12 Comments
Apr 14, 2022Liked by Jackie Dana

thanks, i really liked the cave info. Great job.

Expand full comment
author

Awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Expand full comment

I didn't realize urban caves were another thing StL and KC had in common. Including actual caves and mined-out spaces, a crazy 10 percent of the KC metro's industrial space is underground. One facility, Subtropolis, is supposedly big enough to hold 42 Arrowhead stadiums. But I prefer the St. Louis concept of building breweries over the caves better than what KC has done—almost all the underground spaces here are just warehouses and offices. 🍻

Expand full comment
author

Also, there are some other caves (remnants of mining, mostly) that are used for massive storage facilities just south of the city. One of these days I want to dig into all of that because it's so cool.

Expand full comment
author

Well, there are a LOT of true caves all over Missouri, both commercial ones like Meramac Caverns etc. and smaller ones on private land. So it would make sense that there were caves in St. Louis as well. The thing is, as much as I have always loved caves, growing up in St. Louis I had no idea that a good portion of downtown had been built over one cave or another - while I mention several, there are a lot more I didn't mention. And I was born just a bit too late to have been able to go to Cherokee Cave.

Expand full comment

I love underground history! There's so much of it in London, but I never imagined that St. Louis was built on "swiss cheese" (and it's going to be hard to forget that phrase....) Also, what's this about Brits impersonating a local company and buying up all the beer??

Expand full comment
author

The Brits didn't impersonate anyone - they just had this company that gobbled up all of these smaller breweries and then basically put them out of business. I saw some suggestions that this may have been done to reduce the competition for the bigger breweries, but that is a different topic for another time.

Expand full comment

I dunno, calling themselves "St. Louis" adds insult to injury!

Expand full comment

There's the basis for a Lovecraft pastiche in here somewhere....

Expand full comment
author

Hey, go for it! I would read the hell out of a story about monsters living in St. Louis's brewery caves.

In fact... maybe I should write something like that. 🤔

Expand full comment

Ha! Not I. I can't write fiction for beans.

Expand full comment

I can get you in 1.

Expand full comment