The Chute's Tunnel Hoax
Why do we have such a fascination with caves and tunnels? Just like our love of scary stories, we seem to love the idea of what might have lived - or might still be lurking - in the dark caverns beneath our feet.
We have no shortage of tunnels, thanks to the mills that carved them out to harness the water power of the Mississippi River. We also have no shortage of caves, thanks to the brewers and mushroom farmers who hollowed out the soft sandstone to create cool storage rooms in the bluffs. But one particular cave in Minneapolis captured the imagination of the nation.
In 1866, a man named Reuben Nesmith reported to the newspapers that he was digging a new root cellar near Saint Anthony Main and discovered a trap door. He and another man, Luther Chamberlain, opened it and went down a stone spiral staircase of 123 steps into the darkness. A tunnel through the white sandstone led them to a series of caves that held iron and copper tools, a sarcophagus, and an altar. Their story caught everyone’s attention and was even published in the New York Herald.
Skeptics immediately questioned the plausibility of their story and even chalked it up to a ploy in the ongoing feud between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. They thought this was just another attempt to give Minneapolis a leg up in the competition.
But Nesmith doubled down and insisted that more would be revealed when their investigations were complete. He recounted taking the city council to an enormous subterranean chamber where a huge stalagmite had formed. The next chamber was even larger and they fired a rocket that exploded like stars against the ceiling. A smaller cave held a table covered in goblin knicknacks and must have been the bedroom of a gnome or fairy. The revelations continued with the discovery of a skeleton of a serpent of…come on! Was anyone really buying this?
Well, about a month after the first claims were posted the Minneapolis Chronicle printed a retraction and outed the whole thing as a hoax and they were putting the whole affair to bed. Or so they thought.
Later that summer the Minneapolis Tribune reported that a “party of ladies and gentlemen” from Milwaukee had arrived to explore Nesmith’s Cave. While the ladies made a charming group, ready to explore the works of art and science placed there by a supernatural class of beings - sadly they had no luck.
There actually is a tunnel under Saint Anthony Main. It was created that same year by Samuel Chute to expand the water power of his mill. During the excavations workers did discover a cave, but both the tunnel and cave were abandoned.
Or were they?
