In the early 1960s, the local firm TKDA surveyed the caves of the Twin Cities for suitability as fallout shelters. In many cases, the resulting maps are the only maps of of the caves available. I plan to place some of the more interesting samples of the draftsman's art on-line, but here is an example from West St. Paul, the so-called Lyman Brown Cave, rated to hold 1774 persons in the case of nuclear catastrophe. Would you be one of the lucky few?
Or at least a backpack...our trip to Schiek's Cave under downtown Minneapolis was no picnic. We wore gas masks!
An expanded joint cave containing unusual ice formations.
One of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted was captured in this local brewery cave.
This happy valley is honeycombed with caves! Where is it?
We used to pole our "gondola" through the mill tunnels under Minneapolis in the 1980s. With the creation of Mill Ruins Park in 2000 they are off-limits.
How would you like to be in a cave when tear-gas is shot in at you? Go belly-up like a rat!
It became the baptismal font of Minnesota caving when Jonathan Carver visited it in 1766. Now it's the backdrop for a local band.
A five-mile subterranean journey.
Baltimore, Maryland
Chicago, Illinois
Hartford, Connecticut
St Louis, Missouri
Fountain Cave is the cave on the beer can. Bottoms up!
Take a walk down the infamous "Stairway to the Abyss."
Minnesota Speleological Survey
National Speleological Society