St Paul, Minnesota: Wabasha Street Caves, Como Park Conservatory and Zoo

-- Wabasha Street Caves --

This morning I took a tour of the Wabasha Street Caves in St Paul. I didn't know beforehand what to expect, but a friend of a friend recommended the tour.

The caves are actually tunnels from an old silica mine dug into the side of a sandstone hill in the 1800s, rather than natural caves. The silica from the sandstone was used for making glass. The tunnels are all at ground level. Their notoriety comes from being a speakeasy and gangster hangout during prohibition. Gangsters such as John Dillinger, the Karpis-Barker gang (aka Ma Barker gang), and others, are said to have hung out here.

The red sedan parked in front of the caves is similar to one John Dillinger used to drive. (I don't know if there is a connection between the caves and the white limousine... the tour guide just said it is the same model as the limousine used for passing the bottle of Gray Poupon in the old television commercials.)

The seven tunnels are all connected. We entered the first tunnel through the doors under the Wabasha Street Caves sign, on the left, below, and exited the last tunnel throught the brown doors on the far right. 

The tunnels have served several purposes over the years. The marks from the silica miner's tools are still visible on the walls and ceiling in some of tunnels. Other tunnels have been plastered over and painted.

After the silica mining, the tunnels were used as a mushroom farm because the rooms were cool and dark. The caves became a restaurant, nightclub, and speakeasy during the prohibition era (1919-1932). After prohibition, the caves became the Castle Royal nightclub, with chandeliers, oriental carpets, a stage for musical performers, and a gambling room in back.

Below are photos of the entryway, seating area, dance floor and stage.

The city of St Paul had a reputation as the "sanctuary for criminals" during the early 1900s. A corrupt police chief named John O'Conner had an unofficial agreement with criminals. It was known as the layover agreement. In order to keep crime out of St Paul, O'Conner allowed criminals safe refuge within city limits if they agreed to three things: commit no major crimes within city limits, pay bribes to police and city officials, and let police know when they were in town. It was okay to commit crimes in other cities (even Minneapolis) -- just not in St Paul. Subsequent police chiefs kept the agreement going, to keep crime down and profit from the gangsters. This drew criminals such as John Dillinger, Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow), and the Karpis-Barker gang to frequent St Paul. 

Legend has it that a triple murder occurred in the fireplace room in 1934. Four gangsters were playing cards in the fireplace room, when a man holding a case told everyone to leave. The room cleared and the waitress went to the kitchen. She heard what sounded like machine gunfire from a tommy gun. She came back into the room and found three men dead on the floor with gunshot wounds -- the other two men had fled. 

The waitress immediately called the police, who went into the room without her. When they returned, they accused her of filing a false police report, as they found no bodies, no blood, and no evidence of a crime. The waitress insisted that the bullet holes in the right side of the fireplace were evidence of the crime.

The nightclub was closed down in 1940. The caves later became a mushroom garden again until 1965. At some point were used to store Land O'Lakes cheese. The upside down benches used as potting beds for the mushrooms, and holes in the walls for beams that held cheese are evidence of those uses.

The caves were abandoned for several years, became a disco in the 1970s, and are now used for cave tours and Thursday night swing dances. The tour guide believes the caves are haunted. At least it is a pitch for their haunted caves tour. 😏

-- Como Park Conservatory --

The Marjorie McNeely Conseratory in Como Park has a great collection of plants!

Outside the building are ponds of water lilies. Some of the leaves look like deep dish pizza pans!

Other plants look like typical water lilies.

The conservatory also has carniverous plants that attract and digest insects. These pitcher and venus fly trap plants are the two carniverous plants I saw.

Inside, some of the rooms have beautiful orchids and other tropical flowers.

There are several rooms with tropical plants, including spice trees such as cinnamon, and allspice trees. I have used neem oil to control aphids, and the room with spice trees also has a neem tree. Other trees incuded orange, macadamia nut, and cocoa.

-- Como Park Zoo --

I liked the zoo. I had forgotten that gorillas are vegetarian. This gorilla was pulling and chewing on grass.

I didn't know that gorillas have unique noses. The sign said that gorilla nose and nostril shapes are unique and can identify an individual gorilla in a similar way that fingerprints can identify a human. Good luck getting a rogue gorilla to let you take its nose print, though!

I like that the zookeepers recognized the personalities and tendencies of individual animals. One example is this sign that describes their cats.

And this sign talks about the likes and dislikes of two of their giraffes.

The zoo has a good variety of animals. I liked watching the sloths.

The Tasmarins look like they have a mustache!

Here are a few more photos of animals I liked watching.

The animals seemed well cared for, although I still felt sorry for the gorillas because they seemed the most conscious of people watching them, and would walk away.

I returned to the College Grove Walmart parking lot tonight, since I slept well there last night.