Underground City

A mural at City Museum inspired by the underground world below St. Louis.

PHOTOGRAPHY
RJ Hartbeck

Caves have been a big, if often overlooked part of the evolution of the city. From Native American legends dating back to pre-colonial times to the boom of brewing in the 19th century and the speakeasies and gambling rings that popped up during prohibition, St. Louisans have been making use of this second “underground city” as long as we’ve been here.

When the City Museum approached me about working on a mural for a new exhibit space it seemed like a perfect opportunity to dig into this weird and complicated history and try put my own spin on it.

A lot of the inspiration and info for this mural came from Hubert and Charlotte Rother’s excellent early 1960’s exploration journal “Lost Caves of St. Louis”

2016

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