Extreme Sandbox open to anyone ages 14 and up

Extreme Sandbox in Hastings is open for the winter. The unique business offers the opportunity for anyone ages 14 and up to use heavy machinery to move sand or, in the winter, snow.

With the first snowfall of the season, Extreme Sandbox is excited about their first winter season playing on their heavy equipment in the snow. With fully climate controlled cabs, the business is offering customers in the midwest a truly unique way to get outside this winter.

Driver’s licenses are not required to operate the machinery. Younger children are able to come out and watch from a viewing area that overlooks the sandbox.

Or, for adults, take out the stress of sitting in rush hour traffic by coming out to the sandbox and taking the controls of a 19-ton excavator. Forget dreaming of crushing that car that almost slid in to you on Interstate 35E — now you can do it!

Open for just more than eight months, Extreme Sandbox has hosted almost 500 visitors from all over the country and even as far away as Japan, the United Kingdom and France. Many customers have come out to relive their childhood fantasies.

For more information, visit www.extremesandbox.com, email info@extremesandbox.com or call 855-DIG4FUN.

The business

Starting in 2011, Randy and Don Stenger began working to get their big patch of dirt ready for new customers to dig up. In the spring of 2012, the brothers opened their new business in Hastings.

Extreme Sandbox really is a giant, 10-acre sandbox. It’s surrounded on three sides by a grassy berm. It’s filled with deep sandy soil. There are toys to drive, like a 19-ton excavator.

The brothers are encouraged by the response they’ve gotten since the news broke of Extreme Sandbox’s opening.

“People are just fascinated,” Don Stenger said.

There’s been a ton of interest in the business, not just in the Twin Cities region but in neighboring states, as well. People from Missouri and Chicago set up times to try out the machines.

“Our business is bringing people who have never been here,” Randy Stenger said, and he added that he’s excited to be a regional draw for Hastings.

Although they just opened last year, they’ve already added a new session: the destruction zone. An expansion of another package, the destruction zone is an area where customers can use heavy equipment to destroy a vehicle.

Among the equipment available people can use are excavators, bulldozers and a skid steer.

Tags: go and do, events, entertainment, local