The Saint Paul Labyrinth
         
 
The very first time we explored the NSP/Gas Tunnels, I noticed a hole in the ceiling in one of the tunnels as I tromped along. My headlamp's light seemed to indicate a good-sized space above, so I climbed up on the brackets holding the power lines to the walls, and managed to wiggle up and into the wormhole in the tunnel ceiling.

A quick look around revealed a mid-sized manmade cave, shaped like a U, and littered with ancient debris. I called down for the others to come check it out, and soon we were all inside.

Both ends of the "U" featured nooks in the wall that had been carved to hold oil lanterns. A 10-foot high collapsed brick archway was all that was left of what must have once been the cave's entrance. We found decaying leather straps, shards of thick old bottles, and several stone (marble? soapstone?) sinktops: counters with holes for a sink or basin to be set into. They were blackened with age, and we had no idea how or why they had come to be in this bizarre cave.

Later investigation has led us to believe that this cave was possibly the fermentation cave for the "City Brewery," a small brewery that had operated there in the 1800's.

This cave, rumored to have been used by bootleggers during Prohibition, has long been sealed off from the surface world and presumed by surface-dwellers to be collapsed and lost.