Lilydale has always felt more like a historical focal point to me, than anything else. Really no more than a wedge of wooded expanse, it’s what surrounds it that defines it. Cherokee Regional Park presses up against it’s southern borders, the Landmark Schmidt Brewery across the river to the north, Harriet Island to the Northeast, the St. Paul Brickyards at it’s heart, and most notably the Wabasha Street Caves. Though no-one seems to associate St Paul with the Mob at all, it was a beloved Safe Haven for criminals. To quote a man touting the unfortunate moniker “Creepy”, “If you were looking for a guy you hadn’t seen for a few months, you usually thought of two places, prison or St. Paul.” During Prohibition, Al Capone led the St Paul end of the running for the “Bootlegging Boss”, and the Wabasha Street Caves were the secret to his success. All through Lilydale and along the main road were cave entrances that lead into a bootlegger’s paradise. Twisting, turning tunnels, full rooms blasted out, with a chimney here or there. Chimneys which of course lead right back out into Lilydale . The piece de resistance for me though is a small little perch at the top of Ivy Falls. It’s not large at all, and the view at the top isn’t what one might call breathtaking for more than a few days out of any given year. But you can sit in that one spot, and let History flow through you.
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I only wrote this as a writing sample for a site I’m trying to write for, but I had to keep it.
