Owners opening old Jordan Brewery's caves to the public

JORDAN, Minn, — Minnesotans like to explore, and now they'll have a chance to step into caves that haven't been explored in half a century.

"That's when it sparked in my mind that it was a gorgeous building that kind of needed some work behind it," said Jim Cramond, Jr. 

Three years ago, Cramond opened Strains of the Earth on Broadway Street in Jordan.

He chose a beautiful limestone location for his THC dispensary, retail store and wellness retreat.

"Truly, Strains of the Earth is really broken down to helping people," Cramond said. 

But it's safe to say, that the building's purpose nowadays is far different than it was 160 years ago.

"1863, yeah, this was a brewery. Jordan's brewery," Cramond said. 

And it's about to be that again — sort of.

When the brewery opened in the middle of the Civil War, workers carved out caves so they could store their beer kegs.

"It's massive and there are so many different little openings and pockets, I can't imagine some of the spaces that they were getting themselves into," said Kaley Kaufman with Strains of the Earth. 

Under 14-foot ceilings, their beer kept cool in passages that are 56 degrees year-round. Depending on what decade they were working in, the ale and booze were stored legally, and sometimes illegally.

Part of the cave system ran underneath the city street all the way to the old inn. But the city eventually blocked it off for safety reasons and to prevent illegal rum-running during Prohibition.

In fact, there were a number of man-made caves under Jordan. The brewery caves withstood a landslide in 2010 and 50 years before that, they survived a major flood.

Strains of the Earth is in the process of adding a wood floor and lights, so the public can get a chance to visit this jewel of Jordan's history. Initials in the limestone are a part of the cave's past, but the shadows on its wall are a part of its future.

"We are already in such a cool, historic building and this is just another part of that, and we want to open it up, let people know they can come here," Kaufman said. 

Strains of the Earth says they will have the caves open by June 1, and maybe earlier.