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Beer cave from 1800s found under St. Louis

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Jan. 12 (UPI) -- A cave used for storing beer in the early 1800s has been rediscovered underneath a community garden in St. Louis.

The McHose and English Cave Recovery team said the beer cave was located in the Benton Park neighborhood in spring 2020, and the team used a pair of holes to get cameras into the underground cavern.

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"We lowered a lidar unit down here to map out the cave and here is the approximate route of the cave. The cave, it's like 30 feet wide with a ceiling of 7-by-15-feet tall," Bill Kranz, project facilitator for the McHose and English Cave Recovery, told KTVI-TV. "We were all out here in the alley jumping around like crazy."

Kranz said the cave dates to the early 1800s.

"It started out for storing ale," Kranz said.

He said the cave was also home to a mushroom farm, a wine grotto and a community gathering space.

The discovery was hailed by St. Louis Alderman Dan Guenther.

"This was the brewery epicenter of the city of St. Louis because of all the caves," Guenther said. "It really gives us an opportunity to reconnect with that past and hopefully step foot in a garden that hasn't been opened in over 100 years."

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