| Carver's Cave is a sandstone cave, approximately 35 meters long, at the foot of Dayton's Bluff near downtown St. Paul. Containing a spring-fed lake, it became the baptismal font of Minnesota caving when explorer Jonathan Carver visited it in 1766-67 and subsequently published his account, one of the first descriptions of a cave in the Upper Mississippi Valley north of Cave-in-Rock, Illinois. Since then, the cave has gone through the cycle of talusing shut and being dug open again, several times per century. Carver's Cave was most recently reopened with a front-end loader in 1977 by city officials and was thereafter secured with steel doors. Since then, a two-meter thick deposit of sand has accumulated below the bluff, burying the door and deepening the lake. Although still accessible today through a small opening, the cave will again be lost to view early in the new millennium. The 1913 reopening of Carver's Cave by Colwell generated the most publicity. At that time, a journalist named Burnley drafted a conjectural map showing large rooms beyond the sump at the rear of the cave. Probing the sump with poles today, there is good reason to believe that Burnley's rooms exist. The photo of the interior of Carver's Cave (below) was taken on September 18, 1999. I entered the cave to measure the temperature, pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen, of the cave lake. I was astounded by splashing noises coming from deep within the cave. I could just barely make out that there was an angry beaver in the cave with me, slapping his tail on the water! The beaver had already assembled the collection of sticks seen in the photo. |
| CARVER'S CAVE Copyright (c) 2001 Greg Brick |
| For the complete story of Carver's Cave, see the article by Alan & Nancy Woolworth. Musician John Knowles, voted Best Vocalist by City Pages, has been going down to Carver's Cave for years to find inspiration for his music, and has produced a series of CDs based on that theme. His latest CD is Cave Music IV: Mandatory Helmets. He often performs at the Turf Club on University Avenue in St. Paul. |
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