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Curious MinnesotaAuthor: Minnesota Star Tribune
What do you wonder about the people, places and culture of Minnesota? Listen to our community-driven reporting project, which invites listeners to ask questions that our newsroom researches and answers. Language: en-us Genres: History, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The secret creek flowing beneath downtown Minneapolis
Tuesday, 29 September, 2026
There’s a creek flowing beneath the streets of downtown Minneapolis — and most people walking above it have no idea it’s there. Bassett Creek begins near Medicine Lake, winds through parks and neighborhoods, then disappears underground before passing beneath Target Field and downtown Minneapolis. Along the way, it even drops through an underground waterfall before eventually emptying into the Mississippi River. So why did Minneapolis bury a natural waterway in the first place? After a Curious Minnesota listener asked about the creek, reporter Susan Du dug into its history. By the early 1900s, Bassett Creek had become badly polluted with sewage and trash. Rather than restore it, city leaders chose to put much of it underground — an expensive decision that created engineering and flooding challenges for decades to come. In this episode, host Erica Pearson and Du trace the hidden path of Bassett Creek, explore the choices that transformed it, and ask: Could Minneapolis ever bring the buried creek back into the daylight?
