Everyone loves a good ghost story, especially when they can visit the places of hauntings! With Minnesota’s long and rich history of indigenous peoples and their spiritual lives, along with every settler and person born in Minnesota thereafter, it’s only natural that there would be an abundance of ghost stories throughout the state. A lot has happened since Saint Paul was founded in the 1840s, and this creepy, haunted street cave that was carved into sandstone in the 19th century remains today… and it’s not for the faint of heart.
You can take a tour of the man-made caves on the weekends for only $8 a person, but you'll need to book your haunted trip ahead of time. You'll find the Wabasha Street Caves at 215 Wabasha St. S, Saint Paul, MN 55107.
Carved in the 1840s, these caves have had many uses over the decades.
They were originally carved by a French family wanting to expand their mushroom business and continued to be used as food storage for many years... until it became a speakeasy and safe haven for gangsters and the site of a triple murder!
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John Dillinger, the infamous bank robber and gangster, is rumored to have spent a significant amount of time at the Wabasha Caves Speakeasy.
During the gangster era in the United States, the city of Saint Paul became a safe haven for mobsters and scalawags alike. Dillinger is said to have gone dancing at the Wabasha Caves just months before he was gunned down in 1934 by police officers in Chicago. The caves were known to have hosted other notorious gangsters, such as Ma Barker.
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Let's talk about what makes Wabasha Street Caves haunted... MURDER!
Here's how it went down: four men, obviously mobsters, were sitting at a table playing cards. A fifth man walks in with a case in his hands and asks everyone but the card players to leave. A single waitress is left behind to clean up after the card players. She went to the kitchen only to hear three popping sounds. When she returned to the dining area of the speakeasy she found three bodies on the floor... but the man with the case and his accomplice, who was one of the card players, had fled the scene!
She reported to the Saint Paul police, who had told her to stay outside during this investigation, only to come back out and chastise her for making a false police report. When she returned inside, the bodies were gone, but three bullet holes in the stone fireplace remained. Did the mobsters move the bodies or were there a few crooked officers involved?
The dark caverns of the Wabasha Caves would be perfect to hide anything... including bodies.
Legends say that the three slain mobsters were hidden and buried within a tunnel deep within the caves, but evidence has never been substantiated. What we do know is that there are a variety of reports of the ghosts of three gangsters wandering the caves and haunting guests.
The mobsters aren't the only ghosts in the Wabasha Caves!
It has been acknowledged that there is a female ghost who haunts the grounds. Anyone has seen her believes that she is looking for something or someone. What could that possibly be?
Do you see the spooky floating orbs in this photo from the bar?
Aside from the tours, you can also rent the space to host weddings, corporate events, or other gatherings in these hallowed tunnels. There's a pretty cool old bar hiding beneath the streets!
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Twin Cities residents are fascinated with ghost stories of the past!
