Trespassing by Kid A, Myrna Minx, memory machine, Zoo Babies Pet Animals
March 23rd, 2008 3:11 PM / Location: 38.591818,-90.21790St. Louis was once the beer-brewing capital of America (it's still a major industry) for a very practical reason; the entire city is built upon a huge and complex system of natural caves. No other city on earth has as many caves beneath its streets, sidewalks, and buildings. These caves allowed for the introduction of Lager to the United States by a German immigrant named Johann Adam Lemp. The term lager comes from the German verb lagern, meaning to stock or to store. Early German brewers stored their product in cooling caves during the summer, hence the use of the term.
So what does all this talk of beer and caves have to do with trespassing?
Weeeeell, around 1840 this Lemp fellow founded a very successful brewery over a cave. Cherokee Cave is the Holy Grail of exploration in St. Louis, because it is exceedingly difficult to get into, presuming you know how to find the entrance at all. Probably another reason people find it so fascinating is that the cave connects the brewery to the Lemp mansion, which is considered one of the most haunted places in the country due to the Lemp dynasty’s tragic history.
The Mansion:
I’m leaving St. Louis for graduate school this fall, but there’s no way I would leave without first doing a little urban spelunking.Problem: Entry
1. You can’t get into the cave except through the abandoned Lemp brewery, and they don’t want you in there.
2. If you manage to gain entry to the brewery, you still have to find the entrance to the cave, and…
3. The brewery is huge. And dark. And dangerous.
I began asking adventurous folks about town if they knew how to get in. I found only one person, who told me to break into one of the silos and jump over an elevator shaft. No.
I checked out a book called The Lost Caves of St. Louis, which purports to show the entrances to many of the city’s caves and map them out. It’s outdated by years of construction, but still has lots of great info on this and other caves.
I joined UER and Underground Ozarks, two urban exploration websites, hoping to find info there. But those who know are not telling. There’s always a little paranoia about who’s lurking about the site; could be a cop.
So I posted a little bit on one of UER’s forums about wanting to explore St. Louis and particularly Cherokee Cave, making sure to include a luscious self-portrait as bait. It worked. Soon I was planning an outing with an explorer named Memory Machine. He would take me and some friends into the cave. Awesome.
The Bait:
Memory Machine took us directly to one of the many buildings on the brewery's huge campus. It had 3 garage doors, the last of which was open by about a foot and a half. We rolled under. We had to lurk through the street levels of the building without our flashlights, which was dangerous as the roof had fallen in in many places and debris was everywhere. We had to drop down through a tiny grate and descend through three levels of basement. We had to pry open several locked, heavy metal doors with threatening NO TRESPASSING signs on them. We had a couple of scares; when we were halfway through the brewery but not yet to the cave, metallic clangs suddenly started resonating from an old mechanical elevator shaft. There is NO reason for that elevator to be operating- there is NOTHING in that building. Thinking we were caught, we booked it back several rooms and waited in pitch-black silence. I'm talking zero light. I could feel my pupils widening. MemMachine wanted to turn back, but i said No Way. Later I heard some whispers. We strained to listen until we didn't hear anything. Homeless? Finally we were in a narrow corridor- almost to the cave- when the sudden sound of rushing water through a pipe sent us all running like mad, giving us a nice adrenaline rush and a good laugh.
Remember the cave was used for brewing beer, so it's got some man-made additions. The Lemps also used it for entertainment; in the days before air conditioning, a cave was a real treat (St. Louis hits the 100's every summer, and is as humid as a rain forest). They built a warm and a cool pool, a theater, and a pub down there (all in ruins now). We found great stuff inside the cave, including prehistoric Peccary bones, a toilet, and a foam rubber finger. There is no air supply in the deepest parts, making it very difficult to breathe. Still, we spent nearly 2 hours exploring the brewery and cave, leaving no trace and escaping unscathed and undetected. It was AMAZING and I hope you enjoy the pictures.
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Proper nourishment is important. It's also important to meet your mystery guide in a public place to make sure he's not too creepy.
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We approach with stealth and cunning.
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We are now on the brewery campus, under the cover of darkness.
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We slide under this door...
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...into this room where the roof has fallen in.
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Al was here.
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The grate we had to drop through, and climb back out of.
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POP!
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Guys named Al like this place.
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I want this to be the door to my apartment.
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We still have to go down one more level.
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Laux the Fox and Christine navigating the rickety stairs. Calyx fell through one.
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No trespassing, you say? This is the 3rd basement, where the cave entrance is.
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Exit to what??? We are deep underground here.
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When someone beats you with a flashlight, you make light shine in all directions.
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Paul, 1951
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The cave is beyond this door.
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Our fearless guide taking it off the hinges.
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ooh, creepy...
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Christine wishes she didn't wear those sandals.
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The mouth of the cave, complete with sadistic-looking ceiling hooks.
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the ruins of one of the pools. now just a mud puddle.
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Artifact!
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what was once theatre lighting.
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Stalactites start out as spaghetti straws.
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a wicked cave formation.
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The other pool.
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This mud nearly pulled my galoshes off several times.
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The peccary was a Pleistocene mammal. These are some peccary bones.
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more peccary bones. You can't tell how translucent they are...
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The Black Dahlia. This part of the cave was being built out at the time of the famous murder. And this beautiful cave formation somehow gained that name, as well.
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This foam rubber finger was pointing at the Black Dahlia.
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Ooze. It had neat white bugs in it.
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The end! This was sealed off for the construction of a highway.
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Back outside.
62 vote(s)
- Minch
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Favorite of:
- Julian Muffinbot
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- meredithian
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Terms
abandoned19 comment(s)
Thank you for the history lesson:)
those abandoned underground pools are amazing. in your research, did you find any photos of those when they were in use?
holy crap now that's some tresspassing.
extra points for lockbreaking, extensive research/manipulation in getting a guide, and going somewhere DARK and SCARY but not turning back or chickening out - even when the strange noises came.
also, um, awesome bait.
Spelunk! Shplank! Both!
ms. muffinbot:
i looked for some pictures for you, to no avail. but in my mind everyone's swimming in these:
especially the last one on the right.
ms. minx:
omg. where did you find that picture of me and my friends at the beach??
This trespassing is the most awesome!
The Black Dahlia is beautifully gruesome. Speaking of... has anyone in ØAK managed to find her grave? It's in the same cemetery where old man Merritt is entombed.
Your craftiness in spelunking, danger, and bait will give you quite an advantage on April 19th. I may have to send special chasers after you two.
Yes, truly wonderful. "Wow" understates.
hey, i think my credit card is on the top of that pile in the second picture.... ten zillion votes for anybody who can zoom in on that number and buy something with it.
Awesome that you got in! I was down in the cave on March 2nd, and am going again this weekend. Question.....did you find any guitar picks at the Black Dahlia? We left 2 last month. I have taken a few interesting items and left them down there. BTW - they are turning the first sub-basement into a restaurant/shops soon, so the caves will be sealed very soon....
Oh my... restaurant and shops? no more cherokee cave? guess i got there just in time. No, we did not find any guitar picks. Some one must have picked up after you. ;)
Have fun this weekend, and be sure to wear your galoshes.
This is trespassing TO THE MAX. You sacrificed breathing for this task. BREATHING.
absolutely incredible! well done madam!
why, thank you. this is, to date, my favorite task done in the name of SF0. huzzah!
Alliteration is awesome. Bait is brilliant. Caves are cool.