Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-pics

Urban exploration in Illinois
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Chris
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Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-pics

Post by Chris »

Me and a couple of my exploring buddies went down to a spot in southern Illinois I found earlier in the week. It's along Bluff road near the old location of Valmeyer.

There's a bunch of holes in the cliff along the road to the left. The holes probably go on for a mile. At the end of the hill is this old abandoned building and a spot where you can get into the mines. Really, we found the easiest way into the mines after we left.

Here's the old building.

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Inside the building is a big empty room, and a smaller room with stairs up to an upper level with a perforated steel floor. All that's up there is some empty lockers. There's an electrical panel and some of those gov't issued water barrels from the cold war like in the St. Mary's building posted above. There's also a big pile of shoes and a couple big piles of clothes. Weird.

Anyway, we walked up the hill and made it to this structure.

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Once you get inside, this is what you see.

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Much of the mine is pretty typical. Like this.

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But the difference is that it's huge. It just keeps going on and on and on. It goes all the way to the other side of the hill and then goes for well over a mile into the hill, we didn't go all the way to the end. We got to this one area where there was this big pile of sand and it had a big rigged up wall made of corrogated steel, wood, and pipes at the top. If you climb up the mound and go through this little square tube thing you come to a concrete block wall with a 2 foot hole in it and a door. It's in complete darkness and even when shining our lights on it a couldn't get a pic. The mine just keeps going further and further back from there. We kept walking in deeper and deeper. We finally saw off in the distance a light. It gave off a warm orangey glow like an electric light, not daylight like what came in through the holes in the outer tunnels.

Here is a pic of it way off in the distance.

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So we walked toward the light and came up on this. An underground road.

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So we left that area and walked around a little more. Near a caved in hole in the ceiling in another part, we found another abandoned wall in the cave. This one looks like it's corrogated metal, but the metal wall is about 2 feet in front of a concrete block one.

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In some other parts of the mines, we found some cool stuff. Tons and tons of empty water barrels from the 60's. I guess it was a fallout shelter. And a bunch of empty new computer boxes that at one time were for the downtown A.G. Edwards building downtown. There was a huge pile of these, empty contianers for some type of explosive.

Here are the explosives tubes.

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There was a whole area filled with these wooden boxes full of these rock 'sticks'....core drill samples.

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Here's the area full of the gov't issued water barrels. Unlike the ones in St. Mary's, these were empty.

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Once you go back far enough, theres a ramp that goes to a lower level, but we didn't go back there...we simply didn't have a big enough light!

I took a few more pics at the entrace once we got back to where we came in. Here are some of them.

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Here's the veiw from the holes further up the hillside.

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Right inside the opening is a steel structure and right outside the opening, down at the bottom of the hill, is a conveyer opening. They're internally connected. This would be the easiest way to get into the mines. Just walk in the conveyor opening at the bottom of the hill and then walk up these stairs inside the conveyer 'housing' and walk up the ladder into the mine.

Here are some pics.


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It seems the equipment here is pretty primative. Here, my friend found the radio system.

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Overall, this place is AWESOME. It's so huge and there is so much there that we didn't even see.

Definatly needs a return trip!
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White Rabbit
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Post by White Rabbit »

Very cool!

So what's up with the light and the road in that one section? Is this place still active or something?
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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by caver »

There's another mine down near Chester a bit north of the Menard prison. I drove to Belleville this summer to look at a motorcycle and took the scenic way home.
It might be worth having a peek too.
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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by Chris »

Hey, thanks Caver, maybe I'll check that out. The whole drive wheather you take Rt. 3 or the roads that follow the bluffs is very interesting. It appears the whole length of the bluffs is just littered with caves. Do you know of one near the intersection of Bluff Rd. and Trout Rd.? It appears there's one back there.

White Rabbit, most of the place is just an abandoned old limestone quarry, but it's so huge that a large section has be reutilized as underground storage, yet it's only a small section of the place as a whole. (If that makes any sense)
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Post by mechfreak57 »

an underground road? find the main entarnce to it! go joyriding in it!
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Re: RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunne

Post by caver »

Chris wrote: Do you know of one near the intersection of Bluff Rd. and Trout Rd.?
I don't.
The ones I'm talking about are here.
http://topozone.com/map.asp?z=16&n=4202 ... ayer=DRG25
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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by inubis22 »

Tunajive and I went to check out the Quarry aka(Rock City) yesterday, and let me tell you that place is freaking huge. We plan on going back to check it out more with more light and a camera to take some more pics. As we were walking down the lighted underground road we came along an underground business of some sort it was kind of weird. We plan on going back soon to explore more and take more pictures, as soon as we do that I'll post them.
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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by Chris »

Were there any cameras on the underground warehouse? I was worried about that so we didn't get too close. If you go back up to the high part of the cave where the hill narrows down, you can come out the backside and see the entrance of the warehouse. I'll post some pics.

Also, did you go in by climbing the hill or did you go in through the conveyor shaft (much easier!)?
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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by Chris »

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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by tacoto »

Where are the pictures to this place?
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Re: Maybe the coolest place I

Post by Kit »

Well sometimes after 6+ years they arent hosted anymore.
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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by Headframe Hunters »

Photos are bad, but I think I know the area and the building you're talking about, though I haven't been there. As best as I can tell, the mine is still active to some degree. Prairie du Rocher, right?
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RE: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-p

Post by SubLunar »

It sounds to me like he's describing the Vallmeyer mine. Was just there a few months ago. The government lives inside of there, though. If you go back far enough you encounter cameras and US GOVT PROPERTY signs. National Records storage or something. Shame because Vallmeyer is the coolest mine I've been to in the STL metro area. The place is awesome. Except for the government property inconvenience.
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Re: Maybe the coolest place I

Post by Chris »

Yes, it was Valmeyer.
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Re: Maybe the coolest place I've ever seen. Quarry tunnels-pics

Post by VolcanoRaptor »

I think i found this... may have to check it out
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