It's still going strong, apparently.

If you do a Google search for "Mouser Week", it seems that it has become somewhat of an institution in the UE world. I followed some of those links and found a lot of forum posts for people asking why it is called "Mouser Week," so I figured I'd post a definitive answer here.

I started a mailing list called Under-MN for some of the Twin Cities urban explorers back in 1998, while I was living in St. Paul for the summer. The list fostered a really great community of 15-20 people who met regularly to explore the incredible underground sights of the area. At the end of the summer, however, I moved to Massachusetts to begin graduate school. Regular exploration continued by members of the Under-MN community, I was just no longer a direct part of it. I got to read about the exploits of the group via the mailing list, but I really missed the drains and the people. Over time, the group discovered a lot of new drains, mill tailraces, etc. that sounded really great but I had never gotten the chance to see.

In August of 2000, I arranged to spend a week at my parents house in St. Paul before returning to Boston to start the school year. I made plans in advance, via Under-MN, to go exploring almost every night while I was in town. During the planning of this event, people began referring to it as "the week Mouser will be back in town." To the best of my knowledge it was not called "Mouser Week I" until much later. The event was prolific.

I returned to the Twin Cities that December as part of my winter break, and again called for a UE fiesta via the mailing list. This time, someone else (Ben?) did the bulk of the planning and they referred to it in shorthand as "Mouser Week II." Word of the success of the first event had gotten out, and this time explorers from surrounding states made the trip to join in the fun. We also got together with Minneapolis UE mainstays Action Squad. The event was much larger than the previous one, with several epic trips that I will never forget. Someday perhaps I'll unearth some of the photos and write up some of these trips. It was a week unlike anything in my experience before or since.

Anyway, since Mouser Week II, I haven't been able to schedule an appearance in MSP for sufficient time to plan or attend another urban exploration gathering, but the tradition has continued. It now happens once a year, organized by whoever steps up, always bookended by food at the Riverside Perkins (This location was choosen during Mouser Week I because it was a good compromise between the people who lived in St. Paul and the people on the far side of Minneapolis). I'm not sure if this part of the tradition holds, but the first two Mouser Weeks always included a trip to Perkins immediately after extricating ourselves from particularly wet drains. We got some pretty weird looks. Those were the days.