 |
| The North Star Brewery Cave is one of the oldest man-made caves in the Twin Cities, dating to 1855. Jacob Schmidt merged the North Star Brewing Co with Stahlmann's Brewery and moved the operation to Fort Road, creating the Schmidt Brewing Co. The North Star Cave was abandoned. Located along railroad tracks, it was perhaps inevitable that the cave would be taken over by vagrants, and to this day there is a large hobo jungle in an abandoned limestone quarry nearby. In 1946, William Nesbit, a jewel thief, escaped from a South Dakota prison and in 1950 was recaptured by the FBI in this very cave, where he had been living. Teenage boys turned him in. The North Star Cave contains a powerful spring at the back end, leaving much of the cave flooded. This is suggested in the photo below where you can see an abundance of green water cress, a plant commonly found at springs. |