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What's this guy doing? He's collecting water-quality data in Carver's Cave, in St. Paul. Wetsuits are mandatory, the water is cold! The discharge from the spring at the rear of the cave is 20 GPM. Using an AquaCheck, the following parameters were measured with the probe near the bottom of the water column at the rear sump of the cave, on March 27, 1999:
Water temperature: 51.6 degrees F
Conductivity: 937 microsiemens
pH: 6.69
Dissolved Oxygen: 4.0 PPM
Below is a photo of the abandoned North Star Brewery Cave, just upriver from Carver's Cave. Although it is an artificial cave, there is a powerful spring in the floor of the cave with a discharge comparable to that of Carver's Cave. Notice the bright green water-cress, a plant often seen at springs.
Be careful if you decide to visit the North Star Cave as it is located near a large hobo jungle in an abandoned Platteville quarry, and the FBI actually captured a fugitive in the cave years ago. One of the liabilities of spring-hunting, whether in St Paul or other cities, is that it frequently takes you through the gritty part of town. |
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This is a view looking out from the entrance of Fountain Cave, from an 1879 tourist brochure. Located near the intersection of Randolph and Shepard, in St. Paul, the cave still exists, but its entrance was sealed during the construction of Shepard Road in 1960. This sandstone cave was created by piping, or the washing away of sand grains by groundwater. The spring dried up early in the 20th century owing to urbanization. |
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