Minnesota's caves have a deep history. Carver's Cave is the first to be described in the literature of North America after explorer Jonathan Carver visited it in 1766. The storied Fountain Cave was the birthplace of the city of St. Paul. Just after the American Civil War, Chute's Cave inspired an elaborate national hoax regarding an ancient civilization. Folklore surrounds Petrified Indian Cave, where a strangely shaped stalagmite was mistaken for a person turned to stone. Geologist and urban explorer Greg Brick, PhD, uses decades of research to uncover the secrets of geological wonders.

This new and completely updated edition by co-authors Doris Green and Greg Brick, PhD, invites readers to consider a different angle for their next Minnesota trip. It guides travelers to the state's publicly accessible caves, former mines, and other subterranean treasures. Whether you are a sport caver, hiker, photographer, teacher, historian, or vacationer, this guide offers unique travel destinations, suggests possible study projects, and points to both widely recognized and little known underground locations. Along the way you'll learn to see Minnesota in a different light--a light cast as often by a headlamp as by a northern sky. YOU'LL FIND: - 82 sites in 23 counties - 41 new site listings - 13 museums and educational centers featuring cave and mine replicas as well as geologic exhibits - 23 sidebars highlighting Minnesota's underground history and geology--not to mention odd but true subterranean tales - Directions, precautions, and amenities for all sites listed This guide offers ideas for travelers who want an unordinary travel experience. While some sites require sure-footedness and an ability to climb steep hillsides, others are accessible even for families with young children. If you're ready for a serious trek or an easier tour beneath the surface, Minnesota Underground can the lead the way.

This book discusses the karst and pseudokarst of the Upper Midwest, USA, consisting of the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois—the first regional synthesis in 40 years. Starting with an overview of the regional geology of what is largely glaciated fluviokarst and paleokarst developed on Paleozoic carbonates, but including other lithologies such as the St. Peter Sandstone and the Ft. Dodge Gypsum, the caves, springs, sinkholes, and karst hydrogeology of each state are described. Special attention is devoted to the region’s longest caves: Coldwater Cave, Mystery Cave, and the Minnesota Cave Preserve caves. Application of tools such as data loggers and LiDAR, with new conceptual models such as hypogenic speleogenesis, has been transformative here. Special topics include lead and zinc mining in the Driftless Area, vertebrate and invertebrate cave fauna near the Laurentide ice limit, the impact and policies of nutrient and herbicide intensive modern agriculture on karst, and paleoclimate studies. The discovery, exploration, institutional history of caving organizations, and show caves of the Upper Midwest, from the year 1700 onwards, are brought up to date. The top 10 historical paradigms of cave and karst science in the Midwest are reviewed. Perspectives on paleontology, archeology, and Native American rock art are included.

In Subterranean Twin Cities, geologist, historian, and urban speleologist Greg Brick takes us on an adventurous, educational, and-thankfully-sanitary journey beneath the streets and into the myriad tunnels, caves, and industrial spaces that make up the Twin Cities' fascinating and surprisingly vast underground landscape. In this groundbreaking tour, the first of its kind of the Twin Cities, Brick mines the stories that lie below the city surface.

Explore more than 50 of Minnesota and South Dakota's fascinating caves, mines, sinks, and other underground oddities! This comprehensive guide covers Minnesota iron mines in the north and caves in the south. Also featured are gold mines and caves in the Black Hills of South Dakota, an area that boasts of some of the longer and more magnificent sites in the world. Spelunkers and explorers alike will enjoy this wonderful edition. Book jacket.