Forgotten Brewery Caves - Bloomington Normal IL (Part One)

The Stein brewery south of Bloomington Illinois was a good distance out of town.  This part of the world is quite flat and it may be that they needed to hunt a bit to find a place with suitable ground structure and a water source.  Of course this also put it outside the constraints of the city limits and as a bonus just south of an amusement area then and now called "Miller Park".  

Exactly when a brewery was built in "Stein's Grove" is a bit vague.  1857 seems a good estimate.  It is known that it was sold to the competing Meyer Brewery in the 1870s.  The cave probably continued to serve the new owners until the 1890's.

The next use of the cave was by a couple of guys named Harder and Grady in 1932.  They decided to grow mushrooms commercially.  This was during The Great Depression so perhaps it is not surprising that the enterprise was undertaken "...in part to solve a personal employment problem".  They proved more adept at growing the mushrooms - supposedly one day they harvested 300 pounds - than in finding local markets for them.  Two years later they were out of business.

The cave remained in excellent condition.  In the 1940's the caretaker of the park decided to tidy it up a bit and give tours of the place.

An article from 1947 goes into considerable detail....

"ADVENTURING into the unknown, Carol Tudor and Ronald Stutzmann, 7 year olds, visit the old brewery cave at Forrest Part, crawling over debris, they follow Cusodian E. R. Burnett into the low, overhung mouth."

The cave was said to have "...bewitched Bloomington-Normal children for half a century".

The cave is described in detail.  The first room was 25 feet square with a sloping 9 foot ceiling and a manhole for ventilation.  The main tunnel came off of this and was 14 feet wide, nine feet tall and a whopping 200 yards long.  Speaking of his lantern light tours Burnett said: "Just about one person in 10 makes the whole trip..".

In this newspaper photo he looks like a rather scary guy.  The people who decided not to follow him down a long dark hallway may have been the smart ones.  Carol and Ronald look apprehensive.

Burnett's tours seem to have enjoyed a measure of popularity.  On a warm summer Sunday he took as many as 150 people through the cave.

At some point the cave was sealed up.  It is said to have been in the far western portion of Forrest Park, probably not too far from Morris Ave.  A creek runs though the park and there is a fairly deep ravine, so it is likely that the sealed over entrance could still be located by a diligent searcher.