ELBA, Minn. – Deputies patrolling likely out-of-the-way partying sites found early arrivals deep up Beaver Creek had already uncorked their beer. Three were cited for under-age consumption. All were 16-year-old boys, two of them from St. Charles and one from Elba. This was Saturday about 9 p.m. About 30 other would-be partiers were turned away as they drove up the narrow, bumpy dirt road. These vehicles were from the Rochester area 42 miles away, deputies said. These everybody-invited pop-up parties have become a Saturday night ritual all around southeast Minnesota. All have the same pattern. They are organized surreptitiously online. The latest was up the dead-end Beaver Creek road off County Road 30 from Plainview — the same site as a huge gathering of an estimated 300 boozing young people, mostly under-age, on August 4. Since then, sheriff’s officers have set a system of online feelers for advance word on these BYOB beer busts. This time the early warning alert system didn’t work, said Jeff Mueller, deputy chief sheriff. Saturday night patrols, however, had been stepped up, and the deputies happened upon the new Beaver Creek party at an early hour. Two vehicles were told to leave. As others arrived, the drivers were told to back out and turn around and to get rid of their beer. Officers stayed on-site until 12:30 a.m., but new arrivals were few. Word evidently had spread through Snapchat and other social media that the gig was off and to stay away.
Earlier: How cops pre-empted yet another rural beer bash
Earlier: Cops caucus on early alerts for beer blowouts