Winter SUX Minnesnowta pt2

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Quit your whiney pants. Get out there and shred some ice.

There is a little town north of Minneapolis, up highway 35, about an hour and 15 minutes. It is well known in the ice climbing community. The history of the town’s quarry is quite interesting. On one summer afternoon up there, a friendly beer-drinking local filled me in on such detail. I can inform you on what he told me, but don’t hold any of what I say to be true or accurate.

“Back, say hundred plus years ago-ish, people built a town around a sandstone quarry. They mined, harvested, and dynamited the crap out of it. They put the stone on trains and pieces of Minnesota were transported all the way to places like California to build buildings and stuff, whatever they used sandstone for back then. The town boomed in profits. They had to build banks just to hold all the incoming cash. One of the banks was robbed, or attempted robbery, I’m unsure, but a bullet went into the ceiling during the heist.”

“Years, decades, at some point the mining stopped. Maybe sandstone was no longer lucrative, or was too expensive to ship pound for pound. The town suffered. Jobs were lost. The bank with the bullet hole became a bar. Buildings were neglected.”

And that’s the nutshell I was told about Sandstone Minnesota; existing today, dwindling a grim reflection, a ghost town of its former self. The quarry became Robinson Park and much of the surrounding area turned into Banning State Park. Now the sixty foot dynamited cliffs have become the heart of Minnesota ice climbing culture with grown ice and an annual ice climbing festival, an epic winter activity to help ease the pains of cold Midwest living until the thaws of spring arrive.

IceClimbing from Charles Denton on Vimeo.

Music by: Melvins "Night Goat"
(no, I do not have copyright for the song, I have no musical talent. But, I have met King Buzzo a couple of times at Grumpy's Bar. Hopefully he's cool with me using one of his tunes. If I had his personal contact info I'd give him a call).

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