What are some cool nooks and crannies in the Twin Cities?

I know there was a what to do in Minnesota thread but I'm talking about things that aren't really touristy spots.

I've lived here pretty much my whole life and run into some cool off the beaten path stuff once in a while.

Mendoa Heights - I didn't know this was such a cool little town. It feels like a small town out in the middle of nowhere, not like the other suburbs that surround it. I think it's the fact that it's built on a riverbank. Just a neat feal when you are used to flat burbs.

B-52 memorial - I didn't know this but there was a B-52 crash in 1958 in Inver Grove Heights. There's a small plaque there. It's located near the watertower that's down the frontage road from Ruby Tuesday's off 52 and Condord. My buddy is a C-130 pilot and lives over there and told me about it.

Milwaukee Avenue, Minneapolis - I worked at Fairview Hospital on the West Bank. I was walking with my morning coffee once and stumbled on this block where there's no street, just sidewalk. There's two blocks of New England style gabled houses along there. They are very well kept. It looked like someone decided to film a movie and asked the neighborhood if they could fix up their homes and they never changed it back. It's located off Franklin Ave behind Tracy's Saloon.

Tom Burnett Memorial at MOA - Yeah I know it's the Mall of America. They actually have a memorial on the first floor outside of Macy's (I think, one of the anchor stores). It's a pretty good one too focusing on "doing something". I assure you it's not some diverity crap like you'd expect from the Mall. Shame but it's actually kind of hard to find pics or information about it on the web so you'll just have to put your carry in your trunk and see it for yourself.

Northrup King Building - This is a building with lots of artists in it. Every first Thursday, most of the folks open their doors and you can check out all there stuff. All sorts of metal work, sculptures, photography, mosaic work and yes paintings. That north Mpls area is pretty cool. I knew we had some artists, I had no idea we had this many.

So that's about all the non-touristy, non-google stuff I can think of. Anyone else?

There's 3 static displays outside of Hibbing, I think it's like an M60 tank, a Huey and one of the earlier cold war fighters, like an F-104 or something. There's a static M60 in Rush City, a static Huey down by Le Seuer (sp), and an MG on some sort of naval mount you can pivot and play with in some park just south of Mankato, which I can't for the life of me remember which town :( I don't know if the tank museum in Ft Snelling is still open, but that's pretty cool. There's a surplus store I never knew about hidden in the cities just south of the 1st Ave one, it's not quite Lake St. south, but it's not that usual one right in the Washington Ave area, either. I don't think I could find that one again if I tried.

Since my kids are 3 and 6, most of my city exploring is done in search of things for them these days. If anyone cares, there's a cool indoor playground at Eagle's Nest in New Brighton, another cool one at Shorview Community Center (indoor tunnels and slides), a neat water play area in New Brighton off Silver Lake Road (concrete platform with water that shoots up out of the ground), and there's a mega huge cool park off hwy 610 at one of the state parks. PM me if you need more specific directions on any of those places.

The static Huey is in Belle Plaine not Le Sueur. They did a nice job on that.

Also, Ganster Tours/Wabasha Caves in St. Paul

Prib

I'm partial to the 22nd avenue station.

It's a small Veterans memorial in Chisholm, not Hibbing. Located at the old Ironworld, now called Discovery Center, across the highway from the Iron Man statue.

fixed it for ya.

PRACNA, the oldest bar in Minneapolis.

The gangster tours are really neat!

Haha! I love the Double Duece!

Great thread.

Man, I've been to more places and seen more things in the Twin Cities than many who have lived here all their lives.

Downtown Mendota Heights, been there many times, greatly enjoyed it. My review matches yours.

Milwaukee Avenue...done it.

Wasn't aware that a B-52 went down in IGH back in 1958, but there is a similar memorial in the south of Minneapolis from a few years prior when a DC-3 went down there and basically flattened an entire neighborhood. Miraculously, I don't think anyone on the ground died in that, just the plane's passengers.

Unfortunately, there are a great many gems in the Twin Cities that have been forever lost to history. The Hamm's Mansion or Swede Hollow shantytown come readily to mind. Also the old Rock Island road/railroad bridge that once spanned the Mississippi River between Newport and IGH. Another member and I went and explored/climbed around on it a few weeks before it was torn down. Not been back since, but heard that they preserved one part of it.

Actually, lots of old railroad history stuff in general is a lot of fun. Down in Savage for example, there's this old railroad embankment that's still mostly intact, tracks and all. It was part of the old Dan Patch Line IIRC. You can walk it all the way to the MN River where and old bridge still stands.

The old Dillinger apartment in St. Paul also comes to mind. Supposedly, they still have the old door to his apartment in the basement, the door through which he swapped lead with a couple FBI agents who came to apprehend him. Cops sure don't do arrest warrants like they used to.

Have you been down to the Irvine Park neighborhood in St. Paul? It's where the local high rollers lived before Summit Ave. became the address to have. Before Irvine Park, they all lived in a long gone neighborhood now roughly occupied by the St. Paul PD HQ building.

The old Milwaukee Road depot at Minnehaha Park still exists. How about the last remaining section of the old streetcar line in Minneapolis? In warmer months, they run one of the old trollycars.

And while I'm talking railroads, don't forget about the Jackson Street Roundhouse and Museum. I used to volunteer there. It's an old Great Northern roundhouse that has managed to stand the tests of time while many other such facilities have succumbed to all manners of fate.

Downtown Lakeville is like you're on a whole other planet when compared to the rest of the town. There's actually a physical barrier of separation between the two. The streets have this distinct lack of continuity. The downtown is the Lakeville that was a small farm town, before it became an emblem of suburban sprawl.

One of my memories of my grandfather from when he was alive was him talking about the IGH B52 crash with my grown uncles. No one knew exactly what had happened at the time, but my grandfather knew it would be a traumatic scene so he kept the younger uncles from going to see what happened. It turned out to be a good choice because one airman successfully parachuted out of the plane but was decapitated when he landed on a fence post.

Apparently there's a house still standing in West St. Paul that has visible bullet holes from one of the Dillinger shoot-outs. It's in a neighborhood across Robert St. from what used to be the Signal Hills Mall. I never saw it but that's the rumor.

It was an NWA Martin 202, and killed 2 on the ground, assuming it's the same one you're talking about.

If there, please stop right behind it at Konawerks Hair Shop. Reasonable hair cuts from a gun loving motorcycle freak, also a close friend. As a bonus, you can drink beer while getting a cut and he's not opposed to wandering off for a bit for a beverage at Grumpy's. Some of the 22 talent hang on the couch from time to time, not sure if that's bonus or not...

There is a great WW2 museum in downtown Red Wing. I can't for the life of me remember what the name of it is though. It's only open on Fridays and Saturdays and is run by an very talkative WW2 vet.

Never knew about this, I'll have to check that out.

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