In August of 2020 I decided to break in my recently acquired car by taking a week off work and heading to South Dakota to hunt down some ghost towns. One year and change later, I've finally gotten around to posting the photos from that expedition. Due to the sheer number of photos I took, this will be the first post of a four part series.
The first leg of my journey took me from my home in Madison, WI to the abandonments and underground passages of MSP. I stayed in the Twin Cities for a couple days to meet with some explorers and check out some of what there was to see. From Alien City and Fruen Mill to Santa/Satan' Caves and Mill Hell, I certainly got plenty of chances to practice my photography for what was to come.
I met Thelma, AccessDenied, Amos, and Shae to explore Basset Creek the night I rolled into town, but I unfortunately have no good photos from that exploration. The first location I have quality photos from was Alien City, which I hit the next morning. Every time I hear people talk about this location they warn of sketchy characters or cops, but the stars aligned and I saw nobody in my time here.
With the sun getting low on the horizon, I attempted to explore Mill Hell. Despite only being able to access a small abandoned laboratory on the grounds, I was able to get some great sunset pics of Pignut Mill and United Crushers, respectively.
Though crashing on a local explorer's couch was out due to the covid-19 pandemic, I found that sleeping in my car behind a local Walmart was surprisingly comfortable and the next day brought more exploring- this time with UsageTrip, who some of you may recognize as the Pope from MWXXI.
While we still had daylight we swung by Fruen Mill, which was incredibly busy. We probably ran into twenty different people inside, most of them teenagers. When we left one of them was wondering whether or not to chance crossing the rusted sheet metal roof. Nine months later Fruen Mill would make the news when a local teenager fell five stories from the mill. He was not the first to do so, and likely will not be the last.
With daylight fading we decided to hit up some caves, as is tradition in MSP.
Once deep inside one of the caves, we found what may have been the most desperate thing I've ever had the displeasure of laying eyes upon. Fair warning, this is where it gets NSFW.
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Figured I'd do you the courtesy of leaving a buffer if you're scrolling so you don't have it on your screen by accident if someone walks by before you reach it.
Deep in one of the caves, we found a life sized statue of a naked woman carved into the cave wall- and if you look closely between her legs, you'll see a hole. If you look closer still, you'll notice vertical grooves. That's right, there's somebody out there so horny that they stuck their dick in a statue and
fucked a piece of sandstone. Let that sink in. Now consider the chafing. Eurgh.
It was on that equally hilarious and disgusted note that I left the Twin Cities, westbound to my first ghost town. But that's a story for another thread, so keep an eye out for that and thanks for reading!
