A Unusual Catch....

 Possibly a few followers of Detritus of Empire have been wondering when the next installment of "Strange Fishing Challenge" will appear.  Well, eventually.  I've been out a few times on a more exploratory basis.  I don't figure that fishing brand new spots is a fair challenge so those days don't count as Challenge Days.  I think this is well within the rather flexible honesty standards common to all fishermen.  So....patience.

On one such scouting trip I was exploring a ravine leading down to a (purported) trout stream.  A few paces down the path I turned and saw this:

If I didn't know better, and I assure you I do, I'd have thought this was an unreported brewery cave.  Let's have a look inside.  Of course I carry a small flood light and a camera with me at all times.

The geology looks about right for a brewery cave.  We've seen those striations of iron pigment many times before.

Configuration and dimensions are also correct, although there is a curious bend to the first 20 feet or so of the excavation.

Eventually you come to a modern wall, sadly defaced with graffiti.  This ends not in the basement of a long lost brewery, but somewhere else.  Through a small niche in the wall a sliver of light and the sound of rushing water can be perceived.

As it turns out this is not a brewery cave but a tunnel associated with an old mill.  The creek that I did not catch fish in runs through a deep ravine, and a dam and water powered mill was here in the 19th century.  Water would be sent out through this tunnel to power the water wheels of the mill.  There's still a dam here but no sign of the mill.  Oh, there's a bunch of rubble in the water but that probably came from a bridge that once crossed here.  The mill site is now a parking lot.

The mill shows on this 1888 map but does not appear on a similar map from 1878.  Although this is public land I think I'll keep the location quiet for now....this is a site that should be checked for hibernating bats this winter and if necessary, protected.