Interesting video, but, as a man old enough to be your father, I'd say you all were woefully underprepared to go tunnel adventure rafting in this spot. I was a former land surveyor/civil engineer and did many surveys for both the city of Minneapolis and the city of St. Paul on their tunnel systems back 20 years ago. Months spent underground as we helped digitally map them so they could come up with a plan. We had oxygen sensors, back up breathing apparatuses, full body protection (with boots, c'mon man!) and many other things to help us in case of trouble. Your cell phones don't work down there, if you have walkie talkies, they don't work down there, and vocally, your voice diminishes quickly if there was a problem. It was some of my best work when I was engineering, but it was also dangerous. Have more prep work done for your next adventure. I'm not telling you to not explore, but, think a little bit ahead about the what if's. And the reason it's mostly a dead end now is the result of our work. The City came in to shut down areas that could be trouble or problematic if someone just happened to end up so far in that they couldn't get back out... or panicked... Not to be an old man, but, it only takes one mistake... Peace to you all..
Your comment needs to be number one. Imagine if their phones slipped into the water, or their batteries died, they’d be in hopeless darkness. Or worse any of the things you pointed out. People just assume everything will be okay.
These are penstocks to the turbine pits. Minneapolis used to harness the water from Saint Anthony Falls and these tunnels are for getting water to the turbines that powered the Mills in both sides of the river. Just in case anyone doesn’t know this.
We got up that tunnel and many others down stream with kayaks many years ago. Much easier in a skinny, low draft boat like a kyak and you dont have to worry about popping your raft.... oh, and you dont have to sneak in at night. You can just paddle in anytime you want... PS- going into those tunnels during rain is a really bad idea. People have been killed in those tunnels by flash flooding.
Listen: You should be bringing a PATCH KIT, GOOD DUCT TAPE and a PUMP in case of puncture! They use duct tape to repair inflatables in Alaska in case of puncture out in the bush. You do not want to get marooned deep under there and have no way out other than to walk...especially if the tunnels flood deeply.
@@TheMattC9999 Right, but just like Alaska is, you are venturing into a potential for ANYTHING to go wrong...at any time...and it's usually stuff you don't "worry about" that gets you....but...they could probably walk out....what about flash floods though or injury...you get what I"m saying....most likely end up with a good adventure story...hard to tell though...or ...an alligator someone flushed down the toilet after it was no longer cute lol....
Happened to me on the Chicago river. Someone had dumped busted concrete into the water and the rebar punctured our raft. Luckily we were in the city and just walked back
What's wild to me is sometime along time ago, it was some ones job to make those tunnels. Blasting rocks, laying brick, everything was made by people. People who had hopes, dreams, families, lives, and now their hard work lay dormant under the city. I hope they all had meaningful and successful lives. Thanks for sharing the footage.
The workers that constructed these years ago were the same as coal miners … doing back breaking labor, for minimum wage without instance paying all their wages to the company store, unable to retire when their bodies gave out by 50 and died of black lung - not the dream of working hard to get ahead and afford your children an opportunity for better 🦊
As an old school graffiti writer from 80’s and 90’s NYC, who has traveled the NYC Subway tunnels, freight lines, dead lines, a place we called the Freedom Tunnels, and everywhere else a human can manage to get to, even for a guy like myself, it STILL bugs me out how no matter where, or far into, these weird, hard to get to, no reason to go to, out of the way places, you’re ALWAYS gonna find some graffiti. No matter where in the heck it is, some idiot like me with a spray can has already been through there.
I totally feel this comment 😂 except I'm from Holland but I can relate to the fact that there is graffiti absolutely EVERYWHERE 😂 even if its just one throwie of something 😂
Enter from the inlet across from Boom island park on the west side of the river and be amazed! There's been a Full bar and a underground gambling operation in there it used to even have a roulette wheel. You should also think about investing in a air monitor if you're going to be doing this, there's stuff in some place that can kill you pretty quick
This is dangerous. Their phone light can die quickly, or can fall in the water and then they’re effed. Anything can happen. These guys aren’t as prepared as they should’ve been.
You went wrong several places and glad you did fine. 1st you need an air monitor, 2nd you should be using hard kayaks or a lightweight canoe so it won't puncture on obstructions essentially stranding you. 3rd bring lots of extra lights batteries and gear including fishing poles. I mean cmon man what's wrong with you guys where's the fishing gear. Most important thing however is you should have not gone when it was actively raining or high chances of rain in the forecast. Those tunnels can fill up quickly either trapping you and getting your raft lost, or drowning. Things can fill up quickly and unexpectedly in these situations. Best not to be underground in a storm drain type area when it rains.
You definitely should have had more prep work for this underground adventure. So many things that can go wrong. Food, water, rope, first aid, and rubber waterproof boots (!), oxygen sensors (!), repair for the raft!- duct tape and a patch kit AND a pump to reinflate your raft! It doesn't take much! I'd really like to see more from you and your team! NOT hear about a group of under prepared urban explorers is going to be buried in a few weeks after the autopsies.... Stay SAFE! The trick is to make it just LOOK more dangerous then it really is!
Thanks for your concern. We did have water with us and also a patch kit, first aid kit, and a manual pump in case of a hole. We have explored these systems many times prior to filming this video so kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into.
Man, you guys need some puncture resistant and preferably waterproof boots. Seeing you in sneakers made me pretty nervous. A nail in the foot is pretty bad, I can't imagine a 60 year old rusty nail that has been marinaded in that water for a half-century would be any better.
I grew up on Nicolett Island in the '80s (rent was about $50 a month and most of the houses were abandoned). There was a gated off tunnel on the west side of the island that I could never get into. On the north side of the island there were little caves in the limestone that homeless lived it. Lots of secrets down there....Super cool to see this!
As a grandma aged person, have you considered working for the Water Dept? Infrastructure always needs repair. It pays well. People will always need water service. Most cities water crews are nearing retirement and strong young adventurers like yourself are needed. Hope you don't mind my sayin or suggesting.
Sounds like the typical bad job advice Ive heard from old people not understanding how out of touch they are. You don’t get hired on “enthusiasm” unless the job is absolute trash jfc.
@kayhoww you've got a snotty attitude. that means you must know everything,or you need to learn to be respectful. I guarantee you ain't as smart as you think you are.
They dug the channels and tunnels first then built up the support walls. Then they built the roof. The masons were likely working under blue sky until the roof phase began.
@Free4ALL I am an engineer in Chicago area. I always like to look at the abandoned and sometimes functioning infrastructure from years past. I take down information from machinery, cisterns, pumps and pipes to try to understand what they had built and why. It's a fascinating look at solving problems from time long past. I try to imagine the workmen creating these spaces and I wonder what they were thinking at the time. Fascinating work you do. Important also. Be safe and yes I subscribed!
Glad to see the next generation urban exploring showing people these still exist i could show you where we use to host rave in the 90s in the caves in mpls/STP
My first rave was in the summer of '96 in the cave behind the bait shop. What an experience! I remember when the big bass notes would hit, sand would lightly sprinkle down from the ceiling! Have explored a bunch of the caves in the area since, including the St. Paul Fire Dept's haunted cave. Even fell though the floor there (only 2 or 3') in one of the haunted house sets. That got the blood pumping! I'm still raving, are you? Would love to meet another old school brother!
@@Lost_AtSea_ where do you get your idea from? This area was filled with flour mills on both sides of the river and the falls were made for powering said mills. They went in at the Stone Arch bridge which was the railroad the mills used.
@@Lost_AtSea_you can also see the boarded up entry points for the train cars just north of where they entered and on the opposite side of the river. Grew up a mile from here and my dad retired from the sewer Dept for Minneapolis. He had never once mentioned that he would have to raft down the tunnels. We had tons of Mpls sewer Dept rain and water gear at my cabin growing up. If they had rafts I'm sure my dad would have brought one home. We had four pairs of waiters from the sewer Dept.
Nestled along the foothills of northeast Los Angeles, there's a gulch named Arroyo Seco. Rains from the mountains would wash down and into the gulch, then down into a water channel that also connected all the gutters on Yosemite Street in the town of Eagle Rock where I had once lived. Me and a friend would go down into that 5 foot water channel to walk for about a mile in it, sometimes only using candles or Bic lighters for light We would finally pop up from a manhole cover. Sometimes we'd just jump out from a street gutter, too, if we couldn't get the manhole cover we wanted to open up. Not all would open for us. One rainy afternoon we heard a far-off rumbling noise and kept wondering what it was. It sounded as if it was growing louder by the minute, too. Then we heard and saw a fast moving stream of water coming towards us. In seconds it was at our feet and rushing far ahead of us. We started acting angry because our shoes had gotten all wet. It was always 100% dry every time we'd gone down there. It was then that we remembered it had started to sprinkle hard when we first went down in there a half-hour before. Then the odd noise grew much louder, and it even had an odd echo to it. So we got really, really scared and ran. We remembered how they had said the mountain rain water would rush into the water channel within minutes. When we had gotten to the first manhole exit we could find, we climbed up the metal rungs and got the heck out of there. We were so thankful that we could get it open. Just a few seconds after we had climbed out, as we stood there in the rain, we could easily hear the sound of water rushing past where we had just recently been. I stuck my head back down the manhole's hole to see how much there was and saw that the whole channel was completely filled with fast rushing water, flowing right past like a garden hose streams out water. If we hadn't escaped when we did we might have never been seen again. Our bodies would have been taken all the way to a 2-mile-offshore storm water discharge that was deep underwater off of Long Beach, over 20 miles away from us. Needless to say, that was the very last time we ventured back down there. Before that it had been an adventurous habit we had gotten into. We were 11-13 when we had been doing that stupid thing.
@@JimD77 Back then, at our young age, danger was just a "bragging rights" thing to dare each other into doing together so we could boast about it to all our other friends later on. "I will if you will too!" was the name of our game. "Sometimes you'll never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory" Dr. Seuss said that quote.
If you were smarter about it you could have checked the weather report before going in so as to be sure you wouldn't be swallowed away by the rain! Hard to think of for a 12 year old of course.
Lived in mpls for for decades and had no idea this existed! FYI, downtown mpls has a private tunnel system since the 80's used for a fiber backbone for connectivity that was fun to explore in the early 90's.
I have heard from a security officer that guards the fomer Dayton's Department store located in downtown Minneapolis that a tunnel system is located beneath the building.
You should try use some kind of device to track your path underground and then retrace your path above ground to see what’s above the places you were at in the tunnels.
Just curious, what type of device are you thinking of? Gps isn't going to be very effective in there. Maybe just graphing it out by hand would work. Would be interesting to see if old city records had a map available.
In the late 80's I worked at this place on a maintenance team, it was on portland and washington, we put a hole six feet through the concrete floor and it opened into the drain system. we built a special grinder that would grind cans and bottles of mainly simlac, saline solution, baby milk products, drugs, shampoo, conditioner, hair coloring.. digital thermometers, hypodermic needles, lots of weird stuff was turned into liquid waste (and was filtered) then would go down into that drain-hole. We converted 3-5 50 gallon steel drums worth per day, this stuff was waste from the two major hospitals in downtown Minneapolis. I cannot recall where the shampoo and related stuff was from exactly, some downtown place that sold it.
@@blackdirtlover WE, I've lived here in Minneapolis since April '92, I turned 3 that May. Just cause you live/grow up somewhere for years doesn't mean you know everything about you City's history.
My dad and grandfather were plumbers and pipefitters. Dad told me about plumbers working down in those tunnels when one of them yelled "Here they come!" They all laid down flat and a swarm of rats ran right over them and kept going.
It's been over 20 years but I've been in some of those tunnels. We got in via an unlocked maintenance hatch and saw some crazy rivers under the city. Only there an hour or two because of the smell of natural gas, and of course people in our group were smoking. hah.
Cool shit but next time plz wear wader boots so you can be more comfortable and safe lol that water is fucked up. Did you ever get the smell off your shoes?
Wow!!! 16:06, you see "VAULT" graffitied on the wall. Vault has been all across Wisconsin from what I understand. Everyone who reads this, atart paying attention in Midwest urbex videos for VAULT. I wonder if vault is a team instead of a person, because that's insane!!!
and here I am loving how we used to hop over the railing and climb down to that support truss right next to the barges waiting in the lock; it was fun to look down at them and watch the locks work. I didn't realize the old mill tunnels were still accessible, or I'd have made the co-worker I went with there (a dude nicknamed Captain Q and deserved it lol) regularly to climb below the bridge and smoke a bit while telling stories. Odd detail, my recent neighbor for a decade was working there back then, running the locks. Jesse's big brother actually. We live in a small world sometimes.
This shit is crazy. Seattle and portland has their whole underground privatized and even commercialized in some parts. I know Cincinnati has a sick system underneath it from the abandoned subway but i NEVER heard of the ones here in Minneapolis... those look crazy.
That deflated raft is a challenger 2. It was there a year ago. It look like it got bad reviews -maybe that is why it deflated! So that is why I bought the seahawk 3 but haven’t used it yet.
Checkout the hidden well house (Bloomington MN) in the woods along the bluffs. Take Lyndale Ave south past 106th street. Walk east of Lyndale along the bluffs. If you find the abandoned cars in the ravine you've gone to far. The well house is less than 500 feet east of Lyndale Ave south. I can't wait!!
Yes there are some interesting things like that along the rivers. At one point in time you could travel from Richfield's Wood Lake Nature Center via drainage tunnels south for miles down under Bloomington to the Mn. River but so much has been re-done that I doubt its still possible, plus there was a lot of walking bent over so it wasn't for everybody. The tunnels and elevators under the old Ford plant along the Mississippi where they mined the material for all the auto windshields/windows would be amazing as well, but I think most of the levels are flooded now.
@jimbeekman4863 - Not the Gideon Pond House, right? I have never seen the hidden well house, I don't think I've seen any cars in a ravine either. Can you reply with the lat/long coordinates?
Maybe consider welly boots, or even fishing waders next time. And who knows what fumes are down there so a mask might be a good idea too. ALSO, an uninflated backup raft in case the first one gets punctured. Tell someone where you're going just in case and take a first aid kit next time, you go enough people.
I was almost expecting to see barnacles and head crabs. The new Bassett Creek tunnel is supposed to empty into the Mississippi where those old flour mill tunnels are. The old creek tunnel enters just down river from the Plymouth bridge, but the engineers decided it would likely fail in a 100 year flood. The new route is under the rail line by Target Field then turns and goes under 2nd Street S. At the intersection with 2nd Ave there are enclosures in the street for the tunnel. St Paul has a lot of tunnels and caves too.
Just make sure you take with you what you took in with you. Saw other vids of the car cave in England and it was disgusting the amount of trash that was left behind after previous urbex'ers went in there. Big props to the other Urbex guys that went in there and cleaned it up.
Oh, wow. Every time watching horror movies I thought: “Oh, gosh, so unrealistic, people can’t be that stupid and reckless! It was so obvious that they will die! Make a better script than adrenaline junkies carefree rich parents teenagers trope!” But here we are… Thanks for giving inspiration though, for my future horror books. Stay safe. And take at least first aid kit with you.
Cool video, I know this serial killer fella Who lives down in those exact same tunnels.. It's funny you must have just missed him while he was up top at the laundromat ,,\,____(👁
Extremely dangerous and woefully unprepared for this. Confined spaces with little to no oxygen means all of you would just get dizzy, pass out and die and no one would ever know where you were. Climbing those handholds 12:40 was the worst moment, extremely stupid thing to try. So many other things wrong here.
I heard of an old story years ago about a small lake under the old Minneapolis post office. There was a rowboat in the lake. I heard that there was a door in the post office that led to the lake and that it was locked. I heard this story many years ago from an old man.
"Rafting under Minneapolis in Abandoned Tunnels" - otherwise known as "The best way to contract Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and/or a dozen other incurable diseases!"
Super interesting to me how basically every large city has some sort of infrastructure like this just sitting there, whether it’s still in use or not.. pretty wild to me that is
😂 The way they estimate how long things have been there is hilarious. 1) That raft has been there… a long time it’s deflated 😂 2) That ladder has been in there for… Who knows how long 😂 Like they are too scared to take a guess 😂😂😂 Yeah she is pregnant and had the baby yesterday…. Who know how long since she got pregnant 😂😂😂😂
Suggestions: On the AT we wear Headlights. The lights you have are excellent for what you are about to do. Extra lights on the HEAD. Is cool. Extra backup is good. If I did the ladder as an old guy, grab it and bridge. Awesome.
You'd be surprised how many big cities have vast underground tunnel systems that not many know about. Downtown Phoenix AZ has tons of abandoned tunnels. Some are hiding in plain sight, while others have been cemented shut.
thats crazy.. ive lived near phx area my whole, never knew of any tunnels (not that i would even have known to look for that info).. what were the tunnels used for? (if you know) bet its like an oven down there 🥵
This is giving me crazy Tomb Raider II vibes! Pretty sure if you get into the water and swim around a bit you'll find a jade dragon and some uzzi clips. Watch out for the rats tho...
I'm guessing these are all just tunnels left from all the flour mills, especially since you went in at Stone Arch bridge and for the falls that produced the water energy to run the mills
Hahahaha wtf just showed up in my recommended. this looks so fun and terrifying all at the same time. imagine the tube popped while you guys were stuck in the water.
The place that I work on the other side of the bridge has smaller tunnels that lead into that system. Old steam tunnels that ran the machinery back in the day. The place with the 4 big smoke stacks on the north side of the SA Bridge is still a steam plant that supplies heat to the UofM if I'm not mistaken.
When I was at the U nearly 20 years ago, I had coworkers who talked about getting into the steam tunnels under the campus, but they were locked up tight around 2005, according to them.
I love UE for all the reasons you mention.....but do it smarter!! A cheap $200- hard bottom kayak would of been a MUCH better choice. In fact the majority of your gear was totally inadequate. boots? methane detectors?? nothing you wore was even water proof ?
You should NEVER go in a raft with out enough beer and snacks. I am from Wisconsin and we all know this rule.
GOATED COMMENT! 🤣 thank you for this
@@Free4Allis that the tunnel which goes from lake Minnetonka to the Mississippi River?
Not underground. That's the only exception due to many dangers
liningugs beer and cub supermarket
Yes, you're right!
Interesting video, but, as a man old enough to be your father, I'd say you all were woefully underprepared to go tunnel adventure rafting in this spot. I was a former land surveyor/civil engineer and did many surveys for both the city of Minneapolis and the city of St. Paul on their tunnel systems back 20 years ago. Months spent underground as we helped digitally map them so they could come up with a plan. We had oxygen sensors, back up breathing apparatuses, full body protection (with boots, c'mon man!) and many other things to help us in case of trouble.
Your cell phones don't work down there, if you have walkie talkies, they don't work down there, and vocally, your voice diminishes quickly if there was a problem. It was some of my best work when I was engineering, but it was also dangerous. Have more prep work done for your next adventure. I'm not telling you to not explore, but, think a little bit ahead about the what if's.
And the reason it's mostly a dead end now is the result of our work. The City came in to shut down areas that could be trouble or problematic if someone just happened to end up so far in that they couldn't get back out... or panicked...
Not to be an old man, but, it only takes one mistake... Peace to you all..
Your comment needs to be number one. Imagine if their phones slipped into the water, or their batteries died, they’d be in hopeless darkness. Or worse any of the things you pointed out. People just assume everything will be okay.
Thank you for taking the time to post, I'm glad you guys blocked off areas that were problematic.
Agree, and what if something tore a hole in their raft. Wouldn't the water be septic or something else?
You make some good points, but you are talking to young men. The risk of death and dismemberment is part of the attraction.
Thank you for speaking up, great advice, sound reasons for that advice, teaching how to explore safely. I like it. ❤
Me 30 years ago: I want to do this
Me now: This looks extremely dangerous for several reasons
These are penstocks to the turbine pits. Minneapolis used to harness the water from Saint Anthony Falls and these tunnels are for getting water to the turbines that powered the Mills in both sides of the river. Just in case anyone doesn’t know this.
Do you know when tunnel was built ?
A lot of this stuff was built in the late 1860s through the 1870s.
@@tholtan Thank you 👍
was pretty sure they werent meant for some crazy guys to raft arround
The old flour mill dayz, right?? 🤔
We got up that tunnel and many others down stream with kayaks many years ago. Much easier in a skinny, low draft boat like a kyak and you dont have to worry about popping your raft.... oh, and you dont have to sneak in at night. You can just paddle in anytime you want... PS- going into those tunnels during rain is a really bad idea. People have been killed in those tunnels by flash flooding.
Listen: You should be bringing a PATCH KIT, GOOD DUCT TAPE and a PUMP in case of puncture! They use duct tape to repair inflatables in Alaska in case of puncture out in the bush. You do not want to get marooned deep under there and have no way out other than to walk...especially if the tunnels flood deeply.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Then again I don't think the water in those tunnels would be too deep though. Probably walkable but not fun.
@@TheMattC9999 Right, but just like Alaska is, you are venturing into a potential for ANYTHING to go wrong...at any time...and it's usually stuff you don't "worry about" that gets you....but...they could probably walk out....what about flash floods though or injury...you get what I"m saying....most likely end up with a good adventure story...hard to tell though...or ...an alligator someone flushed down the toilet after it was no longer cute lol....
Has to be completely dry for duck tape to work.
@@Togo-420 Yes of course....people dry their rafts before they use the duct tape. That's how.
Happened to me on the Chicago river. Someone had dumped busted concrete into the water and the rebar punctured our raft. Luckily we were in the city and just walked back
What's wild to me is sometime along time ago, it was some ones job to make those tunnels. Blasting rocks, laying brick, everything was made by people. People who had hopes, dreams, families, lives, and now their hard work lay dormant under the city. I hope they all had meaningful and successful lives.
Thanks for sharing the footage.
Those who came before.
And you have to wonder what it looked like all brand new and clean
@@ssShockRyder It looked brand new and clean. Lol. ;)
It’s all sandstone caverns. Wasn’t hard at all to dig them out.
The workers that constructed these years ago were the same as coal miners … doing back breaking labor, for minimum wage without instance paying all their wages to the company store, unable to retire when their bodies gave out by 50 and died of black lung - not the dream of working hard to get ahead and afford your children an opportunity for better 🦊
As an old school graffiti writer from 80’s and 90’s NYC, who has traveled the NYC Subway tunnels, freight lines, dead lines, a place we called the Freedom Tunnels, and everywhere else a human can manage to get to, even for a guy like myself, it STILL bugs me out how no matter where, or far into, these weird, hard to get to, no reason to go to, out of the way places, you’re ALWAYS gonna find some graffiti.
No matter where in the heck it is, some idiot like me with a spray can has already been through there.
You got to see the freedom tunnels with your eyes??? Dude you're a damn legend
I totally feel this comment 😂 except I'm from Holland but I can relate to the fact that there is graffiti absolutely EVERYWHERE 😂 even if its just one throwie of something 😂
It's like IRL Dark Souls messages.
Enter from the inlet across from Boom island park on the west side of the river and be amazed! There's been a Full bar and a underground gambling operation in there it used to even have a roulette wheel. You should also think about investing in a air monitor if you're going to be doing this, there's stuff in some place that can kill you pretty quick
This is dangerous. Their phone light can die quickly, or can fall in the water and then they’re effed. Anything can happen. These guys aren’t as prepared as they should’ve been.
Is it still active?
Basset creek.
Goes underground at the worth golf course. Used to be open through buildings on Washington ave. Just east of bunkers.
You went wrong several places and glad you did fine. 1st you need an air monitor, 2nd you should be using hard kayaks or a lightweight canoe so it won't puncture on obstructions essentially stranding you. 3rd bring lots of extra lights batteries and gear including fishing poles. I mean cmon man what's wrong with you guys where's the fishing gear. Most important thing however is you should have not gone when it was actively raining or high chances of rain in the forecast. Those tunnels can fill up quickly either trapping you and getting your raft lost, or drowning. Things can fill up quickly and unexpectedly in these situations. Best not to be underground in a storm drain type area when it rains.
Interesting, I'm in southern MN , never knew that bout the cities. Thanks for sharing
Famous last words..... seems sturdy 😂
No rain boots? No gloves? 😅
I live not far from here. What an insane and otherworldly secret area. 🤯
no boots is CRAZY, i would have waders on, minimum
Brought their stupidity !
You definitely should have had more prep work for this underground adventure. So many things that can go wrong. Food, water, rope, first aid, and rubber waterproof boots (!), oxygen sensors (!), repair for the raft!- duct tape and a patch kit AND a pump to reinflate your raft! It doesn't take much! I'd really like to see more from you and your team! NOT hear about a group of under prepared urban explorers is going to be buried in a few weeks after the autopsies....
Stay SAFE! The trick is to make it just LOOK more dangerous then it really is!
Thanks for your concern. We did have water with us and also a patch kit, first aid kit, and a manual pump in case of a hole. We have explored these systems many times prior to filming this video so kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into.
Man, you guys need some puncture resistant and preferably waterproof boots. Seeing you in sneakers made me pretty nervous. A nail in the foot is pretty bad, I can't imagine a 60 year old rusty nail that has been marinaded in that water for a half-century would be any better.
regular sneakers and jeans, terrible
Former Minnesota spelunking member. Our guys did this in the mid 1980s. They used a metal canoe. hoot.
I grew up on Nicolett Island in the '80s (rent was about $50 a month and most of the houses were abandoned). There was a gated off tunnel on the west side of the island that I could never get into. On the north side of the island there were little caves in the limestone that homeless lived it. Lots of secrets down there....Super cool to see this!
As a grandma aged person, have you considered working for the Water Dept? Infrastructure always needs repair. It pays well. People will always need water service. Most cities water crews are nearing retirement and strong young adventurers like yourself are needed.
Hope you don't mind my sayin or suggesting.
I just did a tour of the St. Cloud Water Treatment Facility this place definitely resembles that
Sounds like the typical bad job advice Ive heard from old people not understanding how out of touch they are. You don’t get hired on “enthusiasm” unless the job is absolute trash jfc.
@kayhoww you've got a snotty attitude. that means you must know everything,or you need to learn to be respectful. I guarantee you ain't as smart as you think you are.
@@kayhoww You could simply have explained that things are different now and you would not have come across as a cunt.
Sounds like someone suggesting a useful and survivable outlet for people showing interest but lacking equipment, training, sense.
Just think of the masons that had to be down in those spaces laying all those bricks.
That is what I was thinking. To these guys it is an adventure....to someone else....it was just a job site and an income.
They dug the channels and tunnels first then built up the support walls. Then they built the roof.
The masons were likely working under blue sky until the roof phase began.
@@CountCraigula Right on brother, I was just about to answer that person comment with the exact same explanation you gave
11:58 "holy buckets" -- ok, confirmed that they are Minnesotans
@Free4ALL I am an engineer in Chicago area. I always like to look at the abandoned and sometimes functioning infrastructure from years past. I take down information from machinery, cisterns, pumps and pipes to try to understand what they had built and why. It's a fascinating look at solving problems from time long past. I try to imagine the workmen creating these spaces and I wonder what they were thinking at the time. Fascinating work you do. Important also. Be safe and yes I subscribed!
Jacked up buildings in Chicago should keep you busy.
Great place to hide from the Sky Net and the terminators
They just send infiltrate-units down there and clean out the humans real quick.
That’s a NOPE from me!! I’d have noped outta there back at blowing up the raft 😂
Glad to see the next generation urban exploring showing people these still exist i could show you where we use to host rave in the 90s in the caves in mpls/STP
My friends daughter died in those caves. Very dangerous
How big were the raves?!
My first rave was in the summer of '96 in the cave behind the bait shop. What an experience! I remember when the big bass notes would hit, sand would lightly sprinkle down from the ceiling!
Have explored a bunch of the caves in the area since, including the St. Paul Fire Dept's haunted cave. Even fell though the floor there (only 2 or 3') in one of the haunted house sets. That got the blood pumping!
I'm still raving, are you? Would love to meet another old school brother!
Discharge tunnels for the old water powered mills. The giant vertical pipes are the discharge draft tubes for the water turbines.
All made with horse and wagon 😂
Very interesting, thank you!
Don’t know we’re you got that information but these are nothing more than stormwater runoff tunnels for all of downtown Minneapolis.
@@Lost_AtSea_ where do you get your idea from? This area was filled with flour mills on both sides of the river and the falls were made for powering said mills. They went in at the Stone Arch bridge which was the railroad the mills used.
@@Lost_AtSea_you can also see the boarded up entry points for the train cars just north of where they entered and on the opposite side of the river. Grew up a mile from here and my dad retired from the sewer Dept for Minneapolis. He had never once mentioned that he would have to raft down the tunnels. We had tons of Mpls sewer Dept rain and water gear at my cabin growing up. If they had rafts I'm sure my dad would have brought one home. We had four pairs of waiters from the sewer Dept.
Legend says the scooter company is still looking for that scooter on top.
I mean this in the most respectful, in awe way; what the fuck
kudos to the group that hauled an extension ladder all the way in there!
Extremely stupid thing to do.
Extension ladder isn't meant to bear weight that way, their weight was being entirely by just the little clips that hold the two sections together
Nestled along the foothills of northeast Los Angeles, there's a gulch named Arroyo Seco. Rains from the mountains would wash down and into the gulch, then down into a water channel that also connected all the gutters on Yosemite Street in the town of Eagle Rock where I had once lived. Me and a friend would go down into that 5 foot water channel to walk for about a mile in it, sometimes only using candles or Bic lighters for light We would finally pop up from a manhole cover. Sometimes we'd just jump out from a street gutter, too, if we couldn't get the manhole cover we wanted to open up. Not all would open for us. One rainy afternoon we heard a far-off rumbling noise and kept wondering what it was. It sounded as if it was growing louder by the minute, too. Then we heard and saw a fast moving stream of water coming towards us. In seconds it was at our feet and rushing far ahead of us. We started acting angry because our shoes had gotten all wet. It was always 100% dry every time we'd gone down there. It was then that we remembered it had started to sprinkle hard when we first went down in there a half-hour before. Then the odd noise grew much louder, and it even had an odd echo to it. So we got really, really scared and ran. We remembered how they had said the mountain rain water would rush into the water channel within minutes. When we had gotten to the first manhole exit we could find, we climbed up the metal rungs and got the heck out of there. We were so thankful that we could get it open. Just a few seconds after we had climbed out, as we stood there in the rain, we could easily hear the sound of water rushing past where we had just recently been. I stuck my head back down the manhole's hole to see how much there was and saw that the whole channel was completely filled with fast rushing water, flowing right past like a garden hose streams out water. If we hadn't escaped when we did we might have never been seen again. Our bodies would have been taken all the way to a 2-mile-offshore storm water discharge that was deep underwater off of Long Beach, over 20 miles away from us. Needless to say, that was the very last time we ventured back down there. Before that it had been an adventurous habit we had gotten into. We were 11-13 when we had been doing that stupid thing.
Ok to do stuff like that, but watch the forecast for sure.
@@JimD77 Back then, at our young age, danger was just a "bragging rights" thing to dare each other into doing together so we could boast about it to all our other friends later on. "I will if you will too!" was the name of our game. "Sometimes you'll never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory" Dr. Seuss said that quote.
@@BeeFunKnee I couldn't blame peer pressure, I did stuff like that on my own till like age 40 lol
@@JimD77 "Age can't hope to win as long as your heart is young." That's what the fortune cookie once told me anyways!
If you were smarter about it you could have checked the weather report before going in so as to be sure you wouldn't be swallowed away by the rain! Hard to think of for a 12 year old of course.
Lived in mpls for for decades and had no idea this existed! FYI, downtown mpls has a private tunnel system since the 80's used for a fiber backbone for connectivity that was fun to explore in the early 90's.
I have heard from a security officer that guards the fomer Dayton's Department store located in downtown Minneapolis that a tunnel system is located beneath the building.
Most cities h had these downtown for train deliveries to stores. A few rail cars could be pulled through by a a small engine
Ya. All i remember best is of the caves in west st paul ..never knew of these either ..
Me too! Lived here my entire life
You just said you didn’t know, now an fyi?? I’m here now. Tell me
I worked in downtown Mpls a lot, never knew of these tunnels. I had read about the ones under St. Paul.
You should try use some kind of device to track your path underground and then retrace your path above ground to see what’s above the places you were at in the tunnels.
Just curious, what type of device are you thinking of? Gps isn't going to be very effective in there. Maybe just graphing it out by hand would work. Would be interesting to see if old city records had a map available.
@@bhambhole You could do it with photogrammetry or LIDAR scanning
@@plixplop not familiar with photogrammetry. I will have to look that up. Thank you for answering my question!
Famous last words. " It seems sturdy"
uBet
@@TheMadisonHang I've lived in Minneapolis most my life... Never knew about this spot. Thanks for the adventure time
What…… could possibly go ….🎉
In the late 80's I worked at this place on a maintenance team, it was on portland and washington, we put a hole six feet through the concrete floor and it opened into the drain system. we built a special grinder that would grind cans and bottles of mainly simlac, saline solution, baby milk products, drugs, shampoo, conditioner, hair coloring.. digital thermometers, hypodermic needles, lots of weird stuff was turned into liquid waste (and was filtered) then would go down into that drain-hole. We converted 3-5 50 gallon steel drums worth per day, this stuff was waste from the two major hospitals in downtown Minneapolis. I cannot recall where the shampoo and related stuff was from exactly, some downtown place that sold it.
😂😂😂 OK 👌 💉
There are so many cities out there with hidden tunnels underneath that hardly anyone knows about. Dallas where I live has a huge network
Where can I learn about these tunnels in Dallas? 😂
You've NO CLUE how much history is there
MICHELLE GIBSON, JON LEVI, AUTODIDACTIC, PAUL COOK -- these are some excellent youtubers in the occulted history
I could only imagine. First thought that came to my mind.
Paul Cook kicks ass❤@@ToxiCom-777
Creepy dead or sex fetish goes down in those places
I had no idea we had tunnels like this in Minneapolis
Then you're not really from Minneapolis 😂
@@blackdirtlover WE, I've lived here in Minneapolis since April '92, I turned 3 that May. Just cause you live/grow up somewhere for years doesn't mean you know everything about you City's history.
My dad and grandfather were plumbers and pipefitters. Dad told me about plumbers working down in those tunnels when one of them yelled "Here they come!" They all laid down flat and a swarm of rats ran right over them and kept going.
Aaahhh!! No way i'd go down there.
That's what that little hole is for near the ground when they first start.
What was chasing the rats?
@@emmaearnshaw3282 an alligator
Hahaha..........Eeeeeeewwwwwww!!
It's been over 20 years but I've been in some of those tunnels. We got in via an unlocked maintenance hatch and saw some crazy rivers under the city. Only there an hour or two because of the smell of natural gas, and of course people in our group were smoking. hah.
natural gas is odorless...........................
That place looks like IT'S lair " expected pennywise to jump out at any moment"! Cool explore fellas!👍😎👍😎👍😎👍😎✌️
Cool shit but next time plz wear wader boots so you can be more comfortable and safe lol that water is fucked up. Did you ever get the smell off your shoes?
Wow!!! 16:06, you see "VAULT" graffitied on the wall. Vault has been all across Wisconsin from what I understand. Everyone who reads this, atart paying attention in Midwest urbex videos for VAULT. I wonder if vault is a team instead of a person, because that's insane!!!
Hopping in at the stone arch bridge?
I see you
🍻
and here I am loving how we used to hop over the railing and climb down to that support truss right next to the barges waiting in the lock; it was fun to look down at them and watch the locks work. I didn't realize the old mill tunnels were still accessible, or I'd have made the co-worker I went with there (a dude nicknamed Captain Q and deserved it lol) regularly to climb below the bridge and smoke a bit while telling stories. Odd detail, my recent neighbor for a decade was working there back then, running the locks. Jesse's big brother actually. We live in a small world sometimes.
These guys releasing their inner Goonies.
This shit is crazy. Seattle and portland has their whole underground privatized and even commercialized in some parts. I know Cincinnati has a sick system underneath it from the abandoned subway but i NEVER heard of the ones here in Minneapolis... those look crazy.
That deflated raft is a challenger 2. It was there a year ago. It look like it got bad reviews -maybe that is why it deflated! So that is why I bought the seahawk 3 but haven’t used it yet.
I'm not getting into any craft (space bound or otherwise) named "challenger"
Checkout the hidden well house (Bloomington MN) in the woods along the bluffs. Take Lyndale Ave south past 106th street. Walk east of Lyndale along the bluffs. If you find the abandoned cars in the ravine you've gone to far. The well house is less than 500 feet east of Lyndale Ave south. I can't wait!!
Yes there are some interesting things like that along the rivers. At one point in time you could travel from Richfield's Wood Lake Nature Center via drainage tunnels south for miles down under Bloomington to the Mn. River but so much has been re-done that I doubt its still possible, plus there was a lot of walking bent over so it wasn't for everybody. The tunnels and elevators under the old Ford plant along the Mississippi where they mined the material for all the auto windshields/windows would be amazing as well, but I think most of the levels are flooded now.
@jimbeekman4863 - Not the Gideon Pond House, right? I have never seen the hidden well house, I don't think I've seen any cars in a ravine either. Can you reply with the lat/long coordinates?
Interesting. This looks like an adventure full of potential danger and mystery.
Maybe consider welly boots, or even fishing waders next time. And who knows what fumes are down there so a mask might be a good idea too. ALSO, an uninflated backup raft in case the first one gets punctured. Tell someone where you're going just in case and take a first aid kit next time, you go enough people.
I was almost expecting to see barnacles and head crabs.
The new Bassett Creek tunnel is supposed to empty into the Mississippi where those old flour mill tunnels are. The old creek tunnel enters just down river from the Plymouth bridge, but the engineers decided it would likely fail in a 100 year flood. The new route is under the rail line by Target Field then turns and goes under 2nd Street S. At the intersection with 2nd Ave there are enclosures in the street for the tunnel.
St Paul has a lot of tunnels and caves too.
Get u a pair a boots hommie
Just make sure you take with you what you took in with you. Saw other vids of the car cave in England and it was disgusting the amount of trash that was left behind after previous urbex'ers went in there. Big props to the other Urbex guys that went in there and cleaned it up.
Oh, wow. Every time watching horror movies I thought: “Oh, gosh, so unrealistic, people can’t be that stupid and reckless! It was so obvious that they will die! Make a better script than adrenaline junkies carefree rich parents teenagers trope!”
But here we are…
Thanks for giving inspiration though, for my future horror books.
Stay safe.
And take at least first aid kit with you.
Cool video, I know this serial killer fella Who lives down in those exact same tunnels.. It's funny you must have just missed him while he was up top at the laundromat ,,\,____(👁
RIP BHO😂 with cannabis leafs all around. Says it is some kind of memorial😂 lol. It's a memorial For the death of Butane. Live Rosin lives forever!❤❤❤
Extremely dangerous and woefully unprepared for this. Confined spaces with little to no oxygen means all of you would just get dizzy, pass out and die and no one would ever know where you were. Climbing those handholds 12:40 was the worst moment, extremely stupid thing to try. So many other things wrong here.
I heard of an old story years ago about a small lake under the old Minneapolis post office. There was a rowboat in the lake. I heard that there was a door in the post office that led to the lake and that it was locked. I heard this story many years ago from an old man.
"Rafting under Minneapolis in Abandoned Tunnels" - otherwise known as "The best way to contract Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and/or a dozen other incurable diseases!"
Yeah you dont see things like that anymore the work they put into these tunnels is oustandung truly amazing
Actually I just took a tour of the St. Cloud water treatment facility and it was very much like this except up and running lol
Super interesting to me how basically every large city has some sort of infrastructure like this just sitting there, whether it’s still in use or not.. pretty wild to me that is
I keep thinking ," what if you break a leg down there?"
😂 The way they estimate how long things have been there is hilarious.
1) That raft has been there… a long time it’s deflated 😂
2) That ladder has been in there for… Who knows how long 😂
Like they are too scared to take a guess 😂😂😂
Yeah she is pregnant and had the baby yesterday…. Who know how long since she got pregnant 😂😂😂😂
looks ancient reminds me of Erie Canal
What does it smell like?! Where did you go in from? Stone Arch?
I subbed from MN and I never had known this existed.
Suggestions: On the AT we wear Headlights. The lights you have are excellent for what you are about to do. Extra lights on the HEAD. Is cool. Extra backup is good. If I did the ladder as an old guy, grab it and bridge. Awesome.
No roaches rats spiders worms 🐛. Zero life of any type. That place is highly toxic.
You'd be surprised how many big cities have vast underground tunnel systems that not many know about. Downtown Phoenix AZ has tons of abandoned tunnels. Some are hiding in plain sight, while others have been cemented shut.
thats crazy.. ive lived near phx area my whole, never knew of any tunnels (not that i would even have known to look for that info).. what were the tunnels used for? (if you know) bet its like an oven down there 🥵
You're telling me that thing you took a picture of at 9:13 is NOT a body???
This is giving me crazy Tomb Raider II vibes! Pretty sure if you get into the water and swim around a bit you'll find a jade dragon and some uzzi clips. Watch out for the rats tho...
I love seeing people still going to these places.
I'm thinking sleestacks gonna jump out
Its so crazy what lies beneath the cities of the world.
I'm guessing these are all just tunnels left from all the flour mills, especially since you went in at Stone Arch bridge and for the falls that produced the water energy to run the mills
perfect horror movie setting
Many cities have old water power tunnels lost to time
This looks cool. I sank a boat in an abandoned coal mine here in Pennsylvania once. Sketchy experience for sure. Lol. Subbed.
This is great. I've been through the St.Paul tunnels for work quite a bit. Thanks and keep them coming!!!
Appreciate it! New rafting mission video coming out at 10:00 am central time tomorrow!
These tumnels are very old. Much older than what the narrative says. Much much older....
Three words; POPPED, RAFT, SCREWED!
people find a way to get those damn scooters anywhere lmao
Hahahaha wtf just showed up in my recommended. this looks so fun and terrifying all at the same time. imagine the tube popped while you guys were stuck in the water.
Stone arch entrance? No way! Get hold of a tiny Jon boat. The aluminum will save you a swim
That it at least a kayak, anything you don't have to worry about puncturing and deflating.
The place that I work on the other side of the bridge has smaller tunnels that lead into that system. Old steam tunnels that ran the machinery back in the day. The place with the 4 big smoke stacks on the north side of the SA Bridge is still a steam plant that supplies heat to the UofM if I'm not mistaken.
When I was at the U nearly 20 years ago, I had coworkers who talked about getting into the steam tunnels under the campus, but they were locked up tight around 2005, according to them.
Watching the ladder scene was like watching Ellie and Joel in Last of Us. Nice teamwork!
Good old American steel 🙌🏻
I knew about the tunnels in St Paul. Been in those in the mid 80’s but had no idea about these.
We used to go to some sandy caves in St Paul around '83/'84. Not sure if that's the same place, but it was a party spot and fun to explore.
As someone who grew up here it’s so cool to see people exploring the same places I did with my urban exploring group back in 2017-2018
That was only a handful of years ago. Lol. The comment made it sound like decades ago. XD
This access very looks very familar
Well because of this video you just got my follow hoss
Remnants of the old world.
Next time, bring some water proof boots. And never trust 100+ year old cast iron pipes.
That'd be an interesting place to magnet fish.
There are definitely blocked off paths, it makes you wonder how could they been filled up so much
I’ve been back in there before! Same with the tunnels under St. Paul
Wonder how deep that water was ?
So freaking cool. Im from Minneapolis, but i aint doing this 😂. I hear one noise and im gone.
We all float down heeereee….🤡🤡🤡
yoooooo this is amazing!!!
Thanks so much! Appreciate it
Tetanus shot current?
Do they all Float down there ?
Flukeman lives in there, better be careful!
I love UE for all the reasons you mention.....but do it smarter!! A cheap $200- hard bottom kayak would of been a MUCH better choice. In fact the majority of your gear was totally inadequate. boots? methane detectors?? nothing you wore was even water proof ?