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Mar 01, 2025

Quarry plan: RV camp, wake park, mountain bike magnet | Local News | mankatofreepress.com

A commercial recreation park planned for Mankato’s north side would redevelop more than 90 acres of former limestone mines into miles of mountain bike trails, rock climbing areas, an expansive RV

A commercial recreation park planned for Mankato’s north side would redevelop more than 90 acres of former limestone mines into miles of mountain bike trails, rock climbing areas, an expansive RV campground and a series of quarry ponds featuring the Upper Midwest’s only wakeboarding park.

The sweeping proposal, which is currently navigating Lime Township’s regulatory process, would redevelop two connected quarries owned by Holtmeier Construction that border Pilgrims Rest Cemetery along Third Avenue about a mile north of Highway 14.

Tentatively named Camp Quarry, the project’s centerpiece would be a wakeboarding park in which an overhead cable system would pull waterski and wakeboard enthusiasts around a large pond, offering ramps, rails and other floating obstacles to participants looking for a more adventurous outing. The concept, also called a cable park or a wake park, is often described as the water-sports equivalent of a wintertime ski resort.

Cable parks are popular in other parts of the United States, with multiple locations in states like Florida and Texas, but West Rock Wake Park in Rockford, Illinois, is the closest to Minnesota — about 350 miles away.

The Camp Quarry ponds could total 10 acres in size, with five or six towers supplying the electric-motor-powered tow lines to the largest ponds. A deep-water climbing wall is also planned where rock climbers would be able to skip the traditional safety harnesses because any falls would be into the pond below.

Surrounding the ponds and an existing pond on the adjacent quarry would be the area’s largest RV campground. An extensive system of mountain bike trails would be cut into the quarry walls on the perimeter of the properties, and rock climbing would be offered as well.

“My theme is about creating opportunities for people,” said Joe Holtmeier, the owner of Holtmeier Construction. “And it’s a beautiful setting.”

Holtmeier said the mountain bike trails and some of the rock-climbing opportunities would be free and open to the public. The wakeboarding park and RV campground would be a commercial business with admission charges and camping fees.

Ready and waiting

For anyone questioning whether the ambitious endeavor will actually become reality, Holtmeier has a response.

“It’s going to happen,” he said. “But what’s frustrating is how long it’s taking.”

The project certainly has advantages compared to many other development proposals that come before local governments. Holtmeier already owns the land, he has the construction equipment and crews to do much of the work, he has a lengthy history of success as a general contractor, and he portrays the project as one he’s driven to complete.

“It’s going to be an expensive project to build,” he said. “But I’d say, too, it’s a bit of a legacy project for me.”

The Lime Township Board has held multiple work sessions to review the Camp Quarry concept and to draft an amendment to the township zoning ordinance, which currently does not allow commercial recreation on former quarry land.

If the amendment is ultimately approved, Holtmeier would then need to obtain an interim use permit after completing a final detailed design. Numerous state regulatory hurdles would also have to be cleared for the RV campground.

Another year of crushed limestone production is anticipated at the northern Stoffel Quarry. But mining was discontinued years ago on the McClure Quarry to the south, so redevelopment would be able to begin on that 28-acre parcel even as mining continues to the north.

“There’s places we could be working tomorrow if it was allowed,” he said.

Mother lode of ideas

When laying out his proposal for The Free Press at Holtmeier Construction, evidence grew quickly that the company’s founder has spent more than a little time brainstorming, dreaming, planning and designing the most unique project in the 26-year history of the company.

Out came a book, “Minescapes: Reclaiming Minnesota’s Mined Lands” by Peter Kero, an environmental engineer who has been heavily involved in reclaiming and repurposing Iron Range mines.

The book is filled with PostIt notes highlighting pages with underlined passages about finding the best and highest purpose for tapped-out mines, the potential to build community by repurposing them for recreation, the tourism and economic development potential they offer, the liability protections already in state law for public trails ... .

Out came newspaper articles about mountain bike trails planned for a Stearns County park and about Mankato’s attempt to attract more young adults to its parks. Here was a report on the positive impact of bike trails on surrounding property values in various locations around America. A stack of photographs showed people biking along trails constructed on bedrock and rock climbers scaling quarry walls.

There was an entire file on the Mankato history that Holtmeier would like to incorporate into the park. Along with the importance of mining to the region’s growth, he would highlight agricultural innovation as well because his land includes a parcel that was once the site of a pioneering Holstein dairy farm — and the stomping grounds of the herd’s renowned bull, Sir Pietertje Mercedes the 14th.

And, for a potential sample of things yet to come, there was an early concept for the centerpiece of the Camp Quarry redevelopment.

On roughly 60 acres on the northern portion of the property, the site plan shows the oval cable park and a separate rectangular beginner cable pool, sort of a water sport version of a bunny hill. Next to that is a collection of pools offering water slides, a zero-entry wave pool, a pool with floating play structures and the deep-water pool with the adjacent rock/aqua-climbing feature.

The park’s main building, including a deck overlooking the pools, is adjacent to a parking lot for day-users. Trails lead from the water park to tiers of camping rising up the northern portion of the quarry and providing panoramic views of the broader park. First are rows of tent sites. Farther away are additional tiers with spots for more than 100 RVs.

And that doesn’t include any camping and water amenities that would be developed on the 28 acres to the south, which includes a picturesque quarry pond.

Holtmeier said the concepts are preliminary. Specific features and final layouts will depend on what the township would permit and what comes out of conversations with nearby property owners.

“I have every intention of working with the neighbors,” he said.

Negotiations would center on the type of berm and/or vegetative screening people might prefer on Camp Quarry’s property line. He’s also willing to offer neighbors a gate with a coded lock to allow them access to trails while restricting other trail users from reaching the neighborhood.

“These are discussions I’m ready to have with those people,” he said.

Seeing the future

Holtmeier’s enthusiasm for the project is even more obvious when he offers a tour of the land.

In the quiet, long-retired southern quarry, he talks about how his plan includes no roaring engines. The trails would be for mountain bikes, not dirt bikes. The cable park allows for water skiing without the need for the noisy speedboats that normally come with water sports. The campground would have enforced quiet hours.

He talks about stocking the pond with fish, of campers using the water for kayaking and swimming, of maybe cutting natural swimming pools into the quarry walls with water cascading from one to the next.

Although his project would bring overnight guests to his properties and many more daytime users, they would be isolated from residential properties.

He points to the neighboring properties. The Pilgrim Demolition Landfill and yard waste composting site is to the west. Third Avenue/Blue Earth County Road 5 is to the east. The cemetery sits in the center, with a small piece of Holtmeier property and an easement connecting the two larger quarries.

“The focus we want is on the quiet sports. So no motorsports,” Holtmeier said. “Pedaling. And paddling. In a hole. Behind berms.”

He believes it’s the logical next use of a site where there once was farming, then mining and now a depleted mine that offers cliffs, ponds, woods and prairie-like sections.

“It’s the activities that fit the land,” he said.

Costly project, partly free

The cost of developing the commercial recreation park could be $6 million to $8 million, according to Holtmeier. Even with a hefty price tag and a northern climate that would limit the park’s season, he expects it would be profitable even if it can’t operate year-round like those in Florida or Texas.

“I don’t know that 100%. I think it will work because I think it’s going to be an RV park that has amenities like no other RV park.”

But Holtmeier also is planning for free public amenities focused on mountain bike trails that would be developed through sponsorships.

A professional trail planner — Adam Buck of Pathfinder Trails — has already been on the site and would design the trail system in consultation with Kero, the author of the Minescapes book and the founder of the highly regarded mine reclamation project known as Redhead Mountain Bike Park in Chisholm, Holtmeier said.

The trails would largely be carved into the quarry walls at varying levels, creating a durable surface that would require little maintenance compared to the dirt trails typically found in the Midwest. And the paths would be outside the flood plain — a marked contrast to the trails in and near Mankato’s flood-prone Kiwanis Recreation Area.

Circling the perimeter of the entire property, 10 to 15 miles of paths could be created. The signature feature of the system would be the wall-hugging limestone trails, but the paths would also travel through the wooded former farm site, past the historic silos and possibly through a roofless stone house that was abandoned on the south end of the property.

Once the design is finalized, sponsors would be sought to cover the cost of fashioning the trails.

After speaking to “a number of large corporations” in Mankato-North Mankato, Holtmeier said he is hopeful.

“I think companies will pay to sponsor a half-mile or mile of trail,” he said, providing a preview of the future pitch after the design concepts are available to show corporate leaders. “’When we’re done, it’s going to be something glorious, and now you can sponsor this.’”

The process would conclude with the transfer of the bike trail system — along with walking trails and public rock-climbing areas — to a nonprofit organization to manage.

“You get the trails all built and then turn it over to a nonprofit so the trails are free for everyone to ride,” he said.

Public benefits

Holtmeier — after energetically detailing his vision and the wide-ranging benefits he predicts would result from it — slammed on the brakes and laughed.

“Oh God, I sound like a used car salesman. But I’m just so excited about this.”

He sees the bike trails, the rock-climbing site and the cable park as community amenities that would attract people who work remotely and can live anywhere they choose.

Those sorts of offerings could be the tipping point, too, for local companies desperate to attract or retain workers in a tight labor market, according to Holtmeier.

He imagines a young person weighing various job opportunities, Twin Cities friends wondering why Mankato was even in the running, and the person talking about the parks, the green spaces, the trails and the unique mountain bike/rock climbing/wakeboarding place on the edge of town: “’I can do all these things.’ So you take the job.”

After members of Mankato Area Mountain Bikers were given a sneak preview of the future park, Justin Rinehart said he and other avid bikers are sold on Holtmeier’s vision.

“Oh, super excited,” Rinehart said of the reaction.

The potential quarry trails might not stand out in the western United States or in northern Minnesota, but they would be a destination for riders from the Twin Cities, from across southern Minnesota, and into northern Iowa and eastern South Dakota.

“I could see a big influx of people from out of town using them, especially with the unique features they offer,” said Rinehart, co-owner of Nicollet Bike Shop and Ski. “... It’ll be a draw for sure.”

Built on rock and gravel, the trails would be even more popular because bike tourists would know they would be usable even after a rainfall — something that’s not the case for most Midwest trail systems, Rinehart said. And with the adjacent demolition landfill likely to reach capacity in the decades ahead, the trail system could be expanded significantly.

For Holtmeier, his latest project has provided some unique challenges after a long career where basic math decides whether he wins or loses a government infrastructure project.

“You write the number and if you’re the low number you get the job. If not, you wait until next time.”

This one has involved everything from lobbying to a deep dive into government regulations to a public relations campaign: “It’s different.”

The motivation to proceed is partly the same one that drove the Chicago native to get a construction management degree from Minnesota State and to start Holtmeier Construction with his wife shortly after graduation.

“I love building things,” he said.

The motivation for this one is different, as well, because of the impact he insists it will have once he’s completed it.

“I just think this piece of property could do so many things for so many people — and for the community as a whole,” Holtmeier said. “... My energy for this is the community I live in and the blessings I’ve enjoyed from being part of this community and working to leave something behind for generations to enjoy.”

MANKATO — Lime Township Supervisor Beth Proctor recognizes that — in the eyes of Joe Holtmeier and the legion of bicyclists supporting his qua…