Park Point tunnels?

Rij Jun 16, 2009 20 Comments

I don’t know if this has been addressed here before because I just discovered the site. I’ve heard the urban legend about a tunnel under Park Point that was used during prohibition to smuggle Canadian spirits into the Twin Ports, avoiding the usual protocol involved in bringing them in through the Superior or Duluth entries. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this?

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20 Comments

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago 

Sounds like total fiction to me.

Barrett Chase

about 14 years ago 

Well, that would be the Rube Goldberg way of getting contraband into the Twin Ports.

Shelly

about 14 years ago 

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I knew I could count on Barrett to mention Rube Goldberg.

Tim K

about 14 years ago 

Complete fiction. There used to be tunnels inside of the piers in the ship canal, but they flooded constantly making them useless.

@ndy

about 14 years ago 

Well, according to this book it appears that what little alcohol was smuggled into the twin ports during prohibition was primarily carried in the belongings of sailors. From what I've read though the majority of liquor was simply bathtub gin made in the good 'ol US of A.

jenny

about 14 years ago 

There's no way I'm giving up the info on my secret tunnels, are you crazy?

ShaneB

about 14 years ago 

I've heard there's no way to dig or build anything below lake level that close to the lake without flooding or a super-excessively financed structure to prevent it, which is why there's a foot of sludge in the pit under the stage at the DECC auditorium.

adam

about 14 years ago 

I thought that was from Nickelback.

edgeways

about 14 years ago 

Was going to say.. considering the water table is so high on PP, seems like an amateur tunnel would be neigh impossible.

Barrett Chase

about 14 years ago 

Also what are these "protocols"? Can't just anyone sail a boat through the Superior entry without impediment? It would be a lot less suspicious than landing on or near the beach and unloading cargo.

Todd Gremmels

about 14 years ago 

There is a house below London Road right on Lemon Drop hill (below approx 27th Ave E. for those of you that do not remember the dinner)that according to several sources had a basment that connected to the cliff face on Lake Superior. According to the story back in the probee time bootleggers would lower a rope off of a hoist down to the Lake Superior and raise up the kegs. Wahoo Party Time!!!!

Nice place for some good cover if it is true!!

George Steinman and several others have told me this haveing had spoken to the original owners.


Peace

baci

about 14 years ago 

The PP rabbits have a tunnel under the bridge to get into the canal zone.

The Big E

about 14 years ago 

Based on the source, it would seem that the sailors-smuggling-a-few-bottles phenomenon was only a small sideline of a more extensive Duluth bootlegging industry--one which came to a stop after the underworld figure who controlled the regional trade killed a couple of people.

lojasmo

about 14 years ago 

That's where I keep my porn.

[jedi]these are not the tunnels you seek[/jedi]

mevdev

about 14 years ago 

If you want to read about liqour and smuggling, check out:

Minnesota 13
wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_13
book:
http://hermansfairview.blogspot.com/2007/07/minnesota-13-moonshine-during.html

It is about the prohibition spirits makers in central Minnesota. A good read. Stearns County sure wasn't ready to give in to prohibition.

huitz

about 14 years ago 

Ask the Army Corp of Engineers.  I assume the septic system was built before WW2, but that's just a guess.  

Water drain pipes don't seem to be in place at first glance, nor do steam tunnels, but, again, that's a guess.

If there are pumps that "fix" the canal water, I'm not aware of it.  If so, such a tunnel would have been intact for some time.  Remember, the twin ports was quite prosperous off of iron then, and who knows what was under the sheets (I could name names, but I might be killed j/k)

vgs

about 13 years ago 

Today I saw a tunnel permit for the park point tunnel.  Is that just a joke?  The permit looked very official and I took a picture of it.

ChesterParker

about 13 years ago 

My boyfriend just a bought a truck last night from a gentleman on Park Point. He also had the Park Point Tunnel Permit sticker on the truck with an ID number and everything. It looked very official! Must have been just a joke though. I have looked all over the net and no ones knows about a tunnel on Park Point. It seems pretty impossible for them to even build a tunnel without some state of the art technology and a heavy piggy bank!

Bad Cat!

about 13 years ago 

It's a locals joke - no need to wait for the bridge if you have a secret tunnel underneath!

Claire

about 13 years ago 

If anyone knows the truth of this urban legend, it's TonyD.

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