Man injured in 50-foot fall in Grey Cloud Island gravel quarry

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Rescue crews airlifted a 23-year-old Lake Elmo man to safety after St. Paul Park police say he tumbled down a steep bank at a Grey Cloud Island gravel quarry.

The man and four friends were hiking along the rim of a large gravel pit at around 9 p.m. June 29 at Aggregate Industries, 10120 Grey Cloud Island Drive, when, according to police, he fell roughly 50 feet. St. Paul Park fire and Cottage Grove fire and emergency medical crews responded to the scene.

The man was airlifted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul where he was treated for “numerous abrasions and bruises” to his chest, a blackened right eye, lacerations to his head and a deep cut to his forearm. He and three others were cited for trespassing in connection with the incident, said St. Paul Park Police Chief Mike Monahan.

Teens thought area ‘haunted’

The June 29 incident was the second on Aggregate Industries-owned property on rural, heavily forested Upper Grey Cloud Island in recent weeks.

Shortly after midnight June 15, St. Paul Park police cited 14 teens, ages 16 to 18, for trespassing at the gravel pit when an officer found the group hiding in the woods. According to police, when questioned, the teens told the officer “they’d heard it was haunted,” — a likely reference, Monahan said, to the nearby Grey Cloud Cemetery that sits across Grey Cloud Island Drive from the quarry.

The teens admitted they walked around a large metal gate at the entrance to the gravel pit and past a large “No Trespassing” sign.

Tags: crime and courts, news, crime