. We had a smoke while walking over some old piece of bridge for a lack of a better term when it came to a dead end. The other side of the wall had a ledge we could walk on so we carefully hopped to the other side with the assistance of a 4×4 piece of wood.

We got to the end to discover a massive multi-story grave of tailrace equipment. Gears, Pipes, Tanks, Valves, Meters, the whole lot. All that equipment had been down here for over a century. It was quite a site. We checked it out thoroughly and decided we should try and climb it to see if there was another exit.

Now let me explain, climbing rusty metal is not so fun. If you decide to do that, you had better make sure you dont mind getting alot of shit in your eyes and have had your tetnis shot in the last 5 years.

We climbed up the multilevel rust bucket. There was all matter of Thingamajigs in that climb. I cant even describe most of them. Rusted to hell. We got to the top and found another way out. I cant really talk about it here, sorry guys!

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Members: ToXiC, Squeek, Myth, Ludo
Photos by: ToXiC w/ FujiFilm FinePix Z 8.0
Written by: ToXiC
November, 2009 Trip #2

It was nearing the end of the night. Our group had been at Peavey prior as part of our anniversary celebration as a group of friends and cavers. We decided that we had to go out and do more! I decided we should celebrate further by going to an old site that I had been meaning to return to for almost 2 years. West Bank.

At this point Brute opted out leaving Myself, Squeek and Myth who had (within our group) pioneered the entrances. We had Ludo with us who had not been there previously. So it was a perfect choice. We headed out and went on our merry.

Arriving shortly after we decided to literally just dive into our entrance. We crawled in and kept crawling until we reached a corridor that would allow us entry. Crouching in I was able to partially stand up allowing my legs to stretch for a badly needed moment. The rest followed suit, crouching in and standing for a moment. We then all sat down and had a smoke, turning off our headlights we observed the damp environment around us.

Turning our headlights back on, we began walking down the main passage from our entrance point. A decaying limestone passage which is typical of old tunnels. Walking down we began to hear the splash of water hitting a pool. Walking to the end of the passage we emerged from a doorway which entered us into the actual Tailrace. Gazing around with our headlights we could only imagine the water being pumped out of the tunnel when it was in full operation.

Jumping off the ledge onto the semi moist gunk below our feet we headed down the tailrace observing the structural design of it, the old water pipes and the anchors that used to hold the lights into the wall. Walking and walking we hit a sort of X-Intersection.

Seeing that one side went to the exterior metal grate that blocks people from getting in, see the irony here, we decided it didn’t hold much interest so we took a left continuing our exploration. Not to much farther into the new passage we came to an obstacle, the passage was flooded. Myth being the resourceful person he is found a disused makeshift raft most likely left by an explorer. Unfortunately it was maybe only a 2 seater but quite wobbly so Myth took it for a spin and came back after 10 minutes.

After the entertainment of Myths raft ride we bypassed the flooded section of tunnel and climbed across a piece of timber that acted as a sort of bridge to the ledge on the opposite side that rounded off into another branch of the tunnel. Rounding the support concrete that blocked us on the ledge we made it to the end to discover what must have been a access tunnel of sorts to the eastern section of the tailrace.

Peering out of the crawl tunnel my face came into proximity of a huge water pipe. The water that you see being pumped outside into the river was from this huge 4′ diameter pipe. Carefully jumping onto it so that I wouldnt slip off, I jumped down onto the ground. Watching my coharts do the same I walked down the passage I followed it towards the gate that again was suppose to keep us out. Seeing the pressure that was behind all that water made me think of a really awesome water park ride, assuming it didn’t drown you in the process.

After losing interest we headed towards the back of the system hoping to be able to get towards the headrace. Following the passage down we noticed all the cleanup they had done in restoring this tailrace to active status and even the new lights they had installed. Our trip was cut short unfortunately, again we had ran into a flooded section. Not having any waders with us and it being a touch chilly outside we decided to call it a night and head back.

I guess in retrospect I have another reason to go back… again. Stay tuned!

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).

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Members: ToXiC & Danarchy
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8.1
Written by: ToXiC
April, 2010 Trip #1

I amazingly had a day off which of course is a rarity these days. The original plan was to have Neural, Eca, Squeek, James and myself do a 5 person outing to a rare find. The Dale Reservoir. However, how it always works, the organization stage of our group never works. So I called people and finally got ahold of Danarchy from Action Squad. Of course he was in!! We met up at his place and headed out.

Driving there we discussed non-important matters revolving around the MNUrbex community which have no relevance on my website. We also stopped so I could grab a new pair of gloves.

Finally arriving, we hopped out of the car and grabbed our camera gear then proceeded to do some good ol’ splorin!

Just as I feared however me and Danarchy would have to rappel down into the reservoir. The easy access grate was blocked by the weight of the demolition cranes neck pushing down onto the door. I started tying my rope in a triple secure fashion to a solid piece of rebar that would not budge free and as the process continued to navigate the safest and easiest way down from a 30′ ceiling. The dilemma was that I had no proper harness or gear.. I was using pure Nylon rope which not to mention is a hurt on the hands it also expands under weight making it difficult to climb up.

After navigating a safe path down I landed on a half broken pillar which luckily only made me have to rappel 15′ down. At that point I yelled up to Danarchy and the 3 other observers, “Hey dan, you coming down next?”… Danarchy replied.. “No, not set for this”.. Oh well, what can ya do?

Reaching the bottom finally, I jumped down onto concrete rubble. Taking a look at my surroundings I found the grated staircase going to the ceiling thinking just by chance it might open both ways to let Danarchy in. Nope, typical door. Unfortunetly Danarchy 100% declined entering the abyss and waited for me topside.

As I grabbed my Tripod and Camera I noticed the surrounding atmosphere was unusually quiet, even from a cave standpoint, it had a very subdued atmosphere and was very different.

I took a couple shots of the stairwell and moved on to the other end thinking maybe the pumphouses had stairwell access. Reaching the end I discovered they didnt. So calling Danarchy I told him to give me about a half-hour to take some photos and explore the place a bit.

Walking along the columns in horizontal, diagonal and straight lines I discovered this place wasn’t very exciting to explore but that getting in and the photo opportunity were the highlights of this adventure. Continuing my walk I started taking photos. The shadow effects from the light and pillar placement created some unique settings.

After walking around for a bit and taking some shots where I felt I headed back. I packed my tripod and camera and got ready to climb back up.

The moment I lifted myself up from the ground I realized I had a problem. The gloves I bought didn’t work with Nylon Rope in any way shape or form. After a few attempts and techniques I decided the best way to get back up to the pillar would be to stack a 5 foot high concrete rubble pile and combined with the rope lift myself onto the pillars broken section. From there I could climb the rest of the way up. After a few attempts and Danarchy making fun of me I finally made it up to the mid section of the pillar and climbed the rest of the way up. Man was I tired after that.

From that point we went to a Shake Diner nearby and enjoyed a delicious lunch. What an experience.

Sources:
1) http://wcco.com/local/dale.resevoir.water.2.1669633.html

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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Members: ToXiC & Squeek
Photos by: Myth w/ Craptastic Disposable (Different Trip)
Written by: ToXiC
January, 2009 Trip #lost

We’ve been aware of Santas Cave for over 2 years now and have actually explored it many a time. I never got around to getting photos of it until now. Santas holds alot of common ground with its Sister Cave Satans.

Sandstone Carvings, Names Carved into the soft St. Peter Sandstone, Dates, Messages, Artifacts from the past and the occasional beer can. Nothing special in the way of caves, but still a good time as always.

So this time I decided it was time to drag my camera down to get some long awaited photos, but it was an odd night from the start.

First off none of our preferred entrances were available due to the lack of a crude manhole opener we generally use, lost to us in the snow. So we had to go to the other side of the Island and use the last resort entrance, which pretty much guaranteed TAS (Tunnel Ankle Syndrome) for the rest of the night.

So as we were about to enter, we noticed foot prints leading into the entrance, 1 person. We thought well who explores alone? We decided what the hell, entered in cautiously and couldnt find anyone in the immediate area. As we were walking along the flooded section of the watermain, we noticed our solo-explorer wasnt alone, he had brought a dog. While still not in sight we were more cautious now.

Our curiosity got the better of us, as it normally does. We decided that we would track the solo-explorer with the dog and see where he was. After about 20 minutes we ended up at Satans Cave and noticed that the dog tracks were in there as well as heading into Santas. We crawled to Santas quietly not wanting to find a dog in my face in a confined space. We jumped into Santas to find noone there. I decided the tracking could wait a bit while I snapped a few photos.

We headed back after a couple smokes and searched for the tracks to see if they had come back our way, nope they were heading right to our exit. Me and Squeek thought to ourselves about how some dude would get a dog up a tall manhole. We kept moving forward until we finally got to our exit, they tracks were there and they went down towards a drain entrance, the tracks still hadnt turned back at any point.

We decided to stop tracking, we were pretty tired from all the spine bending, we attempted to lift the manhole, it didnt budge. I yelled in my head about never again will I use the last resort entrance during the winter. We decided to head to our main entrance and see if we could budge it or not and by the time we got back there I was sweating and panting like I hadnt in along time.

Squeek went up and tried to budge it, nope. I told him I’d pop it open, while I finished my smoke I prepped myself for a manhole lid push. I have about a 50% success rate. I climbed up the rungs and positioned myself properly so that I wouldnt fall if the manhole lid popped up real quick. After about 5 minutes of trying different positions I finally budged it. I really didnt want to go all the way back to our original entrance. I popped my head out and looked around, all clear, yelled down to the squeek to haul ass up.

The cold January air felt sooo good. We headed back to our bikes, but made a detour to see if the guy had come out. He had indeed, he had somehow circled us the whole time without ever back tracking into us, and got out. I was pretty impressed.

Ahhh… Just to take a few photos…

]]> http://tcur.org/?feed=rss2&p=255 0 http://tcur.org/?p=249 http://tcur.org/?p=249#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:53:47 +0000 ToXiC http://tcur.org/?p=249 Facebook Conversation..

Brute

thinking of useing the 18lb vest to walk around there in

ToXiC

Go for it

Brute

the only thing that slows my pace are stairs

too bad the minnhaha falls wasnt covered in ice

ToXiC

Going down them carefully is a good workout for your foot

lol

Brute

i would train there if it wasnt wet and icey

ToXiC

You + Falls + Winter = Foot permanetly broken

Brute

but probly fun time up until the break

ToXiC

lol

Brute

my luck is it would break at the bottom

and i’d have ta crawl up and out

on the ice

ToXiC

Nah, you’d be near the top then break it, then slide and make it rotate 360 a few times.. like a John A. Romero film lol

Brute

lol dont forget the red shade for the lens

—

If anyone cared to know how Brute is doing, there ya go!

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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Members: Neur@l, ToXiC, and DoC
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8.1
Written by: Neur@l
October, 2009 Trip #2

It was starting to get chilly out here in Minnesota when DoC had the night off from work to do some exploring with ToXiC and I. ToXiC really wanted to redo the amphitheater trip so he could get some better shots with his camera so he invited us along. DoC and I waited for ToXiC to finish up at work, then we all piled into DoC’s car. As we were driving to the location we did the usual briefing, shot the shit, chit chatted, and all the way kept our eyes peeled for potential new locations to explore. Finally we had arrived to our destination.

We hopped outta the car and started walking down the path. Eventually, we came to the point where we were required to make our descent into the abyss. As we approached the amphitheater everyone agreed to have a smoke before entering the drain. I walked around puffing on my cancer and smiling at the random graffiti and tags spread around the stones. We chatted a bit, relaxed, and breathed in a mixture of nicotine and the night air. A harbor boat passed along down the Mississippi while we were chilling on our stone thrones. At the point that the boat was out of eyesight we had finished with our cigarettes and collected our bearings to enter the drains. Our approach to the entrance was amusing as DoC tried lifting the iron gate and started to slip on the wet concrete beneath his shoes. He really needs to get a pair of boots for these adventures.

ToXiC lifted the gate as DoC and I entered. I turned around and held it open for ToXiC to get through as he handed his gear to DoC so it wasn’t so much a tight squeeze anymore. Slowly I lowered the heavy iron rods as not to damage anything then turned around and flipped the switch to my headlamp. ToXiC began setting up his camera and DoC was looking into this pool of water at the beginning of the tunnel. It was deep and full of dark water. I was reminded of NSP and the gross nasty water that might be radioactive X-D. I chuckled at this thought, as well as the lingering menacing thought of pushing DoC in the pool to see if he could swim to the bottom. At this point we were all ready to climb the stone steps up into the bowels of this place. Water damage, mildew, and algae lined the walls and floor of this drain and we ascended into the darkness.

Upon reaching the top I looked around and smirked at the graffiti, as with all drains the graffiti is usually the best part. I mean, it’s a fucking tunnel with water how exciting can these places really get? Yeah sure there’s potential secrets to be discovered, but some of the crap these people with spray paint cans come up with is pretty entertaining, well that and the possibility of animal carcasses; which at the end there was a dead possum :-/. We began to hobble along the the sides of the tunnel as to avoid stepping into the run off water that was trickling towards the dark pool DoC was initially looking at. Eventually DoC and I came to a section that branched into a whirlpool that seemed to be water draining from the streets. ToXiC stayed back and took photographs of DoC and I as we explored this little branch off. The water was spraying down in droplets and mist into a pool that was obviously intended for run off so as not to flood the drain itself. After a bit of a photo session we ventured further into the tunnel. While I was jumping diagonally down the drain, left to right left to right, I came to yet another branch off. It was the same thing so no need to elaborate. We continued further from that point reading graffiti as we went. I started humming to myself thinking of Alice in Wonderland and how deep does this fucking rabbit hole; correction drain tunnel, go?

Around this time is when ToXiC called everyone to a halt so we could set up for a shot of the tunnel. He whipped out a pack of tea candles and gave a handful to DoC and I. All three of us started lighting them and lining them up along the drain tunnel. ToXiC then set up his tripod and started the long process of capturing the perfect photo while DoC and I chatted and smoked and rested our weary legs.

A bit thereafter we were ready to get moving again, the end was near. I mean literally, the end is extremely fucking neigh, 2012 is not a myth it is real I swear, one of the tags in the tunnel said so. Don’t believe me? Go look for yourself.

We ventured further as the tunnel started to curve at an angle and in the dark distance we could hear water rushing down as if it were a waterfall. “Is this where they hid one-eyed Willy’s treasure?” I thought. Nope, upon further examination and finally reaching the end of this, for the most part, straight hobble down a tube we had reached the end. Here lied the carcass of a dead possum and behind it was a vortex to another world (I guess the possum didn’t make it, PETA don’t sue).

After attempting to convince either DoC or ToXiC to hop in and let me know what was on the other side, they didn’t buy it, ToXiC yet again started snapping photographs, this time instead of solely taking pictures of the crew/solo picture taking, DoC and I got to wave our flashlights and headlamps around like a bunch of crazy people for a slow shutter effect. The end I feel I should leave as a surprise, because no one knows what happens in the end, I sure as shit didn’t…. Oh wait, I did, it’s another street run-off tube, except this one is the mother load compared to all the others. Hence why if you jump in you get sucked in through the vortex to another dimension, been watching way too much sci-fi.

So after a few chuckles and photo snapping we headed back to reality. The tunnel vision was getting to our heads. Skipping along at a fast pace we finally got back to the entrance/exit. Here we set up the tea candles and ToXiC took his last shot of the night, which was the stairwell leading to wonderland. I didn’t stick around and instead walked through the iron gate out into the mysterious night-time air. Soon we all got back to DoC’s vehicle and went off for some late night diner food. Then we all got dropped off and went our separate ways. Amphitheater, you took my mentality. END!

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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Members: ToXiC & Myth
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Craptastic Disposable
Written by: ToXiC
December, 2007 Trip #1

Most of our trips are random scout trips after bar close. “Hey I was by this area today and I’ve heard there was something here or I saw something promising”. Mostly along those lines are we bound when it comes to random moment exploring.

Anyway after I got off of work from the bar me and Myth decided to bike over to Nicollet Island and search the various sized and shaped manhole covers for a probable entrance into the “Infamous Satans Cave” as Action Squad had called it.

After searching about 6 manhole covers and going down and back up them. I decided to go off from memory about a particular picture I had seen which gave a vague idea to the entrance. After searching through the snow we came across a couple more manhole covers we lifted one up and were about to give up when me and myth noticed that the manhole rungs seemed alot older than the rest, more weathered, and at the glorious bottom noticed allot of foot traffic going down the old Nicollet Island Water Main.

Ah! Scout missions are the best. You never know what you’re going to find. So we proceeded down the old rungs, a couple of them were actually well loose and slippery. Down we went too excited to care that in about 30 minutes the sun would be up and people would be getting ready for church or whatever people do on Sundays these days.

We got to the bottom. It was small, cramped and muddy up the ass. Obviously this wasn’t some modern carved out hole. It was smaller and less maintained than the modern underground passages. It was old brick, a half foot full of muck, rusty disused pipes, old side corridors and unused water hoses.

Along we went so excited, checking every corridor we could find. Not necessarily looking for Satans Cave but anything and everything that was of interest in Urbex. I was just enjoying myself for a good 30 minutes with this old brick. I was really just enjoying myself. I didn’t have a care in the world. It wasn’t until after awhile of tunnel walking that my back finally got soar and I realized that this could take awhile. Oh well I enjoyed the pain like anyone else.

A corridor here, a side passage there, a manhole above me. After about 45 minutes of walking everywhere we came to a small break in the brick archways of the tunnel. I got on my knees. It wasnt a large hole, it seemed more like someone had used a mallet and just broken through it, I popped my head inside and brought my head light up and looked around. A large sandstone cave. I then knew we had found the “Infamous Satans Cave”.

We crawled through the small hole and jumped down into the nice cold dry soft St. Peter Sandstone. It was very pleasant. Me and Myth walked down the corridor to what we thought might be the main cavern. It was. I looked around.

I yelled!

“Beer cans, bottles, tea lights, graffiti. What the fuck! What the fuck is so god damn infamous about an underground landfill?!?!”…

I calmed down from my 10 second rage and thought to myself about my first couple of experiences at Lilydale. While comparing this to lilydale this didn’t really surprise me after all. I accepted that fact and made the best of it. We ended up going back to the Water Main System since I had had alot more fun there. We found more of the same and a couple smaller caves. Took the long way out and exited through a bums home.

I need to go back one of these days and just do a photo shoot the various nooks and crannies we found because I think they looked awesome.

I later went to Walgreens to develop the photos from the 2 disposables I had brought. For some reason the 2nd Camera which held all of the cave photos came out blank. WTF?!

2nd Trip Photos of the cave (2007).

Sources:
1) Subterranean Twin Cities

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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Members: Neur@l, ToXiC, Brute, and Eca
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8.1
Written by: Neur@l
July, 2009 Trip #1

After meeting ToXiC for the first time and getting to know him, neither of us were aware that we both shared a common interest. That interest being Urban Recon. One night, while Eca and I were at the bar, we ran into ToXiC and chatted. Some how, I can’t remember who, someone mentioned recon. This trip log is to document the current TCUR teams first expedition.

After a few drinks, we decided that since all three of us shared a passion for the abyss, ToXiC made the suggestion of doing a mission that night. We all agreed and were down for it. So, yet again, us lovely drunkards cut off our tab, hopped on our bikes, and headed out into the unknown. At first we had trouble deciding were to go. I, shamefully, suggested Bunge. Probably because at the time, being a fresh Minnesotan, I didn’t really know of any good places to check out. ToXiC called his mate, Brute, on the phone and told him to meet  up with us.

No one really wanted to explore Bunge, so Brute and ToXiC put their heads together and decided we’d go scout the Ford factory while pondering our destination. We all loaded our bikes on top of Brutes motor vehicle and took off. After meeting Brute for the first time, I realized these were going to become my really good friends. As we drove we chatted and laughed, and got to know each other. Well, mainly Brute since Eca and I already knew ToXiC. Upon our arrival to the Ford factory, we drove around scouting possible entrances. We made a pit stop, checked out a spot, nothing. Back in the car Brute suggested the Minnesota Bureau of Mines. Everyone agreed and our mission was set.

Shortly after we arrived. All of us hopped out of the vehicle and ran a gear check. Equipment ready, heads held high, we began our walk into the abyss. We soon came to this forgotten fortress and began our scout. Making sure everything was quiet and safe, we began to search for our exit. ToXiC and Brute had already been there so Eca and I were waiting patiently for them to begin the tour. Brute, waiting off in the distance, had a short scare, for he thought he had seen someone. After a while of making sure our scouting wasn’t off, we decided the coast was very much indeed clear. ToXiC lead us to the entrance, and soon we were in. Brute, being the big guy he is, found a separate entrance, for he wasn’t interested in squeezing through the entrance we had found.

After regrouping inside the facility, ToXiC whipped out his trusty camera and started snapping shots. Eca and I looked around the empty facility, at the time we seemed to be in the garage or loading dock. I examined the entire vicinity in one spot and noticed a greenish light coming out of one of the rooms here. Enticed by the light I came up to a room that looked radioactive. It was empty for the most part, except for a desk with a broken telephone on it. A sign on the door reads “This Room Has Been Classified As A Class 300 Clean Room According To Federal Standard 209D”. By the current looks of it, that classification has become null and void, heh. After we were finished previewing this section of the building, as we were going to come back to it, we began our walk into the actual facility.

The hallways were in terrible condition, ceiling plaster all over the floors, wallpaper in shreds, and the tiling could use some repair. Oh, that’s right it’s abandoned. The lighting was faint, some were broken, some just went out, and every now and then some of the bulbs produced a sickening yellowish color. As we were walking down the first floor hallway, checking rooms here and there that were mainly bathrooms and janitorial closets, we came to a room that seemed to be the breakroom. Here there were cafeteria style booths set up, the ones in the far back were packed with old boxes of documents and folders. We browsed through some of them, mostly contracts or research documents. Soon we were interested in checking out the second floor, so we headed in that direction.

The second floor was more open. Windows lined the exterior of the hallway. The rooms joining it all had the basic set up of any laboratory. Sinks and shelves lined the rooms. There were also various plastic tubes lying around on the ground. The area of the 2nd floor that was not lined with windows had offices, some of the plaques on the doors still mentioned the names of people who used to work there. From here we could see the perimeter of the building, not exactly excellent cover for onlookers but at least we would know where they were heading if we needed to make a quick escape. The 3rd floor had pretty much the exact same layout as the second. This must have been where they conducted all the major experiments. It was especially more daring when Brute started playing music from the video game Splinter Cell. Soon we all crawled out through a window and headed to the roof. Here we chatted some more and smoked cigarettes. Then Eca and I kissed, which kind of threw Brute off because he didn’t realize he was exploring with a couple of homosexuals. After ToXiC explained, Brute started laughing at how obvious it was initially. We chatted some more then decided to explore the other side of the first floor. So we headed back  in.

The 1st floor ran into the front of  the building, where they had a receptionist desk and a stairwell that led up to the second and third floor “experimentation” rooms. We ended up walking into a conference room with a black board. Crummy red carpeting and tables were here, as well as a blackboard where we all wrote our handles on. We started to walk back towards our entrance down the hallway, stopping and looking in rooms on our way. These were offices for employees that once worked there. I thought it was hilarious when I walked into one of the rooms and found a bottle of Jergen’s next to the Holy Bible. Someone must really love them some Jesus. We also happened across an old O’Reilly book on some out-of-date programming language, I can’t recall but I believe it was either Cobalt or BASIC. I thought this was fun and decided to keep the book for entertainment purposes. Being a huge geek and IT guy myself it’d amuse me to read about past programming styles.

After some browsing and ruffling through different rooms and desks we headed back to the area we entered in. We climbed up the ladders lining the docking station and soon entered what shall be dubbed as “The Map Room.” Here they had blueprints and maps of the building and areas surrounding it. We spent a deal of time brushing through random prints. We then headed to a storage room filled with maintenance and mechanical equipment. Bolts and nuts here, motors, motherboards, and so on lined the counters. We played around in here for a while shifting through the random pieces and parts. Soon I headed on my own and stepped into random offices, one of which had a classic Comadore 64. Primitive technology I thought, but really fun to see. If I was a thief, and had a way of carrying it out of there, I might have attempted selling it on eBay as an antique. I just laughed in amusement at the ancient thing. After a bit more fucking around, we all decided it was time to head out. We did a final gear check making sure we didn’t leave anything, and prepped the evacuation. Cost was clear, we headed out talking about what parts we liked and what parts were boring. All in all this was an interesting mission. Our first mission together.

(Side Note: Since this was the first mission Eca and I had with TCUR it’s really hard to remember exactly to a T of everything that happened. Some parts might be left out, and perhaps some editing needs to be done. Check back frequently if you’re really curious.) -Neur@l

Sources
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bureau_of_Mines

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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Members: ToXiC & Myth
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8.1
Written by: ToXiC
August, 2008 Trip #1

I had wanted to visit the Headhouse for almost 2 years after first reading about it on the Action Squad website. It was August 2008 that me and Myth had been exploring the High Bridge Coal Power Plant during its decommission phase. It was on such a night, we had been wrapping up our final exploration of the High Bridge Coal Power Plant with RNC coming up I decided since it was relatively early that we check out the GTA Headhouse before it was to be renovated.

We hopped on our bicycles and sped off down Shephard Road. Only a couple minutes had passed when we locked our bikes up again and headed to find an entrance into the Headhouse. Finding a entrance along the riverside by climbing up one of the log piers we silently entered into the headhouse. Upon jumping down I walked over to the sackhouse portion of the building.

It wasnt a large room. Its roof was collapsing and most of the former windows had metal coverings that had been rusted and bent out of shape. There was some equipment laying around. Some flood lights, tool belts, cement bags and various tools that renovation contractors used. Drifting back to the Headhouse I began studying the remains of this historical place.. atleast what was left of it.

So much of the old equipment had been removed over the years, windows broken, rusting metal and pigeon feces were what remained. A shadow of its former glory. Yet it still told a story to anyone who would listen. Listening to the story as I went up along the staircase I heard the former operations of the building and looking out the window I could see the barges of the past filling up with grain. What was left of the Headhouse was a story of success. The Headhouse still standing was proof of that and the fact St. Paul was going to reinvest in it once again to renovate it for modern uses was another proof of its success.

Up and up I went, taking a few minutes to examine the small floors. Nothing really out of the ordinary for an abandoned mill. Snapping shots where I felt and looking out the windows when I wanted to. Finally reaching the top floor me and Myth headed up to the roof to have a couple smokes and relax.

Finally deciding to head out, we headed back down the stairs, out the window we had entered through and down the wooden pier. We had just got back up to the side walk when I thought how good it would be to come back and take a tour of the building when it is renovated and open to the public to tour through.

Sources
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paul_Municipal_Grain_Terminal