Fig. 1. “Fountain Cascade, near St. Paul,” stereoscopic view by W. H. Illingworth, circa 1875. This likely depicts the feature that gave Cascade Creek and Cascade Street their names. At the upper left, an outcrop of Platteville Limestone is visible. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society.

“An Eruption of Springs”: The Diverting Story of Cascade Creek

History
Infrastructure
Parks
Streets

Greg Brick • September 7, 2022

Cascade Creek was named after a waterfall in the W 7th St neighborhood of St. Paul. The stream was most famously associated with Ayd Mill.

Map Monday Bonus: Saint Paul’s Sand Rock Tunnel Sewers

Infrastructure
Maps

Bill Lindeke • May 7, 2018

Via Dana DeMaster and Than Tibbets’ Twitter conversation, here is a map of a mysterious and unknown subterranean engineering feature in Saint Paul, Minnesota’s weirdest city in some ways. Here is your map. The “sand rock tunnels” are in yellow. [.pdf is here.] The initial query came from yet another West 7th Street rumor: […]