The Legendary Sandstone Caves Of Faribault, Minnesota
**Unfortunately, we cannot offer public tours of our caves.**
Legend holds that the first Blue cheese was born in the natural caves of France where ideal humidity and temperature conditions allowed native blue-green molds to flourish. Since 1936, that tradition has lived on at the historic sandstone Caves of Faribault — home of America’s First Blue Cheese.
Located on a tall sandstone bluff overlooking the Straight River in the small town of Faribault, The Caves of Faribault natural sandstone caves were carved in the 1850s into the St. Peter’s sandstone that formed in the last glacial age. This sandstone allows water to travel both horizontally and vertically and has a natural capacity for absorbing ammonia, making it ideal for affinage — the ancient art of maturing and aging cheese.
Every handmade batch of our award-winning AmaBlu®, AmaGorg® and St. Pete’s Select® Blue cheese is cured and aged exclusively in these sandstone caves. You can also taste the subtle nuances in the Cherubic Gouda, St. Helga’s European Swiss, Felix Blue Cheese, and our Blues & Brews series.
History
The original cave was carved in the 1850s for Fleckenstein Brewing Co. founded by German immigrants Ernst & Gottfried Fleckenstein. Before modern-day refrigeration, beer caves were commonly used to store the beer at cooler temperatures. Fleckenstein operated here until 1919 when Prohibition was imposed. The caves did not reopen under Fleckenstein Brewing Co.
In the 1930s, a cheese maker by the name of Felix Frederiksen traveled to Minnesota in search of St. Peter Sandstone, geologically rare across the nation but abundant in Minnesota as a result of the last glacial age. Felix found the abandoned caves in Faribault and set up shop for making the first American Blue cheese. Before the 1930s, all of the Blue cheese consumed in the United States was imported from Europe.WWII put constraints on the importation, so Felix was in good business. Many more caves were hollowed between the 1930s and 1970s by his company Treasure Cave, Inc.
Treasure Cave was closed down at this location in the 1990s by a company that bought the caves and then moved production to a conventional cheese-making facility in another state.
Faribault Dairy Company, Inc. (now known as Caves of Faribault®) was founded in June 2001 to revitalize the caves after an eight-year dormancy. American-made AmaBlu® premium Blue cheese from the famous St. Peter Sandstone caves was back in the marketplace. AmaBlu® Gorgonzola and St. Pete's Select® super-premium Blue cheese came to follow, forming a triumvirate of hand-made, cave-aged, internationally acclaimed Blue cheeses.
