Members: ToXiC & Glass
Pictures by: ToXiC

Richard and Samuel Chute are the namesake of the tunnel and were two men who did the most to control the water power of the East Side Milling District of Minneapolis. They held as much as half of the interest in the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company, the firm that designed and operated the underground water canal that drove the wheels of flour mills, namely Pillsbury and the smaller Phoenix (later becoming “Pillsbury Rye Mill”).

To further expand their investment in the East Side Mills, the brothers started construction in 1864 on a new tailrace between the Phoenix mill–this is what we now call ‘Chute’s Tunnel’ or ‘Chute’s Canal’. But the tunnel was doomed: after digging for a little over 500 feet under Pillsbury Mill the construction crew struck a natural cave, a feature making it virtually impossible to continue in a cost-effective way.

The Phoenix Mill continued to utilize the existing water power tunnel and there was a nice new hole in in the side of the bluff, used for flatboat tours (only 10 cents in 1876!) and, in true 19th century periodical fashion, sensationalistic travel accounts!

The Myth of Nesmith’s Cave

“A Reauben Nesmith claimed to have found ‘Nesmith’s Cave’ while digging a potato bin. He reportedly uncovered an iron trap door opening on a spiral staircase that led into a passage and cave encompassing several rooms. The story, which reached the pages of the New York Herald, listed such finds as a human skeleton, an altar, and copper implements.” This tall tale was widely circulated as fact, even making its way into an encyclopedia. Mr. Richard Chute was named in the fake letter, leading a local caver, Greg Brick to eventually rediscover this buried treasure.

Source: Substreet Underground