tunnel city usa

Underground exploration in the Twin Cities — Tunnels, drains, caves, and more

Together, Minneapolis and St. Paul make up one of the top two cities in North America in terms of the extent and variety of their underground spaces. New Yorkers will claim that their underground can beat Minneapolis by a long shot, and I've heard rumors of seven levels of tunnels and miles of water tunnels that connect different parts of the city. But others say that these rumors are unfounded. Who knows.

For the amount and diversity of the tunnels, the Twin Cities underground is virtually unknown. Many local residents are familiar with the numerous obvious caves along the bluff in Lilydale Park, but few know that there are seven different unique tunnel systems running under the same part of downtown St. Paul.

Why Minneapolis?

Minneapolis and St. Paul are built on the soft St. Peter sandstone, which is capped by a layer of solid Platteville limestone. The sandstone is easy to dig through, even by hand, and the limestone is at a good elevation to be used as a ceiling for caves and underground spaces.

As you will notice on the image below, practically all of the underground places in the Twin Cities are found along the Mississippi River between St. Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis and the east side of St. Paul. In this region, the Mississippi is bordered by tall cliffs, the bottom part of which are ideal places to dig level tunnels directly into the sandstone. Outside of this area, there are relatively few underground tunnels, because the surrounding land is relatively flat and the sandstone bedrock only extends a few miles beyond the city limits. Also, the thick limestone caprock away from the river makes it impracticable to dig down to the sandstone.

Click on the map for a description of each place, or click here to start at the upstream end and work your way downstream. Pictures coming soon!

Legend

So far, only the Labyrinth has maps -- detailed and updated with every system shown. Currently there are no pics on the site, but I'm hoping to add some soon. A map of the West 7th Sewer Labyrinth will be added shortly.

Many storm drains are not shown because they are small or do not have significant special features.

Bassett Creek waterfall and drain Bassett Creek waterfall and drain Nicollet Island tunnels and Satan's Cave Nicollet Island tunnels and Satan's Cave Downtown Minneapolis drains West bank tailraces West bank tailraces East bank tailraces East bank tailraces Chute's Cave and the Chute tunnel Chute's Cave and the Chute tunnel St. Paul campus tunnels St. Paul campus tunnels East bank steam tunnels East bank steam tunnels West bank steam tunnels West bank steam tunnels Heinrich Brewery caves Heinrich Brewery caves St. Anthony Park drain St. Anthony Park drain 28th Street drain 28th Street drain Natural cave Natural cave Triple Helix drain Triple Helix drain Minnehaha Park drain Minnehaha Park drain Ford sand mines Ford sand mines Davern Street drain Davern Street drain UNIVAC caves UNIVAC caves Banholzer's Brewery Cave Banholzer's Brewery Cave East Kittsondale drain East Kittsondale drain West 7th sewer labyrinth West 7th sewer labyrinth Fountain Cave Fountain Cave Stahlmann's Brewery cellars Stahlmann's Brewery cellars Lilydale Park caves Lilydale Park caves Yoerg's Brewery cave Yoerg's Brewery cave Temple of the Drowned Cat drain Temple of the Drowned Cat drain The Labyrinth The Labyrinth South side sewer maze South side sewer maze Trout Brook drain Trout Brook drain Phalen Creek drain Phalen Creek drain Hamm's Brewery caves Hamm's Brewery caves Carver's Cave Carver's Cave East side drain maze East side drain maze Downtown Minneapolis drains

Links

Action Squad: Premier group of adventurers from Minneapolis. These guys have been to almost every place featured here and more. Not only trip reports, descriptions, and pictures, but historical info and maps.

Minneapolis Drain Archive: Hardcore adventure group that uses a wide range of gear and techniques, including canoeing into drains.

Zone Tour: Group of French "cataphiles" that explore all the places under Paris, most notably the well-known "catacombs", telephone tunnels, high voltage galleries.

urbanexplorers.net: The underground info exchange, with information on numerous college steam tunnels in most states.

Infiltration: The zine about going places you're not supposed to go. Tips for exploring a wide variety of off-limits places.

Cave Clan: Large group of Australian urban explorers, with groups in each of Australia's major cities.

More links coming in the next few days. Check back for updates.