This is the back of the old Bureau of Mines building. Some of the easy to access graffiti has been painted over leaving an empty canvass for the next person.

Shock’s graffiti can be found all over the Twin Cities area. Like many others, Shock dates most of his work. This is a pretty new piece, dated ’10.

The US Bureau of Mines (USBM)  was shut down nation wide in 1995. This particular USBM building was once very easy to get inside.  This is also one of the coolest abandoned buildings I have ever been in. Now the building is locked up pretty tight.. with the possible exception of an underground entry.

The property contains a few other smaller buildings and a decent sized warehouse, which has all recently been transferred to the National Park Service. NPS has been working at removing some of the very invasive Buckthorn. Already the property looks much more brushed out, and not so overgrown. Eventually these buildings will all be torn down, and the land will be restored to its natural habitat. I think its good that they’re cleaning up the land, but at the same time I’ll be sad to see this amazingly interesting building go.