Lost River - Karst Information Portal

Back Underground in Indiana 

A Guidebook for the 2007 National Convention 

of the 

National Speleological Society 

Marengo, Indiana 

Aaron Atz, Editor 

Produced by the 2007 NSS Convention Committee 

Dave Haun, Chairman 

Layout and design by 

G. Thomas Rea 


2813 Cave Avenue 

Huntsville, Alabama 35810-4431 

USA

Back Underground in Indiana 

Published by 


2813 Cave Avenue 

Huntsville, Alabama 35810-4431 

256-852-1300 

http://www.caves.org/ 

Front cover photograph: Meredith, Sean, and Karen Strunk at the Elephant Head in 

Marengo Cave, photo by Elliot Stahl (2007). 

Front cover inside: Postcard of Wyandotte Cave entrance, photo by Perry Griffith (1931). 

Back cover inside: “100 Foot Pit” photo by George Jackson, 1938. 

Back cover photograph: Sunbeams stream down into an unnamed cave, photo by 

Aaron Atz. 

On the spine: Looking out of the entrance to Maucks Cave, by Brian Killingbeck. 

© Copyright 2007 National Speleological Society 

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in 

any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, 

recording, or any data storage or retrieval system without the express written 

permission of the National Speleological Society, Inc.

Contents 

Welcome from the NSS President 3 

Welcome from the Convention Chairman 4 

Welcome from the Governor of Indiana 5 

Editor’s Notes 6 

Acknowledgements 7 

I The Harrison Crawford area and Southern Indiana 9 

Scenic Diversions (McDowell, Wilson, and Atz) 11 

About Indiana Caving (Tozer) 16 

A Short History of Early Crawford County (Eastridge) 17 

II Exploration 19 

The Saga of Easter Pit (Lemasters) 21 

The Discovery and Exploration of the Lost River Cave System (Deebel) 27 

Other Exploration in the Lost River Drainage Basin (Deebel) 39 

Two Bit Pit, Harrison County, Indiana (McNamara) 45 

An Exploratory Trip to Gory Hole (Greenwald) 57 

The Exploration of Harrison Spring (Strickland) 61 

III Geology and Cave Sciences 71 

The Geology of the Indiana Karst and the Geology Field Trip (Strunk) 73 

The Cave Fauna of Indiana (Lewis) 180 

The Geology of Wyandotte Cave (Frushour) 186 

Projected Passage Profiles for the Wyandotte Caves System (Powell) 195 

The History and Status of Karst Vertebrate Paleobiology in Indiana (Richards) 197 

Karst Hydrogeology of the Harrison Spring Area (Bassett) 212 

IV Indiana Cave Organizations 219 

The Indiana Karst Conservancy, Inc. (Vernier) 221 

The Indiana Cave Survey: Past, Present, and Future (Everton) 228 

Indiana Grottos: Past and Present (Torode) 234 

V History 235 

Lewis D. Lamon: Indiana’s Grand Ol’ Man of Caving (Benton) 237 

George F. Jackson, NSS 151 (Benton) 240 

The Barn (Paquette) 242 

Caves, Cave Rescue, and the National Cave Rescue Commission in Indiana (Mirza) 247 

A Not Uncommon Occurrence at Harrison Spring (Atz) 252 

A History of Indiana Caving (Benton) 253 

A Historical Narrative of Wyandotte Cave (George) 258 

VI Conservation 263 

The Richard Blenz Nature Conservancy: Home of Buckner Cave (Everton) 265 

Bats in Indiana Caves (Kennedy) 270 

A Conservation Message (Vernier) 276 

1

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook 

2 

VII Miscellaneous 279 

Indiana Showcaves 281 

VIII Cave Descriptions 291 

Cave Selection 293 

Crawford County 294 

Harrison County 331 

Lawrence County 384 

Monroe County 398 

Orange County 405 

Owen County 410 

Washington County 415 

IX Color Photography 429 

Index 447 

X Map Packet 

Wyandotte-Easter Cave 

Breathing Hole 

B-B Hole 

Sullivan Cave 

Lost River Cave 

Marengo Cave 

Blue Spring Caverns

Welcome from the NSS President 

Welcome to Marengo, Indiana, and the 2007 NSS National Convention. It is a pleasure to 

have everyone visit Indiana. 

A convention is a great opportunity to bring us together. The scientist, explorer, conservationist, 

and the recreational caver all are interested in caves. Take some time to visit the sessions, see the 

latest art, hear of the exciting exploration, or just enjoy a cave. Use the many social events to 

meet and talk with fellow cavers from across the country. And most important, spend some time 

underground breathing cave air. 

Bill Tozer, President 


Charlie Rothrock in Wyandotte Cave in the Discovery of 1941 with candle 

in hand. Photo by George Jackson, NSS 151. 

From the John Benton photo collection. 

3


4 

Welcome from the Convention Chairman 

Welcome to the 2007 NSS National Convention! 

The 2007 NSS Convention Staff welcomes you to this convention. We hope you enjoy your 

stay in beautiful southern Indiana. 

Hopefully, by the time you read this, I will be the 27th person to welcome you to the convention 

and Indiana. We call that Hoosier Hospitality. If not, come see me 26 more times and I will 

welcome you personally. 

Crawford County and Harrison County are rich in history and caves, from the early explorers 

and scientists like William Henry Harrison (9th U.S. President), Squire Boone (Daniel’s brother), 

Cox, Blatchley, Collett, Owen, Addington, Mercer, Malott, Eigenmann, Cope, Hovey, and 

Mumford, to the more recent, like Ash, Quinlan, Art and Peg Palmer, Hobbs, Lewis, Pearson, 

George, and Richards. These are just a few fellow adventurers that you might have heard or read 

about with a connection to this area in Indiana. 

The Harrison Crawford area offers a vast contrast of caving sites to choose from. The caves 

vary from the famous commercial caves, Wyandotte, Marengo, and Squire Boone; to one of 

Indiana’s longest, Binkleys; to our most intense vertical caves, Two Bit Pit, Hanging Rock Drop, 

and Heisers Well. And, of course, don’t forget the “gold” that is buried in a cave and has never 

been found. 

Volunteers staff all NSS conventions. This year is no exception. We have been working hard 

for the past three years to put together what will surely be a convention to remember! We are 

trying to get back to some of the convention staples that might be fond memories for you. If you 

see a staff member, please thank them for volunteering and helping out the convention and the 

NSS. 

Landowner relations are very important in this part of the country. Please be courteous and 

keep low profiles while on private property. Practice minimum impact on the caves and the cave 

owners. Some of the caves you might have visited at a past convention or Cave Capers in this area 

may be closed or have special requirements. Please do not assume that you just park and go. Check 

out our Cave Kiosk at the campground for information about caving at this convention. 

Finally, please remember to cave safe and come back alive. NSS member John Benton recalls 

a tip Lewie Lamon gave him 30 years ago about caving, “… caves, yeah, I like to go in ’em … and I 

like to come out!” 

Welcome “Back Underground in Indiana!” 

Dave Haun, NSS 24672 RL FE 

2007 Convention Chairman

Welcome from the Governor of Indiana 

5


6 

Editor’s Notes 

About one year ago I took the job of editor for the 2007 National Convention Guidebook, 

with Tom Rea overseeing layout, graphic design, and publishing. It has been a very interesting 

year. After sending and receiving hundreds of e-mails, sorting and choosing from more than 2,000 

submitted cave photos, sorting or creating over 900 guidebook files, making scores and scores of 

phone calls, scanning several dozen historical items, and editing (and sometimes begging for) 

more than 20 original articles, the task is now complete. 

This guidebook has been a very ambitious undertaking, as it has done things no other NSS 

convention guidebook has done before. This guidebook is the first ever to offer a color photography 

section, something that was always too expensive to do. But with the generosity of Richard Blenz, 

the dream became a reality. This may also be the largest guidebook ever, but we went to great 

pains to strive for quality as much as quantity. With that said, we have strived for accuracy and I 

hope there are few errors. 

I am a photographer so naturally this guidebook is very photo-oriented. It is exciting to note 

that many of the photos shown in this guidebook record the original human exploration of the 

cave shown in the photo. This is the first time most of these photos have ever been published, and 

I am honored to be involved. I want to thank all of the photographers who submitted photos 

for publication, particularly David Black, who helped me extensively by allowing me access to his 

personal photography collection 

And lastly I’d like to thank my wife Janie and my son Christian. Without their support I 

wouldn’t have been able to attempt this endeavor. 

I hope you enjoy Crawford County and the 2007 NSS National Convention. 

Sincerely, 

Aaron Atz, Editor 


April 25, 2007

Color Photography Section 

We are much in debt to Richard Blenz for 

his generous donation, without which the color 

photography section wouldn’t have been possible. 

Layout and Graphic Design 

Tom Rea, and for giving so much of his 

time to the NSS. 

Lending of Historical Items 

John Benton lent George Jackson’s photo 

collection for scanning and also provided 

access to his numerous historical items. Gordon 

Smith lent his historical caving postcards to be 

scanned from his private collection. And thanks 

to Keith Dunlap for giving access to historic 

Bugs Armstrong and Don Martin slides. 

Scanning 

Special thanks to David Black and Bob 

Vandeventer for scanning slides for others. 

Photography 

The following submitted photographs for 

the guidebook: Keith Dunlap, Dave Strickland, 

Willie Hunt, Chris Schotter, Elliot Stahl, 

Todd Webb, Dave Black, Brian Killingbeck, 

Mark Deebel, Glenn Lemasters, Bill Baus, Bill 

Greenwald, Dave Everton, Andrew Peacock, 

Don Martin, Aaron Atz, Anmar Mirza, Tom 

Rea, Danny Dible, Ty Spatta, Kevin Strunk, 

Robert “Bugs” Armstrong, Bob Vandeventer, 

Hugh Couch, Richard Vernier, Julian Lewis, 

Jim Richards, Ron Richards, Sam Frushour, 

and Merlin Tuttle. 

Articles 

Thanks to the following who authored 

articles for the guidebook: Gordon Smith, 

Claudia Yundt, Jim Richards, Sam Frushour, 

Richard L. Powell, Ron Richards, Glenn 

Lemasters, Dave Everton, Julian Lewis, Kevin 

Strunk, Anmar Mirza, Greg McNamara, 

Bill Greenwald, Bill Tozer, Bill Torode, Bob 

Vandeventer, Dave Strickland, Mark Deebel, 

Richard Vernier, John Benton, Jim Kennedy, 

Acknowledgements 

Don Paquette, Dave Haun, John Bassett, 

Richard Eastridge, Angelo George, Aaron Atz, 

Dan McDowell, and Kent Wilson. 

Guidebook Production or Other 

Assistance 

Ron Adams: Landowner relations, 

production of the caves list. 

Dave Black: Providing numerous cave 

maps and descriptions, and sharing his vast 

knowledge. 

Dave Everton: Contacting landowners, 

helping assemble the caves list, providing maps, 

and writing several articles. 

Meredith Hall Johnson: Proofreading. 

Kate Siebert: Proofreading. 

Brian Killingbeck: Photography 

assistance. 

Other Assistance and Encouragement: 

Patti Cummings, Dave Everton, Bill 

Greenwald, Dave Haun, Tom Rea, and Bob 

Vandeventer 

Section Divider Page Photos 

Section I: David Stahl at Wyandotte Woods 

overlook, photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Section II: Mapping trip in Bluespring 

Caverns, 1965, photo by Art Davis. 

Section III: Sam Frushour and Kevin 

Komisarcik conducting the level tube survey of 

Wyandotte Cave, photo by Aaron Atz. 

Section IV: Members of the Harrison 

Crawford Grotto during a clean-up trip to 

Langdons Cave, photo by Aaron Atz. 

Section V: Large group at entrance of 

Wyandotte Cave, 1906, from the Gordon 

Smith photo collection (photographer 

unknown). 

Section VI: Cave Pearls in Bear Plunge, 

photo by Elliot Stahl 

7


Section VII: The Marengo Cave Band, 

from the Gordon Smith photo collection 

(photographer unknown) 

Section VIII: Three cavers on the Old Cave 

Route of Wyandotte Cave, photo by George 

8 

Jackson, 1935. From the John Benton photo 

collection. 

Section IX: Bob Braybender in Wyandotte, 

photo by George Jackson, 1935. From the John 

Benton photo collection. 

The entrance to Wyandotte Cave in 1923. Photo by George Jackson, NSS 151 

From the John Benton photo collection.. 

Bob Braybender packing his caving and photography gear behind his Studebaker 

outside Wyandotte Lodge in 1939. Photo by George Jackson. 

From the John Benton photo collection.

Section I: The Harrison Crawford Area 

and Southern Indiana


10

The Convention Planning staff is pleased 

to have the opportunity to offer a wide 

variety of scenic and recreational attractions 

to the attendees of the 2007 NSS National 

Convention. Quite a few of these attractions 

can be visited or seen in conjunction with trips 

to visit caves featured in this guidebook. Or 

Crawford County offers a lot of fine scenery 

and many of the roads have overlooks. 

There are quite a few attractions to be seen in 

Crawford County. 

The Harrison Crawford State Forest is a 

25,000+ acre property located on the edge of 

Crawford and Harrison counties that contains 

hundreds of Indiana’s finer caves. Access is from 

State Road 62 and State Road 462. The latter 

road leads to the entrance of O’Bannon Woods 

State Park, a 2,400-acre park in the middle 

of the Harrison Crawford State Forest. There 

are three campgrounds in the complex ranging 

from primitive and horse camping to a 281-site 

campground that accommodates RV camping. 

This complex is bounded by the Ohio and 

Blue rivers as well as Indian Creek and offers 

the 24-mile Adventure Hiking Trail as well as 

numerous day trails. There are also over 100 

miles of horse trails. A brand-new, Olympicsize 

swimming pool should be finished in time 

for the convention. The “main” areas of the 

Harrison Crawford State Forest are located 

only 15 to 20 minutes from the convention 

site. 

Wyandotte Caves are located 20 minutes 

from the convention site. They are owned by 

the state of Indiana and managed by Marengo 

Cave. Wyandotte is famous for being a show 

cave since the 1850s and has very large rooms 

and passages on its 1½-hour tour. It is well worth 

a visit. Little Wyandotte Cave has a beautifully 

decorated 30-minute tour. Cave tours will be 

Scenic Diversions 

By Dan McDowell, updated by Aaron Atz and Kent Wilson 

Crawford County 

perhaps you may want to set aside a day or two 

for some specific trips or activities. We invite 

you to take a few minutes to check out the large 

variety of leisure activities available to you in 

southern Indiana. The information included in 

the registration packets will list many of these 

public attractions. 

half-price with your convention ID badge. 

Marengo Cave Park is just off State Road 

64 in Marengo in Crawford County, just 

4 miles north of the convention site. Two 

different tours are offered: the Crystal Palace 

and the Dripstone Trail. You must be at the 

cave by 2:00 p.m. to make both tours. Marengo 

Cave also offers a snack bar, a gift shop, and a 

nature trail. Cave tours will be half-price with 

your convention ID badge. 

Cave Country Canoes is a canoe livery 

service in Milltown, on the beautiful Blue River, 

4 miles east of Marengo. Canoeing on the Blue 

River is a very popular pastime. A number of 

caves can be seen in conjunction with certain 

canoe trips. 

The Blue River Café is located in Milltown 

just a stone’s throw from Cave Country Canoes. 

Gourmet food and impressive drink lists go 

nicely with their live music on weekends. 

Stephenson’s General Store is located 

in Leavenworth, about 9 miles south of the 

convention site. In addition to groceries and 

traditional country-style food items, the store 

sells and displays many unique antiques. Don’t 

forget to visit the basement. 

Hemlock Cliffs, 3 miles south of Mifflin, 

is a part of the Hoosier National Forest. High 

sandstone cliffs and numerous shelter caves 

are prominent features of this scenic area. 

Hemlock Caverns is a large sandstone shelter 

that was an early American Indian occupation 

site. The floor of the valley has a noteworthy 

11


floral growth of ferns and wildflowers. There 

are hiking trails among the cliffs. The cliffs are 

about a 30-minute drive from the convention 

site. There is a specific and dedicated State 

Nature Preserve with a 1-mile loop trail. To 

protect the endangered plants and sensitive 

resources, rappelling is not allowed. However, 

at the nearby Messemore Cliff area, it is 

permitted. 

Patoka Reservoir is located at the junction 

of Orange, Crawford, and DuBois counties. 

This lake is 25,000 acres. Seven different 

state recreational areas offer a wide variety of 

activities including numerous boat launch 

ramps, a swimming beach, fishing, boating, 

water skiing, campgrounds, hiking, fitness 

trails, and bicycle trails. The lake is about 30 

minutes west of the convention site. 

Salt Shake Rock is found on State Road 37 

at the bridge over Little Blue River, 10 miles 

south of English. As you cross the bridge, you 

will see a pull off at a small shelter cave on the 

right. Salt Shake Rock, an isolated sandstone 

tower, is about 300 feet up the hill. Salt Shake 

Holiday World Theme Park and Splashin’ 

Safari is located about 80 minutes west 

of the convention site and is well worth a visit 

if you have a spare day. Holiday World has 

been family operated since the 1950s and in 

the past 20 years has reinvested and reinvented 

itself to become truly one of the world’s best 

theme park values. They showcase some of the 

biggest and most impressive roller coasters in 

the Midwest and have recently added a large 

wave pool and full-sized water park. Don’t 

think because of its location that it is lacking. 

Add to this the $33.95 entry fee (check the 

Harrison County is the cradle of Indiana’s 

post-Revolutionary War history. Historic 

Corydon, the county seat, was also the site of 

Indiana’s second territorial capital and the first 

state capital as well. These early state buildings 

12 

Spencer County 

Harrison County 

Rock Cave is less than 100 feet to the right on 

the bank of Little Blue River. 

The Shoe Tree is at the four-way stop in 

Devils Hollow south of Milltown. It can be 

reached by following Wyandotte Cave Road 3 

miles north from Wyandotte Cave, making a 

left at the “T,” and going west to the four-way 

intersection. If you trash your caving boots 

during convention, do what all Hoosier cavers 

(and the local populace) do: lace them hush 

puppies together and fling them into Indiana’s 

famous Shoe Tree. 

Rothrocks Mill (technically in Harrison 

County) was the site of a 19th-century grist 

mill on Blue River that was owned by the same 

family that owned Wyandotte Cave. Now only 

the remnants of the dam and foundation of the 

mill remain, and the site is used for recreational 

purposes only. Regardless, it is a beautiful spot 

on Blue River and is close to the convention 

site. From the Shoe Tree go east for about 1.5 

miles, drop into the Blue River valley, and the 

site is on the right a quarter of a mile past the 

bridge over Blue River. 

Web site for discounts) and unlimited free 

soft drinks and water and you have a great 

value. From the convention site take I-64 

west to exit 63 and then go 7.3 miles south 

on Indiana 162 to the park. This is only 45 

miles from the convention site, most of it 

interstate. 

Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari has been 

voted the World’s Friendliest Park and the 

World’s Cleanest Park for five years in a row by 

the readers of Amusement Today magazine.http://www.holidayworld.com. 

have been restored and are designated The 

Corydon Capital State Historic Site. 

Information on this and other notable historical 

homes and sites can be obtained at the Visitors 

Center at 202 East Walnut Street in Corydon.

The Harrison County Visitors’ Center is about 

25 minutes from the convention site. 

The Harrison Crawford State Forest, 

see the complete listing under “Crawford 

County” 

Squire Boone Caverns and Village is just 

off State Road 135, 12 miles south of Corydon 

and 30 miles from the convention site. Formerly 

known as Boones Mill Cave, this cave is noted 

for its cascading waterfalls and impressively 

large rimstone formations. There is a restored 

pioneer village with a number of early craft 

shops, souvenir and snack shops, nature trails, 

picnic grounds, and a campground. Half price 

admissions for cave tours, pioneer village, and 

hayrides are available with convention ID 

badges. 

The Battle of Corydon Memorial Park 

on the south side of town honors the only 

Civil War battle fought in Indiana. On 

July 9, 1863, 450 local militia and citizens 

were overwhelmed by 2,000 Confederates 

of Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan’s 

Calvary. A monument, a small museum, and 

a short trail are on this 5-acre site. 

Caesars Indiana Casino boasts the 

country’s largest gambling vessel and features 

Italian gourmet-style dining at Portico. There 

is also an impressive buffet, multi-story hotel, 

and professional-grade golf course. It is located 

Lost River, in north-central Orange County, 

is the classic example of sinkhole plains and 

related karst features. If you do not have the 

opportunity to participate in the geology field 

trip, consider seeing some of the highlights on 

your own. By following the lost river portion 

of the geology field trip road log you can visit 

some of the interesting highlights of this area. 

Two places along the Lost River dry bed, 

Wesley Chapel Gulf and the Orangeville Rise, 

are National Natural Landmarks and are easily 

accessed. Lost River is about 45 minutes north 

of Marengo. 

West Baden Springs and French Lick, 

located about an hour northwest of Marengo, 

Orange County 


about 45 miles southeast of the convention 

site, just 10 minutes south of New Albany. 

Hayswood Nature Preserve is located 1 

mile south of Corydon on the east side of State 

Road 135. This 160-acre park is highlighted 

by Pilot Knob, a prominent local landmark 

that overlooks Indian Creek. Besides picnic 

grounds and hiking trails, an 8-acre lake 

features fishing, rowboats, and canoe rentals. 

This park has a special blacktop trail for the 

handicapped. 

The Zimmerman Glass Factory is located 

on the east side of Corydon. Drop in and watch 

them make hand-blown glass paperweights and 

souvenirs right before your eyes. 

The Constitution Elm historic site 

commemorates the writing of Indiana’s 

constitution in 1816 under a stately elm tree. 

The monument displays the remaining trunk 

of the tree and a plaque detailing the event. The 

site is located on High Street one block north 

of the square in Corydon. 

Stage Stop Campground is located 3 miles 

east of Wyandotte Cave on State Road 62 and 

offers excellent fishing, primitive camping, and 

swimming on the Blue River. This large site is 

operated by the Indiana Department of Natural 

Resources as part of the Harrison Crawford 

State Forest. 

are historical resort communities with a 

number of attractions. The West Baden 

Springs Hotel is considered to be a remarkable 

architectural achievement. Built in 1901, the 

200-foot-diameter dome was the world’s largest 

unsupported dome until the advent of the New 

Orleans Superdome, built in the 1970s. 

French Lick Casino Resort is Indiana’s 

newest casino. 

The Indiana Railway Museum is on State 

Road 56 just west of the railroad crossing as 

you enter French Lick. The old Monon Railway 

station houses, preserves, and operates historic 

railway equipment. The French Lick, West 

Baden, and Southern Railway offers 18-mile 

13


trips on weekends behind an old steam engine. 

The trip goes through the state’s second longest 

tunnel, the 2,217-foot French Lick Tunnel, 

built in 1906. The Railway Museum also 

operates an electric trolley running between 

the resort hotels. 

The French Lick Springs Hotel, Golf, 

and Tennis Resort. Golf or tennis, anyone? 

Aside from its historical fame as a resort for 

Spring Mill State Park is in Lawrence 

County on State Road 60, 20 miles west 

of Salem and 3 miles east of Mitchell. Spring 

Mill is one of Indiana’s most popular parks. 

Highlights are a reconstructed pioneer village 

and water-powered grist mill showing rural 

southern Indiana life in the 1800s. The Virgil 

I. Grissom Memorial honors “Gus” Grissom, 

one of the original seven astronauts. America’s 

second man in space was from nearby Mitchell. 

Spring Mill is also noted for its caves and 

impressive karst features. Donaldson Woods 

Nature Preserve is a 67-acre virgin forest. 

Activities include camping, hiking, picnicking, 

Falls of the Ohio State Park is in Clarksville 

on the Ohio River, 40 miles east of the 

convention site. The largest exposed Devonian 

fossil beds in the world are here. Activities are 

fishing, hiking, picnicking, sightseeing, and 

fossil viewing. No fossil collecting is allowed! 

The site’s modern interpretive center displays 

many millennia of geological and human 

history and is well worth a visit. 

Deam Lake State Recreational Area 

borders the south edge of Clark State Forest, 

25 miles southeast of Salem on State Road 60. 

The 1,300-acre property has an excellent 194- 

Cave River Valley is 3 miles north of 

Campbellsburg and 8 miles west of Salem 

on State Road 60 in Washington County (see 

14 

Lawrence County 

Clark and Floyd Counties 

Washington County 

the socially elite, there are two 18-hole golf 

courses, 12 indoor tennis courts, and a really 

large, glass-domed, all-weather pool on this 

2,600-acre resort. 

Tucker Lake is in Springs Valley, a USDA 

Forest Service recreational area 12 miles south 

and east of French Lick, 4 miles off State Road 

145. This is a small, pleasant lake park that offers 

camping, hiking, picnicking, and fishing. 

swimming, boating, fishing, saddle horse 

riding, cave tours (both walking and by boat), 

and a nature center. 

Bluespring Caverns Park is off State Road 

50 on County Road 450S. Bluespring is about 

50 miles north of the convention site and is 4 

miles southwest of Bedford. With more than 

20 miles of passages, Bluespring is Indiana’s 

second longest cave. The commercial section 

offers an impressive hour-long custom boat 

tour on Myst’ry River featuring on-board 

electric lighting. A special half-price tour rate 

is available to NSS members during the 2007 

NSS National Convention. 

acre fishing lake plus a number of other services. 

There is a nature center, camping, hiking, and 

picnicking, as well as a boat launch ramp, 

rowboat rentals, and a swimming beach. 

The historic Ohio River towns of New 

Albany and Jeffersonville are located near I-64 

and display a history unique to the riverboat 

culture of the 1800s and early 1900s. The 

Howard Steamboat Museum in Jeffersonville 

as well as The Culbertson Mansion in New 

Albany are two very well restored mansion 

museums from this era. 

page 415). Cave River Valley is a privately 

owned picnic park with several wild caves, two 

of them extensive. They charge $5.00 per person

per day, which includes the right to go into 

any of these undeveloped caves. Please check 

with registration to get additional information 

during the convention. Cave River Valley is 

about an hour’s drive from the convention site. 

The Knobstone Trail, Indiana’s longest trail, 

extends across Clark and Jackson-Washington 

State Forests. The trail is 58 miles long and is a 

The Birdseye Multi-use Trail is located 

immediately off State Road 64, about 20 

miles west of Marengo. It is 11.8 miles long and 

fees apply for mountain biking and horseback 

riding. Low impact hiking is free. 

Ferdinand State Forest has 7,657 acres. Of 

the five hiking trails, the 2.6-mile-long Kyana 

Trail is the longest. There are 8.8 miles of 

Twin, Tipsaw, and Saddle Lake recreation 

areas: From the convention site take I- 

64 west to the St. Croix exit and go south on 

State Road 37 to excellent National Forest 

properties, the Twin Lakes, Tipsaw Lake, and 

Saddle Lake areas. Excellent mountain biking, 

camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, and canoeing 

are the highlights at these two areas. There are 

Within the city limits of Evansville, Indiana, 

find prehistoric Angel Mounds, the 

largest in the state; Wesselman Woods Nature 

Preserve; Mesker Park Zoo and Gardens; and 

Louisville is located 40 minutes east of the 

convention site at the junction of Interstates 

64, 65, and 71. Take the 9th Street exit off I- 

64 to get to the downtown area, which offers 

the following points of interest: The Louisville 

Slugger Bat Factory and Museum is well worth 

a visit for baseball fans. The Muhammad Ali 

Dubois County 

Perry County 

Evansville, Indiana 

Louisville, Kentucky 


back country trail that follows the Knobstone 

Escarpment, a prominent geologic feature. 

The trail is ideal for backpack trips but can be 

accessed at several points for shorter day trips. 

Many sections of the trail are rugged. The closest 

trail head is at the eastern end of Delaney Park, 

10 miles north of Salem. 

mountain-biking trails. Primitive camping only, 

fees apply. In existence since 1934 and built 

by the Civilian Conservation Corps, hunting, 

fishing, boating, canoeing, and picnicking can 

also be enjoyed here. It is located less than 5 

miles north of I-64 at the Dale exit, about 45 

minutes from the convention site. 

15.7 miles in the Twin Lakes loops and 5.9 

miles around Tipsaw Lake. If you would visit 

the Twin Lakes site, you might be amazed to 

discover a monstrous stone building known as 

the Rickenbaugh House. Constructed in 1875 

from locally quarried sandstone and virgin 

walnut, chestnut, and oak, the building is listed 

on the National Register of Historic Places. 

“LST 325,” a fully restored World War II Navy 

ship and on-water museum. Evansville is about 

a 100-minute drive from the convention site. 

Center is a recent addition to the Louisville 

skyline for boxing fans. Fourth Street Live is 

a collection of new bars and restaurants and 

offers frequent outside live music. Six Flags 

Kentucky Kingdom is located south near the 

airport. 

15

Welcome to Indiana caving. Our caves 

are located on private, federal, and state 

lands. Each of these caves probably has specific 

rules, requests, or procedures to follow when 

you visit them. Please keep this in mind. But 

above all, treat the landowners or property 

managers you encounter with respect. The trip 

leaders for the led cave trips have permission 

from the owners and will know the special 

procedures. 

Unless otherwise advised by the convention 

staff, cavers should ask permission to visit any 

cave. The convention staff at the campground 

will have the latest information on access to the 

caves. 

Cave owners usually give permission to 

people who respect them and their property. 

Of course they must make up their mind 

quickly based upon first impressions. They 

want to know that you will respect their 

property including the cave and will do all of 

this safely. Their judgment is based upon what 

they see. Dressing in nice clean clothing, being 

polite, and showing respect are a must. And the 

people in the car are held to the same standards. 

Needless to say, alcohol has no place at the cave 

or on the cave property. 

The state lands require a permit, which 

16 

About Indiana Caving 

By Bill Tozer 

must be filed with the state. This is an easy 

thing to do and keeps the caves open to cavers. 

The permits require the usual information 

regarding the cavers and the cave they intend 

to visit. Permits may be obtained at the caving 

kiosk at the campground or at the main office 

at the entrance to O’Bannon Woods State Park. 

Completed permits should be deposited at the 

same location. 

The Hoosier National Forest is federally 

administrated and no written permission is 

required. 

The Indiana Karst Conservancy owns and 

manages several caves. Most of these caves 

will be available for trips. The Indiana Karst 

Conservancy requires a liability release and a 

statement acknowledging the dangers of caving 

and the importance of conserving the cave. 

Complete and turn these in at the campground 

before leaving the convention site. And when 

in doubt, always check at the campground at 

the convention site for clarification. 

There are plenty of caves to visit, from 

easy walking caves to pits to wet, miserable 

crawlways. So feel free to enjoy our caves, 

but remember to treat the private and public 

stewards of our caves with respect so we may all 

continue to visit them for years to come. 

Wyandotte Cave, inner end of the Air Torrent: George Jackson, Dick Hughes, 

Bob Braybender. Photo by George Jackson about 1935. 


A Short History of Early Crawford County 

Leavenworth, on the Ohio River, was 

established in 1814 and became a major 

shipping port. Most of the county depended 

on the merchants at Leavenworth for essential 

goods from the outside world. Shortly thereafter, 

Indiana achieved statehood in 1816. 

In January of 1818, Martin Tucker presented 

a bill to the General Assembly at Corydon to 

admit Crawford County. The name Crawford 

was selected based on the reputation of William 

H. Crawford, a friend of George Washington. 

The bill passed and was signed by the governor 

on the 29th of January. The act was to take 

effect on March 1, 1818. Crawford County 

was formed from parts of Harrison, Orange, 

and Perry counties. 

Some of Crawford County’s early settlers 

were John Peckinpaugh, Elias Tadlock, Martin 

From the Aaron Atz collection. 

By Richard Eastridge 

Crawford County Historian 

Tucker, Thomas Stroud, John Ruth, Henry 

Hollowell, Nenion Haskins, Issac Kellems, Gory 

Jones, the Wiseman family, Issac Eastridge, and 

many more. 

Seth and Zebulon Leavenworth built a 

dam and mill across the Blue River at Milltown 

in 1821, which contributed greatly to the 

development of that part of the county. The 

mill was heavily damaged by flooding and was 

razed in 1959. 

It was decided that Mt. Sterling would 

be the county seat. A courthouse was built 

along with a jail and lots were sold with the 

proceeds to go to the county library. Because 

of a shortage of water in the county, the county 

seat was moved to Fredonia in 1822. Allan 

Thom constructed a two-story brick building 

that he gave to the county along with 50 acres 

17


of land. The courthouse remained in Fredonia 

until 1843 when it was moved to Leavenworth. 

The courthouse remained at Leavenworth until 

1896 when it was moved to English. 

Marengo was established in 1835 after 

being called Big Springs, Tuckerville, and 

Proctorville. Marengo did not grow to any 

degree until after the completion of the Air 

Line Railroad. 

Hartford was started in 1838 and did not 

prosper until the Air Line Railroad was built 

18 

From the Richard Estridge collection. 

in 1882. The name Hartford was changed to 

English after W.H. English of Indianapolis. 

The railroad had a great impact on Crawford 

County’s industry. Soon Eckerty and Taswell 

had over 20 timbering firms. Merchants could 

order their supplies and have them delivered 

to the depot, whereas previous shipping went 

long distances by horse or wagon. The railroad 

changed life greatly for those in Crawford 

County and pushed them even closer to the 

Twentieth Century.

Section II: Exploration 

1


20

Deep below the hills of Crawford County, 

Indiana, lies Wyandotte Cave. For 

centuries it has intrigued explorers with its 

depth and beauty. It once was used as a valuable 

mineral source by American Indians and early 

pioneers. Parts of Wyandotte Cave have long 

been a commercial attraction, sporting guided 

tours for visitors from around the world. 

Those tours continue to this day, provided by 

Wyandotte Caves LLC, under contract from 

the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 

which manages Wyandotte Caves. The cave 

also serves as a hibernaculum to the endangered 

Indiana bat, keeping it closed during the 

winter months. Numerous stories and books 

The Saga of Easter Pit 

(The Connection to Wyandotte Cave) 

Easter Pit Cave entrance. 

Story and Photos by Glenn E. Lemasters 

exist about the cave. Since the recording of 

history began, names like Bentley, Jones, 

Curry, Rothrock, Sears, Jackson, Louden, and 

Siebert ring with stories of exploration within. 

But this story is about the 1987 connection of 

Wyandotte Cave to Easter Pit, a cave that lay 

nearly a mile from Wyandotte’s entrance. 

Easter Pit Cave was discovered by a longtime 

local caver named Leo Schotter. In 1967, 

Leo showed the entrance to Ted Wilson. 

The entrance, a 38-foot pit, led to a passage 

extending for a few hundred feet. Below this 

passage, in an obscure lower level, they found 

another passage containing many tight canyons, 

pits, and crawlways. Over the next few years, 

Ted and others explored and mapped what 

they thought was the extent of the cave. 

About 17 years later, on October 26, 1986, 

Ted revisited Easter Pit with me and Danny 

Dible. Our goal was to re-check the lower-level 

passage. It required negotiating tight canyons, 

pits, and crawls that led to a lower level where 

we came to a small slot in the floor. It appeared 

to drop into a larger passage below and seemed 

impassable without enlarging it a bit. A strong 

air current billowing from the crack beckoned 

us to return. The three of us, with the addition 

of fellow caver Joe Oliphant, did return. After 

a small amount of enlarging the slot, and with 

the aid of a rope, Wilson made the initial drop 

through to the floor that lay 5 feet below. 

It was the beginning of many return 

exploration and survey trips to the cave. Below 

the slot was a short passage that led to the top 

of a big room. A steep slope of breakdown 

boulders led down to a large borehole below, 

where a void of blackness beckoned us on. It 

was a large trunk passage, reminiscent of those 

in Wyandotte Cave. With no survey gear in 

hand, we elected to explore. 

It continued as a flat-floored, sandy walkway 

21


intermittently broken 

by rooms strewn 

with breakdown. 

Selenite crystals hid 

indiscriminately in 

places where their 

alabaster beauty had 

never been seen by 

the eyes of mankind. 

A few bats hid in 

crevices and clung 

to the ceiling. There 

was no evidence of 

any previous visitors 

in this passage. It was 

virgin cave! 

At one point in 

this corridor an upper 

level side passage led from a high ledge we called 

the Overlook. The passage leading from it was 

later explored, surveyed, and christened the 

Bowling Alley. This name came from the many 

exposed areas of Wyandotte chert embedded 

within the limestone walls. The Bowling Alley 

became too low to negotiate after nearly 1,500 

feet. 

Continuing inward in the main corridor 

and just past the Overlook, an intersection 

with a trunk of similar size occurred. This 

large passage, named after the late Tom Fritsch, 

22 

The Overlook. 

Indiana Avenue. 

ended within a few hundred feet in sediment 

fill. Farther in, the main corridor met with 

another intersection. The obvious route turned 

low and required crawling on a sandy floor. The 

obscure route required negotiating through 

breakdown to open into a walking passage. 

This nice passage was christened Indiana 

Avenue. The long, sandy-floored crawl led us 

to a connection with yet another big walking 

passage. Indiana Avenue would re-connect here 

as well. We continued inward through walking 

passage. 

The floor and walls 

were covered with 

gypsum encrustations, 

giving the appearance 

of a fresh, glistening 

snow. We called it 

Snowflake Trail. We 

had to skirt along 

the passage walls to 

avoid stepping in 

areas abundant with 

selenite crystals. An 

occasional alabaster 

gypsum flower was 

found growing under 

a rock. It was certainly 

an area of nature’s 

delicacy at its best.

Gypsum flowers and crusts. 

Beyond Snowflake Trail the passage 

narrowed and proceeded up a slope. At the 

top lay the biggest room in the cave. Its size 

overwhelmed the power of our headlamps. 

Large rows of helictites and stalagmites draped 

from the ceiling above where we stood. They 

were dwarfed by the size of the room. In front of 

us were large piles of a truck-sized breakdown. 

There was no end in sight as the room was 

much longer than it was wide. We stood at the 

entrance to this gigantic room, a place never 

before seen or touched by mankind, a place 

created long ago by 

the forces of nature 

and decorated with 

the beauty of earthly 

mineral deposits. We 

called it the Inner 

Sanctum. “This is 

what it’s all about,” I 

thought. 

To pass through 

the Inner Sanctum 

required skirting the 

wall and jumping from 

one breakdown block 

to another. With 

careful footwork we 

reached the other 

side and found the 


main corridor. We 

continued our search 

inward. The passage 

turned the corner 

and became blocked 

by a breakdown 

choke. Continuing 

solo, Dible made a 

determined search 

through some tight 

crawls that led into 

the breakdown 

and he soon found 

the continuing 

route. He reported 

climbing high into 

the breakdown and 

finding a small hole 

leading up into another huge room. We called 

it the Room Above. It was another room of 

immense proportions floored by the mountain 

of breakdown, not as big as the Inner Sanctum, 

but still of great proportion. We would retreat 

from the cave on that first day of discovery, but 

not without determination to return. 

On November 8, 1986, the project of 

surveying and mapping in Easter Pit began. 

Exploration would continue when the survey 

team reached the Room Above. As cavers who 

become protective of their find often do, we 

The Inner Sanctum. 

23


installed a chain gate in Easter Pit at the slot 

that drops through to the trunk passage below. 

It actually turned out to be a helpful foothold 

assisting in climbing up or down in the slot 

and was never used as a gate. For many months 

to follow we would intermittently survey and 

explore the cave. Some trips were long and 

arduous, but with help of the survey data we 

could see the passage trends. We logged many 

hours during the next few years as cavers Dave 

Black, Holly Cook, Greg McNamara, Ron 

Adams, Tony Akers, George Cesnik, Tina 

Shirk, Roger Gleitz, Sam Frushour, and Kevin 

Komisarcik joined our team. We began to call 

ourselves the Wyandotte Ridge Exploration 

Group (WREG). 

After surveying to the Room Above, we 

soon found the continuing route to the main 

corridor lying at the bottom of a large summit 

of breakdown and through an obscure hole. 

The borehole continued. It led us to the Room 

Beyond. Here, another breakdown choke 

occurred and we thought we had reached the 

end. We made many searches for more passages 

along the paths that lead to this area. The cave 

was not giving up its secrets easily, but we did 

not abandon hope. Between the Room Above 

and the Room Beyond was a slippery, mudcovered 

hill of shale we called the Shaley Slide. 

Near the bottom, through a narrow crack, a 

24 

The chain slot. 

low side passage was 

found. It revealed 

itself to be only a 

series of constricted 

crawlways, pits, 

and canyons, which 

required an expansive 

digging effort to 

penetrate. This 

crawlway became 

known as the Radio 

Flyer No. 9, after the 

little red wagon that 

hauled loads and loads 

of dirt out of the dig. 

Many dig trips would 

follow. 

The digging 

effort revealed an energy-sucking crawlway 

affectionately called the Buzz Stripper that led 

to a tight canyon called Chisel Canyon. It was 

tight and contorted and always stood as my own 

personal dread, as it required lying on your side, 

positioning yourself in the center, and wriggling 

through without sliding down into the crack 

of the canyon. It goes for only a body length 

but nevertheless is daunting. Just on the other 

side of Chisel Canyon is a dome called Fools 

Dome. With a bright light, one could peer to 

the top of this 45-foot-high dome and only 

wonder if more passage would continue above. 

Below this dome, through a small obscure hole, 

a 33-foot-deep pit was found. Requiring a rope 

for descent, it is the lowest point in the cave at 

215.5 feet lower than the Easter Entrance. The 

short passage leading from it would soon end. 

If the cave was to continue it would have 

to be at the top of Fools Dome. Upon initial 

examination by Dible and Wilson, it was 

deemed climbable. On the next trip the wellseasoned 

climber, Wilson, made it to the top 

with the patient Dible providing a belay line. 

It was a key event in the exploration. There 

was passage at the top! A rope was rigged for 

later trips and the surveying and exploration 

continued in the upper level. 

After learning the routes and knowing 

how to negotiate the passages, trips to the

top of Fools Dome 

began to take only an 

average of 2 hours. 

At the top of Fools 

Dome the survey 

indicated a possible 

connection with 

Wyandotte Cave to 

the southwest. Many 

trips passed through 

a place affectionately 

called Sleepy Hollow, 

a place that became 

reminiscent of the 

many long, sleepless 

trips into the cave. 

Camping inside the 

cave soon became 

common. 

Not far from Sleepy Hollow the passage 

seemed to end, but we found a small, 

inconspicuous hole in the floor leading to a 

small crawlway. Within this crawlway an item 

of curiosity was found. There in front of us was 

an antique flashbulb lying tucked upon a small 

alcove. It had to have been transported to this 

point by pack rats. Or had it been thrown there 

by humans from the other side? But what and 

where was the “other side”? The small crawlway 

narrowed abruptly except for a small hole the 

size of a half-squashed pie pan. Air flowed from 

it. This hole was one of the lowest and tightest 

crawlways found in the cave and if not for the 

airflow and the flashbulb, we probably would 

have left it abandoned. A line plot generated 

from our data showed the end of Flash Bulb 

Crawl to be amazingly close to Avenue No. 3 in 

Wyandotte Cave. A connection was inevitable. 

After a few trips to enlarge the hole which, 

by the way, was made through what had to be 

some of the hardest mineral deposition in the 

cave, it became penetrable. 

On October 3, 1987, Wilson, Dible, and 

Oliphant entered the hole and connected to 

Echo Avenue in Wyandotte Cave. The two 

caves were now one. The event would remain 

secret for a long time as we continued mapping 

passages stemming from Fools Dome and 

A typical crawlway. 


making a few new discovery trips into the far 

reaches of Wyandotte Cave. 

Over the past 150 years various maps and 

stories of Wyandotte Cave have appeared, 

touting its length as much as 23 miles. In the 

late 1960s, Dr Richard L. Powell, an Indiana 

state geologist (now retired), with the help 

of the Bloomington Indiana Grotto, mapped 

Wyandotte Cave for the state. Indiana was 

going to buy the cave from its current private 

ownership and a reliable map was needed. That 

survey provided a total length of 5.36 miles 

of passage in Wyandotte Cave. As a fellow 

caver, Dr Powell assisted us in disclosing our 

discoveries to the Department of Natural 

Resources sometime in 1989. We were allowed 

some time to map the newly discovered passages 

within Wyandotte and continue mapping in 

Easter Pit. 

Our group surveyed the following areas 

within Wyandotte Cave: 

The Adventure Trail, an extension of what 

is known as the Old Cave. This led from Plutos 

Ravine through a series of breakdown climbs; a 

lengthy crawl led to a short walking passage that 

ended in a nonforgiving breakdown choke. 

Kings Gauntlet, a passage found long ago 

but subsequent to the 1966 Powell map. 

Teasing Wind Trail, a crawlway extending 

off to the southeast from Butler Point at the far 

25


northern reaches of the cave. The air current 

within provided just enough tease for another 

expansive push effort. It ended in a large room. 

Rothrocks Lost Passage, another passage off 

Butler Point mentioned in historical data but 

not found by the surveyors of the 1960s. 

Hall of Aeacus, a large room with short 

passage extension that was found off of 

Operation Exit, a passage extending from the 

Senate Chamber. 

A bypass route to the Double Pit route. 

A dome with no name off the end of the 

Owen Report Passage. 

Powell’s map is still used today, with 

additions made by Lemasters. Easter Pit and 

those aforementioned Wyandotte discoveries 

have been added. Combined, they added 3.74 

miles of passages to Wyandotte Cave. Easter Pit 

added 2.75 miles alone. In 2001, we presented 

26 

the Department of Natural Resources with a 

map of the two caves merged as one. Today, the 

cave stands at 9.10 miles in length and 215.5 

feet in depth. 

Over the years, many stories have been told 

about Wyandotte Cave—reports of obscure 

passageways leading to grand hallways and 

legends of chambers that often seemed elusive 

to the pursuing explorer. The exploration of 

Easter Pit Cave and those other elusive passages 

within Wyandotte can now be joined with 

those stories. My memories of those days are 

unforgettable. It was an extraordinary discovery 

resulting from the determined efforts of many 

cave explorers. I was honored and humbled to 

be a part of the discovery. A map of Easter Pit 

and Wyandotte Cave is included in the map 

package. 

The lodge at Wyandotte in 1948. Photo by George Jackson. 


The Discovery and Exploration of the Lost 

River Cave System, 

Orange County, Indiana, 

1996–2007 By Mark Deebel, NSS 37025RL 

No discussion of the geology and caves of the 

Lost River drainage basin in southern Indiana 

can be complete without at least mentioning the 

work of Dr Clyde Malott. A professor of geology 

at Indiana University for more than 25 years, he 

was one of the first scientists to study the caves of 

the Lost River area and helped pioneer the field 

of karst hydrology. His contributions are too 

numerous to mention here, but have no doubt 

that those of us involved with the survey of the 

Lost River Cave System are deeply indebted to 

his lifetime of work. 

Wesley Chapel Gulf 

As it applies to karst terrain, the term 

“gulf ” was defined by Dr Malott (1931) 

to describe a steep-walled depression with a 

flat, alluvial floor in which an underground 

stream rises and sinks. There are several gulfs 

located within the Lost River drainage basin 

of southern Indiana. The most prominent, 

Wesley Chapel Gulf, is a large oblong sinkhole 

oriented generally northwest to southeast 

(Figure 53 on page 162 [Malott’s 1931 map of 

Wesley Chapel Gulf ]). It has a surface area of 

8 acres and a perimeter of about 2,700 feet. A 

rise pool is located at its southern end. During 

severe flood conditions the entire floor of the 

gulf can be covered in several feet of water. 

This is the reason for the flat, alluvial floor. 

Three caves were known to be located around 

Wesley Chapel Gulf. Elrod Cave is located in a 

small sinkhole just beyond the northern edge 

of the gulf and several passages in it terminate 

at the gulf ’s northern wall. Elrod Cave has 

been a popular cave to visit for over a century. 

It contains large, easy walking passage and a 

nicely decorated formation room in its 2,248 

feet of passage. Boiling Spring Cave, located 

at the southern end of the gulf above the rise 

pool, has a large entrance room but quickly 

descends to water level through breakdown. 

The cave receives the first stages of floodwater 

from a rise pool at the entrance, and for this 

reason the majority of its 1,055-foot length 

is inaccessible for a good part of each year. 

Finally, Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave is located in 

the western wall of the gulf and was known to 

be by far the largest of the three. Surveyed in 

1931 by Dr Malott and several of his graduate 

students, they measured the cave to be nearly 

a mile long. 

During flood conditions, as water from 

the rise pool ascends and Boiling Spring Cave 

is filled to capacity, two flood channels in the 

floor of the gulf divert water away from the rise 

pool. One channel meanders northward along 

the entire length of the gulf. Water is diverted 

underground through several swallowholes 

along the way, the furthest north of which 

feeds a stream passage in Elrod Cave. The 

other flood channel connects the rise pool 

to the entrance of Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave, 

and at times the entrance to the cave can be 

completely inundated with water. 

When accessible, however, the majority 

of Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave consists of large, 

easy, walking borehole containing various 

depths of water, from ankle to waist deep. Just 

inside the entrance the cave splits two ways. 

One branch of the cave contains a stream 

that travels northward, roughly parallel to 

27


the western wall of the gulf. It ends abruptly 

after 800 feet, however, with the water 

disappearing through breakdown. Following 

the other branch of the cave, the western half, 

it is possible to traverse a relatively large loop, 

while on the way there is a mazy section which 

has confused more than one unwary traveler. 

The far western extent of the cave contains a 

long, deep pool of stagnant water, the end of 

which was represented as a series of dashed 

lines on Malott’s 1931 map, and was the cause 

of much speculation as to where, if anywhere, 

that might lead. 

The Beginning 

The resurvey of the caves around Wesley 

Chapel Gulf began with Elrod Cave on 

January 13, 1996. Those of us on the initial 

survey team included Ted Bice, Craig Cantello, 

Reneé VanVeld, and me. Intending to make a 

project out of it and eventually survey all of 

the caves around the gulf, we chose to begin 

with Elrod because it was the driest of the 

three. The majority of the cave’s half mile of 

28 

The entrance to Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave. 

passage was also walking, which made it easy 

for us to practice our surveying techniques. A 

year later, by January 1997, we had surveyed 

2,066 feet in Elrod Cave during five trips. Also 

during this time we surveyed Boiling Springs 

Cave and conducted a surface survey of the 

entire perimeter of the gulf, the rise pool, and 

the flood channels. We surveyed to each of the 

three cave entrances so they could eventually be 

plotted in correct relationship to each other. 

The survey of Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave 

began uneventfully on January 19, 1997, with a 

survey party consisting of Ted Bice and me. We 

expected to increase the cave’s surveyed length 

to over a mile, since Malott had nearly that in 

1931; and surely there were passages that he did 

not bother to survey. We thought there might 

be 2 miles of cave there, which, at the time, 

seemed like a very long cave to survey. 

On that first trip we started at the entrance 

and surveyed only 213 feet, which was all that 

we could do and remain dry. From that point 

on we would be required to get wet, no matter 

which direction we chose. We had completed a

previous surface survey of the gulf earlier in the 

day, and tied the new cave survey in to it, linking 

the three caves together for the first time along 

with an outline of the gulf itself. We returned 

twice that winter and then, although we caved 

nearly every weekend, would not return to the 

gulf to work on the survey until later that fall. 

On October 19, 1997, Ted Bice and I 

returned to the gulf and were joined by Tony 

Cunningham on the final survey trip into 

Elrod Cave. The trip itself was uneventful, but 

as we were in the process of changing out of our 

caving clothes and about to head home we were 

visited by the neighbor from across the road, 

Paul Blanton. He had thought that we were 

deer hunters but seemed disappointed to find 

out that we were just cavers. 

We knew there were supposed to be 

one or two small caves over on his property 

but had not tried to find them. We took the 

opportunity to ask, and Mr Blanton was more 

than gracious. After putting on dry clothes, 

Ted, Tony, and I walked across the road and 

into the sinkhole located behind the barn. The 

cave was immediately apparent. It was a nice, 

dry, crescent-shaped room. We were told that it 

had been used as a root cellar at one time since 

an orchard used to be on the surrounding land. 

There was really not much unusual about the 

cave however, except for a rock wall that had 

been built at some point, and a small hole in the 

floor out of which a noticeable breeze flowed. 

The passage looked like it kept going, but it 

was only 3 inches high, being blocked mostly 

by loose rocks and mud. 

We each took turns examining the 

hole and decided that it would definitely be 

worthwhile to come back and try to dig our 

way in, on the odd chance that there might 

be virgin cave through there. However, with 

an already long list of digs to work on and 

easy passages to survey in Wesley Chapel Gulf 

Cave, we returned three more times to survey 

before the end of the year. Craig Cantello, who 

had been involved with the survey of Elrod 

Cave, returned to help, and Trae Spires made 

his first appearance on the project during this 

time. 

The Lost River Cave System 

The Discovery 

On January 2, 1998, Ted Bice, Trae 

Spires, and I had planned to work in Wesley 

Chapel Gulf Cave for the day while teaching 

new surveyor Sam Russell. When we arrived at 

the property there was a light rain coming down 

and we didn’t feel comfortable going into the 

cave under such circumstances. Having crossed 

off the main goal for the day, we decided that 

we could still teach Sam how to survey in the 

small cave across the road that we had visited 

the previous fall. 

The cave was named Lost River II, and 

had been sketched in 1972 for a length of 75 feet. 

Another small cave, Lost River I, was supposed 

to be located elsewhere on the property. While 

Trae, Sam, and I quickly surveyed the small 

cave, Ted began digging at the small crack in 

the floor, which was again blowing air. By the 

time we completed the survey, Ted had enough 

room for two people to fit down through a hole 

and into a small alcove where the crawlway 

continued to slope down under the opposite 

wall. Large rocks were being passed out at a 

regular pace. Soon my pack was taken over as a 

digging bag as dirt and small rocks were getting 

hauled out. We each took turns digging, but 

after awhile it became very difficult to reach in 

the sloping crawlway, since we had been digging 

with only our hands all of this time. We decided 

to call it a day and come back later with better 

tools to get the job done. 

Ted, Trae, Sam, and I returned to the dig the 

next day on Saturday, January 3, accompanied 

by Lori and Dakota Spires. Ted and Trae, whose 

arms were the longest, began digging again 

in the sloping crawlway, this time with some 

small shovels and a crowbar, while the rest of us 

waited above in the cold cave. The only relief 

from the boredom was occasionally being able 

to empty my pack of the rocks and dirt that 

had been placed in it, each time seeming to take 

longer and longer. 

An hour or so passed when Ted and Trae 

decided to come out for a break, since Ted’s 

light was going dim and needed new batteries. 

I was curious as to how much progress they had 

made, and so I slid through the hole and down 

2


to the dig, accompanied by Dakota Spires, who 

was six years old. It was obvious that they had 

made quite a bit of progress since the day before. 

I told Dakota to look down the crawlway to 

see if it opened up. She slid partway down the 

crawlway and then came back out since it was 

still partially blocked by dirt and rocks. Dakota 

then went back up out of the dig to allow Lori 

to come down and take a look. I slid down into 

the crawlway to take a look at how much more 

there was to do. With my helmet off I could 

see that the passage turned to the right slightly 

where, past a small pile of dirt and rocks, there 

was a black void. I backed out of the crawl and 

asked Lori to hand me the crowbar. I slid back 

down the crawl and used the crowbar to push 

the remaining rocks and dirt down the slope 

into the cave. 

After a few minutes I couldn’t wait any 

longer and had made a hole big enough that 

I thought I could fit through. I pushed my 

helmet in front of me and began to slide 

downhill through the last few feet of the 

dig. I had to exhale to pass through at one 

point, but once that was over the rest of 

me passed through without any problem. 

That is, except for my sweatpants, which 

had been pulled down to my ankles while 

passing through the tight spot. I was going 

to turn around and dig a little more from 

the inside to enlarge the last few feet of 

the crawl for everyone, but before I could 

even pull up my sweatpants Lori was 

coming through. I backed up to get out of 

the way, as everyone was lining up to get 

into the newly-discovered virgin cave. 

We had slid into one end of a long room 

about 4 feet high. The floor was mud and 

breakdown. At the where we were sitting was a 

talus slope, which is what we had dug through 

at the ceiling. The room turned out to be 

about 60 feet long and 15 feet wide. A tight 

crawlway led off from the far left corner into 

the darkness. We rushed down it, and only 20 

feet later it opened back up into a hands-andknees 

crawl in a wide, “V”-shaped passage 

with a mud floor. The distant sound of water 

could be heard. After continuing to follow 

30 

the crawlway we suddenly found ourselves 

sitting on the edge of a large mud bank about 

40 feet wide. Below us a very large amount of 

water was moving swiftly from left to right. 

The opposite wall was 60 feet away and the 

ceiling was 30 feet high. We were frozen in 

awe. This spot would come to be known as the 

Mudbank. We were 200 feet from the dig in 

Lost River II. 

We decided to go upstream and 

began to follow the right-hand wall of the 

passage after wading into the cold water. 

The ceiling came down a little bit as we 

passed a bedrock column in the middle of 

the passage. We trudged along a mud bank 

slope at the water level, not knowing how 

deep the water was on the opposite side of 

the passage. After wading through the water 

for about 400 feet, we passed a very large 

side passage on the left, later to be named 

Dark Side of the Moon. Shortly afterward, a 

30-foot-long section of exposed well casing 

pierced through the cave passage. Following 

that, the water got shallower and became 

a pleasant river passage, with only kneedeep 

water, and a flat, regular floor. A nice 

drapery formation, hanging out of a hole in 

the ceiling, was followed by another 50 feet 

later. The passage continued its elliptical 

shape. All too soon the borehole ended, the 

passage belled out to the left, and the ceiling 

came down in front of us. The river came 

out of an 8-foot-wide by 5-foot-high hole in 

the wall, filling a lake in the center of the 

room. On the far side was a large breakdown 

slope leading up into the unknown. 

We were 1,000 feet from the Mudbank 

where we had originally entered the river 

passage, and everyone was standing around 

in a state of bliss. Hey, guess what? None 

of us had packs. I was wearing sweatpants 

while standing in waist-deep, icy water and 

was already sick with a cold. Everyone else 

was dressed in a similar fashion. With that 

realization, we decided to head out and began 

retracing our path back downstream toward 

the entrance to our newly discovered virgin 

cave.

The Survey Begins 

On Saturday, January 10, 1998, we had 

enough people for two survey teams. Ted Bice, 

Trae Spires, Bill Stuller, and I began to survey 

downstream, and from the previous weekend’s 

exploration thought that it went only 200 feet 

before ending in breakdown. When we were 

about finished, however, Ted discovered a lead 

around the breakdown which would eventually 

lead to Whitewater Way, a major water passage 

in the cave. The other survey team was composed 

of Dave and Karen Schang, Tony Cunningham, 

Kriste Lindberg, and Steve Lockwood. They 

began to survey the upstream river passage, 

later to be named the Found River Passage, and 

started the first side lead, the Hanging Madonna 

Passage. Billy Pea arrived later and entered the 

cave on his own, bringing a video camera to 

record some virgin cave. 

The following day Ted Bice, Don Bice, 

Mark Krause in typical passage. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 


Kriste Lindberg, Steve Lockwood, Trae Spires, 

Bill Stuller, and I surveyed Dark Side of the 

Moon, the large side passage that we had spotted 

from the river the weekend before. The passage, 

named after the numerous potholes formed in 

the dolomite floor along its length, turned out 

to be 1,200 feet long. After reaching the end, 

everyone except for Bill and Steve continued 

surveying down a side passage to the left. Bill 

and Steve checked out a small passage to the 

right, later to be named Bills Hole, and they 

were surprised when it led to a nice formation 

room. After exploring past the formation room, 

however, they found themselves perched on a 

balcony overlooking a river flowing through a 

very large room. They backtracked and were 

able to find a way to climb down to the river 

and explore the room, which would come to 

be known as Western Avenue. It would turn 

out to be the largest room in the cave, with a 

31


width of 100 feet and a length of over 200 feet. 

The first weekend yielded 3,200 feet of mapped 

passage. 

The work continued the following 

weekend when Ted Bice, Tony Cunningham, 

Bill Stuller, and I surveyed through Bills Hole 

to Western Avenue. Dave and Karen Schang, 

Lori Spires, and Ray Rough continued working 

in the Hanging Madonna Passage and farther 

upstream in Found River. The next day some 

leads off Dark Side of the Moon were surveyed. 

After the second weekend the cave had more 

than doubled in length, to 7,138 feet. The next 

weekend work continued along Dark Side of 

the Moon, while Dave Schang’s team surveyed 

nearly 2,000 feet in a single day in a series of 

passages that would come to be known as the 

Boy Scout Loop. 

After the initial discovery, we tried 

not to explore passages until we were ready 

to survey them, thinking it only fair that the 

32 

Mark Kraus in a formation area of Lost River Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

people doing the work should be the ones to get 

to explore the virgin passages. However, after 

three weeks of surveying, and with passages 

going off in every direction, the temptation 

was just too great. Wanting to know what we 

had gotten ourselves into, one day Ted Bice 

and I explored west past Western Avenue 

into the great unknown, our route later to be 

named the Western Trail. From known cave, 

we traveled west for what would turn out to 

be about 2,700 feet, finally stopping at what 

we would call the Funnel Room. Along our 

exploration we doubled back to the south and 

found another river passage, which Ted would 

refer to as the Third River, and the name stuck. 

There were many junctions and side passages 

along the entire route and we had a very real 

fear of getting lost. 

The exploration past Western Avenue 

led us to realize that the cave was much bigger 

than we had anticipated. Surveys continued

through January as well as every weekend in 

February, after which the cave was 2.53 miles 

long and had become the longest cave in Orange 

County. By this time the cave had become so 

large and so many people were involved that, 

almost by default, it had become a project of 

the St. Joseph Valley Grotto, to which we all 

belonged. 

The Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave 

Connection 

With Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave known to 

be at least a mile long and a new multi-mile cave 

across the road, it wasn’t long before we began 

to have thoughts about a connection between 

the two. So on January 31, Ted Bice, Steve 

Lockwood, Trae Spires, and I took a break from 

the virgin passages in Lost River II and surveyed 

to the Waterfall Room in Wesley Chapel Gulf 

Cave, located along part of the loop in the 

cave. Ted explored a crawlway leading off from 

the room but stopped when he encountered a 

low crawlway in water. On February 14, Ted 

Bice, Trae Spires, and I surveyed through the 

upstream breakdown in Lost River II, looking 

for a connection to Wesley Chapel but none 

was found. Similar attempts were made on the 

Wesley Chapel side of the breakdown, but no 

good leads were found there either. 

On March 1, however, Ted Bice, Sam 

Russell, Bill Stuller, and I had been surveying 

downstream in Whitewater Way for the day. 

After ending the survey at a bathtub, Ted and 

Sam were cold and began to exit the cave. 

Bill and I decided to survey a short crawlway 

above the source of the water for Whitewater 

Way. I had explored it earlier and thought 

that it ended quickly in a belly crawl. After 

reaching what I thought was the end, Bill 

crawled ahead to pull the tape for the final 

shot. Upon reaching the far wall where the 

passage seemed to end, however, he noticed 

that it continued through a hole in the 

ceiling that could not be seen unless you were 

immediately below it. 

Already cold and tired, and actually 

upset that the passage didn’t end, we stopped 

our survey and went through. An easy hands- 


and-knees crawl went for 160 feet, and then 

suddenly we were standing in a room with a 

waterfall. Bill had not been in Wesley Chapel 

Gulf Cave before and thought that we had just 

discovered more virgin cave. I knew where we 

were however, and explained to Bill that we 

were in the Waterfall Room of Wesley Chapel 

and had found a connection. The spot in the 

crawlway where Ted had stopped from the 

Wesley Chapel side was the hole in the ceiling 

that Bill had found from the Lost River II side. 

On April 5, 1998, Ted Bice, Ray 

Rough, Trae Spires, and I returned to survey 

the connection. At the time Lost River II 

was 2.88 miles long while Wesley Chapel was 

only 0.91 miles, and since it had now become 

one large cave rather than two, we dropped 

the Lost River II name and for the first time 

began to call everything the Lost River Cave 

System. The connection came to be known as 

the Impassable Passage, derived from Malott’s 

description of the crawlway from 1931. After 

the connection the cave had jumped ahead to 

3.79 miles long, with about 65 going leads, and 

was already one of the ten longest caves in the 

state. 

The System Grows 

The survey continued through the summer 

and fall. Several notable sections of the cave 

not already mentioned were surveyed during 

this time. The Rimstone Volcano area above 

Western Avenue and the Mud Dune Room 

farther west were surveyed by Trae and Lori 

Spires and led to their future involvement in 

the northwest section of the cave. In July, Traes 

Terrible Tunnel, a horribly awkward passage 

half filled with water, was discovered off the lead 

to Whitewater Way. We pushed it only because 

we thought it might be a second connection 

to Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave. Although the 

passage comes within 50 feet, the connection 

has yet to be made. Work in the Sewers, an aptly 

named section of low, wet passages, was started 

by Dave and Karen Schang during this time. 

The survey of the Western Trail began, heading 

west following the original exploration route. 

Four survey trips were also taken in Wesley 

33


Chapel Gulf Cave during this time, completing 

the large loop in the cave and the survey to the 

western sump. 

Of those of us who would become the 

top seven surveyors in the project, four have 

already been mentioned and were involved 

from the very beginning. They include Ted 

Bice, Dave Schang, Trae Spires, and me. The 

remaining three appeared during the first year. 

In June, a new grotto member by the name of 

Dave Tibbets made his first appearance and 

would eventually go on nearly 100 survey trips 

into the cave. In July, Dave and Karen Schang 

brought a friend named Burnis Piper into the 

project, and he would soon prove to be the 

best sketcher of all. Finally, in October, Bill 

Kulwicki arrived and always seemed to get stuck 

surveying the nastiest parts of the cave, albeit 

without complaint. Because of this, although 

he would go on over 50 survey trips, he should 

have twice as much footage as he does. 

Pea Hole 

What would turn out to be the third and 

most widely used entrance to the system did 

not exist for the first nine months after the 

discovery. So, after the initial passages close to 

the Lost River II entrance had been surveyed, 

any trip headed to the western part of the cave 

had to enter through there and travel for one to 

two hours before reaching the start of a survey. 

It wasn’t a big problem, however, since most of 

the trip was walking, but other events on the 

surface would nevertheless change this for the 

better. 

On the second weekend after the discovery, 

January 17, while two survey teams were in the 

cave enjoying the endless virgin booty, Billy 

Pea and Tony Cunningham ridge-walked the 

property above the cave. Several small and 

deep sinkholes exist on the property. Billy 

found a deep crack between several large 

blocks of limestone and managed to squeeze 

down between them. A constriction blocked 

his way, but somehow he was able to make 

an opening and dig his way through into a 

small room. The following day, again while 

two survey teams were in the cave, Billy was 

34 

joined by Doug Fitzgerald and they returned 

to the dig that he started the day before. On 

the opposite side of the small room that Billy 

had dug into there was a small depression in the 

floor. For some reason Billy and Doug began to 

clear rocks and dirt from the area, and by the 

end of the day they had broken into a second 

and larger room below the first. The dig that 

Billy had started was now an official cave of 

its own. The first room was really just a void 

in between large blocks of limestone, but the 

second room actually resembled a cave. At the 

end of the second room a breeze flowed out of 

a crack along the bottom right-hand wall. Billy 

and Doug began to dig there. 

With all of the excitement and initial 

discoveries during the first two months, I did 

not bother to visit the cave until March 15. As 

a joke between all of us involved in the survey 

of Lost River, the cave had come to be known 

as Pea Hole. The entrance was a tight corkscrew 

squeeze down through blocks of rock to reach 

the first room, a series we would all come to 

despise. Not sure what to expect after entering 

the second room, I was impressed with what 

Billy and Doug had found. I continued the 

previously started dig at the end of the second 

room trying to follow the air. 

Three more attempts to dig in the cave 

were made during the spring while we were 

hampered from surveying in Lost River due 

to spring floods. The crack was blocked by 

pieces of breakdown, some too large to move, 

but those that we could remove were hauled 

out and tossed over along the left-hand wall of 

the passage. The cave was surveyed for a length 

of 113 feet and a surface survey was finally 

conducted to locate the cave in relation to Lost 

River to help locate any possible connection. 

The surface survey showed that the two 

caves were nearly on top of each other, but 

after repeated attempts at a connection 

without success, we had become somewhat 

discouraged. Water levels in the cave returned 

to normal and we did not bother with Pea 

Hole again until September 13. On that day 

one team made the trip into Lost River to 

where we thought the connection should be

and another team went into the second room 

in Pea Hole. The plan was to try to make a 

voice connection, and it turned out to be easier 

than expected. 

Unfortunately, the actual connection in Pea 

Hole was along the left-hand wall of the second 

room, where we had been piling all of the rocks 

from our dig in the crack along the right-hand 

wall. This was quickly remedied by digging 

from both sides, and soon the connection was 

made. A survey of 188 feet connected the caves 

and we had a third entrance to the system. 

The connection to Pea Hole turned the Boy 

Scout Loop into a through trip, and became 

our favorite tourist trip to show off the cave. 

This also put Western Avenue only ten minutes 

from the surface. 

The Second Year 

As of January 3, 1999, one year after the 

discovery, the Lost River Cave System was 

7.54 miles long and had three entrances, two 

of which had been dug open. Nearly as much 


cave passage would be surveyed in the second 

year, and the principle discoveries are briefly 

mentioned here. 

In January, Dave and Karen Schang, along 

with Burnis Piper, were cleaning up leads in the 

area of Western Avenue. Burnis noticed a small 

hole in the wall at the ceiling and began to dig to 

enlarge the hole. After getting through, a short 

crawlway led to a nicely decorated, upper-level 

walking passage, and, as it turns out, the only 

passage in the cave that does not flood. It was 

the MY survey, so the passage became known as 

My Goodness and turned out to be around 500 

feet long. As in just about every other passage 

in the cave, it would be found to connect in 

several places. 

Raccoon Run was a long, upper-level 

crawlway, the first part surveyed by Trae and 

Lori Spires. It was reached through a climb-up 

in the ceiling at the start of the Western Trail. 

From there it extended south for 1,100 feet, 

where the original survey ended at a bathtub. 

It got its name from the raccoon tracks found 

Large passage in Lost River Cave. Photo by Dave Everton. 

35


all along the passage. One day in July the 

bathtub was pushed and found to be only 100 

feet long, after which the passage returned to 

a crawlway for another 800 feet. At the end of 

the crawlway it intersected a borehole passage. 

To the east, the passage went for over 1,000 

feet before ending at a sump, while to the west 

it extended for an undetermined length. It 

became known as Sumpways and many survey 

trips into the area immediately followed. In fact, 

it would be while working in the western part 

of Sumpways that the length of the cave would 

pass 10 miles and it would become the thirdlongest 

cave in the state. Whitewater Way and 

several other north-south trending passages 

would eventually be found to connect into 

Sumpways, and a drought in 1999 would assist 

us in making several of those connections. 

In the previous year, as mentioned earlier, 

the far western sump in Wesley Chapel Gulf 

Cave had been surveyed. Shortly after the 

discovery of Sumpways the eastern passage 

to the Lake Room was surveyed, where the 

sump and the end of the passage were located. 

After plotting the data it became clear that the 

two passages were probably the same, making 

another possible connection between the 

two caves. Even in low water conditions the 

connection was still a sump however, and we 

were not exactly sure how long it was. One day 

in November, Bill Baus, Charlie Biema, Barry 

Welling, and I were on one of the many survey 

trips to the downstream section of Whitewater 

Way, working on connecting it to Sumpways. We 

finished our survey for the day and continued 

on down to Sumpways and the Lake Room, just 

for a little tourist trip. We were standing at the 

bank of the lake while Barry was inspecting the 

sump on the other side of the room. I turned 

my back for a moment, and before I knew what 

happened Barry was gone. After a few minutes 

we began to wonder what to do if he did not 

return. Fortunately he did, and confirmed that 

the passage did indeed connect to the sump in 

Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave. The sump was only 

6 feet long in low water conditions, and was 

surveyed later that month by me and Burnis 

Piper, creating a second surveyed connection 

36 

between the two caves. The mystery of where 

the western sump from Malott’s map went to 

had finally been solved. This connection is now 

known as the Bear Dive. 

We began to survey the Third River passage, 

sandwiched between the Western Trail to the 

north and Sumpways to the south, during this 

time as well. The upstream section of the passage 

was named Crayfish Canyon, and beyond that 

we were required to swim to reach the end of 

the passage at a sump. We would find that the 

water from Whitewater Way passes beneath 

Sumpways in a lower river passage, which 

then feeds into Third River through a sump. 

Third River is over 1,500 feet long, and at the 

downstream end the entire volume of water 

passes into a slot in the floor, beyond which 

exactly where the water goes is still a mystery. 

Further Discoveries 

By the end of the second year, the surveyed 

length of the cave was 12.61 miles. In the 

years that followed the cave continued to 

grow beyond our wildest imaginations. The 

following paragraphs briefly mention most 

of the major work that took place in the cave 

after 2000. 

Countless survey trips were led by Trae and 

Lori Spires to the northwest section of the cave. 

Passages in this area included Lake Lori, the 

Mountain Room, the Enchanted Forest, the 

Meatgrinder, the Northwest River Passage, and 

the Cannonball Room. The length from the 

Mountain Room to the end of the Northwest 

River is about 2,400 feet. Much is still not 

understood about this area of the cave, and 

many leads remain. 

The Western Trail continued to be 

extended west. Our initial exploration 

ended at the Funnel Room, but beyond 

that we found the Ledge Room, the West 

of Texas Passage, Dougs Borehole, Bloody 

Shivers River, and finally Gollums Lair, 

which is currently the furthest western 

part of the cave. From the Funnel Room to 

Gollums Lair, the cave had been extended by 

another 2,500 feet to the west, bringing the 

cave within 4,000 feet of the True Rise. We

were surprised to learn that a tight crawlway 

linking West of Texas to Dougs Borehole 

actually passes beneath the dry bed of the 

Lost River. 

Work also continued along Sumpways, 

and several connections were made from the 

Western Trail south to it, the furthest west of 

which is called the Love Canal. Oddly enough, 

there are no leads heading off to the south from 

Sumpways except one, which became known 

as the Southern Lead. The end of this lead is 

the southernmost part of the cave and is fed 

with water locally by a valley on the surface, in 

which a periodic stream sinks in several places. 

Another connection to Sumpways became 

known as the Cheese Grater. It was a low, nasty 

lead off the Boy Scout Loop which, against our 

wishes, just would not end. Cleaning up leads 

around the Sewers led to the Ant Farm and 

then the Dregs, which is another passage that 

connects south to Sumpways. 

Cleanup in Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave led to 

renewed interest in Traes Terrible Tunnel and 

more thoughts about a possible connection 

between the two. On the Lost River side, the 

T-Cubed passage was found to parallel the 

Terrible Tunnel, and efforts continue to find 

a connection between all three. Additional 

work was also done cleaning up leads along 

Whitewater Way, and a side lead was found that 

led to Rachaels Pool, a sump that was found 

to be only 30 feet from the sump passage in 

Wesley Chapel; they are assumed to connect. 

Therefore, the possibility exists of having 

at least four connections between Wesley 

Chapel and Lost River, only two of which have 

currently been surveyed. Finally, as it turns 

out, the only major passage not discovered in 

Wesley Chapel by Malott in 1931 is the Open 

Sesame passage, which connects the northern 

branch of the cave to the western branch. 

By January 2003, five years had gone by 

and the cave system had become 17.11 miles 

long. Later. in November of that year, the lead 

list would peak at 344. The cave was so mazy, 

with each newly-discovered passage seeming to 

connect to another, that it was nearly impossible 

to conduct a survey and not add new leads to 


the list, no matter what you did. 

20 Miles 

At least a year before the actual occurrence, 

it became clear to us that the cave system would 

pass 20 miles in length. Ted Bice, who had 

moved to New Mexico, wanted to return and be 

included on the 20-mile survey trip. Although 

he had been gone for over five years, Ted still 

had the second highest footage total of anyone 

involved in the project, which just shows how 

easily we had accumulated footage in the earlier 

years of the survey. So, in the fall of 2005, with 

the length of the cave at just under 20 miles, all 

survey efforts were halted until the weekend of 

October 28, when Ted planned to return. 

We chose to survey some little side leads 

just inside the entrance to Wesley Chapel Gulf 

Cave, which Ted and I had flown by on the very 

first survey trip into the cave way back in 1997. 

There was plenty of room in the passage, and 

14 of us took part in the ceremonial survey that 

day, 260 feet was mapped, and the cave became 

20.05 miles long. 

Future Exploration and Survey 

As of January 2007, it has been 11 years since 

we first started working on the caves around 

Wesley Chapel Gulf. Extensive cleanup efforts 

in Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave have pushed it to 

2.94 miles long, leaving 17.61 miles of virgin 

cave surveyed to date. The Lost River Cave 

System is therefore 20.55 miles long, and 92 

people have been involved with the survey. 

As mentioned previously, Lost River is a 

very mazy and complex cave, with every passage 

seeming to loop to another. It got to the point 

that we began to actually expect this and thought 

it unusual when a passage came to a dead end. 

Illustrating this is the fact that the cave has 457 

loops. Additionally, there are 4,429 stations in the 

cave. Much effort has been put into cleaning up 

leads, but 266 of them still remain. 

High water and survey exhaustion has led 

to periods of inactivity. With many of the leads 

now remaining in the low, wet sections of the 

cave, the weather and water levels both above 

and below ground have become much more of 

37


a concern when planning any survey trip into 

the cave. However, the project continues. There 

are promising leads that beckon and several 

surveyors involved in the ongoing efforts. 

A map of the Lost River Cave System is 

included in the map package. 

Principle Surveyors 

The following people have personally 

surveyed at least 5,280 feet (1 mile) of passage 

in the Lost River Cave System: Ted Bice, Tony 

Cunningham, Mark Deebel, Mark Kraus, Bill 

Kulwicki, Kevin Kulwicki, Kriste Lindberg, Steve 

Lockwood, Billy Pea, Burnis Piper, Ray Rough, 

Sam Russell, Dave Schang, Karen Schang, Lori 

Spires, Trae Spires, Bill Stuller, and Dave Tibbets. 

References 

Malott, C.A., 1931, “Lost River at Wesley 

Chapel Gulf, Orange County, Indiana”: 

Indiana Academy of Science Proceedings, 

38 

St. Joseph Valley Grotto founders Mark Deebel, Ted Bice, and Tony Cunningham celebrate reaching 20 

miles in the Lost River Cave System, which has been a long-term grotto project. October 28, 2005. 

vol 31, pp 285–316. 

Malott, C.A., 1951, “The Swallow-Holes of 

Lost River, Orange County, Indiana”: Indiana 

Academy of Science Proceedings, vol 

61, pp 187–231. 

Murdock, S.H., and R.L. Powell, 1968, “Subterranean 

Drainage of Lost River, Orange 

County, Indiana”: Indiana Academy of Science 

Proceedings, vol 77, pp 250–255. 

Palmer, A.N., 1990, Groundwater Processes 

in Karst Terranes: Geological Society of 

America Special Paper 252, pp 177–209. 

Palmer, A.N., M.V. Palmer, and R. L. Powell, 

1981, Guidebook to the Indiana Excursion, 

1981 International Congress of Speleology, 

56 pp. 

Powell, R.L., 1987, “The Orangeville Rise and 

Lost River, Indiana”: Geological Society 

of America, Centennial Field Guide, pp 

375–380.

Other Exploration in the Lost River 

Drainage Basin 

Orange County, Indiana 

Because of the series of discoveries in the Lost 

River Cave System we became interested 

to learn as much as possible about every known 

cave in the immediate area. We also thought 

that there could be other caves in the area 

that were not yet discovered. For example, 

Lost River II was a known cave up to the dig, 

but the Pea Hole connection was totally new. 

Much time was spent ridge walking the land 

above the entire cave system, especially around 

the western half of the cave. There we always 

hoped to find a fourth entrance to the system 

that would provide a quick exit to the surface 

in the case of an emergency, and also provide 

easier access to the leads in the western half of 

the cave. 

Our area of interest would eventually grow 

to include the entire Lost River drainage basin, 

and this has led to locating and surveying over 

20 other caves in the area. Most of them are 

small. There were, however, three significant 

discoveries that took place while in the process 

of exploring Lost River Cave. 

Show Farm Cave 

Show Farm Cave had been known about 

for many years. Malott mapped part of the 

cave in 1924. A 1959 map by Richard Powell 

includes a sketch by Bob Armstrong of a passage 

continuing to a breakdown room, which was 

an estimated 6,000 feet into the cave. From 

the entrance the cave goes only downhill, and 

a severe flood can put the entrance 15 to 20 

feet below water. NSS cavers Tom Arnold and 

Ralph Moreland were unfortunate enough to 

be in the cave one day in July 1961 during a 

severe thunderstorm. They lost their lives when 

By Mark Deebel, NSS 37025RL, February 10, 2007 

the cave flooded and they could not escape. 

Following their deaths, the landowner closed 

the cave. Show Farm gained the bad reputation 

of claiming the first two lives in an Indiana cave 

(as well as the lives of the first two NSS cavers 

to die while caving) and remained closed for 

37 years. 

The property changed hands sometime in 

1998, and we acquired permission from the 

new landowner to go into the cave. Our first 

survey trip took place on November 21, 1998, 

and four more trips would take place before the 

end of the year. 

From the entrance, a short hands-andknees 

crawl leads to walking passage. This leads 

through pools of water in a small canyon for 

2,100 feet until a “T” room is reached. Here the 

canyon passage ends abruptly and a crawlway 

leads away from the room. It gets progressively 

bad through mud and water until after 1,600 

feet a bathtub full of organic debris is reached. 

This is much worse than the bathtub in the 

Raccoon Run passage of Lost River Cave, even 

though they are both 100 feet long. 

After passing through the bathtub, the 

passage continues as a crawlway. It eventually 

opens up to a walking passage just before ending 

at the bottom of a breakdown pile 2,200 feet 

past the bathtub. This was where the sketch 

map by Bob Armstrong stopped, 6,000 feet 

from the entrance, and was believed by us to be 

the furthest extent of any previous exploration. 

We named this breakdown pile Bugs Mountain 

(Armstrong’s nickname). Here we climbed up 

to a dry passage that was about 100 feet long. 

Keep in mind that we were being cautious 

about entering the cave to begin with, and 

being at the bottom end of a 6,000-foot-long 

3


40 

A—Show Farm Cave, B—Ragsdale Gulf, C—Orangeville Rise.

flood tube really played on our minds. We did 

not enter the cave again until the drought of 

1999. 

We surveyed to the breakdown pile 

on September 11, 1999. The survey team 

comprised Ted Bice, Doug Fitzgerald, Trae 

Spires, and me. We had surveyed 1,400 feet 

for the day, past the breakdown pile and down 

the other side. After setting the last station, we 

noticed a crawlway continuing low against the 

far wall. We put away our survey gear and began 

to follow the lead. 

After 1,300 feet the crawlway intersected 

a larger passage with a stream flowing in from 

the left. Up until this point in the cave there 

had been no moving water. We slid down to 

the stream and began walking to the right, 

following the water downstream. After 400 

feet of walking passage we rounded a corner 

and were amazed as we entered the bottom of 

a large “T”–shaped canyon. The width of the 

canyon at the top was about 30 feet, as was the 

overall height. The narrow part of the canyon, 

which we were walking in, was an average of 

10 feet wide. This large and impressive passage 

continued downstream, relatively unchanging 

for 3,200 feet. 

At this point we reached a breakdown pile 

where the water disappeared. It was possible to 

climb up through a hole in the ceiling, however, 

and this led to the discovery of the Monster 

Room, the largest room in the cave. The floor is 

composed of two large funnels formed in mud, 

the drains of which lead into the unknown. 

Two more survey trips in September continued 

the survey all the way to the end of the large 

“T” canyon. 

By the time we found another opportunity 

to return, however, we had lost access to the cave 

and have not been able to continue the survey. 

The Monster Room at the end of the cave, 2 

miles from the entrance, remains unsurveyed. 

It is possibly larger than Western Avenue in 

Lost River. Several side passages exist along the 

entire length of the cave. Some were explored 

for well over 1,000 feet, and all are unsurveyed. 

Of course, to get there you have to crawl a total 

Exploration in the Lost River Basin 

of 4,600 feet one way, including the 100-foot 

bathtub in the middle of the trip, which may 

not be passable. The entire cave, crawlway and 

all, floods to the ceiling. 

Our efforts basically doubled the length of 

the cave to 1.98 miles and as of now the cave has 

63 feet of depth, and there are certainly several 

miles of cave yet to be explored and mapped. 

From the entrance, the highest point in the 

cave, it heads almost directly south for its entire 

length. Our survey stops 7,500 feet northwest of 

Ragsdale Gulf, where we believe the water goes 

before surfacing at the Orangeville Rise, which 

is another 2,400 feet to the south. Caution 

should be taken upon entering this cave, as we 

believe that even the Monster Room floods to 

the ceiling and there are no known safe places 

in any high water event. 

Critchfield Spring Cave 

P robably the most picturesque entrance of all 

the caves in the area, Critchfield Spring was 

a known cave since at least 1960. It is situated 

at the bottom of a 30-foot-high cliff and was 

listed as only 50 feet long. The spring that 

emerges from the entrance flows into the Lost 

River about one mile downstream of the True 

Rise. We were interested in finding the source 

of the water. We contacted the landowner and 

gained access to the cave. 

From the entrance the stream can be 

followed along a walking passage for only 60 

feet before a bathtub is encountered and a 

short, dry crawlway to the left leads to a small 

dome. This was the known extent of the cave as 

far as we could tell. 

On our first trip to the cave we followed 

the bathtub crawl, not knowing what to 

expect. After 300 feet, however, it suddenly 

opened into a passage about 30 feet tall and 

15 feet wide. We named this the Locker Room 

since this is where we would put on our dry 

polypro after negotiating the water. From 

here a narrow walking canyon passage led for 

1,200 feet before coming to a junction. Here 

an upper level passage led for about 1,000 feet 

41


42 

Critchfield Spring Cave entrance. 

Toliver Hollow Cave entrance.

efore splitting and ending in breakdown in 

both directions. The lower level was surveyed 

upstream following the water for another 800 

feet before stopping in a gravel crawlway. 

There were six survey trips in 2001 from 

May through October. An additional three 

trips took place in July of 2002. Presently, the 

cave has a surveyed length of 4,682 feet, with 

a depth of 44 feet. The source of the water is 

still unknown, as the upstream gravel crawlway 

still needs to be explored further. Nevertheless, 

Critchfield Spring is an easy, enjoyable cave, 

and the bathtub is especially refreshing on a 

hot summer day. 

Toliver Hollow Cave 

sinkhole filled with trash would lead 

A to the discovery of another cave over 

4,000 feet long. South of Lost River Cave we 

discovered a sinkhole that we were told had 

an entrance to a cave in it. The landowner told 

of a few cavers going into it sometime in the 

1950s. Unfortunately, the sinkhole had since 

Toliver Hollow Borehole. 

Exploration in the Lost River Basin 

been filled with trash. There was no record of 

any cave at this location, so once again we did 

not know what to expect. 

With permission from the landowner, 

we dug through the trash in the sinkhole and 

eventually found an entrance to a cave. We 

named it Toliver Hollow Cave after the valley 

that it was in, and on February 2, 2002, the 

survey began. 

The cave starts as a crawlway, but shortly 

opens into a nice walking passage. Water is 

diverted underground at the entrance, so for 

the entire length of the cave you are following 

the water downstream. The walking passage 

leads for about 1,000 feet to the top of a 

narrow canyon about 30 feet deep. The bottom 

of the canyon can be followed to a passage that 

alternates between crawling and walking for 

another 3,000 feet to where the survey ends. 

Five survey trips were taken during February 

and March of 2002, after which a spring rain 

sealed the entrance shut once again and the 

landowner decided not to let us return. The cave 

does not stop at the end of the survey, however, 

43


and the downstream section of the cave is a 

good going lead. Where the water flowing 

through the cave goes remains a mystery. The 

surveyed length of the cave is 4,780 feet with a 

depth of 75 feet. 

Summary 

After over 10 years of work there remains 

much to do. Of the more than 20 smaller caves 

in the survey area, several maps have been 

completed, some caves have been finished 

44 

Rimstone in Toliver Hollow Cave. 

and await mapping, and a few more will 

require at least one more survey trip. The three 

significant caves mentioned above have yet to 

be completed. Don’t forget the over 250 leads 

remaining in Lost River Cave itself. In addition 

to the survey work, more caves definitely exist 

and additional ridge walks are planned. We can 

always use help and welcome any interested 

caver who wants to contribute to the Lost River 

Cave Project.

Two Bit Pit 

Harrison County, Indiana 

wo Bit Pit” is synonymous with 

“Tadjectives like tough, tight, cold, sleazy, 

long, and arduous, to name a few. Not many 

caves in the Midwest carry such a reputation, 

and Two Bit Pit is a testimony to what sport 

caving is all about. Besides being one of Indiana’s 

deepest caves at 253 feet total vertical depth, 

it is also one of its most demanding in terms 

of mental and physical stamina. It is without a 

doubt a caver’s cave, featuring every imaginable 

challenge one would care to embrace. But at 

the same time it is a cave that offers rewards for 

those who venture into its depths, a spiritual 

place where solitude and inner strength are in 

equilibrium. 

History 

The story begins late in 1989, when this 

group of experienced explorers converged on 

a cave dig that would lead to over 3½ years of 

exploration and survey. After 30 or more trips 

into the cave, many 

great memories still 

remain, the hardships, 

the triumphs, the 

strong bond between 

fellow explorers, and 

the many laughs. 

The entrance pit 

is situated within a 

couple of hundred 

feet of the road and 

issues a column of 

steam during the 

cold months. It was 

documented to be 

virgin until June of 

1968, when members 

of the Purdue Outing 

Club first descended. 

By Greg McNamara, NSS 20250 

The cave at that time was an awkward 22-footdeep 

surface drop into a small room. Across 

the opposite side of this room was a narrow 

blowing crack, which was enlarged in 1980 by 

several members of the Bloomington Indiana 

Grotto. This modified area is now a 6-footlong 

crawlway, which should be backed into, 

and opens into the top of a larger room and 

down the second drop of 32 feet. Excess rope 

from the entrance pit can be used to rig this 

second pit. An air route could not be found 

below this drop and exploration ceased until 

the spring of 1984, when several members of 

the Bloomington Indiana Grotto and Central 

Indiana Grotto began trying to trace airflow 

again. Smoke bombs were used, but it was still 

not conclusive as to what source the airflow 

was originating from. 

During the second weekend in June of 

1989, Danny Dible inspired a group of cavers 

to recheck leads within Two Bit Pit. Danny 

Ted Wilson at the top of the second drop. Photo by Dave Black. 

45


had remembered a lead that had no airflow, 

but the sound of distant water could be heard 

five years prior. Before the weekend was over, 

the group had broken through, discovering the 

climb up that led to a third drop. This was left 

until the following weekend, when the survey 

was restarted from the top of the entrance pit. 

Everyone was very excited because the airflow 

route had been re-established and the potential 

for a large system existed. Two weekends later 

Chris Yeager, closely followed by Danny Dible, 

free-climbed the third drop and pushed the 

canyon passage to the top of the fourth drop, 

breaking the cave open. 

Exploration 

From the bottom of the second drop and 

across the room, the passage slopes to a hole 

in the floor. Directly above this hole is a 10- 

46 

Glenn Lemasters in the tight canyon passage. 

Photo by Danny Dible, August 18, 1990. 

foot-high narrow crevice one must friction 

climb up through to access the canyon leading 

down to the third drop. A piece of webbing 

can be secured above the climb-up to aid 

in moving equipment through this section. 

After negotiating the canyon climb-down, 

a crevice containing the 35-foot-deep third 

drop is reached. It can be free climbed but is 

best rigged off an eroded limestone feature on 

the wall. At the bottom of the third drop is a 

climb-up to a ledge that contains a short, tight 

squeeze into a small room. A passage originates 

from this room as walking size and gradually 

becomes lower to a hands-and-knees crawl that 

is positioned over a narrow canyon passage 

about 15 feet deep. 

Eventually the wide upper section becomes 

too low and one is forced to squeeze down 

into the dreaded narrow canyon. You’ll know 

when this place is reached, as the canyon starts 

out with a tight bend almost immediately. 

Once through the first bend, one continues 

winding and snaking through the tall canyon 

while leaning forward as you push ahead. It 

is best to “become one with the canyon,” and 

not “get fast.” We call panicking getting fast, 

where it can become injurious to jerk around 

and flail in a constricted passage. Just relax and 

take your time; you’ll make it through. A small 

circular stand-up spot within the canyon is 

reached just before the passage turns right and 

into the “Terminator.” This allows one to rest 

and adjust equipment before the entering final 

sections of the canyon. This Terminator section 

is awkward, containing snarly projections that 

can snag cave packs and pads. One must crawl 

through the widest sections of the canyon 

while suspended off the floor with your cave 

pack in front of you. It is imperative you do not 

let your pack fall down into the canyon, where 

vast amounts of energy will be expended during 

retrieval. The more equipment that is being 

carried (wetsuits and ropes), the more grief you 

may experience—it’s different for each person. 

Immediately following the Terminator is the 

“Exterminator,” (See Page 438 in the Color 

Photo Section) a tight squeeze on the left side 

going in, and a flat, smooth ledge on the right

Two Bit Pit 

c l i m b - d o w n i s 

approximately 20 feet 

deep and leads a short 

distance to the top of 

the undercut fourth 

drop. This 15-foot pit 

descends into a small 

room containing a 

stream passage and 

a breakdown pile. 

The G survey leads 

from the top of the 

breakdown slope, 

while the K survey 

leads off the bottom 

of the pit, along with 

The squeeze before the dome room at the bottom of the third pit. the continuing A 

Photo by Danny Dible, 

survey, which is the 

main route to the 

bitter end. Following the A survey will put one 

in a low belly crawl about 25 feet long, which 

leads to the top of the fifth drop. The rope is 

rigged near the bottom of the fourth drop and 

is routed through the crawl and down the pit. 

The explorer must either back into the crawl 

and attach to the rope while lying sideways, or 

turn around in very tight quarters at the edge of 

the pit and attach to the rope. A small stream 

flows down the 26-foot drop and manages to 

moisten your clothes while you are positioning 

side to place your pack and scoot it forward. 

You may have to put one arm outstretched and 

one to your side to get through more easily. 

Some people like to squeeze up on the right 

side ledge calling it a bypass, but I’m not sure 

that is the best way to go. 

About 10 feet beyond the last squeeze, the 

passage abruptly drops down into a wet, muddy 

belly crawl that is best entered by slithering 

head first while arching your back. It is unlikely 

you will stay dry in this 150-foot-long sleazy 

shale crawl, which 

gradually becomes 

hands and knees size 

before opening into 

a tall canyon passage. 

This less soluble shale 

layer prevents many 

caves in Indiana and 

TAG from reaching 

their depth potential. 

As the bottom of the 

shale passage drops 

out, it allows the water 

to drain down the 

canyon and permits 

one to straddle out 

into the canyon and 

stay dry. The canyon 

Joe Oliphant in the passage between the fifth and sixth pits. 

Photo by Danny Dible. 

47


for rappel. At the pit 

bottom a slippery, 

mud-covered slope 

must be traversed 

up and over before 

eventually climbing 

up into a canyon 

passage. Everything 

near the bottom 

of the fifth drop is 

coated in a thick, wet 

layer of mud, adding 

to the abrasive, gritty 

feeling experienced 

at this point of the 

trip. Several stations 

later the ABC Room 

is reached, which is 

a major upper level 

junction and bypass route. It is possible to 

bypass the fourth and fifth drops via challenging 

free climbs when route finding to or from the 

ABC Room. Another notable loop connection 

that bypasses these two drops is located above 

the climb-down after the wet shale crawl going 

in. Finally, there are leads from the ABC Room 

that head directly towards Dible Knible Cave, 

a 500-foot-long cave with 77 feet of vertical 

depth. These passages come within 450 feet 

48 

Joe Oliphant downstream beyond the water crawl in the lower cave. 

Photo by Danny Dible, September 21, 1991. 

The downstream passage beyond the water crawl in the lower cave. 

Tony Akers up front and Joe Oliphant in the foreground. 

Photo by Danny Dible, September 21, 1991. 

of connecting into Dible Knible Cave, which 

is situated at the same level as the E and EO 

surveys in Two Bit Pit. 

Continuing in the A survey five stations 

further will land you in the Dressing Room. 

This is the best place to eat and change clothes 

before surveying, heading out, or putting on 

your wetsuit if going deeper. This infamous 

spot is known for its surplus of gear and food, 

which at one time had accumulated quite a 

supply. By the end 

of the survey, the 

Dressing Room was 

free of gear and food, 

except for a broken 

wetsuit top that is still 

awaiting claim by its 

owner. The Dressing 

Room also contains 

Rustys Raceway, an 

area where Rusty 

Riley ran in place 

for hours, trying to 

keep warm while 

others napped before 

heading out during a 

28-hour trip. The H 

survey also leads from 

this room, which

Two Bit Pit 

4


connects to the M survey, a complex upper 

level area that contains some nice formations 

and passage loops. From the Dressing Room 

a waterfall can be heard rumbling in the 

distance. Excitement builds as one approaches 

the balcony overlooking the sixth drop, the 

last dry spot on the main route to the end. The 

rope is secured off several expansion bolts and 

is rigged out of the water. The free 42-foot drop 

is very scenic, featuring walls of banded chert 

and waterfalls cascading down from above. The 

stream continues around the dry island at the 

bottom, channeling into the beginning of the 

2,200-foot-long water crawl named Neptunes 

Retreat. This crawl has no side leads and is 

mainly hands and knees height and half full of 

water. There are a couple of sections in which 

the ceiling dips down leaving about a foot of 

airspace. 

After crawling nearly 50 stations, Neptunes 

50 

Joe Oliphant climbing the sixth and last pit. 

Photo by Danny Dible. 

Retreat begins to enlarge before intersecting a 

major trunk passage. This passage, named Potato 

Run, lies underneath a surface feature dry run 

with the same name, and is the “undiscovered 

passage” that has been theorized for years to 

drain Potato Run. Turning left into the Potato 

Run trunk will send one in the downstream 

direction, which continues at walking sized 

proportions for 3,200 feet (66 stations). 

Several side leads branch for the downstream 

section, and all go in the upward direction. The 

most promising side lead was thought to be a 

possible in-feeder from the Horseman’s Camp 

on the surface. After traversing 175 feet it gets 

too small to continue but has some airflow. 

There are also two short side passages that also 

head upward before leading back to the stream 

level to form a loop. The deepest point in the 

cave is near the end of the downstream section 

and is located at the low point of a room. The 

Joe Oliphant emerging from the entrance after a 

trip. Photo by Danny Dible, July 28, 1991.

downstream passage is generally 6 to 20 feet 

high and 10 to 20 feet wide, with water depth 

ranging from knee deep to waist deep. 

Back at the intersection into the Potato 

Run trunk, turning right will position one in 

the upstream direction, which is the longest 

section of the trunk. It travels over 5,600 feet 

before ending at the upstream terminus (114 

stations). This walking-size passage is very 

tedious because it features knee-deep mud 

underneath the waist-deep water for many 

stations. At times one must struggle to free 

boots from the suction the deep mud creates 

below the water. The whole effect really drains 

your body of energy. At the end of the upstream 

section, a number of very large blind cave fish 

have been observed and photographed. Several 

side passages are also present in the upstream 

section; the largest one has been named the 

Cavers Hideaway. There is also a long loop 

passage about midway through the section. In 

general the Potato Run segment of the cave is 

about 1.75 miles in length and almost entirely 

in water. 

Presently the cave has been surveyed to a 

total length of 3.5 miles, with 253 feet of total 

vertical extent. There are still some passageways 

in need of surveying, and maybe even a few 

leads left to extend. I’m confident that Two Bit 

Pit has yet to reveal all of its surprises, which are 

awaiting those explorers eager for excitement 

and a good ride. Please note that if a serious 

injury occurs beyond the canyon passage, 

chances of rescue would be nearly impossible. 

Exploration and Survey 

Trip Log 

Trip #1 June 17, 1968 

David DesMarais and possibly 

other members of the Purdue Outing 

Club: 

Documented to be “recently 

opened but virgin” before this date, 

referencing a CIG Newsletter piece 

written by David DesMarais of the 

Purdue Outing Club. One or more 

trips by ISS members. 

Two Bit Pit 

Trip #2 February 3, 1980 

Tom Fritsch, John Danovich, Dave 

Doolin, and various other BIG and 

IUSC members: 

The group descended the 22-foot 

entrance drop to a blowing crack 2 

inches wide at the opposite end of 

the small room. The first “chemical 

persuasion” was used at this point. 

Trip #3 March 8, 1980 

Tom Fritsch, Randy Jackson, John 

Danovich, Becky McDaniel, Ben 

Tohe, Dave Doolin, and others: 

Entrance pit descended by the 

group carrying hammers, chisels, 

and more chemical persuasion. The 

2-inch-wide blowing crack was enlarged 

to a 6-foot-long hands-andknees 

crawl to the top of the second 

drop of 32 feet. 

Trip #4 May 11, 1980 – Survey Trip #1 

Tom Fritsch, John Danovich, and 

Dave Black: 

The group surveyed down the first 

two drops to the known end. 

Trip #5 April 8, 1984 

Dave Black, Ted Wilson, John 

Danovich, Danny Dible: 

They descended the two known 

pits, exploring the cave and trying 

to trace the airflow with no luck. 

Danny climbed up into a crevice to 

a small alcove and at one end discovered 

a small hole in which the 

roar of water could be heard in a 

distant unreachable dome. The lead 

had no airflow. 

Trip #6 July 29, 1984 

Dave Black, Ted Wilson, Danny 

Dible, Mike Miesen, Robin Miesen: 

The group set off a smoke bomb 

at the top of the second pit and 

watched from the pit bottom as 

51


52 

the smoke stayed high in the dome 

and twisted it’s way down a narrow 

impassable crevice at the very top of 

the passage. The smoke was being 

sucked in the same direction as the 

“roaring water lead” heard months 

earlier. 

Trip #7 June 10, 1989 

Drew Packman, Danny Dible, Tom 

Bertolacini: 

The group used more chemical persuasion 

at the “roaring water lead,” 

which at the time moved no air and 

had no running water sound. Two 

mounted efforts were used, one at 

noon, the other later in the afternoon. 

Trip #8 June 11, 1989 

Drew Packman, Danny Dible, Tom 

Bertolacini, Ron Adams, Greg 

McNamara: 

The group again used chemical persuasion 

then left the cave, leaving 

clean up for a future trip. 

Trip #9 June 17, 1989 – Survey Trip #2 

Norm Pace, Greg McNamara, 

Danny Dible, Ron Adams, Sandy 

Nudo, Drew Packman, Tom Bertolacini: 

Began survey at entrance datum 

and set 22 stations in the main passage 

(A0 to A20, B1). 

Trip #10 June 30 – July 1, 1990 

Danny Dible, Chris Yeager, Ted 

Wilson, Joe Oliphant: 

Chris Yeager and Danny Dible (in 

that order) free climbed the third 

drop and pushed the canyon to the 

top of the fourth drop, breaking 

open the cave. Ted and Joe explored 

areas above the canyon. 

Trip #11 July 4/5, 1990 

Drew Packman, Chris Yeager, 

Danny Dible, Joe Oliphant, Ted 

Wilson, Greg McNamara: 

Major discovery. Joe, who was the 

largest, was able to penetrate the 

canyon, and the group pushed the 

cave down six drops and going - together. 

Cave was believed to be over 

200 feet deep after this 15-hourlong 

trip. 

Trip #12 July 8, 1990 – Survey Trip #3 

Chris Yeager, Danny Dible: 

Surveyed all of tight canyon passage 

totaling 38 stations (A21 to A44, 

B2, C1 to C4, CA1, CB1, D1 to 

D2, DA1 to DA5). 

Trip #13 July 21/22, 1990 – Survey Trip #4 

Drew Packman, Chris Yeager, 

Danny Dible, Joe Oliphant, Ted 

Wilson, Greg McNamara: 

Major discovery. Group pushed 

cave down the sixth drop and 500 

feet down a major stream passage, 

while exploring side leads. Also 

surveyed 23 stations (A45 to A65, 

E1 to E2). 17½-hour-long trip. 

Trip #14 July 29, 1990 – Survey Trip #5 

Danny Dible, Chris Yeager, Ron 

Adams: 

Surveyed side lead off A survey, 

totaling 18 stations (G1 to G18). 

Trip #15 August 4/5, 1990 – Survey Trip #6 


Adams, Ted Wilson, Joe Oliphant, 

Greg McNamara: 

Wetsuit trip where Ted and Joe 

pushed the stream crawl approximately 

2,000 feet. The group surveyed 

down the sixth drop and into 

the stream crawl beyond. A couple 

other side leads were also surveyed 

during the trip. The group surveyed 

a total of 39 stations (A65 to A88, 

H1 to H14, I1, AC1). 14-hourlong 

trip.

Trip #16 August 12, 1990 

Greg McNamara, Steve Nelson: 

The two negotiated the first 3 

drops, where Steve tried unsuccessfully 

to penetrate the canyon. Greg 

stashed a packed wetsuit beyond 

the canyon for a future trip. 2-hourlong 

trip. 

Trip #17 August 18–19, 1990 


Adams, Ted Wilson, Joe Oliphant, 

Greg McNamara, Glenn 

LeMasters: 

Wetsuit trip. Abandoned the 

survey for one trip and scooped 

approximately 1 mile of virgin cave, 

all stream passage below the sixth 

drop. Several large breakdown filled 

rooms were also discovered. 20hour-long 

trip. 

Trip #18 August 26, 1990 – Survey Trip #7 

Danny Dible, Chris Yeager, Tina 

Shirk: 

Group continued survey through 

main passage, netting 25 stations, 

all stream crawl (A89 to A113). 

Trip #1 September 2, 1990 

Greg McNamara: 

Solo trip down three drops and 

through the canyon passage to pick 

up wetsuit and drop off new pack 

for next trip. 2-hour-long trip. 

Trip #20 September 3, 1990 – Survey Trip 

#8 

Danny Dible, Greg McNamara, 

Chris Yeager, Ron Adams, Tina 

Shirk, George Cesnik: 

Wetsuit trip. Two teams (Danny, 

Greg and Chris / Ron, Tina and 

George) leap-frogged to finish surveying 

the downstream crawl below 

the sixth drop. The beginning of 

the upstream lead was also mapped. 

Two Bit Pit 

Both teams surveyed a total of 25 

stations for approximately 1400 

feet (A114 to A131, P1 to P7). 

11½-hour-long trip. 

Trip #21 November 24, 1990 – Survey Trip 

#9 

Ron Adams, Chris Yeager, Tina 

Shirk, George Cesnik: 

etsuit trip. Another two-team survey 

(Ron and George , Chris and 

Tina) continued in the downstream 

walking passage, including a short 

loop. Half the survey shots ranged 

between 50 and 100 feet long. Both 

teams netted a total of 50 stations 

(A132 to A179, TA1 to TA2). 

Trip #22 March 23–24, 1991 – Survey Trip 

#10 


George Cesnik: 

This marked the first trip into Two 

Bit Pit after Chris Yeager died in a 

cave accident in Mexico. Without 

Chris Yeager’s dedication, we would 

not be exploring these sections of 

this fine cave. The group surveyed 

17 stations above the fifth drop after 

discovering an alternative route 

(K1 to K17). 9-hour-long trip. 

Trip #23 May 18, 1991 – Survey Trip #11 



Surveyed a side lead and loop from 

the bottom of the fourth drop up 

into a several-hundred-foot-long 

formation passage, that intersected 

several drops. The group surveyed 

35 stations (KA1 to KA8, KAB1, 

KC1 to KC5, KD1 to KD20, 

KE1). 12-hour-long trip. 

Trip #24 June 16, 1991 – Survey Trip #12 

Danny Dible, Kirk Miller: 

Survey consisted of the bypass 

53


54 

route above the fourth drop, along 

with two side passages and a loop 

passage. A total of 20 stations were 

surveyed (AZ1 to AZ4, KM1 to 

KM7, KY1, KV1 to KV6). 

Trip #25 July 4, 1991 

Greg McNamara, Tony Akers: 

Rigged cave to the sixth drop, 

dropped off wetsuit, clothes change 

and stove at the Dressing Room. 

5¼-hour-long trip. 

Trip #26 July 13–14, 1991 – Survey Trip 

#13 

Tony Akers, Greg McNamara, 

Kevin Bruno, Danny Dible, Henry 

Gilsdorf, George Cesnik, Ron Adams, 

Rusty Riley, Joe Oliphant: 

Wetsuit trip. Group entered the 

cave with three survey teams (Tony, 

Kevin, and Greg ; Danny, Henry, 

and George ; and Ron, Rusty, and 

Joe). This trip focused on surveying 

the upstream lead after the long water 

crawl, along with a loop passage 

off of it. The multi-team combined 

effort netted 75 surveyed stations 

totaling approximately 3,800 feet 

(P6 to P75, L1 to L5). Trips ranged 

from 21 to 28 hours long. 

Trip #27 July 27–28, 1991 – Survey Trip 

#14 


Danny Dible, Ted Wilson, Ron 

Adams, Joe Oliphant: 

Wetsuit trip. Two survey teams 

(Danny, Joe, and Ron; Greg, Ted, 

and Tony) continued mapping 

the upstream lead to terminus in 

breakdown. Three additional leads 

were discovered in this upstream 

passage. At this point the cave 

length exceeded 14,000 feet, with 

a total depth of 248 feet, making it 

deepest in Indiana at the time. The 

two-team combined effort netted 

39 surveyed stations totaling 

approximately 1,800 feet (P76 to 

P114). Trips ranged from 18½ to 

26 hours long. 

Trip #28 August 24/25, 1991 – Survey Trip 

#15 

Danny Dible, George Cesnik, Tim 

McClain, Greg McNamara, Rusty 

Riley, Ron Adams, Joe Oliphant, 

Tony Akers, Scott Kenney: 

Wetsuit trip. Two survey teams 

(Ron, Joe, Rusty, and Greg; Danny, 

George, and Tim) mopped-up 

upstream and downstream side 

leads and loops. Scott and Tony 

later joined the group in progress. 

Checked the breakdown terminus 

at the end of the upstream passage 

again to no avail. Combined team 

effort netted 38 surveyed stations 

(PR1 to PR5, PF1 to PF8, PG1 to 

PG7, T1 to T7, T4A, F1 to F10). 

Trips ranged from 20 to 26 hours 

long. 

Trip #2 September 21–22, 1991 – Survey 

Trip #16 

Danny Dible, Joe Oliphant, Tony 

Akers, Scott Kenney, Terry Raines: 

Wetsuit trip. Completed the downstream 

F survey side lead, loop and 

room. The group totaled 24 surveyed 

stations (F11 to F33, BB1). 

Trip #30 March 28–29, 1992 – Survey Trip 

#17 



Group hammered open and began 

survey in canyon off a 200-footlong 

walking section beyond the 

ABC Room. Lead comes within 

450 feet of passage in Dible Knible 

Cave. Explored approximately 

1,000 feet of virgin cave, connect-

ing into established survey at the 

bottom of the KD pits. Group set 

11 survey stations (E2 to E3, EA1 

to EA10). All-nighter Trip was 10 

hours long. 

Trip #31 April 11–12, 1992 – Survey Trip 

#18 


Mary Kausch: 

Group completed first circle trip 

going down the first five drops then 

out via difficult climb-ups (bypassing 

fourth and fifth pits), coming 

out at the top of the fourth drop in 

a large room. Hammered through 

and explored approximately 200 

feet of virgin cave heading towards 

Dible Knible Cave. Group set 15 

survey stations (E4 to E18). Allnighter 

Trip was 13½ hours long. 

Trip #32 May 23–24, 1992 – Survey Trip 

#19 


George Cesnik, Noel Sloan, Danny 

Dible, Ron Adams, Joe Oliphant: 

Group entered cave with three survey 

teams (Tony and Greg; George 

and Noel; Danny, Ron, and Joe). 

The group focused on finishing the 

route that bypassed the fourth and 

fifth drops via climbs. All teams 

tied into each other’s survey during 

the trip, finishing off by connecting 

into the KD passage. The multiteam 

combined effort netted 91 

surveyed stations (HI1 to HI12, 

E19 to E27, EX1 to EX2, EO1 to 

EO7, EI1 to EI3, J1 to J11, JA1 to 

JA3, JB1 to JB2, JK1 to JK2, -L1 to 

-L11, O1 to O17, -O1 to -O3, X1 

to X2, XX1 to XX7). Trips ranged 

from 12 to 16 hours long. 

Trip #33 July 3–4, 1992 – Survey Trip #20 

Danny Dible, Henry Gilsdorf, 

Steve Scoutaris, Greg McNamara, 

Two Bit Pit 

Kevin Bruno, Steve Collins, Keith 

Dunlap, Kirk Miller: 

Group entered cave with three 

survey teams again (Danny, Henry, 

and Steve S. ; Greg and Kevin; 

Steve C., Keith, and Kirk). Danny’s 

group worked on a technical climb 

to a blind alcove then surveyed 

an upper level passage with side 

leads. Greg’s group surveyed off 

the Dressing Room, climbing up 

through breakdown near M10 to 

discover an upper level shale room 

with a nice formation area. This 

area was complex and confusing 

with multiple leads. Steve’s group 

surveyed a couple of loop passages 

off the H survey. The multi-team 

combined effort netted 52 surveyed 

stations (Z1 to Z10, ZA1 to ZA2, 

ZB1 to ZB7, M1 to M10, MN1 to 

MN4, MC1, N1 to N11, NA1 to 

NA7). Trips ranged from 12 to 14 

hours long. 

Trip #34 August 1–2, 1992 – Survey Trip 

#21 


Tony Akers, Ron Adams, Joe 

Oliphant, Marion Smith, Shawna 

McClendon, Marc Trembley, Vico 

Jones, Teresa Williams: 

1992 NSS Pre-Convention Camp 

cave trip. Wetsuit, photo, survey 

and tourist trip. The group completed 

a tourist trip down six drops 

and to the upstream terminus, 

where Marc photographed some 

large blind cavefish. Joe then led 

Marion, Shawna, Teresa, Vico and 

Marc to the downstream bitter end 

then out of the cave after a 16-hourlong 

trip. Ron and Danny surveyed 

several shots in the downstream 

section (Y survey), and a side lead 

above the sixth pit (HZ Survey). 

Tony and Greg surveyed 15 stations 

(H survey) in a possible in-feeder 

55


56 

lead from the surface (Horseman’s 

Camp). The last two groups exited 

the cave after a 21-hour trip. 

Trip #35 February 28, 1993 – Survey Trip 

#22 


Ron Adams, Kevin Bruno, Jonathan 

Schwer: 

Danny took several photographs 

during trip, and the group continued 

the survey beyond the Dressing 

Room into the upper shale formation 

area, surveying 17 stations 

(M11 to M27). Trip was 16 hours 

long. 

Note: Tourist trips since the last survey 

include the following personnel: Andrew 

Dubois, Marc Pedersen, Bruce White, Aaron 

Atz, Ryan Moran, Jason Ballensky, Nate 

Newkirk, Brandon Stephens, Sean Lewis, Tom 

Duselis and Brian Killingbeck. 

References 

IUSC Speleotimes – Volume 9 - #1 and 2 - Page 

21 - Dave Doolin 

CIG Newsletter August 1968 – Page 151 - Purdue 

Outing Club - David DesMarais 

Personal Communication: Danny Dible, Greg 

McNamara, and John Danovich 

Line Plot: Keith Dunlap 

Photos: Danny Dible 

Dick Hughes, George Jackson, and Bob Braybender having 

a great time in Wyandotte Cave. 


An Exploratory Trip to Gory Hole: 

January 21, 1966 

Preface 

The original report was hand written shortly 

after the trip by Bill Greenwald in 1966 at the 

age of 22, but it was never published. Although 

we suspect there was a trip report written by one 

of the other cavers, we could not find it or any 

of the pictures that were taken. Bill Greenwald, 

who now lives in Indiana; Don Formanek, who 

now lives in Texas; and a few other cavers on the 

trip 40 years ago have made plans to visit Gory 

Hole during the NSS National Convention 

this year. Any of the cavers who were involved 

in exploring Gory Hole in the 1960s and are 

physically able are invited to join them. Since 

the 2007 National NSS Convention theme is 

“Back Underground in Indiana,” we felt you 

might enjoy reading what it was like pit caving 

in Indiana 40 years ago. 

Since I am publishing this report some 40 

years after the fact, some information should 

be included to help the reader understand a 

few things about what vertical caving was like 

in 1966. Gory Hole was on private property 

in those days and for the most part, although 

we did ask for permission, the owner didn’t 

want to be bothered with cavers. In fact after a 

rescue a few years later where a truck got stuck 

in a sink pond, the pit was closed for a number 

of years. Today, the property is owned by the 

Hoosier National Forest. Also shortly after the 

National Forest took over the property a split 

rail fence was installed around the pit with a 

sign warning anyone who enters the area that 

there is a deep pit (see page 451). 

The use of laid Goldline rope was normal 

for both the main line and Prusik knot material 

in those days. Anyone who did pit caving in the 

1960s can tell you all about the stretch and spin 

on a long drop using Goldline rope. Today this 

type of rope would be used only for hauling or 

By Bill Greenwald, NSS 9146 RL FE 

belaying. Also, the mechanical climbing cams 

that are used extensively today were considered 

experimental in 1966. Don Formanek did 

recall having a set of Jumars, but the teeth on 

the cams were not hardened like the current 

versions and they were worn and they jammed 

with mud and ice and would not even grip the 

rope. 

There were also a couple of happenings 

left out of the 1966 report. Gary Frazer had a 

problem when he was climbing out using Vern’s 

home-made climbing cams. He did not rig in 

his seat sling properly so he could not easily rest 

during his climb. At one point we felt that he 

would not be able to make it without help from 

above. Also, once there was enough manpower 

on top to haul out the pipes and the cave gear, 

we decided that it would be quicker to haul the 

remaining cavers out as well. So the remaining 

cavers got a free ride. 

Trip Report 

At 6:45 p.m. on Friday January 21, 1966, 

nine Southern Illinois University students, 

members of SIU’s Little Egypt Grotto Caving 

Club and the National Speleological Society, 

embarked upon a caving expedition that they 

will remember for a very long time. 

Their destination: Bedford, Indiana, their 

aim: to photograph and explore one of the 

largest pit caves in the Midwest, Gory Hole. 

The months of planning and practicing were 

about to pay their greatest reward. 

The tension and excitement mounted as 

the last of the preparations were made and the 

cars were loaded. Two hundred pounds of 2inch 

pipe in 5-foot sections were attached to 

the back of Gary Frazer’s Corvair. A new 300foot 

Goldline rope, purchased especially for the 

trip, was shining brightly in the trunk. Sleeping 

57


bags, a tent, helmets, carbide lamps, waterproof 

flashlights, candles, and carabiners all had been 

counted and put in their proper place. 

Dan Beavers’ 1957 Chevy had just spent 

two days in the garage getting a complete 

checkup and it was purring like a kitten. Gary 

Frazer, Bill McQunnie, Gordon Donnally, and 

Bill Greenwald were riding in the Corvair while 

Dan Beavers, Don Formanek, Bill Trousdale, 

Walt Peters, and Vern Cornell were riding in 

the Chevy. 

The first objective was Lawrenceville, 

Illinois, where the group planned to get 

something to eat at a restaurant. Walkie-talkies 

were used to keep up communication between 

the two cars and it seemed to work fairly 

well until Gordon Donnally, in an attempt 

to signal the second car with a flashlight, 

dropped his glasses out of the car window. 

After Lawrenceville it was easy going until Bill 

Greenwald discovered the pipes on the rack 

were slipping and starting to get loose. It was 

Gordon’s and Bill’s job to keep a close watch on 

the pipes, which were banded to the rack on 

the back of the Corvair. The rest of the way was 

uneventful except for an occasional directional 

check flashed between the two cars on the 

walkie-talkies. 

The first car arrived in Bloomington, 

Indiana, around 12:45 a.m. and the second a few 

minutes later. Directions were again discussed 

and both cars made their way to Blenz’s Barn, 

where the group spent the remainder of the 

morning sleeping. While the group slept, 

Mother Nature poured forth her snow and by 

9:00 o’clock Saturday morning there was a good 

2 inches on the ground. The snow however 

did not discourage the expedition but rather 

encouraged the appetite of each individual. 

This was very apparent at breakfast as the food 

bill was a lot more than we expected. After 

breakfast the cars continued south out of 

Bedford on Highway 37 to Highway 50. A few 

minutes later a right turn was made near a sign 

that read “Black Oak Motel,” a short distance 

later a left, heading south to a right, heading 

west. When the cars made the turn to go down 

a hill they both slid off the road. After a ten- 

58 

minute struggle to get the cars back up on the 

road and another five minutes to get them up 

the next hill, the efforts were rewarded with 

the knowledge that 300 yards to the west lay 

Gory Hole. 

There really wasn’t much to look at from 

the surface, just a clump of bushes, two trees, 

a barbed-wire fence, and a rocky, steaming 

opening. Yet once you go beyond the rocky 

ledge that shields the pit from the elements your 

eyes widen with amazement and your heart 

starts to pound as you begin to realize the size 

of the 137-foot pit cave you have just entered. 

There is a sudden increase in temperature as 

the warm, damp air rising to the surface passes 

by you. In a few minutes you are on the rocky, 

muddy floor looking up into a never-ending 

dome, black, huge, and motionless. If you stop 

and listen closely you can hear the wind howl 

amidst the steady drip of the water and the 

rapid pounding of your heart. 

After the pulley was secured to the branch 

of the tree overlooking the pit the pipes were 

lowered into the cave. At approximately 11:15 

a.m. the first caver, Don Formanek, began his 

rappel down the shaft and almost three hours 

later, having completed his final duties, the last 

caver Bill Greenwald began his decent. 

Gory Hole can best be described by 

dividing it into four rooms. The main room 

where the entrance is. The second room, half of 

which is covered with fallen rocks, has a small 

hole that can be seen in the ceiling only 40 feet 

above the top of the rock pile. This is where 

the pipes come in. They were coupled together 

and projected from a steel base plate on the top 

of the rock pile into the hole in the ceiling. A 

rope with butterfly knots was attached to the 

top of the pipes. It is through this hole that you 

must crawl approximately 200 feet to reach the 

third room. The third room was described by 

Vern Cornell, Gary Frazer, and Walt Peters as 

being cluttered with fallen and loose rock and 

it would be dangerous to do any digging to 

search for additional leads. 

The fourth, or lower room, is also entered 

by crawling through a hole in the second 

room about half way down the rock pile on

the right side. It was necessary to chimney in 

two different places, then drop into a larger 

room. Dan Beavers, Gordon Donnally, and Bill 

Trousdale described this room as having a little 

waterfall, popcorn, and soda straw formations, 

with a rimstone pool. A blind crawfish was also 

spotted. After each group had explored the 

room that they had been assigned and pictures 

had been taken, the pipes were disassembled 

into two 25-foot sections and removed to the 

main room. 

Although everyone had considered the 

lengthy ascending operation would take up 

the great majority of the cave trip, no one 

anticipated that it would take almost nine hours 

to get the entire expedition, both equipment 

and personnel, to the surface. Due to the water 

absorbed by the new Goldline rope, the quarterinch 

Prusik material, which had been used on 

all the practice trips, became almost useless 

because the knots just would not grab. Bill 

Trousdale using ⅜-inch Prusik knot material 

with a carabiner wrap, managed to reach the 

ledge in about 45 minutes. Walt Peters, having 

tremendous confidence in a set of ascending 

cams he had made from directions in an article 

in the NSS News, managed to make the ledge 

in about 30 minutes. Gary Frazer, observing the 

speed at which Walt Peters made it, asked Walt 

to send his cams back down for him to try. After 

almost 30 minutes of constant staining and 

pulling Gary began to get very tired. Perhaps it 

was due to Gary Frazer’s size or the lack of sleep 

that we were all suffering from or the long 300mile 

drive from Carbondale to Bloomington. 

But, whatever it was, his fighting and efforts 

finally paid off as he made it to the ledge. 

The remaining six cavers grew very serious 

and any joking had disappeared. It was Bill 

McQunnie’s turn next to use the cams and 

his determination seemed to brighten things 

up. Every now and then a flash from a carbide 

lamp could be seen up on the ledge and faint 

voices could be heard calling down concerning 

the progress that Bill was making. After Bill 

McQunnie made it to the ledge and was off 

rope, Vern Cornell checked the rope and 

discovered that the weight of the climbers and 

Gory Hole 

the pressure of the cams had forced most of 

the water and ice out of the rope. So with both 

fingers crossed the remaining four watched 

Vern Cornell make his way slowly and steadily 

to the top using Prusik knots. 

The remaining four cavers kept themselves 

busy organizing the pipes and remaining gear 

that needed to be hauled out. As the first 

25-foot section of pipe was being tied onto 

the rope the five cavers on the surface were 

preparing to haul it up. We decided that the 

rope tied to the pipes would be pulled through 

a pulley that Bill Greenwald had placed high 

in the tree and locked around another tree by 

Bill Trousdale. In this manner both of the 25foot 

sections of pipe were removed from the 

pit. Things seemed to go faster after the pipes 

and gear were hauled out and as the cold, fresh 

air hit Don Formanek’s face he burst into a big 

smile. A volley of cheers could be heard clear 

across the field, which on such a clear night 

probably woke up all of the neighbors. 

So after 14 hours the trip was declared 

a success and nine muddy, tired cavers were 

beaming with a hard-earned feeling of 

accomplishment. The pipes were once again 

strapped to the rack on the rear of the Corvair 

and all of the equipment was packed back 

into the vehicles including all the trash, spent 

carbide, paper, and spent flashbulbs. The 

remainder of the morning was spent sleeping 

at the barn. Sunday, the two cars split up and 

made their way back to Carbondale to get ready 

for classes on Monday morning. 

We are not permitted to choose the frame 

of our destiny but what we put into it is ours, 

“He who wills adventure will experience 

it according to the measure of his courage,” 

Dag Hammarskjold. 

Conclusion 

In typing this on my computer 40 years after 

the fact, I can still remember some of the things 

that impressed me most about doing my first pit. 

In an effort to contribute I quickly volunteered 

to climb the tree over the pit to install the pulley 

directly over the hole as high as I could get it. 

Later, I realized how foolish I was to do this 

5


without a safety sling 

or a belay. As the last 

man entering the pit, 

it was my job to drop 

a heavy metal plate 

that was to be used as 

a base for the pipes. 

Once the rope was 

secured out of the way 

and everyone was in 

the second dome I let 

it go. It made a loud 

“wop, wop” sound 

that increased in 

volume and pitch till 

it rang the dome like 

a bell. It was then that 

I realized how deep 

the pit was. Also, once 

I was on rappel and 

hanging free, a sudden 

gust of air blew out my 

carbide lamp. For a few 

minutes I was alone in 

the dark hanging on 

rope spinning around 

and bouncing up and 

down. I finally found 

my backup flashlight, 

turned it on, and stuck 

it in my mouth. There 

were no walls to stop 

the spin, no ceiling, no 

floor, just me hanging 

on this nylon rubber 

band. I remember 

trying to say “holy 

something” a number 

of times all the way to 

the bottom. 

60 

Bill Greenwald rappelling off a small cliff in 1966 (note the use of a non-locking 

carabiner with brake bars and a 1-inch webbing sling seat).

The Exploration of Harrison Spring 

Harrison Spring is located in Harrison 

County in southern Indiana, near the 

old state capital of Corydon. The spring was 

once owned by William Harrison, governor of 

the Indiana Territory from 1802 to 1812. In 

1807 he built one of the first water-powered 

saw and grist mills in the territory. Just down 

stream from the spring rise, you can still see 

some of the large timbers from the old mill in 

the streambed. 

In the mid-1970s Bud Dillon and Steve 

Maegerlein started to work on diving the 

spring, a project that would turn out to be 

not so easy. The spring basin is about 70 feet 

in diameter and 40 feet deep. Years’ worth of 

old tree trunks, breakdown, and low visibility 

made the job a real challenge. 

Noel Sloan joined the team in 1982 to 

help with the job during the short Indiana dive 

season. With some effort they were able to 

locate a possible entrance in 40 feet of water. 

There was just one problem—an 18-inch-thick 

tree trunk rested over the top of it. Using a 

large tree saw and lots of air, they were able to 

cut out a section of the log. After removing it, 

they still had to clear the area of breakdown 

and loose rock. The entrance is between two 

boulders and a wall and is triangular in shape, 

with 3-foot sides. Bud made the first and only 

dive into the cave and was able to lay about 50 

feet of line. 

Dive 1. August 12, 1 0: Peering into 

the Breakdown 

There was no diving done in Harrison 

Spring until Noel Sloan and David Strickland 

decided it was time to take another look during 

a Cave Capers in August of 1990. The weather 

had been dry for a few weeks, so the water in 

the basin had a visibility of 6 to 8 feet with a 

temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Noel 

was able to locate the entrance in an area of 

breakdown; the only way to tell was by the clear 

By Dave Strickland 

water coming up through the rocks. By working 

slowly they avoided stirring up too much silt; 

after 45 minutes of moving rock in 40 feet of 

water, they could see down into a 2-foot by 3foot 

opening, going down and getting bigger. 

Dive 2. September 6, 1992 

They did not return to the spring again 

until September of 1992, when Dave went to 

do a check-out dive. The entrance was easy to 

find. It had not changed too much from before, 

although there were a few large slabs of rock 6 

to 8 inches thick and 4 to 5 feet across. Dave 

spent 30 minutes moving the smaller rocks to 

save time during the dive the next day. 

Dive 3. September 7, 1992: Sledge 

Hammering at -40 feet 

After telling Noel what the hole looked 

like, Dave went first, taking a 10-pound steel 

sledge hammer to work on the slabs. While 

Dave moved 40-pound rocks and smashed 

some fingers, Noel brought down the lift bag 

to help with the bigger rocks. Dave continued 

trying to move rocks while Noel looked for a 

better opening. Not having much luck with the 

air bag, Dave had to resort back to the hammer. 

After beating on the slabs and pulling out some 

of the smaller rocks something gave way, causing 

a small rock slide and zero visibility. Back at 

the surface, Dave told Noel what happened 

with the rocks. Noel said that he didn’t find 

anything that looked any better. After lunch 

they decided to move as much rock as they 

could, hoping that the slide was not too bad. 

The rocks that fell were 4 to 6 inches thick and 

a few feet across. The sledge made easy work 

of them. After 15 minutes they were able to 

drop the last two rocks down into the opening. 

When the silt finally cleared they could see a 

bigger passage below that looked about 10 feet 

deep with a good out-flowing current. What a 

bad time to run out of air. 

61


Dive 4. September 19, 1992: Levitating 

Limestone and Virgin Cave 

Today looks like it’s going to be a good 

day for a dive. The water level is up 8 to 10 

inches but still looks clear—for Indiana. While 

cleaning up the loose gravel and rocks, Dave 

noticed that when golf-ball-size rocks were 

dropped in the entrance they would hang and 

spin in the out-flowing current. Noel went in 

first, taking a five minute lead into the cave to 

try to see which way to go. The entrance room 

is at a depth of 50 feet with breakdown passages 

going left and right. Noel found his way through 

the breakdown, going to the left as he entered a 

passage 3 to 4 feet high and 10 to 20 feet wide, 

at a depth of 60 feet. Noel tied off the line at 

this point and left the cave. Dave decided to 

stay since he still had lots of air and wanted to 

see what the cave looked like without the silted 

visibility. When the water cleared, Dave went 

to the end of the line, where he noticed Bud 

Dillon’s old line off to the right; he followed 

it for another 10 feet until it stopped in a nice 

going passage. After surfacing, Dave told Noel 

what he found, so after lunch Noel made one 

more dive for the day and laid an easy 100 feet 

or more of line down virgin cave. What a great 

day it was to go diving. 

Dive 5. October 4, 1992: More Virgin 

Cave Awaits 

It was a cool and cloudy day of around 70 

degrees Fahrenheit. With the water level down 

about 1 foot, the visibility looked better and 

with virgin cave ahead Noel and Dave were 

eager to get started. Noel and Dave were diving 

with side-mounted tanks now, to give them a 

lower profile in the tight entrance and the 2- to 

3-foot-high main passage. Noel went in first; 

Dave followed to keep the line out of traps and 

make surveying easier. They quickly reached 

the end of the line from the previous dive. After 

checking with each other that everything was 

okay, they proceeded to lay new line. At this 

point the passage is 4 feet high and 15 to 20 

feet wide with visibility running no more than 

15 feet. They laid almost 200 feet of new line 

before they ran into some breakdown. Noel was 

62 

trying to tie off the line and was also stirring up 

the silt. Meanwhile, Dave was trying to find a 

way past the breakdown. He was able to look 

down between the ceiling and the breakdown 

into a large, black void. Too bad it was time to 

call the dive. 

Dive 6. October 25, 1992: 6 Feet High 

and 15 Feet Wide at a Depth of 70 Feet 

Noel had to back out of the dive; he said 

he had too much going on to go diving. Dave 

and his friendly dive-sherpa, Suzie Sweeney, 

decided to go on down to the spring. When 

they arrived the water was down a little more 

and the visibility looked even better. Dave 

decided to do a solo dive and took off for the 

end of the line, now 300 feet in at a depth of 

60 feet. With great visibility and a low-flowing 

current, it took Dave only eight minutes to get 

to the end. The way through the breakdown 

was easy to see without two divers stirring up 

silt. Dropping down and to the left offered the 

most room, still no more than 2 feet high by 

4 feet wide at this point. This makes the third 

constriction in the cave, but on the other side 

it is 6 feet high and 15 feet wide at a depth 

of 70 feet. Dave continued laying more new 

line since he had used only one third of his 

air. The passage on the left wall was smooth 

and the right side had some breakdown. After 

laying another 100 feet of line it was time to 

call off the dive, but with no place to tie off 

Dave had to rewind it on the way out. At the 

constriction, the out-flowing current gave 

Dave a bigger push than he was ready for and 

it sent him right through the tight spot. As it 

turned out, this was the best dive of the year, 

as well as the last. 

Dive 7. May 30, 1993: Evidence of 

Change 

Noel is out of town and cannot make the 

trip. Sherpa Susie is along to help, as always. 

It’s hard to find good Sherpas so when you do, 

you have to hang onto them. The entrance to 

the cave had some loose rocks around it and 

some new tree limbs. After half an hour Dave 

was able to get most of it cleared out. The old

guide line was no longer in the entrance. Tying 

off a small reel, Dave slowly went in head first 

to see what had changed. There were rocks 

now where there had not been before, and the 

visibility was no more than 8 feet. At that point 

it looked like a good time to call the dive. The 

rest of the season was spent on another dive 

project that turned out to be a waste of time. 

Dive 8. October 2, 1993: Large Rocks 

Shuffled Around 

It was nice to be back at a good dive site. 

The fall weather had been dry and the water 

looked good for Indiana, with visibility of 

at least 6 or 8 feet in the spring basin. There 

was now a new dive partner on the team; 

Mark Hermerding was accustomed to diving 

in southern Missouri and Florida. Dave went 

over the dive with Mark and explained what 

to expect, which surely would involve some 

rock removal. Upon reaching the entrance 

they found it had not changed much after a 

year. It took about 15 minutes to clear away 

most of the loose rock and gravel. The opening 

used to be about 8 feet deep from the top of 

the boulders; now, it was only 5 or 6 feet. Dave 

went in first and was impressed by the size of 

the rocks that had been moved around during 

floods. With visibility at 5 feet from silting it 

was hard to see the easiest way through. It took 

Dave three tries to get past the new rock slab 

and jagged ceiling. Mark was able to see Dave’s 

trouble and chose an easier route. After getting 

through the second constriction, they okayed 

each other. Here, they found some sections of 

the old line, which made it easy to follow the 

passage. After laying 200 feet of new line, the 

passage increased to a height of 4 to 5 feet and 

a width of 25 feet, still going in a northerly 

direction. After laying another 100 feet of line 

they were just short of the third constriction. 

Mark was impressed with the cave, which was 

good because a third diver was needed on the 

team to make more dives possible. 

Dive 9. October 23, 1994: Good Luck 

and a Torn BC Inflator Hose 

What a wonderful day to go swimming 


underground. It was sunny and 72 degrees 

Fahrenheit. Dave, Mark, and Suzie were ready 

to enjoy a nice day. While Dave and Mark got 

their gear ready and planned the dive, Suzie 

took off to look for arrowheads. In less than 

10 minutes she yelled back, “Today must be 

a lucky day!” She had found a nice 4-inchlong 

point. Mark and Dave spent the first few 

minutes of the dive clearing debris before going 

in; the second constriction also needed more 

work. Making their way to the 300-foot mark 

in less than 10 minutes, Dave tied on the new 

line only to find the third constriction 15 feet 

away. The visibility was very good, at 15 to 20 

feet, for having had half an inch of rain two days 

before. Getting through the third constriction 

was easy. At this point the passage depth was 70 

feet and was 6 feet high by 15 to 20 feet wide, 

still heading north. After running out 130 feet 

of line the passage came to what looked like a 

Y. Dave asked Mark which way they should go; 

they stayed on the left wall and went another 

75 feet before running into some breakdown. 

Going over the top was the only way onward. 

After an 8-foot rise Dave tried to tie off the 

line. While doing so he was able to stir up 

enough silt to make the visibility near zero; he 

waited to see if the silt would clear, but there 

seemed to be very little water movement in this 

passage. Mark followed the line up to Dave to 

make sure everything was okay. The only was to 

communicate was by touch hand signals. Dave 

called off the dive at this point. On the way out 

they noticed that where they thought the other 

passage came in, the water was much clearer. 

The trip out was uneventful until the entrance. 

Mark headed out first with Dave a few minutes 

behind. When Dave tried to get through, he 

must have had too much air in his buoyancy 

compensator (BC) vest to fit between the 

ceiling and rock slab. While getting stuck and 

backing out, he did not notice that he had torn 

his BC inflator hose loose from its mount. 

After moving some of the rocks it was easier 

for Dave to fit. While squeezing back through, 

Dave noticed his inflator hose. By now Mark 

began to wonder what was taking Dave so 

long and headed back into the entrance. Dave 

63


showed Mark the hose and okayed him, and 

they exited the cave. Dave told Mark that since 

his BC didn’t work he would just climb up the 

basin wall so he could stop to decompress for a 

few minutes. 

Dive time: 45 minutes. Depth: 71 feet. 

Line: 450 feet. 

Dive 10. October 30, 1994: Underwater 

Sherpa 

Still no rain, and there had been only about 

2 inches all month. After Dave told Noel what 

they had going, Noel decided it was time to get 

back into it. He had a case of diver burn-out 

from four months in Mexico on the Huautla 

Project during the first of the year. The water 

level was the lowest they had seen and they 

thought it as going to be a great dive. Noel 

brought a video camera, since the water had 

been so clear last week. They decided Dave 

would go first and take a third tank so he could 

spend ten minutes clearing rock at the second 

constriction before going on to the third. 

Somehow, on the way in, Dave’s main 

line reel with 150 feet of 5⁄32-inch line got 

snagged and unwound all the line to the end. 

This stopped him and Noel and Mark caught 

up. Dave let them know what had happened 

and told them to finish the dive, but Mark 

just handed Dave his reel. So, off Dave went, 

in search of the right-hand tunnel. For some 

reason the visibility was only about 10 feet, and 

all Dave could find was the other wall and the 

breakdown pile from last week. Noel did not 

watch exactly where Dave went through the 

third constriction and had a hard time getting 

through it. 

When Mark and Noel caught up with 

Dave, they all agreed to call off the dive so they 

would have time to survey out. No new line 

was laid and no video was taken, but sometimes 

even the best plans don’t work. On the way out 

Mark and Noel led the way surveying; Dave 

returned Mark’s reel, which jammed—the last 

30 feet had to be wrapped around it. Thinking 

that the others would pick up his reel, Dave 

was surprised to find it in the passage. Okay, no 

big deal. While reeling in that line, Dave saw a 

64 

red blinking light and discovered Noel’s video 

camera. Now carrying two primary line reels 

and a camera, he thought, “Surely, somebody 

will be waiting and at least take the drop tank.” 

Wrong. Mark and Noel were too busy surveying 

and forgot. 

Dive time: 60 minutes. Depth: 71 feet. No 

new line laid. 

Dive 11. November 6, 1994 

Noel and Dave were going to make the first 

dive using three tanks, mainly for safety. Noel 

had a 72-cubic-foot steel tank that he said was 

too heavy, so he left it 150 feet in. Dave was 

using an 80- cubic-foot aluminum tank, which 

he left at the 300-foot mark. After 450 feet 

Dave made Noel take the lead and he headed 

down the main tunnel, laying 150 feet of line 

in five minutes. The passage at this point was 

6 feet high and wide at a depth of 70 feet. 

The only place to tie off was on a small chert 

nodule in the ceiling. After they finished their 

45-minute dive, Dave and Noel told Mark 

about the easy dive they had getting back to 

the 600-foot mark, with an easy going tunnel 

still heading north. Mark was ready for an easy 

solo dive with good visibility but he came back 

in just a few minutes, saying his primary light 

would not work. Noel went looking for spare 

parts while Dave helped Mark with his gear. 

Plugging in a new head piece didn’t help. Then, 

Mark remembered; someone had worked on 

his light and wired it so that the switch worked 

differently. After getting his light back on, 

Mark had an easy dive that took him only eight 

minutes. He left his third tank at the 300-foot 

mark. Ten minutes later he was at the 600-foot 

mark. He tied off a new line and quickly laid 

another 150 feet, with the passage still the same 

size and going north. 


New line: 300 feet. Total line: 750 feet. 

Around November 13, 1994 

Finally, it rained—too much. Dave knew it 

didn’t look good when the dry run next to the 

road had been running lots of water from the 

rain earlier in the week. Mark made it down

first that day and had already gone to look at 

the spring. He said it did not look too inviting; 

the water was up nearly a foot with visibility of 

3 or 4 feet in the basin. They decided not to 

dive. 

Around January 18, 1995 

Dave went to the spring to do some ridge 

walking on a very cold but sunny day with a 

high of 15 degrees Fahrenheit. With little rain 

or snow this winter the water was very clear, 

with visibility of at least 15 feet in the basin. 

Too bad nobody else was around to go diving; 

the water was still 50 degrees. 

Dive 12. March 18, 1995: Strong Current 

and a Missing Partner 

It was the first dive trip of the spring this 

year. The last rain was about two weeks ago, 

with a total rainfall of about 2 inches. The water 

level had reached 3 feet above its level last fall. 

Today the water was up only about 1 foot, with 

a small boil rise on the surface and visibility 


only 3 or 4 feet. Mark and Dave decided to 

make a dive to see what the entrance and the 

water coming out of the cave looked like. The 

dive plan was loose, meaning that if they could 

get in, fine; if not, no problem. They were not 

really expecting to get much done, other than 

getting wet. When they were just about ready 

to start the dive, Noel arrived. Dave went down 

first and noticed a strong up-welling current 

coming out of the small opening. After Mark 

followed Dave’s bubbles down to him, Dave 

gave Mark a hand sign for asking a question. 

Mark looked around the entrance for a few 

minutes and, without telling Dave anything, 

went in head first. Without a guide line to 

open water, Dave thought Mark would just 

look in the entrance room and come back out, 

so he waited for Mark to return; after about 

five minutes he became concerned when Mark 

had not. Tying off a new line to open water, 

Dave made an attempt to enter the cave. With 

the stronger than normal current, he was not 

able to make it in. Now he had two problems: a 

Mark Hermerding, Dave Strickland, and Noel Sloan preparing to dive in Harrison Spring. 

65


missing partner and a difficult entrance. 

After thinking it over he made another 

attempt. Pulling himself down through the 

strong current, he was able to make it into the 

entrance room. The visibility was 5 feet at best 

and there was still no guide line, or any sign 

of Mark. When Dave exited the cave Mark 

had been gone for more than 10 minutes. He 

ran a line to the surface to make sure they had 

a direct line to the entrance. Surfacing, he 

yelled at Noel and Ralph Walter, a dive buddy 

of Mark’s, to ask if they could see his bubbles. 

“No,” was their answer. Dave told them that 

Mark had gone in without a line to the open 

water and lacking one in the entrance room. 

He told Noel to get his gear since Noel was a 

smaller and stronger diver. Dave went back 

down to give Mark some light at the entrance 

since the sunlight did not make it past 25 feet. 

Upon reaching the entrance, he thought it 

looked like one of the rocks on the side had 

slid into the opening. After a small panic attack 

Dave realized that he was just seeing it from a 

different angle. 

Wondering whether Mark was still alive, 

Dave did not feel safe enough to make another 

attempt. Mark had been gone for 25 minutes, 

with only about 30 minutes of air left at the 

most. The stress was getting to Dave, along with 

fighting the strong current and cold water. He 

decided, reluctantly, to return to the surface. 

It did not look good for Mark; he had already 

broken several safety rules. No more than two 

minutes after Dave surfaced, Noel and Ralph 

said they saw Mark’s bubbles. Mark said he 

was able to find the guide line and waited for 

Dave for about five minutes before going on. 

He noticed on the way in that after 200 feet he 

could see very muddy water coming in from 

the east wall. After that, the water had about 

10 feet of visibility. 

Mark was very lucky on this dive, considering 

that he had broken several cave diving rules. He 

did not tell his partner what he was going to 

do. There was no guide line to open water and 

no sunshine to call the entrance room a cavern 

dive. He should have come back to see why 

Dave had not followed him into the cave. 

66 

Dive time: 35 minutes. 

Dive 13. August 27, 1995 

Dave went to the spring to check the 

condition of the entrance. Diving solo, he found 

the entrance in fairly good shape. Without 

much trouble Dave was able to clear away what 

little rock there was in about 10 minutes. He 

still had plenty of air left and decided to install 

a new entrance line. Going in head first, Dave 

was able to see the main line only 10 feet away. 

Tying off to the main line, Dave made a short 

trip of about 100 feet. 


Dive 14. September 10, 1995: Warm 

Water from Indian Creek Sinks 

Dave and Mark want to do a real dive 

today. Their plan was to try to find the righthand 

passage past the third constriction. Mark 

stayed on the left wall with the main line while 

Dave used a small jump reel and followed the 

right wall. After 150 feet they came to the 

breakdown pile that led to the rest of the passage. 

Discouraged by the lack of success, they called 

the dive. The so-called right-hand passage 

turned out to be no more than a breakdown 

block. On the way out Dave stopped about 

200 feet from the entrance to point out to 

Mark how warm the water was; Mark agreed 

that it felt about ten degrees warmer. Normally 

you could feel the warmer water only along the 

ceiling, but now it was almost to the floor. 

After the dive Mark said that the warmwater 

zone was the same area where he had 

seen muddy water coming in previously. The 

only reason they could come up with was that 

the summer had been hotter than normal. If 

so, Indian Creek, the main source of the water 

for the spring, had not had time to cool off to 

match the rest of the cave water. 


Dive 15. September 17, 1995: Like 

Bathwater 

It rained about three-quarters of an inch the 

day before. The water was up 6 inches and the 

visibility was still about 10 feet. Mark brought

along his dive buddy, Ralph, for his first trip 

into the spring. Mark and Dave were going to 

try to push the passage now referred to as the 

Cold Water Passage; Ralph would go along 

to see the first 300 feet. Dave and Mark used 

three tanks each to make the push past the end 

of the line at 750 feet. At 300 feet they left their 

drop tanks. Mark took the lead and they made 

it to the end in good time. By now the visibility 

was about 5 feet. After okaying each other they 

took off for virgin cave. A quick 150 feet later 

they reached the end of their line, now 900 

feet from the entrance. The way out was not as 

much fun because the visibility was down to 2 

feet; all they could do was maintain line contact 

and bump along the wall and ceiling for 500 

feet. The passage was still going north, with 

an average height of 5 feet, a width of 7 feet 

and a depth of 72 feet. On the way out Dave 

and Mark, who are both getting cold, hit the 

warm zone—it felt like bathwater. Mark and 

Dave told Ralph what they found and planned 

a second dive to try to find the source of the 

warm water. 


New line: 150 feet. Total line: 900 feet. 

Dive 16. September 17, 1995: The Discovery 

of the Warm Water Passage 

They decided that Mark would look for the 

source of the warm water while Dave stayed on 

the main line. They arrived at the point where 

the cold water started and then backed up a 

bit. Mark took the small reel and tied off to 

the main line, then headed for the east wall. 

In a few minutes he returned to get Dave; 

he located the Warm Water Passage, which 

is about 5 feet high and 15 feet wide, with 

moving water. What a great find! They took 

off down the new passage and quickly laid 100 

feet of new line. 

It was a very productive day, with 150 feet 

of new line laid in the Cold Water Passage and 

130 feet laid in the new Warm Water Passage. 

The interesting part was that Dave and Noel 

had been diving past this lead for four years. 


New line: 130 feet. Total line: 1,030 feet. 


Dive 17. September 24, 1995 

Noel and Dave planned to push the Warm 

Water Passage today. While they were getting 

their gear together, Susie, who came along on 

this trip to help, went off arrowhead hunting. 

Within 10 minutes she yelled back and held 

up a nice 2½-inch-long point. It must have 

been a sign of good things to come. Dave led 

the way to the point where he and Mark had 

placed a line arrow, to mark where the jump 

should be for the Warm Water Passage. Dave 

tied off on the main line and headed in to make 

the connection to the new line. He missed the 

connection and came back to the main line 

to let Noel try; of course, Noel swam right to 

it. At the end of last week’s line they tied on a 

new one, with high hopes. Noel was in the lead, 

with Dave tying off the line as they went. After 

another 150 feet, Dave looked up to the left 

and saw a big black hole in the ceiling. Farther 

on the passage got lower, but it was still at least 

15 feet wide. After 200 feet it was less than 3 

feet high; 20 feet beyond, it dropped to 2 feet. 

The floor and ceiling were very scalloped, with 

lots of sharp edges—real gear eaters. 

Dive time: 50 minutes; decompression 

time: four minutes. Depth: 64 feet. New line: 

220 feet. Total line: 1,250 feet. 

Dive 18. October 1, 1995: A Shivering 

Dive 

Dave got there at least an hour early to 

get a set of steps installed before the others 

arrived. Noel made it down before Mark and 

Ralph. Dave and Noel started getting their gear 

together while discussing the dive plan. Mark 

and Ralph finally came and agreed to do the 

Cold Water Passage. They each brought a pair 

of 100-cubic-foot aluminum tanks. Noel and 

Dave were using 72s and 80s due to the low 

profile in the Warm Water Passage. Dave and 

Noel entered the cave first; the visibility was 

great at 20 feet. The first stop was the black hole 

in the ceiling, which turned out to be a room 

10 feet high and 20 feet wide. At the end of the 

line the passage was about 3 feet high and 20 

feet wide. With lots of air, warmer water, and a 

new reel with 250 feet of line, they were ready 

67


to get to work. After 30 feet the passage started 

to open up, but it didn’t last long. Now it got 

lower, about 2 feet. They cut the line at the 100foot 

mark, tied off, and worked their way back 

to the bigger passage. Upon reaching their drop 

tanks in the main tunnel, they checked their air 

supply and the time limit until a decompression 

stop. The main tunnel looked very clear—but 

surely Mark and Ralph had already entered 

the cave. Dave and Noel went on to the third 

constriction, enjoying the easy dive. On the 

way out Noel passed Dave, who was taking in 

the old line they had installed in 1990. By now 

the visibility was down to 3 or 4 feet, so Dave 

had to keep a close eye on the good line while 

removing the old one. After about 100 feet, 

Dave ran into Mark on the line, and then into 

Ralph. Dave and Noel felt bad about trashing 

the visibility for them. 

After getting back into clearer water and 

dropping their third tanks off at the 450-foot 

tie-off point, Mark and Ralph went up and over 

the breakdown that led to the rest of the Cold 

Water Passage. From this point the passage 

averages 5 feet high by 7 feet wide. Mark was 

in the lead, so at least he could see what was 

ahead; all Ralph could see was about 6 feet 

and Mark’s fins. At the end of the line, 900 feet 

from the entrance, Mark tied off the first line 

reel. Now the passage lowered to 4 feet high at 

a depth of 75 feet. The first reel with 150 feet 

of line went smoothly and the passage stayed 

the same, with only a little more silt. Checking 

their air supply and decompression time limit, 

they found they had plenty of the first and a few 

extra minutes of the second, so they continued 

on, with only a bit of breakdown to get around. 

Another easy 150 feet of line was laid but by 

now the cold water was starting to take its toll 

on them. While exiting the cave the visibility 

was only around 5 feet. After almost one hour 

both divers were getting cold, and they still 

had to do a 20 minute decompression stop at 

10 feet. When Mark stopped shaking, he said 

that the passage stayed about the same shape 

and was still heading north. Once they warmed 

up, they said they had enjoyed their dive. 

Team 1. Dive time: 70 minutes; 

68 

Decompression time: 11 minutes. Warm 

Water Passage: New line: 100 feet. Total line: 

450 feet. 

Team 2. Dive time: 75 minutes; 

Decompression time: 15 minutes. Cold Water 

Passage: New line: 300 feet. Total line: 1,200 

feet. 

Dive 19, October 15, 1995: Leaking 

Pressure Gauge 

Dave decided to do a solo dive up the 

Warm Water Passage to see if he could get past 

the breakdown that stopped him and Noel on 

the last dive. Mark and Noel are headed for 

the end of the line up the Cold Water Passage. 

Dave took a ten-minute head start. Using a 

pair of 80s and a 72-cubic-foot tank as a drop 

tank, he was able to get 400 feet back before 

switching to the 80s. The last 100 feet of line 

was the worst, 2 feet high with sharp rock on 

the floor and ceiling. At the end of the line it 

was obvious what had stopped Noel on the last 

trip—breakdown. A long piece went to the left 

wall 15 feet away; you could see over it but you 

could not get over it. Going to the right 10 feet 

from the line, the slab had broken into several 

pieces and Dave was able to move enough rock 

to squeeze through. The passage went on but 

Dave had spent 10 minutes at a depth of 65 

feet trying to get past the breakdown and it was 

time for him to exit the cave. 

Mark was diving with a pair of 100-cubicfoot 

tanks and with an 80 that had nitrox (a gas 

mixture to shorten decompression time). Noel 

was diving with a pair of 95s and an 80 with 

nitrox; both 80s were their drop tanks. Leaving 

the 80s at the third constriction made the dive 

go a little faster. Mark was in the lead until they 

got to the end of the line at 1,200 feet; Noel 

got to lead after that. By now they have been 

underwater for 35 minutes at a depth of 75 feet. 

Air supplies were checked and both divers were 

in good shape for the push into new cave. As 

they made their way up the passage the ceiling 

started to lower to about 3 feet, with silt about 

2 inches thick on the floor. Finally, they reached 

the end of their line reel and, after finding a 

place to tie off, were ready to leave the cave. The

visibility out was normal, about 3 feet. On the 

way out Mark was alone and when his primary 

light went out without his secondary light on; 

it got very dark. Working the switch on and off, 

he was able to get it functioning again. When 

Noel and Mark reached their drop tanks Noel 

switched his on, only to find that the O-ring in 

the pressure gauge had developed a leak. Not a 

bad leak, but a leak just the same. Both divers 

were glad to see the entrance. Although they 

were both cold they still had 20 minutes to 

decompress. Mark brought along a 10- by10foot 

shelter tent from work and an LP gas 

heater to have a place to get warmed up. Both 

were cold to the point of shaking and were very 

glad to have a heated tent to warm up in. 

TEAM 1. Dive time: 55 minutes. 

Decompression time: 4 minutes. Warm Water 

Passage: New line: 0 feet; total line: 450 feet. 

TEAM 2. Dive time: 70 minutes. 

Decompression time: 18 minutes. Cold Water 

Passage: New line: 250 feet. Total line: 1,450 

feet. 

Dive 19, October 15, 1995: Noel’s 

Scooter 

Noel brought along his underwater 

scooter to see if it would fit through the 

second tight spot at the entrance. Nobody 

else wanted to do a second dive so he had 

to go alone, which was fine with him. The 

entrance area was no problem so he headed 

in, making a right turn to go down the Warm 

Water Passage. He was able to travel to the 

point at which it lowered to 2 feet in less than 

10 minutes. Returning to the main line he 

continued on, deeper into the cave. Noel was 

able to get 800 feet back from the entrance on 

a pair of 72-cubic-foot tanks. Afterwards, he 

said that the scooter was the way to make the 

most out of the dive, using less air and keeping 

the silt down to a minimum. 

Dive 20. October 29, 1995: 1,900 Feet 

of Line, 75 Feet Deep 

Dave planned to do a solo dive to start, with 

Mark and Ralph coming in about 10 minutes 

behind him. The plan for the dive was to go 


up the Warm Water Passage to the end of the 

line, where the breakdown blocks most of the 

passage. After 125 feet of 2-foot-high passage, 

Dave tied on a new line reel and moved to the 

spot where there was an opening in the rocks; 

after moving some of the smaller ones he was 

able to squeeze through. This was the tightest 

passage in the cave so far. After taking a few 

minutes to get through The Crack, Dave tried 

to go up the passage, which was now only 18 

to 20 inches high. Struggling to move around, 

with no place to tie off the line after 30 feet and 

no easy way forward due to visibility of less 

than 10 feet, Dave decided to head back. 

Mark and Ralph were on the way in, 

working their way up the low passage with 

Mark in the lead. Dave and Mark met 20 feet 

from The Crack. Dave told Mark that he was 

not able to lay any new line; Mark headed for 

The Crack to see if it was really that bad. On 

the way out Dave ran into Ralph, who is bigger 

than the other two; he was not having much 

luck getting up the low passage. Dave asked 

him if he was okay and he answered that he was 

all right but not having much fun. He would 

wait there for Mark. By now, Mark had worked 

his way through The Crack and was trying to 

find an easier way on but after 30 feet, decided 

to turn around and squeeze back through. The 

passage continued but it was going to take 

better visibility to find an easier way. 

The trip out was quick and easy, so Dave 

checked his air at the junction of the main line. 

Finding he had enough for 10 more minutes, 

he started to go up the main line just to look 

around. Not more than 20 feet from the 

junction the water was as clear as it had ever 

been. With visibility of more than 20 feet, 

Dave decided to wait for Mark and Ralph to 

make sure they would see the nice clear water. 

Dave could hear their tanks banging on the 

floor but had waited as long as he could and 

had to leave. 

Team 1. Dive time: 67 minutes. 

Decompression time: 8 minutes. 

Team 2. Dive time: 50 minutes. 

Decompression time: 3 minutes. Warm Water 

Passage: New line: 0 feet. Total line: 450 feet. 

69


Total line in cave: 1,900 feet. Maximum 

Depth: 75 feet. 

Dive 21. December 3, 1995: Attempted 

Photo Trip 

After more than two weeks without rain 

and a warm day of 55 degrees Fahrenheit with 

partly sunny skies, Dave was able to talk Mark 

and Ralph into a photo dive trip. The water 

looked nice by Indiana standards, with the 

water level up 4 inches and visibility of 10 feet 

in the spring pool. After going over the dive to 

plan where and how Mark wanted to set up for 

taking pictures, Mark took the lead, going in 

the entrance first. He wanted to get some shots 

looking up as Dave and Ralph came through 

the small opening in which a diver fills up most 

of the space. After giving Mark a few minutes 

to get set up, Dave went in head first and 

stopped halfway to wait for Mark to take the 

picture, but something was not working right. 

Mark could not get the flash to go off. He tried 

several times but still had no luck. He decided 

to call off his part of the dive and let Ralph and 

Dave go on and do some sightseeing. 

The water was colder than it had been 

in the fall, with a temperature of 52 degrees 

70 

Fahrenheit—and that was the water coming 

in from the so-called Warm Water Passage. 

After going about 450 feet in, they had seen 

enough of the cave and the cold water. On the 

way out Ralph was in the lead and Dave was 

following when he decided to do a “lights out” 

for practice. It was a quick trip out, stopping 

only to take a look at the Warm Water Passage, 

which was not very warm because it was early 

December and the surface water entering the 

system was much colder. Back on the surface 

and glad to be out of the cold water, Mark told 

Dave and Ralph that his flash unit had flooded. 

Oh well—that’s the way it goes at times. They 

did not get any pictures but still had a good 

dive. 

It was a good dive season. A new passage was 

discovered that turned out to be Indian Creek, 

which explains the warm water in the fall. The 

Cold Water Passage drains the sinkhole plain 

to the north. With 1,150 feet of new line laid 

this year and passage still going, hopefully there 

will be more dive trips. 

This cave is closed due to the apparent 

hazards of tight constrictions, cold water, 

and low visibility. 

George Jones, Dick Hughes, (Unknown), and Bob Braybender in South Branch 

of Wyandotte with their tripods. Photo by George Jackson. 


Section III: Geology and Cave Sciences 

71


72

Regional and Karst Geology 

of the Ohio River Fringe and South-Central Indiana 

Featuring the Lost River, and Carbonate and 

Clastic Rocks of the Mississippian and Devonian (with some 

historical and cultural notes) 

Many portions of the text and road log were 

taken from previously published papers 

and field trips written and/or organized by: 

Blatchely, Malott, Powell, Bassett, Armstrong, 

Art and Peggy Palmer, Hobbs, Moore, Krothe, 

Deebel, Johnson, and many others. We wish 

to thank them for their previous work and 

their interest in, and dedication to, Indiana 

speleology. In recent years, Special Report 

61 (Gray, 2000) of the Indiana Geological 

Survey has promoted changing the name of 

the Mitchell Plain to the “Mitchell Plateau,” 

and that of the Chester Escarpment to the 

“Springville Escarpment.” This paper continues 

the long-standing, widely recognized, and 

typically current useage of the Mitchell Plain 

and Chester Escarpment to be consistent with 

over 150 years of geologic and karst literature 

in Indiana and globally. 

Summary of the Major Stops on 

the Field Trip 

Stop 1: The Crawford County 

Fairgrounds is on top of the Crawford Upland, 

a loess and sandstone-capped, dissected 

plateau and regional erosional feature with 

up to 500 feet of local relief. Wyandotte and 

other large caves are within this area. Within 

the Crawford Upland, the limestones exposed 

in the Mitchell Plain to the east, are protected 

by a veneer of Mississippian-aged interbedded 

sandstone and shales of the Chester Group, 

resulting in the picturesque upland topography. 

The eastern edge of the Upland is the Chester 

Escarpment, the prominent erosion, structural, 

and topographical transition with the 

carbonate floored and heavily karsted Mitchell 

Edited, updated, and partially written by 

Kevin Strunk, MS, LPG, NSS 16267 

Plain. Classic karst features are associated 

with subsurface drainage of the sinkhole plain 

and the uplands under the control of massive 

regional down cutting of the base level Blue 

River and Ohio River. The Upland also has 

sandstone-capped and dominated erosional 

“buttes” and many sandstone shelter caves. 

Travel to Stop 2: We will go south on 

State Road 66 and travel past Pilot Knob, an 

erosional remnant and topographical feature 

sitting on top of the Upland that is capped by 

likely the eastern-most outcrop of the lowermost 

Pennsylvanian-aged strata, the Mansfield 

Sandstone. 

Stop 2: Tower Quarry has excellent 

exposures of the lower Chester Series sandstones 

and limestones and the main cave bearing 

units, the Ste. Genevieve Limestone and 

other Blue River Group rocks. We will see an 

approximately 150-foot-tall highwall in a brief 

stop which will begin our exploration of the 

Indiana stratigraphic column from the Chester 

Series in the west to Devonian limestones in 

the east. This will also show the rocks which are 

at the Upland’s surface locally. 

Travel to Stop 3: We will travel east on 

scenic State Road 62 to Leavenworth and 

then along the Ohio River scenic overlook 

at Horseshoe Bend, and then cross and 

pass through the heavily karsted and deeply 

dissected Blue River Valley on the way to 

Wyandotte Cave. 

Stop 3: Wyandotte Cave is perhaps 

Indiana’s most famous cave with a combination 

of history, geology, exploration challenges, and 

management issues making for a unique spot 

in Indiana speleology. We will visit the historic 

73


entrance and also venture into the Washington 

Avenue entry area. 

Travel to Stop 4: We will continue east 

on scenic State Road 62 though the Harrison 

Crawford State Forest, portions of which 

were recently named O’Bannon Woods State 

Park (after the late beloved Governor Frank 

O’Bannon, a Harrison County native, friend to 

cavers, cave owner, and active conservationist. 

We will drive through historic Corydon and 

past the first capital of Indiana, and north on 

State Road 135, crossing over Interstate 64 up 

to Quarry Road. 

Stop 4: At the Corydon Crushed Stone 

Company Quarry just north of Corydon, 

we will again see the upper Mississippian 

limestones of the Blue River Group that 

overlie older strata to be seen to the east. At 

the quarry, the Paoli, Ste. Genevieve, and St. 

Louis limestones have been quarried for use as 

crushed stone aggregate. The quarry also has 

an excellent exposure of rocks above the Ste. 

Genevieve, including the Aux Vases, the Bethel 

Shale, and some Sample Formation sandstone. 

The Corydon Crushed Stone Company 

Quarry is on the extreme eastern edge of the 

Crawford Upland, and is contained within an 

outlier of the westward retreating Crawford 

Upland/Chester Escarpment. These outliers 

are sandstone-capped hills of limestone that 

have been isolated from the main upland area. 

Other outliers can be seen sitting out on the 

Mitchell Plain like islands in a sea of sinkholes. 

The quarry has an excellent vista overlooking 

the Crawford Upland to the south and west, 

the Mitchell Plain as well as the Indian Creek 

Valley to the near east, with the Norman Upland 

far off to the far east. While at the quarry, we 

will discuss the local New Albany Shale gas 

wells. The New Albany is an organic rich shale 

that is being developed throughout Indiana as 

a natural gas reservoir. Some wells are located 

on the quarry property and vicinity. 

Travel to stop 5: While traveling east 

on Interstate 64 from Corydon to our next 

stop in the greater Louisville metro area, we 

will pass through the Mitchell Plain into the 

Norman Upland, then down the Knobstone 

74 

Escarpment into the Ohio River valley and the 

Scottsburg Lowland, passing through huge 

road cuts exposing the lower Mississippian 

strata including the Borden Group as well 

the mostly Devonian-aged New Albany Shale 

upon which the Knobstone is developed and 

Devonian limestones upon which the Lowland 

is developed at the Falls of the Ohio. We will 

cross into Kentucky along the Louisville water 

front to reach the Falls. 

Stop 5: The Falls of the Ohio is a premier, 

globally significant fossil and historical location. 

It is near here in Clarksville that Lewis and 

Clark really began their journey, negating the 

spurious claim of St. Louis. Although now 

tamed, greatly altered, and partially obscured 

by the presence of the McAlpine Lock and 

Dam operated by the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, the Falls of the Ohio is in fact a huge 

outcrop of heavily-fossiliferous Devonianage 

reef rocks over which the Ohio River 

originally cascaded, making for long delays 

in river traffic prior to the building of the lock 

and dam to allow unrestricted traffic. American 

Indians utilized the area extensively as did the 

migrating pre-settlement herds of American 

Bison as the famous and regional scale “Buffalo 

Trace” crossed the Ohio River at this point. 

We will visit the Indiana side at the Falls of the 

Ohio State Park which has excellent access to 

the outcrop, a wonderful museum, and views 

of the lock and dam and downtown Louisville. 

Sorry, no collecting allowed. 

Travel to Stops 6- : The drive northwest 

on U.S. 150 up the Knobstone Escarpment and 

across Norman Upland and the southeastern 

Mitchell Plain and across the Blue River Basin 

leads us to the east side of Lost River Karst 

Basin, which we will traverse from east to west 

back to the Chester Escarpment, then up into 

the Crawford Upland, then down into the 

bowels of the karst at Wesley Chapel Gulf, 

finally arriving at the Orangeville Rise. This 

route allows for observation of unique Lost 

River topography. The Lost River of Indiana 

has fascinated early explorers, geologists, and 

cavers for over 200 years. The combination of 

caves, surface streams, sinking streams, sinkhole

plains, swallowholes, storm water rises, and 

perennial rises are the meager surface evidence 

of what appears to be one of the world’s most 

complex subterranean drainage networks. We 

will see the wet bed upstream of the normal 

dry weather sink(s) and the dry bed at several 

places. Recent mapping efforts in Lost River 

Cave have reached over 20 miles, with much 

more to be mapped in the huge system. 

Stop 6: This stop is actually a driving 

tour as we traverse the eastern portion of the 

Lost River Basin in the area with only surface 

drainage apparent. This will allow us to see 

how the forks of the surficial Lost River have 

cut down into the older Mitchell Plain surface. 

We will see the progressive sinking of the Lost 

River until it is gone just east of State Road 37 

as we drive across the karsted plain, with thick 

residual soils in the east and a sinkhole plain in 

the western areas. 

Stop 7: This stop is also a driving tour as 

we drive through the central portion of the 

Lost River basin west from State Road 37 up 

the Crawford Escarpment on the south side of 

the Lost River basis to a north-facing overlook, 

then down the escarpment towards the Tolliver 

Swallowhole in the sinkhole plain. Tolliver 

Swallowhole is the major wet weather sink of 

the Lost River System. During dry weather the 

water typically sinks east of State Road 37, but 

during flood events the river overflows west of 

State Road 37, then, based upon flow volume, 

progressively sinks first at Stein Swallowhole, 

then Turner Swallowhole, and then finally at 

Tolliver Swallowhole if Turner Swallowhole 

overflows. Tolliver Swallowhole handles all but 

the largest flood volumes and is a direct entry to 

the underground Lost River. The above-ground 

Lost River is eroded about 20 feet below the 

soil-covered surface of the Mitchell Plain, and 

the incised limestone river floor drops quickly 

into the swallowhole. Tolliver Swallowhole 

is a National Natural Landmark. Access is an 

ongoing issue and we will likely not visit the 

feature on this tour. 

Stop 8: Wesley Chapel (Elrod) Gulf is 

perhaps the most interesting of the Lost River 

features. The gulf is actually an 8-acre sinkhole 

Regional and Karst Geology 

with steep 30- to 100-foot bedrock walls that 

has collapsed into the underground Lost River. 

The relatively flat, alluviated floor of the gulf 

contains a perennial rise pool that disgorges 

large volumes of water and sediment during 

floods. The water typically sinks near the pool 

in dry weather, but during a flood the water 

flows into an overflow channel that carries the 

water to numerous swallowholes along the 

west wall of the gulf. The entire floor of the 

gulf can be flooded to a depth of several feet 

if the swallowhole inflow capacity is exceeded. 

Elrod Cave and Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave are 

associated with the gulf and are entries to the 

underground Lost River. While there has been 

a few miles of explored cave that is part of the 

huge Lost River plumbing system known for 

over 100-years, in recent years over 20 miles 

of Lost River Cave passage have been mapped. 

The gulf is a National Natural Landmark owned 

and managed by the Hoosier National Forest. 

Stop : We will drive west out of the 

western-most Mitchell Plain towards the 

Orangeville Rise which is an excellent example 

of a southern Indiana perennial vertical rise 

pool and spring that is actually within the 

Crawford Upland. The Orangeville Rise is 

not the True Rise of the main Lost River, but 

rather is the outlet for drainage captured in a 

sub-basin to the north of the main Lost River 

Basin. The True Rise of Lost River is a similar, 

but less accessible, feature located about 0.75 

mile south. The Orangeville Rise is a National 

Natural Landmark long owned by The Nature 

Conservancy, prior to being transferred to the 

Indiana Karst Conservancy in 2003. 

Stop 10: Travel to Campground from 

French Lick via Patoka Reservoir, Eckerty, and 

Marengo. 

This stop is also a driving tour as we 

drive back to the Campground. We will take 

the Orangeville Road and State Road 145 to 

the historic gambling towns of West Baden 

and French Lick then travel south via State 

Road 145 past Patoka Reservoir to Eckerty 

Junction, and then east on State Road 64 to 

Marengo, and then south on State Road 135 to 

the campground just south of Marengo. 

75


We will be passing numerous sandstone 

and other outcrops of the Stephensport Group 

strata south along State Road 145 past Patoka 

Reservoir, then the lowermost Pennsylvanianage 

sandstones and shales of the Mansfield 

Formation beginning just north of Eckerty 

and then east on State Road 64 from Eckerty 

Junction for 5 or 6 miles, before passing back 

through the Chester Series into the Blue River 

Group limestone exposed near Marengo. 

The creek and river bottoms contain alluvial 

deposits derived from the Crawford Upland. 

Acknowledgements 

Thanks to the caver-geologist bus leaders: 

John Bassett, George Cesnik, Art and Peggy 

Palmer, and Kevin Strunk. 

76 

Thanks also to Brad Mulzer and Steve 

Speedy of Tower Quarry; George Williams of 

Corydon Crushed Stone; and Gordon Smith of 

Wyandotte Caves, LLC, for allowing tours and 

access to their properties. 

Thanks to the staff of Falls of the Ohio 

State Park, Bob Armstrong of the Lost River 

Conservation Task Force, and Cindy Sandeno 

and other staff of the Hoosier National Forest. 

Thanks to Tom Rea for the many hours he 

spent on constructing and updating the many 

maps and figures and his editing suggestions and 

his long friendship. 

Thanks to my spouse, Jeanette Holland, and 

the wonderful Strunklets—Meredith, Karen, 

and Sean—for their love and support. 

Location of geology tour stops and areas on the state highway map.

Regional Physiography and Stratigraphy 

The Ohio River Fringe and South-Central Karst Areas of 

Indiana: An Introduction 

By Dr Arthur N. Palmer 

(edited and updated from the 1973 and 1992 NSS Convention Guidebooks by Kevin Strunk). 

Of the nation’s many cave areas, few can 

rival south-central Indiana in the perfection 

of its karst features. Located in a northwardextending 

arm of the Interior Low Plateaus, 

a sequence of Paleozoic age limestones, 

sandstones, and shales has been spared the 

cover of glacial drift which masks the bedrock 

in five-sixths of Indiana (Figures 1 and 2). 

Differential erosion of these exposed 

rocks has produced a distinctive physiography 

consisting of a broad limestone plateau, 

called the Mitchell Plain, bordered on the 

east and west by highlands of more resistant 

rocks. These Mississippian-age rocks include 

the limestone units of the Ramp Creek, 

Harrodsburg, and Salem (Sanders Group), 

and the St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, and Paoli 

Limestones (Blue River Group), with a total 

thickness of about 500 feet. This sequence is 

underlain by interbedded siltstones and shales 

of the Borden Group, which are exposed to the 

east of the Mitchell Plain to form the Norman 

Upland. The limestone sequence is overlain 

by interbedded sandstones, limestones, and 

shales of the Chester Series which form the 

Crawford Upland to the west of the Mitchell 

Plain (Figure 3). These geologic relationships 

extend southward into Kentucky, where karst 

development is even more striking (Figure 4). 

Most of Indiana’s caverns and associated 

karst phenomena are located in the Mitchell 

Plain and in limestone ridges capped by 

sandstone in the Crawford Upland (Figures 5A 

and 5B). Four factors combine to make this a 

classic karst region: (1) Erosion has exposed the 

limestones over a large, continuous area because 

of the low regional dip (30 feet per mile to the 

south-southwest) and lack of glacial cover; (2) 

The humid climate of southern Indiana favors 

solutional processes; (3) Most of the limestones 

are dense and compact so that solution is 

concentrated along joints and bedding plains 

rather than dispersed throughout intergranular 

spaces; and (4) Master (base-level) streams are 

incised deeply into the limestones, creating 

local hydraulic gradients sufficient for karst 

development over an extensive area. 

Physiography and Development of the Ohio River Fringe and 

South-Central Indiana Karst 

By Dr Richard L. Powell 

(edited and updated from the 1973 and 1992 NSS Convention Guidebooks, 

and numerous Powell, Palmer, and related references by Kevin Strunk). 

The karst area of south-central Indiana is 

developed on or within the carbonate rocks of 

Mississippian age that lie within the Norman 

Upland, the Mitchell Plain, and the Crawford 

Upland physiographic subunits of the Highland 

Rim Section of the Interior Low Plateaus 

Province (Figures 5 and 6; Fenneman, 1938, 

pp 425–427; and Malott, 1922). Therefore, 

by definition, the area was not glaciated, but 

is bounded on the north, east, and west by 

the maximum extent of mappable Pleistocene 

glacial drift deposits. The southern boundary, 

77


at the Ohio River, merges with the cave area 

of central Kentucky, the Pennyroyal and 

Mammoth Cave Plateaus (Figure 4; McFarlan, 

1943, pp 184–187). As shown on Figure 1, 

southern Indiana has seven physiographic 

units. These units are grossly controlled by the 

local lithology and structure (Figures 5B and 

6). The Scottsburg Lowland, Norman Upland, 

Mitchell Plain, and Crawford Upland are in the 

Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Clark, Washington, 

Orange, and Lawrence county vicinity. 

The area lies on the flank of the north-south 

trending Cincinnati Arch where the rocks dip 

into the Illinois Basin (Figures 6 and 7). The 

westward dip of the strata is about 25 feet 

per mile, but small local structures vary from 

this in both rate and orientation. The major 

structural deformation of the area is the north- 

78 

south oriented Mt. Carmel Fault zone and 

the syncline and anticline parallel to it on the 

west along the western margin of the Norman 

Upland. [As an example, cavern development 

in the Cave River Valley area has been greatly 

influenced by these folds. It is interesting to 

note that the outcrop pattern of the rocks, 

and thus the physiography, has a fairly sharp 

bend in the southwestern Washington County 

area. The basin structure and outcrop pattern 

runs fairly north-south into northwestern 

Washington County where a distinct bend to 

the northwest occurs, causing a major widening 

of the limestone outcrop and the Mitchell 

Plain. The Lost River is developed within the 

widened outcrop area, and this is the classic 

area of the Mitchell Plain karst topography. 

Perhaps future workers could examine more 

Figure 1. Physiographic provinces of southern Indiana ( from Powell, 1973).

closely this apparent relationship between 

structure, rock type, and physiography when 

investigating the south-central Indiana karst. 

In more recent years, oil company geophysical 

data has also detailed the geology of the Ohio 

River Fringe area where a series of deep-seated 

faults and broad folds has been delineated. The 

relationship of these structures to local karst 

development is unclear (KS)]. 

The east-facing Knobstone Escarpment and 

its dip slope component, the Norman Upland, 

were formed by stream erosion on thick 

siltstones, thin shales, and thin limestones of 

early Mississippian age (Borden Group, Figure 

3). These rocks underlie carbonate rocks of 

middle Mississippian age (Sanders and Blue 

River Groups, Figure 5B and 6) that floor the 

western margins of the eastern-most valleys. 

This westward thickening wedge of 

sedimentary rocks, upon which is developed 


the karst topography of the Mitchell Plain, is 

due to planation by surface streams that had 

gradients less steep than the dip of the bedrock. 

Those streams which maintain their flow across 

the Mitchell Plain have eroded through an eastfacing 

escarpment into the Crawford Upland, 

which is developed upon and into a series of 

interbedded shales, limestones, and sandstones 

of late Mississippian age (Stephensport and 

West Baden Groups, Figure 3). The escarpment 

is known as the Chester Escarpment and is 

in part equivalent to the Dripping Springs 

Escarpment southwest of Mammoth Cave 

(Weller, 1927, p 179), but is significantly 

different lithologically and structurally. 

The modern streams which drain the karst 

areas are commonly deeply incised meandering 

streams that head just west of the Knobstone 

Escarpment, although the East Fork and West 

Fork of the White River head considerably 

Figure 2. Map of Indiana showing two major karst areas ( from Powell, 1961). 

7


80 

Figure 3. Regional Mississippian stratigraphy and the local Harrison County area stratigraphy 

( from Indiana Geological Survey).


Figure 4. Total extent of the Miocene-age Mitchell Plain erosion surface, including eastern remnants 

with today’s Norman Upland ( from Palmer and Palmer, 1975). 

to the east (Figure 8A). [These rivers are the 

dominant base level streams of the northern 

two-thirds of the Mitchell Plain. The southern 

third is controlled by the Lost River, and also by 

the Ohio River and its larger tributaries, notably 

the Blue River. (KS)] There are many evidences 

of structural control of drainage locally, where 

resistant strata or small structures deflect the 

stream courses. Many segments, or reaches, 

of the streams appear to have adjusted to 

northwest–southeast or northeast–southwest 

trending lineations, perhaps jointing, in rocks 

now partially removed by erosion. Powell 

(1976a) addresses the great amount of control 

that these joint patterns have on both the surface 

streams and cave passages. These streams, like 

their pre-entrenchment antecedents, flow 

across or through the Mitchell Plain and into 

the Crawford Upland at grades less than that of 

the dip of the underlying bedrock (for example, 

the Lost River). Thus, the Mitchell Plain and 

Norman Upland surface is an erosional and 

81


Figure 5B. Generalized geologic cross-section showing relationship of physiographic units to bedrock geology. 

Line of cross-section is indicated on Figure 5A ( from Powell, 1965). 

82 

Figure 5A. Map of south-central Indiana showing the location of caves with respect to major regional 

drainage routes (modified from Powell, 1961)

Figure 6. Geologic map of south-central Indiana. The Mitchell plain is developed 

upon rocks of Blue River and Sanders groups ( from Palmer and Palmer, 1975). 

depositional surface and not a stripped plain. 

The alternation of weak and resistant strata 

in the Crawford Upland makes identification 

of particular erosional and depositional 

levels more difficult owing to the presence of 

structural benches, but these in fact are also 

erosion surfaces, albeit not at grade with the 

master streams. 

The surface drainage characteristics of 

the Mitchell Plain are the basis for further 

physiographic subdivision (Figure 8). The 

Mitchell Plain is a low limestone plateau, 


dissected by a few 

deeply entrenched 

streams for example, 

the Ohio River, Buck 

Creek, Indian Creek, 

Blue River, Lost River, 

East Fork White 

River, Salt Creek and 

its major tributary 

Clear Creek, and 

East Fork and West 

Fork of the White 

River from south to 

north respectively. 

North of the East 

Fork White River the 

plateau-like character 

of the Mitchell Plain 

is lost except for the 

accordancy of minor 

divides which allow 

reconstruction of the 

pre-entrenchment 

drainage basin. A 

w e l l - d e v e l o p e d 

c h a r a c t e r i s t i c 

sinkhole plain [as 

seen in far southern 

Indiana and the Ohio 

River fringe; (KS)] is 

generally lacking in 

Monroe County, but 

a few square miles 

of sinkhole plain lie 

west of Bedford in 

Lawrence County. 

Minor sinkhole plains exist in Owen, 

Morgan, and Putnam counties (Strunk, 1980). 

Figure 9 (Palmer and Palmer, 1975) also 

shows the physiographic and stratigraphic 

cross-sections from Figure 8 which highlight 

details of the Mitchell Plain surfaces and the 

relationship of lithology to physiology. 

The Mitchell Plain to the south of East Fork 

White River is less dissected than that to the 

north, and vast areas, such as that south of Spring 

Mill State Park, the type locality of the Mitchell 

Plain (Beede, 1911, p 195), are characterized 

83


84 

Figure 7. Map showing the location of Harrison and Crawford counties relative to the Illinois Basin 

and Cincinnati Arch (modified from Sunderman, 1986). 

by hundreds of sinkholes per square mile, with 

over 1,022 sinkholes counted per section in 

some areas (Malott, 1945, pp 12–l3). The 

Mitchell Plain south of the river can be further 

subdivided: the sinkhole plain proper lies on 

the west margin, adjacent to deeply entrenched 

surface drainage and cavernous drainage, while 

the east side is characterized by surface streams 

flowing across it. Caves have developed to a 

lesser degree in the eastern portion of the plain. 

The eastern boundary of the Mitchell Plain with 

the Norman Upland is transitional, but the 

boundary of the soil-mantled surface drainage 

plain with the sinkhole plain is generally abrupt 

and commonly the site of sinking streams (for 

example the Lost River). 

The soils of the Mitchell Plain, including 

the so-called “terra rosa” consist of a sequence 

of residues from limestone and clastics; alluvial 

clays, sands, silts, and gravels; lag gravels; and 

loess and paludal deposits ranging in age from 

Tertiary to Recent. (Powell, 1971; Powell and 

Thornbury, 1967, pp 16–17; Ruhe, 1974; 

Olson, 1980; Hall, 1976; Ruhe and Olson, 

1980). The Mitchell Plain was mantled with 

these materials, excluding the loess, to an 

estimated average thickness of 30 feet prior 

to the time of development of the Blue River 

Strath, probably during the late Tertiary. The 

soils were dissected by surface streams and 

sapped through karst drainage systems to 

evolve into essentially the present landscape 

prior to emplacement of thin loess of Illinoian 

and Wisconsinan ages. The sinkhole character 

of the Mitchell Plain is evident as a widespread 

zone along the western margin of the sinkhole 

plain where the soils have been removed by 

sapping, slumping, and piping. The eastern

margin of the Mitchell Plain, characterized 

by surface drainage, is mantled with thick, 

somewhat impermeable unconsolidated 

deposits, ranging generally from 30 to 50 feet 

in thickness. This thickness of surficial material 

far exceeds the amounts of insoluble residues 

derived from the dissolved limestones, and 

insoluble residues seen in place seldom resemble 

the material commonly called terra rosa. [Much 

of these materials must have been derived from 

the Chester Series rocks which have been 

completely eroded as the Chester Escarpment 

retreated westward, exposing the limestones to 

weathering, solution, and karstification. (KS)] 

The karst features found in profusion on 

the Mitchell Plain are generally lacking in the 

Crawford Upland, with the exception of the 

karst valleys (Malott, 1939). These former 

surface stream courses, commonly equivalent 

to the Blue River Strath and the Mitchell Plain, 

are small karst plains within the Crawford 

Upland (Powell, 1964). The Garrison Chapel 

Karst Valley in western Monroe County is 

an example of an abandoned former surface 

drainage basin that was diverted or pirated 

westward, down dip into a more deeply 

entrenched surface stream (Beede, 1911; 

Malott, 1922, pp 197–203; Wayne, 1950; and 

Powell, 1965). Subterranean stream piracy 

is common through meander necks in the 

Crawford Upland (Malott, 1921 and 1945, p 

21 and Thornbury, 1931). Wyandotte Cave 

appears to have partially pirated the Blue 

River. 

Some of the caverns that divert surface 

waters from the sinkholes of the Mitchell Plain 

drain generally westward, down dip, beneath 

the Chester Escarpment to emerge as springs 

in the surface stream valleys of the Crawford 

Upland. The most notable of these are Harrison 

Spring on Blue River in Crawford County and 

the Orangeville Rise and the Rise of Lost River 

in Orange County (Malott, 1952, pp 225–227 

and Powell, 1963). The deep valleys containing 

these springs are commonly back-filled with 20 

to 80 feet of non-glacial lacustrine and alluvial 

deposits of late Pleistocene (Illinoian and 


Wisconsinan) age, to levels higher than cavern 

passages which were at grade with the bedrock 

valley floor. Those caverns, which continued to 

discharge their waters through rise pits in the 

sediments are alluviated cave springs. [Cave 

dives of the rises since Powell’s 1963 paper 

indicate that the rises have always been vertical 

pipes as they are up to 160+ feet deep. That 

does not preclude other smaller features in the 

karst area from being classified as alluviated 

cave springs. (KS)] 

The eastern-most Norman Upland and the 

Crawford Upland have seemingly accordant 

summits which have been regarded as remnants 

of the so-called Highland Rim Peneplain of 

possible Eocene age (Galloway, 1919, pp 17– 

20 and Malott, 1919, pp 22–23, and 1922, pp 

129–133). The dip slope of the western Norman 

Upland and the Mitchell Plain is a multi-cycle, 

stream planated erosion and deposition surface 

which is commonly assigned a Pliocene age, 

mostly by consensus of opinion rather than 

by proven stratigraphic relationships. The 

recognizable high-level pre-karst drainage 

basins on the Mitchell Plain and similar 

accordant strath terraces and karst valleys in 

the Crawford Upland, collectively called the 

Blue River Strath in the Blue River drainage 

basin, are considered to be late Tertiary in age 

(Powell, 1964). A well-preserved remnant of 

the Mitchell Plain exists along the south side 

of the Lost River south of Wesley Chapel Gulf 

(Powell and Bassett, 1973). Some caverns in 

outliers of the Crawford Upland on the Mitchell 

Plain predate the development of the Blue 

River Strath. Other caverns are at grade with 

and the same age as the strath. [Unlike the past 

workers who suggested that the Mitchell Plain 

was a peneplain formed by regional erosion 

cutting across structure and thus lowering the 

surface, modern geomorphologists (see papers 

by Ruhe, Olson, Hall, and others) recognize 

that the plain was formed by a combination 

of westward retreat of the Crawford 

Upland and Chester Escarpment not unlike 

pedimentation and locally differential stream 

incision, karstification, soil development, loess 

85


deposition, and quite possibly periglacial and 

other less common phenomena. (KS)] 

The through-flowing master streams across 

the Mitchell Plain and the Crawford Upland 

were apparently entrenched during or by 

early Pleistocene time owing to rejuvenation 

associated with glacio-eustatic changes 

(lowering) in sea level and regional uplift. 

Development of karst features was initiated and 

intensified on the Mitchell Plain and within 

limestone-floored valleys of the Crawford 

Upland at this time, with consequent cavern 

development. 

Continued down cutting during the Illinoian 

and Kansan [and earlier? (KS)] stages of glaciation 

86 

by glacial meltwater deepened the valleys, and 

caverns developed at succeedingly lower levels. 

Multi-level cavern development can be easily seen 

in caves such as Blue Spring and Donaldson, and 

Donnehue Cave has literally scores of limestone 

bridges in several layers reaching up to the ceiling 

of tall canyon passages (see page 441). During late 

Illinoian and Wisconsin stages, the valleys acted 

as glacial sluiceways and were filled with glacial 

outwash to depths of as much as 120 feet, or 50 

feet above present river levels. The lowermost 

caverns were drowned or even buried, giving rise 

to alluviated cave springs where subterranean 

drainage routes remained viable. 

The Southeastern Karst Area, and Other Karst Areas 

By Michael C. Moore and Kevin Strunk 

(edited and updated from the 1973 and 1992 NSS Convention Guidebooks) 

Hoosier speleologists are fortunate in 

having within the boundaries of their state not 

one, not two, but three well developed karst 

areas, each having many unique and fascinating 

examples of solution controlled topography and 

hydrology. The number, size, and complexity 

of caves formed in the Mississippian-age 

limestones of the Mitchell Plain and Crawford 

Upland is far greater than that of Indiana’s 

second karst area developed upon Devonian 

and Silurian-aged limestones (Figure 2) located 

in parts of Jefferson, Jennings, Decatur, Ripley, 

and Clark Counties. [The third area is actually a 

buried extension of the second area northward 

along the Cincinnati Arch into northeastern 

and north-central Indiana in the glaciated 

portion of Indiana. Random quarrying of 

the Devonian and Silurian rocks for crushed 

stone has exhumed many examples of a well 

developed karst area with bore hole caves as 

long as 505 (mapped) feet in Delaware County 

north of Muncie. Numerous other quarries 

throughout the northern third of Indiana have 

exposed decidedly karst features. The northern 

Indiana karst formation was controlled by the 

now buried, but deeply incised Teays River 

and its major tributaries. The Teays River is the 

equivalent of the New River in West Virginia, 

and was the pre-glacial Mississippi, draining the 

central Appalachians, Ohio, Indiana, and then 

Illinois before joining the Mississippi via the 

Illinois River. Were it not for the Pleistocene 

glaciations, Indiana would be the cave state, 

not Missouri. This buried karst has become an 

important groundwater source in northern and 

eastern Indiana. (KS)] 

Since the northern cave area is buried, we 

must return to the southeastern area. Four 

factors that have been cited by Art Palmer as 

causes for the south-central area’s pre-eminence 

are not totally lacking in the southeast: (1) 

A broad swath of gently westward dipping 

carbonate rock ranging in age from Upper 

Ordovician to Middle Devonian is exposed 

at the bedrock surface. In this area, however, a 

mantle of glacial drift covers the uplands; (2) 

The orographic effect of the Norman Upland 

notwithstanding, the amount of rainfall on the 

southeastern part of the state is substantially 

the same as that in the south-central; (3) The 

great thickness of nearly 500 feet of continuous 

section of carbonate rock found in the Mitchell 

Plain and Crawford Upland is missing, but 

this entire thickness is rarely, if ever, a factor in

cavern development. Somewhat more than 100 

feet of continuous limestones and dolomites 

may commonly be found in the southeast, 

more than enough to contain many of southern 

Indiana’s largest caves. More than 200 feet of 

stone can be found further north; and (4) The 

lack of deeply incised master streams in the 

southeast is, perhaps, the only great difference 

(the northern portion has the Teays valley). 

Most of the caves in the southeast are found 

in the Muscatatuck Regional Slope (Figures 

1, 2, and 5), a physiographic region that is a 

stripped surface on the carbonate rocks which 

dominate the Indiana stratigraphic column 

from the base of the Silurian to the upper 

Devonian. Its surface, like that of the Mitchell 

Plain, dips about one half as much as the rock 

layers, and thus bands of younger and younger 


rock are exposed as one goes westward. The 

Muscatatuck Regional Slope is bounded on the 

east by the Dearborn Upland, developed on 

shales and limestones of Ordovician age, and 

merges almost imperceptibly as it dips beneath 

the outcrop of the New Albany shale with the 

Scottsburg Lowland to the west. 

The caves of the southeastern Indiana karst 

area are, on the average, much shorter than their 

western counterparts and have smaller crosssections 

and simpler plans. These southeastern 

caves lack the thick sediment fills found in caves 

developed in the south-central area. Most of the 

eastern caves are found near stream valleys incised 

in the bedrock, and their flow directions seem 

to bear little relation to the present Ohio River 

valley. Because the overlying rock is thin, there 

are more entrances per cave in the Muscatatuck 

87

Three major base-level-related surfaces exist 

in the Mitchell Plain area adjacent to the 

East Fork White River (Figures 8 & 9). Base 

level may be defined as the lowest elevation of 

the water table which can still sustain base flow 

in surface streams. Evidence of former base 

levels may be derived from erosion surfaces or 

terraces along a surface stream (Palmer, 1987). 

In order to relate cave development to surface 

fluvial processes, the past base levels of the East 

Fork White River, Lost River, and Blue River 

must be characterized. The oldest erosion 

surface recognized in south-central Indiana 

is the so-called Lexington-Highland Rim 

Peneplain. This surface was highly dissected 

during the Cretaceous, and is presently 

represented by sub-accordant ridge summits at 

altitudes of 900 to 1,000 feet in the Crawford 

Upland (Palmer and Palmer, 1975). Following 

the development of the Lexington-Highland 

Rim, the area was regionally uplifted, and 

dissected by surface streams during the late 

Cretaceous. This dissection continued until 

the early Tertiary, and then was followed by a 

period of aggradation which covered the area 

with approximately 40 to 80 feet of alluvial and 

colluvial fill during the retreat of the Chester 

Escarpment (Ruhe and Olson, 1980). 

This period of aggradation was succeeded 

by a second static base level episode. The second 

base level is delimited by the Mitchell Plain. 

This surface is preserved as two primary features 

on the uplands of the sinkhole plain. The upper 

Mitchell Plain surface can be related to the 

upper boundary of early Tertiary aggradation. 

This surface forms broad, flat surfaces of 

unconsolidated material at the highest 

elevations of the sinkhole plain at altitudes of 

760 to 810 feet (Palmer and Palmer, 1975). 

The Lower Mitchell Plain surface is related to 

the upper boundary of the erosion during early 

88 

Geomorphic History of the (mostly Northern and Central) 

Mitchell Plain. 

Summary of Art and Peg Palmer’s work 

(edited from Johnson, 1992, does not include NSS 1976) 

Tertiary. This surface is preserved as saddles and 

minor flat areas between sinkholes at altitudes 

of 700 to 760 feet (Palmer and Palmer, 1975). 

The lower Mitchell Plain can only be observed 

in the sinkhole plain, and is associated with 

flat areas of exposed limestone. This base level 

episode has been placed in the late Oligocene 

or, possibly, early Miocene period (Palmer, 

1987). Although the period of formation of the 

Mitchell Plain surface had strong potential for 

cavern development, very little limestone was 

exposed above base level at that time (Palmer 

and Palmer, 1975). 

Erosional down cutting resumed along 

the East Fork White River following the 

formation of the Mitchell Plain surface. This 

entrenchment continued until late Pliocene 

to early Pleistocene time (Palmer and Palmer, 

1975). A third period of static base level 

ensued, recognized by terraces at altitudes of 

600 to 650 feet above sea level. Powell (1963) 

recognized remnants of a strath (a bedrock 

terrace) along the Blue River, in southern 

Indiana. This surface, the Blue River Strath, was 

related to development of upper level passages 

in Wyandotte Cave, Crawford County. Palmer 

(1987) provided evidence that a similar surface 

developed along the East Fork White River, 

at about the same time the Blue River Strath 

was created. Although Palmer (1987) did not 

give a name to this surface, for the purpose 

of Johnson’s study it is referred to as the East 

Fork Surface I. According to Palmer and 

Palmer (1975), this period of stable base level 

produced several solution caves. The upper 

levels of Blue Spring Cave, Lawrence County, 

show a definite relationship to this surface 

(Palmer, 1987). During the remaining portion 

of the Pleistocene period, much of northern 

Indiana was glaciated. The southern section of 

the East Fork White River, and the Mitchell

Geomorphic History of the Mitchell Plain 

Figure 8. Distribution of landform types on the Mitchell Plain with relation to major drainage 

patterns and regional structure (modified from Palmer and Palmer, 1975). 

89


Plain, were not glaciated due to their sheltered 

positions between the Crawford Upland and 

the Knobstone Escarpment. In the Upper East 

Fork drainage basin, flow has been diverted 

from three or possibly four separate pre-glacial 

basins into the current river. This diversion led 

to increased flow and rapid entrenchment of 

the East Fork White River. 

The remaining history of the East Fork 

White River is one of alternating alluviation 

and entrenchment due to the several advances 

and retreats of the Wisconsinan (ending 15,000 

years ago) ice sheets. Outwash from the Illinoian 

(ending 100,000 years ago) ice sheet entrenched 

the East Fork White River approximately 200 

feet below the elevation of the Mitchell Plain 

surface. Subsequent aggradation has deposited 

approximately 60 to 100 feet of alluvial and 

colluvial fill in the river valley (Palmer and 

90 

Palmer, 1975). The lowest elevation of the 

river valley is at approximately 400 to 430 feet 

above sea level. Palmer and Palmer (1975) 

argued that during the intermittent periods of 

glaciation, when the river began rapid down 

cutting, karst processes predominated and 

cavern development was initiated. The periods 

between advancing and retreating ice sheets 

yielded several periods of relatively short-lived 

stable base levels (Palmer and Palmer, 1975). 

Aggradation during glacial advance flooded 

the majority of the pre-Pleistocene caves in the 

area with silt and clay (Powell, 1961). 

Three definite periods of static base level 

have been recognized by the Palmers in the 

Mitchell Plain and/or southern Indiana area: 

1. The Lexington-Highland Rim Peneplain 

(900 to 1,000 feet above sea level) formed during 

Cretaceous time. Represented by accordant 

Figure 9. Physiographic and stratigraphic cross-sections from Figure 8 which highlight details of the Mitchell 

Plain surfaces and the relationship of lithology to physiology (Palmer and Palmer, 1975)

idge summits in the Crawford Upland. No 

remnants are found in the Mitchell Plain area. 

2. The Mitchell Plain surface (710 to 

760 feet above sea level) formed during late 

Oligocene to early Miocene time. Lower 

surface represented by flat areas of exposed 

limestone between sinkholes in the Mitchell 

Plain. Not recognized as a cave development 

period due to the minimal exposed limestone 

when the surface was developed (Palmer and 

Palmer, 1975). See Figure 4. 

Geomorphic History of the Mitchell Plain 

3. The Blue River Strath–East Fork I surface 

(600 to 650 feet above sea level) formed during 

early Pleistocene time. Recognized by remnants 

of a strath terrace in the lower portions of the 

Mitchell Plain and a bedrock terrace along 

the East Fork White River. This surface was 

interpreted to be the early cave forming base 

level for the upper levels of Wyandotte and 

Blue Spring caves. 

Joe Sibert, Manager of Wyandotte, standing second from left, holding flares or 

roman candles. From the Gordon Smith photo collection. 

91

This short paper, presented here in its 

entirety, while somewhat a summary of pre- 

1976 publications, also has a few very interesting 

figures, notably Figures 10 and 11) which depict 

interpretations from much hard map and field 

work, as well as a hint to explorationists of where 

to Tlook for Mitchell Plain caves. 

he Mitchell Plain of southern Indiana is 

a sparsely dissected, low plateau in which 

much of the surface has been subjected to karst 

development. It is bounded on the west by the 

Crawford Upland, an area of ridges capped by 

the predominantly clastic Chesterian series, 

and on the east by the Scottsburg Lowland, a 

broad plain formed on shale. Sub-accordant 

summit elevations of the Crawford Upland 

at altitudes of 900 to 1,000 feet are believed 

to represent the hypothetical Lexington- 

Highland Rim peneplain (Thornbury, 1965, p 

191). The Mitchell Plain, which lies at altitudes 

of 700 to 1,000 feet, is a composite, low relief 

plateau formed by a combination of erosional 

and depositional events. Analysis of the 

geomorphic history of the area is complicated 

by the low gradient of the plateau surface, 

which nearly coincides with the regional dip 

of the rocks (about 30 ft/mi) into the Illinois 

structural basin. Despite local evidence for 

structural control, however, the entire surface 

is subtly discordant to the regional dip, in that 

the land surface possesses a gentler slope. 

The Mitchell Plain is made up of three 

landform types and contains evidence for at least 

three different erosional-depositional surfaces 

transecting the various landforms, The three 

landform types include: (1) areas of sinkhole 

plain developed along the down-dip edge of the 

Mitchell Plain in the vicinity of the entrenched 

rivers, at relatively low elevations; (2) areas 

mantled with residuum and unconsolidated 

sediment to the east of the sinkhole plain, 

farther removed from the entrenched rivers; 

2 

The Mitchell Plain of Southern Indiana 

By Margaret Palmer 

(1976 NSS Bulletin, Vol 4, “Indiana Karst Symposium” slightly edited by Strunk, 2007) 

and (3) finely dissected areas of non-karsted 

limestone and shale ridges, at relatively high 

elevations in the furthest up-dip parts of the 

Mitchell Plain (commonly considered to be 

the western portions of the Norman Upland, 

but included here as part of the Mitchell Plain). 

Evidence for the three erosional-depositional 

surfaces that have been developed across the 

landforms can be established from (regional) 

cross sections (see Figures 9 and 10). Tracing 

the surfaces is difficult, as later dissection has 

unevenly lowered much of the landscape. 

The different erosion-depositional surfaces 

include: (1) the upper Mitchell Plain surface, best 

preserved on the gently-sloping upper surfaces of 

the residuum and unconsolidated sediment, but 

also represented by the highest divides between 

sinkholes in the sinkhole plain and by relatively 

flat ridge tops in the dissected region; (2) the 

lower Mitchell Plain surface, which represents the 

lower limit of unconsolidated cover, preserved 

as low-elevation saddles between sinkholes on 

the sinkhole plain, and (3) the Blue River Strath 

(Powell, 1964) which is represented by karsted 

valleys heading in the sinkhole plain. A slight 

break in slope between the Blue River Strath 

and the sinkhole plain proper suggests that 

the Blue River Strath is actually a later surface 

entrenched below the Mitchell Plain. Although 

drainage is predominantly in the direction of 

the (westerly) dip, the different surfaces transect 

the geologic structure. The upper Mitchell Plain 

surface is formed on the varied lithologies of the 

Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, Salem, Harrodsburg, 

and Borden units. 

Because erosion, solution, and deposition 

were all active during their formation, the 

surfaces can best be described as “base-leveled 

surfaces.” A more detailed discussion of the 

geomorphic history of the Mitchell Plain can 

be found in Palmer and Palmer (1975). The 

long periods of rather static base level necessary

to produce such continuous surfaces are quite 

different from Pleistocene conditions of rapid 

base level changes. Based on this interpretation 

The Mitchell Plain 

and on the generally accepted history of the 

area, the major erosion-deposition surfaces are 

probably all Tertiary with karst features dating 

Figure 10. Regional landforms of the Crawford Upland, Mitchel Plain, and Norman Upland 

(modified from M. Palmer, 1976). 

3


from glacial events in the Pleistocene. Erosional 

history includes: (1) uplift and slow dissection 

of the region in the late Tertiary, with the 

formation of residuum down to the level of the 

lower Mitchell Plain surface; (2) a slight rise in 

base level with a halt at the level of the upper 

Mitchell Plain surface where weathering and 

erosion reduced most the Mitchell Plain to 

base level; and. (3) finally renewed dissection 

prior to Pleistocene glacial events. 

A study of the karst features showed them 

to be influenced by drainage from nonsoluble 

landforms (Palmer, 1969, p 30). A line of 

sinkholes can be seen that have been generated 

by a stream heading on the impermeable area 

of unconsolidated sediment to the east. Water 

draining from outliers of the Crawford Upland 

4 

Figure 11. Mitchel Plain cross sections from Figure 10 

(modified from M. Palmer, 1976). 

has also initiated sinkhole development. 

The largest remaining area of residuum and 

unconsolidated sediment on the Mitchell Plain 

is found in the Lost River area. Lost River, one of 

the few east to west flowing rivers, drains this area 

of unconsolidated material and sinks on contact 

with bedrock to the west in a series of classic 

swallow holes. Karst streams are continually 

transporting unconsolidated material so that the 

nonkarst area is gradually retreating. 

Limestone areas lacking sinkholes in the 

dissected area of the Mitchell Plain appear to 

be identical in terms of geology to the large 

sinkhole areas to the west: however, they 

are not bounded by insoluble areas. Caves 

underlying the sinkhole plain are fed by 

recharge from the sinkholes. A few sinkholes 

are abnormally deep 

and represent collapse 

sinkholes over active 

stream passages. 

If the sinkhole 

bottom elevations 

are contoured, 

linear areas of very 

low sinkholes stand 

out. These generally 

are over the active 

cave systems, and 

the “’lows” give an 

approximation of the 

cave potential in this 

type of setting in the 

southern Mitchell 

Plain. Only a few 

large caves have been 

discovered here. 

However, the large 

number of linear 

sinkhole trends 

which appear to be 

diagnostic of cave 

development indicate 

that the potential for 

cave exploration in 

the sinkhole plain has 

hardly been touched.

Stratigraphy and Lithology of the Ohio River Fringe and South- 

Central Indiana Karst-Bearing and Associated Chesterian Units 

By Michael C. Moore and various other Indiana Geological Survey workers and Kevin Strunk 

(edited and updated from the 1973 and 1992 NSS Convention Guidebooks). 

South-central Indiana is mostly within the 

Illinois Basin, a cratonic sag basin (Figure 7) 

which is centered in southern Illinois about 200 

miles west of Marengo. Figures 1, 2, 3, and 5 shows 

regional geology, bedrock outcrop patterns, and 

regional topography and physiography. The karst 

and associated areas are largely developed upon 

Mississippian-age limestone and clastic rocks 

(shales, siltstones, and sandstones) which contain 

numerous different environments of sedimentary 

rock deposition. 

Under the limestone interval are the 

Borden and earlier clastic rocks that are part of 

the Borden Delta which prograded westward 

during the Devonian and early Mississippian 

from the ancestral Appalachian Mountains as 

those early mountains were eroded following the 

Taconic and Acadian Orogenies. The orogenies 

(mountain building episodes) were major 

tectonics events related to the collision of the 

North American and African tectonic plates 

which began in the Devonian and culminated in 

the late Pennsylvanian to early Permian. Some of 

the sediments were also apparently derived from 

the Canadian Shield in the vicinity of modernday 

Ontario and Quebec, as well as from the 

New England states. The shedding and transport 

of vast quantities of sediments in westerly and 

southerly directions into the Illinois Basin was 

coupled with continental magnitude fluctuations 

in sea level. 

Following the end of the continental-scale 

erosional-depositional event which built the 

Borden Delta, the southern Indiana area went 

from being a deeper ocean area to a shallower subtropical 

continental sea. Water depth increased 

generally to the west into the heart of the Illinois 

Basin, with local and regional shelves and subbasins 

impacting local depositional patterns. The 

continuing Appalachian Orogeny transferred 

deep-seated tectonic forces into the Illinois Basin, 

and numerous smaller local and regional folds and 

faults influenced depositional patterns. In general, 

the limestones of the south-central Indiana 

karst area represent an east to west transition of 

basin-filling depositional environments. While 

sea level did fluctuate during Sanders and Blue 

River Group deposition (Valmeyeran), the basic 

Illinois Basin model is that of deeper and quieter 

water deposition giving way to shallower water 

and higher energy deposition as seen in the West 

Baden and Stephensport Group of the Chester 

Series. Eventually, the Illinois Basin was buried 

by marine, and ultimately, terrestrial (deltaic coal 

swamps) sediments during the Pennsylvanian. See 

Shaver, et al (1986) for more detailed discussions 

of all of the Indiana stratigraphic units. 

Caves in south-central Indiana are developed 

in a series of limestone formations of Middle 

and Late Mississippian age (Figure 3). They are, 

from the oldest to youngest: the Ramp Creek 

Limestone; the Harrodsburg Limestone; the 

Salem Limestone; the St. Louis Limestone; 

the Ste. Genevieve Limestone, with its three 

members the Fredonia, the Spar Mountain 

(Rosiclare), and the Levias; the Paoli Limestone; 

and the stratigraphically isolated limestones of 

Chesterian age the Beaver Bend, the Reelsville, 

the Beech Creek, the Haney, and the Glen Dean. 

The Chesterian limestones are separated by 

interbedded shales, siltstones, and sandstones. 

Sanders Group 

The Sanders Group was named by Smith 

(1965) to include the Harrodsburg and Salem 

limestones. The group was expanded by Nicoll 

and Rexroad (1975, pl 2, p 4), who raised the 

Ramp Creek Limestone Member (Muldraugh 

Formation) to formational rank and included 

it and the laterally equivalent Muldraugh 

Formation in the Sanders Group. The type 

locality is near Sanders in Monroe County, but a 

5


specific type section was not designated. 

The Sanders Group consists of a variety of 

carbonate rocks in complex facies relationships. 

The Ramp Creek and Muldraugh Formations at 

the base of the group are dominantly a mixture 

of fine-grained dolomite and of limestone that 

in places contains abundant echinodermal 

and bryozoan fragments. Cherty and siliceous 

intervals are common, and minor amounts 

of siltstone and shale are present. Above that 

interval in the Harrodsburg Limestone wellcemented 

bioclastic calcarenites and calcirudites 

are dominant over argillaceous limestone, 

dolosiltites, and shale. The abundance of geodes 

and chert decreases upward in the group. The 

Salem Limestone except for the Somerset Shale 

Member at its base is dominated by porous 

calcarenite, although it contains a wide variety of 

other kinds of limestone. 

The group crops out along the margin of the 

Illinois Basin in an irregular arc from Fountain 

County to southern Harrison County. It is 

present throughout the subsurface west and 

south of the outcrop belt. Along the central and 

southern parts of the belt the Sanders generally 

ranges between 120 and 150 feet in thickness, but 

it is thinner toward the north. It thickens abruptly 

off the margin of the Borden delta deposits 

(see “Borden Group”), principally because of 

thickening of the Muldraugh Formation within 

the resulting topographic basin, and it reaches 

a maximum thickness of about 510 feet (150 

meters) in the subsurface in Posey County in the 

extreme southwest toe of Indiana. 

The Sanders Group overlies rocks of the 

Borden Group with a depositional hiatus 

marked by a sharp lithologic break and in 

most places by a zone of glauconite at the top 

of the Borden. Throughout most of its extent 

it is overlain conformably by the St. Louis 

Limestone, although local hiatuses are possible. 

Along its northern margin, however, the group 

is truncated by pre-Pennsylvanian erosion and 

is unconformably overlain by the Mansfield 

Formation (Morrowan). The Sanders Group 

is middle Valmeyeran in age. The names Ramp 

Creek, Harrodsburg, and Salem are used in 

Illinois, although the first two are considered 

6 

to be members of the Ullin Formation and 

“Muldraugh” is considered to be a junior 

synonym of “Ramp Creek.” The units are not 

precisely isochronous throughout, however. 

In the Kentucky part of the Illinois Basin 

the name Salem is also used, but the Warsaw 

Limestone of Kentucky use approximates the 

Harrodsburg and all but the lower part of the 

Ramp Creek-Muldraugh section in Indiana. 

The latter two formations are equivalent to the 

Fort Payne Formation in adjacent Illinois and 

Kentucky. The oldest part of the Sanders Group 

is in the Gnathodus texanus-Taphrognathus 

Assemblage Zone (conodonts), and the rest 

is in the Taphrognathus varians-Apatognathus 

Assemblage Zone . 

The Ramp Creek, Harrodsburg, Salem, and 

St. Louis formations are part of a thick sequence 

of platform carbonate deposits that exemplify 

the style of deposition that occurred within the 

Illinois Basin during the Middle Mississippian 

(Valmeyeran). On the eastern margin of 

the basin, the Salem and other Valmeyeran 

rocks are exposed in a northwestward to 

south-southeastward-trending outcrop belt 

that extends from west-central Indiana into 

Kentucky. At the surface, the Salem ranges from 

60 to 90 feet thick and thickens considerably 

westward into the basin. Outcrop studies of the 

Salem in Indiana indicate that individual facies 

(distinguishable lithologic variations within 

a larger unit) within the formation define a 

shallowing-upward progradational sequence 

conformable (gradational) with the uppermost 

Harrodsburg and the basal St. Louis limestones. 

Upper shore-face facies of the Harrodsburg are 

overlain conformably by extensive cross-bedded 

fossiliferous grainstones deposited in a highenergy 

environment. Individual shoal deposits 

are separated by foraminifera-rich grainstones 

deposited in intershoal environment. Shoal and 

intershoal deposits constitute the majority of 

the Salem, and are the source of the commercial 

building stone. These deposits are overlain 

successively by sand flat, open lagoonal, and 

restricted lagoonal deposits. The basal St. Louis 

was deposited in an intertidal-flat environment 

that marks the termination of the shallowing-

upward sequence. [This model shows a dynamic 

near-shore environment similar to that which 

could be observed today in the Caribbean. 

(KS)] 

One myth which should be dispelled is 

that the Salem is oolitic which suggests that it 

is composed of small, well-rounded carbonate 

sand grains called oolites. While there is a small 

fraction of oolites in the many types of grains 

found in the Salem, the uniformly sized grains 

which impart the building stone qualities 

are actually mostly well cross bedded skeletal 

fragments and pelloids. (KS) 

On a regional scale, the deposition 

implications are important for understanding 

the Valmeyeran depositional paleogeography. 

Apparently, the uppermost Harrodsburg, the 

Salem, and the basal St. Louis are vertically and 

laterally gradational as indicated by conformable 

contacts between individual facies and by the 

overall continuity of depositional environments. 

The vertical succession of facies records the 

lateral migration of individual systems. The 

vertical superposition of deeper subtidal facies 

through upper intertidal to supratidal facies 

resulted from southwestward progradation 

of each environment toward the center of the 

Illinois Basin. With continued progradation, 

each facies migrated laterally and vertically 

with time. Deposits within the individual facies 

are oldest near the basin margin and become 

progressively younger westward into the center 

of the basin. Therefore, time lines cut across, and 

do not parallel, facies boundaries. It also appears 

that the Ramp Creek and the Harrodsburg may 

have been deposited contemporaneously. If 

the uppermost Harrodsburg, Salem, and basal 

St. Louis are indeed time transgressive, the 

Ramp Creek through basal St. Louis may have 

then been syndepositional throughout most 

of the middle Valmeyeran in the Illinois Basin. 

That is, the four formations are components 

within a single, large-scale shallowing-upward 

sequence. Each formation, therefore, reflects a 

different depositional environment rather than a 

significantly different geologic age. Recognition of 

the cross-cutting time lines using paleontologic 

data is needed to delineate the time transgressive 

Stratigraphy and Lithology 

depositional boundaries. (KS) 

Ramp Creek Limestone – The Ramp Creek 

limestone is the basal unit of the Sanders Group. 

It is a semi-transitional unit from the underlying 

clastic Borden Group to the overlying and more 

purely carbonate Harrodsburg Limestone. The 

Ramp Creek is typically 20 to 25 feet thick but 

varies from 16 to 34 feet. The unit generally 

consists of a coarse bioclastic calcarenite and 

calcirudite. Chert is common to abundant, and 

geodes are numerous, especially in dolomitic 

facies. The Borden contact is fairly abrupt and in 

many places is marked by a zone of glauconite at 

the top of the Borden that probably represents a 

brief hiatus in sedimentation. The Harrodsburg 

contact is conformable (Shaver, et al, 1986, pp 

121-122). [Cave formation in the Ramp Creek 

is not common as it is on the extreme featheredge 

of the limestone sequence, but examples include 

numerous caves in Owen and Morgan Counties 

in the northern Mitchell Plain (Strunk, 1980). 

Geode hunting is a fine activity best done in deep 

stream valleys of the Mitchell Plain, or in areas 

of the Norman Upland were the Ramp Creek 

(and Harrodsburg) has been eroded away leaving 

the resistant geodes as a lag deposit. Collectors 

are advised to shake and heft the geode to 

determine if it seems to be hollow prior to giving 

it a wallop with a hammer. Caution is advised 

when walloping as many nice geodes with fine 

quartz crystal and other mineralogy have been 

destroyed by a heavy hand. Geodes can be one 

inch to several feet in diameter. (KS)] 

Harrodsburg Limestone – The Harrodsburg 

Limestone is typically about 70 feet thick, and 

may be divided into three parts. The lower 1 to 

11 feet consists of light-colored to bluish-gray, 

coarse-grained, biofragmental, thick-bedded, 

ledge-forming limestone overlain by 1 to 10 feet 

of calcareous shale and siliceous shaley calcareous 

siltstone. The lower unit contains geodes similar 

to the Ramp Creek. These units are overlain by 

30 to 100 feet of light-colored, coarse-grained, 

crinoidal, biofragmental limestone that grades 

lithologically upward into the Salem Limestone 

(Shaver, et al, 1986, pp 57–58). The Harrodsburg 

is typified by geodes and hard, crystalline texture. 

Relatively few caves in the central Mitchell Plain 

7


are developed in the Harrodsburg due to its 

lithology and its position at the feather edge of 

the thick limestone section, but those caves that 

do form are among the more interesting, for 

example, Patton Cave and Wallier Cave. Other 

examples include numerous caves in Owen and 

Morgan counties in the northern Mitchell Plain 

(Strunk, 1980). 

Salem Limestone – The Salem Limestone, 

too, has three characteristic lithologies: (1) 

massive calcarenite, from which the nationally 

known dimension stone is quarried, that is gray 

to light gray, well sorted, medium or coarse 

grained, and porous; (2) calcarenites, not used 

for dimension stone purposes, that range widely 

in grain size, sorting, porosity, and bedding; and 

(3) impure carbonate rock containing varying 

quantities of quartz and other noncarbonate 

grains, carbonaceous material, and fossil debris 

(Shaver, et al, 1986, pp 132–133). 

The Salem has often been termed oolitic, 

but true oolites are rare and most of the small, 

rounded particles are fossil foraminifers, 

Endothyra baileyi pellets, or mechanically 

rounded fossil debris. Nevertheless, the massive, 

even-grained texture of the building stone facies 

is typical of the Salem. It contains few horizontal 

bedding planes, and solutionally widened vertical 

joints play a major role in karst development in 

terrains underlain by this formation. Near the 

top of the Salem in the Washington County area 

are several thin, fissile black shales which exert a 

hydrologic control far in excess of their relative 

proportion of the rock column. The longest 

caves in Indiana are formed in the Salem, notably 

Blue Spring, Binkley, Pless, Fredericksburg, 

Whistling, Donaldson (Shawnee), and Dog 

Hill–Donnehue. 

St. Louis Limestone – Two lithologic 

divisions may be made in the St. Louis Limestone. 

The lower part of the formation is a gray, tan, and 

brown microcrystalline, thin-bedded, dolomitic 

limestone that contains silt- to sand-size quartz 

grains and clay. Black, gray, and greenish shales 

are commonly intercalated. In the subsurface 

there are extensive deposits of gypsum and 

anhydrite which are mined near Shoals, Indiana, 

in two world-class size underground mines. The 

8 

upper St. Louis is coarser grained and contains 

fewer and thinner shales but has the same 

coloring and thin bedding as the lower part. 

Much light-gray or bluish-gray brittle chert in 

thin beds, small lenses, and especially in rounded 

nodules is characteristic. Pelletoidal limestone is 

common and resembles oolitic limestone in the 

overlying Ste. Genevieve Limestone. The corals 

Lithostrotion proliferum and Lithostrotionella 

castelnaui are guide fossils (Shaver, et al, 1986, 

pp.125-126). The St. Louis is probably more 

important as a host rock for caves than it would 

appear at first. Many caves in the Lost River 

region occur in the lower St. Louis. 

Blue River Group 

The Blue River Group was named in the 

Mississippian System by Gray, Jenkins, and 

Weidman (1960, p 48) for the Blue River in 

Washington, Harrison, and Crawford counties. 

Many excellent exposures (of nearly half the 

group in places) are in the valley walls of the 

Blue River from about 2.5 miles northeast of 

Fredericksburg, Washington County, to the 

Ohio River. The Blue River Group is formed 

largely of carbonate rocks but has significant 

amounts of gypsum, anhydrite, shale, chert, 

and calcareous sandstone. The three component 

formations of the group in ascending order 

are the St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, and Paoli 

limestones. In the subsurface of southwestern 

Indiana the group includes the St. Louis and Ste. 

Genevieve limestones and the Aux Vases and 

Renault formations. 

The Blue River Group crops out in an area 

extending from the Ohio River in Harrison 

County to Sugar Creek in northeaster Parke 

County and adjacent Montgomery County. 

The outcrop belt has approximately county 

width in Harrison County, narrows sharply 

northward in Orange and Lawrence counties, 

and gradually diminishes northward to 

its termination, where it is overlapped by 

Pennsylvanian rocks. The combined thickness 

of the constituent formations is 540 feet (165 

meters) in southern Crawford and Harrison 

Counties (Carr and others, 1978, p 12) about 

400 feet (122 meters) in northwestern Orange

County (Gray, Jenkins, and Weidman, 1960, 

p 48) and 240 feet (73 meters) in southern 

Monroe County (Malott, 1952, p 57). From 

well records the group is known to be 150 to 

170 feet (46 to 52 meters) thick in parts of 

Owen and Putnam Counties, and in other areas 

in the subsurface its thickness ranges from 625 

to 450 feet (99 to 137 meters) near the outcrop 

to a maximum of 650 feet (198 meters) in 

Posey County (Pinsak, 1957, pl 1). Oolitic 

limestones constitute 22% the Ste. Genevieve 

and Paoli limestones as seen in seven cores 

equally spaced along the length of outcrop in 

southern Indiana lying on the eastern edge of 

the Illinois Basin. Similar oolitic limestones are 

found in equivalent stratigraphic formations in 

Kentucky and Illinois. Isopach mapping and 

analysis of 889 crossbedding measurements 

in the Illinois Basin indicate that paleoslope 

during deposition of these oolitic limestones 

was to the southwest, as it was earlier during 

deposition of carbonate sands of the Salem 

Limestone and later during deposition of most 

of the late Paleozoic sands. 

The Blue River Group rests conformably 

on the Sanders Group and is overlain, generally 

conformably but with local disconformity, 

by rocks of the West Baden Group. North of 

Owen County the Mansfield Formation of 

Pennsylvanian age disconformably overlaps 

successively older Blue River rocks northward. 

The Blue River Group has no exact named 

equivalent in neighboring states, but it is 

equivalent to the section extending from the 

St. Louis Limestone through the Cedar Bluff 

Group of Illinois usage (Swann, 1963). It spans 

the Valmeyeran–Chesterian boundary as that 

boundary is generally recognized. The Blue River 

Group includes rocks that at different times 

were assigned to units with the now-obsolete 

names Mitchell Formation (Limestone, Group, 

of Hopkins and Siebenthal, 1897, pp 298–299; 

Elrod, 1899, p 259; Ashley and Kindle, 1903, p 73; 

Malott, 1919, pp 8–10, and 1921, p 365; Logan, 

1926, p 343) and Lower Kaskaskia Limestone 

(Kindle, 1896, pp 331–332). The upper 

boundary of the Mitchell in these older uses 

was as low as the top of the St. Louis Limestone 


(Fired, 1899, p 259) and as high as the top of the 

Beaver Bend Limestone (Malott, 1919, 1921; 

Logan, 1926). Because of these irregularities in 

earlier usage, Cumings (1922, p 507) and Perry 

and Smith (1958, p 19) recommended that the 

term Mitchell be abandoned, but it remained for 

Gray, Jenkins, and Weidman (1960) to describe 

and name the Blue River Group as an appropriate 

replacement term. 

Ste. Genevieve Limestone – The Ste. 

Genevieve Limestone, like the other Middle 

Mississippian formations, thickens from 45 to 

220 feet to the south and west and its outcrop 

belt becomes narrower to the north. Like the 

Harrodsburg and Salem, the Ste. Genevieve 

can be divided into three members. The lower 

member is the Fredonia, often called the 

Fredonia oolite for the characteristic lithology. It 

is light gray to gray, dense, medium grained, and 

generally thick bedded or massive. Large lensoid 

masses of nearly white oolite may be interbedded 

with dense, gray, thin-bedded limestone with 

sand-sized fossil debris (Shaver, et al, 1986, pp 

128–130. 

About 10 to 37 feet above the St. Louis–Ste. 

Genevieve contact is the prominent marker bed 

known as the Lost River Chert. The Lost River is 

a siliceous limestone to bedded chert up to 5 feet 

in thickness and is characterized by a high content 

of fossils, especially bryozoans and brachiopods. 

It is very prominent in the Lost River region but 

thins north of Lawrence County. It is a resistant 

unit and frequently supports waterfalls in caves 

as well as in surface streams. 

The Spar Mountain (Rosiclare) Member, the 

middle member of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone, 

is probably not exactly equivalent to the type 

Rosiclare of southern Illinois which is a true 

quartz calcareous sandstone averaging 30 feet 

thick. In Indiana the unit commonly consists of a 

few inches to a few feet (up to 40 feet) of coarsegrained, 

thin-bedded, silty or sandy limestone 

containing some shale. The Spar Mountain 

also consists of sandy, oolitic limestone; shale; 

or thin argillaceous sandstone and, in places, 

contains limestone conglomerate and breccia. In 

the Owen County vicinity (Cataract Falls), the 

Spar Mountain is commonly a medium-grained


calcareous quartz and chert sandstone that is 

markedly cross bedded, is in lenses of small areal 

extent, and is as much as 40 feet thick (Shaver, et 

al, 1986, p 129). 

The Levias Member is a gray to light-gray, 

thin- to medium-bedded limestone that is up 

to 60 feet thick in outcrop. Much of it is dense 

and calcarenitic but thin beds of lithographic 

limestone are commonly found separated by 

thin shales. Argillaceous dolomite beds are not 

uncommon. The uppermost part of the member 

commonly consists of a limestone breccia called 

the Bryantsville Breccia Bed, but there are other 

thinner, less persistent breccias. 

The Ste. Genevieve Limestone probably 

contains the greatest number of large caves of 

any rock body in Indiana. Its vertical variations in 

lithology show up again and again as variations 

in passage size, shape, and orientation. It is 

overlain and underlain by formations particularly 

conducive to the localization of caverns and, 

as a part of the greatest continuous section of 

carbonate rocks exposed in the state, it is involved 

in almost all of the deeper pit caves. Many of the 

largest caves in the Crawford Upland are partially 

or totally developed in the Ste. Genevieve. In 

particular Wyandotte, Sullivan, Blair, Buckner, 

and Wayne caves, as well as many of the caves 

and features in the Lost River area. The unit is 

extensively quarried for crushed stone aggregates, 

and is a prolific Illinois Basin oil producer. The 

Ste. Genevieve grades conformably into the Paoli 

Limestone. 

Paoli Limestone – Much of the Paoli 

Limestone is characterized by four principal 

lithologies, in ascending order: (1) gray to 

light-gray, dense, thin- to thick-bedded, skeletal 

or oolitic limestone; (2) gray or greenish-gray 

calcareous shale in the middle of the formation 

called the middle shale break; (3) gray to 

greenish-gray, dense to lithographic limestones, 

that tend to be thinner bedded and less pure than 

the limestone above the shale break and that in 

places are replaced by calcareous shale that grades 

upward through argillaceous limestone into 

the middle shale break; and (4) gray calcareous 

sandstones, dark shales, and impure limestone 

which at times have been called the Popcorn 

100 

Member at the outcrop and the Aux Vases in 

the subsurface (Shaver, et al, 1986, p 6 and p 

108). The Paoli averages about 20 to 35 feet in 

thickness, but reaches as much as 40 feet on the 

outcrop (for example at the Orleans Quarry) 

At the top of a thick limestone sequence and 

beneath the impermeable shales and insoluble 

sandstones of the Bethel and other Chesterian 

formations, the Paoli is often involved in cave 

formation. Upper levels of the ridge caves 

mentioned under the discussion of the Ste. 

Genevieve, above, are frequently formed in the 

Paoli, as are prominent hillside sinks and the 

tops of many pits. Of exceptional importance are 

the calcareous shales and argillaceous limestones 

of the middle shale break and the Aux Vases. 

Extensive passage development has occurred in 

these easily eroded, soluble rocks to form major 

portions of Wildcat, Joy, Connerly, Sullivan, 

Batey, and Popcorn Spring caves. 

The Chesterian Series: West Baden, Stephensport, 

and Buffalo Wallow Groups 

The Chesterian Series consist in ascending 

order of the West Baden, Stephensport, and 

Buffalo Wallow groups. They all consist of 

thinner, interbedded sandstone, shales, and 

limestones, with some thin coals. Rocks that 

are now considered to belong to the Chesterian 

Series in Indiana previously went by a variety 

of names, most of which originated elsewhere. 

Among these names are Ferruginous Sandstone, 

Kaskaskia Limestone, Archimedes Limestone, 

Pentremital Limestone, and Chester Limestone, 

most of which were originally used in early 

reports on the geology of the region surrounding 

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and Chester, Illinois. 

Hopkins (1902, 1904) first applied an 

indigenous name to these rocks in Indiana. He 

included in his Huron Group, named for a village 

in southwestern Lawrence County, all rocks 

from the top of the Mitchell Limestone (see the 

discussion under “Blue River Group”) to the base 

of the Mansfield Formation. The name Huron was 

used for a time, but it was preoccupied, and when 

equivalence to the Chester Group of southern 

Illinois became clear, Greene (1911, p 269) 

suggested that the name Chester be substituted.

He then casually and without explanation used 

the name Solsberry Formation for these rocks 

(Greene, 1911, p 275, 281). 

As the term Chester came into common 

use and formational names became accepted, 

subdivision of the series into groups became 

possible. These subdivisions were called “lower,” 

“middle,” and “upper Chester” (Cumings, 1922, 

pp 408, 515) and were used as groups, sometimes 

with capital letters, but were commonly not 

expressly called groups. “Chester” became 

“Chesterian,” a time and time-rock name that is 

appropriately designated a series or epoch but 

that is inappropriate as a group name; principally 

for this reason Gray, Jenkins, and Weidman 

(1960, p 44) adapted two group names earlier 

suggested by Cumings (1922, p 514), West 

Baden and Stephensport, to replace with some 

modification the former usage, lower and middle 

Chester. The Kentucky name Buffalo Wallow 

was adopted by Gray (1978) in a group sense and 

in somewhat modified scope for outcropping 

upper Chesterian rocks. 

West Baden Group 

The name West Baden was originally 

proposed as a group name in 1920 by E.R. 

Cumings in a letter to Stuart Weller (Cumings, 

1922, p 514). The term received no subsequent 

use, however, until it was revived in a slightly 

modified sense by Gray, Jenkins, and Weidman 

(1960, pp 44–48). The group is named for 

West Baden, Orange County, and consists in 

descending order of the Elwren Formation 

(the Cypress Formation in the subsurface), the 

Reelsville Limestone, the Sample Formation, 

the Beaver Bend Limestone, and the Bethel 

Formation. It consists dominantly of gray to 

varicolored shale and mudstone and thinbedded 

to cross-bedded sandstone. Limestone 

in beds of variable thickness is an important but 

lesser constituent (Gray, 1962, table 2 and fig. 4). 

Total thickness along the outcrop ranges from 

100 to 140 feet (30 to 43 meters). Known on 

the surface from Putnam County southward to 

the Ohio River, the West Baden Group is also 

recognized in the subsurface from Parke County 

southwestward. Maximum reported subsurface 


thickness is 260 feet (80 meters) in western 

Gibson County (Sullivan, 1972, p 11 and pl 3). 

A major feature of the West Baden Group is 

a southwestward-trending belt about 6 miles (10 

kilometers) wide across which the limestones 

were not deposited and in which sandstone 

dominates the entire thickness of the group. 

The West Baden overlies the Blue River Group 

(Valmeyeran and Chesterian) conformably 

except at a few localities along the clastic belt 

where basal sandstone of the West Baden 

Group lies disconformably as deep as 50 feet (15 

meters) below the normal position of the top 

of the Blue River Group (Malott, 1952, p 49). 

The West Baden Group is overlain conformably 

by the Stephensport Group (Chesterian) or 

disconformably by the Mansfield Formation 

(Morrowan). 

The West Baden Group correlates with rocks 

within the lower part of the North American 

foraminiferal Zone 16s of Mamet and Skipp 

(1971) and within the Visean Series (V3cs) of 

European usage. On the basis of its conodont 

faunas, the West Baden was assigned to the upper 

part of the Gnathodus bilineatus-Cavusgnathus 

charactus Assemblage Zone of standard North 

American usage by Collinson, Rexroad, and 

Thompson (1971). 

Bethel Formation and Beaver Bend 

Limestone – The Crawford Upland is developed 

upon resistant and interbedded limestones, 

sandstone, and shales of the West Baden Group 

of the Chester Series (Shaver, et al, 1986 pp 

43–44 and p 167). The West Baden Group 

is generally 100 to 140 feet thick, but is up to 

200 feet thick in the clastic belt area. The Paoli 

Limestone is directly overlain by 10 to 42 feet of 

Bethel Formation (Shaver, et al, 1986, pp 12–13) 

that includes gray, clayey shales; wavy bedded, 

fine-grained sandstones; and a few thin beds of 

coal. The Bethel is the first major non-carbonate 

rock unit in the Chester Series of south-central 

Indiana. It underlies the Beaver Bend Limestone 

which ranges in thickness from less than 1 foot 

to as much as 14 feet. It is a coarsely crystalline 

to oolitic, reddish to gray limestone. Cave 

development in the thin Beaver Bend Limestone 

has traditionally been thought to be of minor 

101


importance, but where the Bethel Formation is 

thin, large cave passages may have their ceilings in 

the Beaver Bend (for example, Wildcat, Sexton 

Spring, Quimby, and Stephen Quarry Caves). 

Sample Formation, Reelsville Limestone, 

Elwren Formation – The Sample Formation 

in Indiana contains 24 to 42 feet of varicolored 

shale and thin-bedded, cross-bedded sandstone. 

Shales dominate north of Orange County but 

sandstones become more conspicuous southward 

to the Ohio River (Shaver, et al, 1986 p 136). The 

Sample is overlain by gray, somewhat ferruginous, 

biomicritic limestone of the Reelsville. The 

Reelsville Limestone may be as much as 10 feet 

thick, but is missing in many places due to nondeposition 

(Shaver, et al, 1986, p 122). In some 

instances the limestone may have been removed 

by solution. It is not important as a cave-bearing 

unit. The Reelsville is overlain by the Elwren 

(Cypress) Formation which includes thinbedded 

fine-grained sandstone, cross bedded 

sandstone, and green-gray and red-brown shale 

and mudstone and ranges from 20 to 60 feet in 

thickness (Shaver, et al, 1986, pp 43–44). The 

Elwren is called the Cypress in the subsurface by 

the oil and gas industry and along with the Ste. 

Genevieve is one of the most prolific oil and gas 

producers in the Illinois Basin. 

Stephensport Group 

The name Stephensport, though having 

some earlier mention (see Swann, 1963, p 83), 

was formally proposed in a group sense by 

Gray, Jenkins, and Weidman (1960, p 37), who 

redefined it to consist in descending order of 

the Glen Dean Limestone, the Hardinsburg 

Formation, the Golconda (now Haney) 

Limestone, the Big Clifty Formation, and the 

Beech Creek Limestone. The group, named for 

Stephensport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, 

consists of about equal parts of limestone, shale, 

and cliff-forming sandstone (Gray, 1962, table 2 

and fig. 4). 

The total thickness of the Stephensport 

Group is 130 to 230 feet (40 to 70 meters). 

The Stephensport conformably overlies the 

West Baden Group (Chesterian) and is overlain 

conformably by the Buffalo Wallow Group 

102 

(Chesterian) or disconformably by the Mansfield 

Formation (Morrowan). It is recognized on the 

outcrop from central Owen County southward 

to the Ohio River. In the subsurface it extends 

from Clay County southwestward . 

The Stephensport Group is exactly correlative 

with the Okaw Group of southwestern Illinois 

(Swann, 1963, p 53) but is distinct in usage by 

including prominent clastic formations the 

Okaw is dominantly limestone (Swann, 1963, pp 

45–46). On the basis of their conodont faunas, 

formations of the group represent the Gnathodus 

bilineatus-Cavusgnathus altus and Gnathodus 

bilineatus-Kladognathus mehli Assemblage 

Zones of the North American standard 

(Collinson, Rexroad, and Thompson, 1971). The 

group spans the Visean-Namurian boundary of 

European usage and correlates with rocks within 

North American foraminiferal Zones 16s and 17 

of Mamet and Skipp (1971). 

Beech Creek Limestone – The Beech 

Creek Limestone of the Stephensport Group 

is the most speleologically important unit of 

the Chester Series. It ranges in thickness from 

8 to 33 feet and can be divided lithologically 

into three members (Shaver, et al, 1986, p 11). 

The lowermost member is a dark gray to gray, 

sparry, biomicritic limestone which sometimes 

is oolitic. It is 0 to 12 feet thick on the outcrop. 

The middle member is a massive, cross-bedded 

biocalcarenite. The upper member is thinnerbedded 

and in places is laminated although it is 

cross-bedded near the top. The Beech Creek is 

characterized by the presence of countless crinoid 

columnals as much as 25 millimeters in diameter. 

It also has abundant brachiopods and bryozoans. 

Many areas of subterranean drainage have 

formed in the Beech Creek in the western part of 

the Crawford Upland, and caves including twomile 

long Jim Rays Cave (the type section) are 

typical. [Because the Beech Creek outcrop is in 

the rugged Crawford Upland several miles west 

of the Mitchell Plain with its larger and more 

obvious karst, the Beech Creek outcrop has not 

been systematically hill hopped for caves. The 

known caves such as Jim Rays Cave in Greene 

County are typically large (walking) spring caves 

1,000 feet to 2 miles long. The Beech Creek

outcrop is an overlooked and deserving Indiana 

cave area. The Beech Creek is called the Barlow in 

the subsurface by the oil and gas industry where 

it is used as a major structural marker bed. The 

Indiana Geological Survey distributes a series of 

oil field maps with the elevation of the base of the 

Barlow indicated. Numerous Cypress oil fields 

have been found by mapping the Barlow base. 

(KS)] 

Glen Dean Limestone – The only other 

important cave-bearing limestone in the 

Stephensport Group of the Chester Series of 

Indiana is the Glen Dean, a 20- to 40-foot-thick, 

thick-bedded, micritic to biomicritic limestone 

(Shaver, et al, 1986, pp 52–53). Vowell Cave is 

developed in this unit. The Haney Limestone, 

though often more than 20 feet thick, contains 

shaley partings which may prevent extensive 

development of subterranean drainage. 

Buffalo Wallow Group 

The Buffalo Wallow Formation was named 

by Butts (1917, pp 112–117), who included 

in it all Chesterian rocks above the Tar Springs 

Sandstone. In a modified sense, the term has 

had extensive use in mapping in Kentucky 

(for example, Amos, 1970; Bergendahl, 1965; 

Clark and Crittenden, 1965; Crittenden and 

Hose, 1965). The formation is primarily shale, 

mudstone, and siltstone, but it also includes thin 

beds of limestone and sandstone. At the type 

locality near Cloverport, Kentucky, on the Ohio 

River, the formation is 265 feet thick (Malott, 

1925, p 116). 

About 85 years ago the name Buffalo Wallow 

Formation was also applied in Indiana (Malott 

and Thompson, 1920: Cumings, 1922, p 518). 

The term was not, however, adopted by Malott 

(1925) in his seminal study of upper Chesterian 

rocks. He was concerned with subdividing 

the upper Chesterian and apparently did not 

perceive a need for a group term. At group rank 

and in a somewhat expanded sense, the name 

was adopted by Gray (1978) to include all 

outcropping Mississippian rocks above the Glen 

Dean Limestone. This usage differs from that in 

Kentucky in rank assignment and by including 

the Tar Springs Formation in the group, but it 


“expresses well the lithologic unity of the upper 

Chesterian and it retains an old and established 

name” (Gray, 1978, p 5). 

As originally defined for Indiana usage, 

the term Buffalo Wallow Group was not 

extended into the subsurface (Gray, 1978), 

but it is now finding application there in a 

substantially identical sense—that is, to include 

all Mississippian rocks above the Glen Dean 

Limestone. In surface usage the three formations 

of the group in ascending order are the Tar 

Springs, Branchville, and Tobinsport formations. 

In the subsurface the component formations 

are the Tar Springs Formation, the Vienna 

Limestone, the Waltersburg Sandstone, the 

Menard Limestone, the Palestine Sandstone, 

the Clore Limestone, the Degonia Sandstone, 

the Kinkaid Limestone, and the Grove Church 

Shale. 

The Buffalo Wallow Group is dominantly 

shale, mudstone, and siltstone, but it also contains 

prominent beds of sandstone and limestone, 

some of which are laterally extensive. The group 

exhibits its maximum surface thickness of about 

270 feet (82 meters) near Tobinsport on the Ohio 

River. In the subsurface its maximum thickness is 

about 750 feet (200 meters) in Posey County. It 

thins progressively and is truncated northward 

as a result of pre-Pennsylvanian erosion, so that 

in the subsurface its northern margin crosses 

southwestern Sullivan County, Daviess County, 

and northeastern Dubois County. Along 

the outcrop it reaches no farther north than 

southwestern Orange County. 

Rocks now assigned to the Buffalo Wallow 

Group were found by Collinson, Rexroad, and 

Thompson (1971) to span three conodont zones 

of North American standard usage: in descending 

order they are the Kladognathus-Cavusgnathus 

naviculus Assemblage Zone, the KIadognathus 

primus Assemblage Zone, and the upper part of 

the Gnathodus bilineatus-Kladognathus mehli 

Assemblage Zone. The group equates with rocks 

within North American foraminiferal Zones 17 

and 18 of Mamet and Skipp (1971) and with 

part of the Namurian Series (Zones E1 and E2) 

of European usage. 

103

Stop 1 

The Crawford County Fairgrounds is 

on top of the Crawford Upland, a loess 

and sandstone-capped, dissected plateau and 

regional erosional feature with up to 400 feet 

of relief. Collett (1878) gave the first geologic 

account of Harrison and Crawford counties, 

noting many caves and springs. It is a report 

still useful today because of the quality of the 

field work. The campground is on top of the 

regional drainage divide at about 830 feet 

in elevation, which seems to be the top of a 

prominent erosional surface sometimes called 

the Highland Rim or Lexington Peneplain. 

Loess is a fine-grained wind blown (aeolian) 

dust that is typically derived from glacial 

meltwater outwash. The Ohio River, just a 

few miles to the south, was a major glacial 

104 

2007 NSS Geology Field Trip 

Written by Kevin Strunk unless otherwise noted. 

meltwater sluiceway. See Figure 12 for regional 

geology and tour stop locations. See Figure 13 

for a topographic map of the Stop 1 area. 

Within the Crawford Upland, the limestones 

exposed in the Mitchell Plain to the east and 

up dip, are protected by a veneer of westwarddipping 

interbedded sandstones, limestones, and 

shales of the lower Chester Group. At and near 

the campground, these are the Stephensport 

Group strata. Regional lithologically-controlled 

erosion with local structural overprints has 

resulted in the development of a picturesque 

upland topography. Wyandotte and other 

large caves are within this area. The eastern 

edge of the Upland is the Chester Escarpment, 

a prominent erosional, structural, and 

topographical transition from the sandstonecapped 

upland to the carbonate-floored and 

Figure 12. Location of Geology trip stops 1 through 5 on the regional geologic base map 

(modified from Camp and Richardson, 1999).

Geology Field Trip 

Figure 13. Stop 1 at the NSS Campground and Pilot Knob are located on top of the Crawford Upland. 

heavily-karsted Mitchell Plain. Classic karst 

features are associated with subsurface drainage 

of the sinkhole plain and the uplands under the 

control of massive regional down cutting of the 

base level Blue River and Ohio River. 

Travel to Stop 2 

We will go south on State Road 66 about 

12 miles to Tower Quarry and travel past 

Pilot Knob. Driving past Pilot Knob, we will 

come to the intersection of State Road 66 and 

Interstate 64 at the cross roads called Carefree 

after about 10 miles. We will turn east onto 

Tower Road and proceed about 2 miles 

to Tower Quarry owned by Mulzer Stone 

Company. 

105


Pilot Knob is the highest elevation in 

Crawford County at about 930 feet and rises about 

100 feet above the surrounding plateau, which 

then gives way to deeply incised valleys draining 

to the Ohio River (Figure 13). The Knob is a 

towering erosional remnant and topographical 

feature capped by likely the eastern-most outcrop 

of by the lower-most Pennsylvanian sandstone, 

the Mansfield Sandstone. Pilot Knob is almost 

really a “butte” and is visible for miles around. 

The top of the Mississippian-age Chester Series 

is a major unconformity, and the Pennsylvanianaged 

Mansfield rests unconformably on many 

different Mississippian-aged units regionally. 

According to Malott (pp 242–243, 1950) 

the Mansfield at the top of the Knob covers a 

width of about 100 yards and has a thickness of 

about 25 feet. The Mansfield overlies a shaley 

The Crawford Upland, located in southcentral 

Indiana, is underlain primarily by 

clastic sedimentary rocks with a general west to 

east increase in the areal percentage of exposed 

carbonates. Associated with spatial trends in 

bedrock lithology are changes in landform 

morphology and landform assemblages. These 

changes have been quantified using principal 

components analysis on data measured from 

United States Geological Survey 7.5-minute 

topographic maps for 105 small (

This five-stage model may have implications 

about the geomorphic development of the 

adjacent Mitchell Plain, in that its present 

low relief might be due to the lack of basin 


rejuvenation and extensive erosion of interfluve 

areas by fluvial and karst processes during static 

base level (valley floor) conditions which have 

existed throughout the Pleistocene. 

Figure 14. Tower Quarry is located within the Crawford Upland with the quarried limestones 

exposed along Dry Run and its tributaries. Wyandotte Cave is located just to the east. 

107


Figure 15. Stratigraphy of the Crawford Upland at Tower Quarry and vicinity 

from quarry and regional data ( from Mulzer, Stone, and IGS). 

Stop 2: Tower Quarry 

Tower Quarry (Figure 14) has excellent 

exposures of the lower Chester Series 

sandstones and limestones and also two of 

the main cave bearing units, the Paoli and 

Ste. Genevieve limestones of the Blue River 

Group. We will see an approximately 120foot-tall 

highwall (Figure 15) in a quick stop 

which will begin our exploration of the Indiana 

stratigraphic column from the Chester Series 

in the west to Devonian limestones to the far 

east. We will visually examine only those rocks 

exposed in the northwest and north walls of 

108 

the quarry. The Ste. 

Genevieve and Paoli 

are used as crushed 

stone. The quarry 

was developed in the 

early 1970s during 

the construction of 

Interstate 64. It has 

been owned and 

operated by Mulzer 

Crushed Stone since 

about 1984. 

The stratigraphy 

of the quarry highwall 

and surrounding 

hillside is shown 

in Figure 15 & 16. 

The Tower quarry 

has about 120 feet 

of section exposed, 

including the bottom 

of the Sample, the 

entire Beaver Bend, 

Bethel and Paoli, and 

the upper and middle 

Ste. Genevieve. Other 

rocks and residual 

soils are above the 

highwall for at least 

30 feet. The Tower 

Quarry is on the 

edge of Dry Run, an 

incised Blue River/ 

Ohio River tributary. 

The quarry allows us 

to see the inside of the Crawford Upland in the 

heart of the karst. Wyandotte Cave is about 

3 miles cross-country to the east in the exact 

same interval seen at Tower Quarry. 

Travel to Stop 3: Horseshoe Bend Vista 

We will return along Tower Road to 

Carefree to travel south on State Road 66 

about 6 miles to scenic Leavenworth and then 

about 6 miles east along the Ohio River scenic 

overlook route to Wyandotte Cave, quickly 

stopping at the regionally famous Overlook 

Restaurant scenic vista. Positioned uniquely

Figure 16. The Tower Quarry highwall. Photo by Strunk, March 1, 2007. 


Figure 17. Idealized block diagram showing some karst features of the Crawford Upland (on left) and the 

Mitchell Plain (block is about two miles long) ( from Powell, 1961). 

109


on a bluff, the Overlook Restaurant offers a 

20-mile panoramic vista of the Ohio River and 

Horseshoe Bend. During the Great 1937 Flood, 

“Old Leavenworth,” which was then on the 

Ohio River floodplain, was washed away. This 

caused the townsfolk to move up on the bluff. 

110 

The Overlook opened its doors in 1948. See 

Figure 18. 

Traveling east on State Road 62 from 

Leavenworth, we will travel along and then 

descend into the Blue River valley just 

upstream of it’s confluence with the Ohio 

Figure 18. The Overlook Restaurant pull-off has a spectacular view of the Ohio River and Horseshoe Bend 

on the way to Wyandotte Cave. The confluence of Blue River is deeply entrenched into the Crawford Upland.

River. Note that the valley is filled with glacial 

outwash and other river-related sediments, 

and the Blue River gorge was once much 

deeper. We will then go along the north valley 

wall to the Wyandotte Cave parking lot just 

after passing Greenbriar Knob. This is one of 


the most heavily dissected and karsted areas 

in Indiana. See Figure 19. 

Stop 3: Wyandotte Caves 

U.S. National Landmark 

Wyandotte Cave is perhaps Indiana’s most 

Figure 19. Wyandotte Cave and many other local caves are developed along the deeply entrenched 

Blue River in one of the most heavily karsted and dissected areas of Indiana. 

111


Avenue. Please do not 

wander away. This may 

be a place for a quick 

rest break. 

The following text 

for the Wyandotte 

area comes from 

the National Park 

Service Web site and 

many local geological 

reports, especially 

those written by 

Richard L. Powell 

and Don Ash (see 

also the Frushour 

article “The Geology 

of Wyandotte Cave” 

on page 186). See 

Figure 20 for an older 

map of the cave on 

a topographic base 

along with a geologic 

cross-section of the 

cave relating passages 

to stratigraphy. 

The Wyandotte 

Caves have been 

known for over 4,000 

years as evidenced by 

a rich archeological 

history. Commercial 

tour operations began 

in 1851, following the 

significant discovery 

Figure 20. Older topographic overlay of Wyandotte Cave passages and various 

cross sections through the cave (modified from Powell, 1967). 

of a new section of 

cavern. Guided tours 

were offered by the 

Rothrock family for 

115 years. Following 

the sale of the caves 

famous cave with a combination of history, geology, to the Indiana Department of Natural 

exploration challenges, and management issues Resources in 1966, the Division of Forestry 

making for a unique spot in Indiana speleology. continued to offer tours through May 23, 2002. 

We will spend One hour walking down to the State budget cuts forced the Department of 

Historic Entrance where we will review local Natural Resources to seek a private operator for 

geology and meet a tour guide who will give us tours in 2002. Wyandotte Caves, LLC, formed by 

a quick overview and a brief tour of Washington NSS member and Marengo Cave owner Gordon 

112

Smith and Tim Grisson of Ohio Caverns, began 

operation of tours on May 24th, 2002. 

Cave formation in the Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone may have begun at least two million 

years ago, but more recent regional Pleistocene 

glacially-related downcutting was the key. While 

the area including the cave remained unglaciated, 

the advance and retreat of multiple ice sheets 

to the north and thus the effects of glaciation 

indirectly affected the cavern. As the Ohio River 

deepened its channel in response to high volumes 

of melt water discharge, its tributary, Blue River, 

also deepened its channel. At least one glacial 

advance fed meltwater down the Blue River from 

the far northeast in the Norman Upland across 

the Mitchell Plain. Overall regional downcutting 

caused the Blue River to drop in response, resulting 

in the development of lower levels in the cave 

system, at least partially via stream piracy of the 

Blue River. Later damming and back flooding of 

Blue River by glacial outwash sediments resulted 

in the sedimentation of lower portions of the cave. 

There appear to be at least three levels to the cave. 

The upper “Old Cave” level appears to be at grade 

with the Blue River Strath. The “New Discovery” 

level is at grade with the glacial lake deposits along 

the river terraces and has thick lake clay sediments. 

A third level is that associated with the Easter Pit 

discovery of the 1980s, a major extension of the 

cave recounted elsewhere in the guidebook. See 

Richard Powell’s 1963 article included in this 

chapter, along with the abstract of the later work 

by Pease and Gomez. 

The historic cave is distinguished from other 

Indiana caves by its large passageways and rooms. 

These have resulted from the process of limestone 


dissolution and ceiling collapse. Speleothems 

decorate portions of the cavern, including the 

1,300-foot section known as the Garden of 

Helictites, one of the largest displays of such 

formations in the world. American Indians used 

the historic cave as a source for flint for tools and 

other minerals over a period of two thousand 

years. Wyandotte’s flint was traded throughout 

the region. Early explorers of the cave found the 

remains of bark torches throughout the cave as 

well as evidence of mining activities. 

The first Euro-American visit to Wyandotte 

Cave remains unknown. The vast quantities 

of Epsom salts in the cave were described in 

1818 along with saltpeter and other features. 

Like Mammoth Cave, Wyandotte was initially 

well known for its mineral resources, especially 

saltpeter. In 1819, a Pennsylvania pioneer 

named Peter Rothrock purchased a large tract 

of land including the caves from the federal 

government for $1.25 per acre. Rothrock 

purchased the land for its timber and operated 

a sawmill on nearby Blue River. The cave 

was initially a nuisance; in 1843 the Indiana 

Legislature required him to gate the cave 

entrance to prevent cattle from licking Epsom 

salt crystals in the entrance area. The discovery 

of a large new section of cavern in 1850 led 

Rothrock to begin charging for tours in 1851, a 

business the family continued until 1966 when 

they sold the caves, along with 1,174 acres, to 

the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. 

An offshoot of local research has been an 

examination of the sediments found within 

Wyandotte Cave and their relation to dating of 

the cave as studied by Pease and Gomez (1997). 

Landscape Development as Indicated by Basin Morphology and the Magnetic 

Polarity of Cave Sediments, Crawford Upland, South-Central Indiana 

Paleomagnetic dates of sediment deposits in 

the Marengo Cave system and four caves 

in Wyandotte Ridge have been combined with 

the morphometric analysis of surface drainage 

basins in their vicinity to elucidate the timing 

and significance of geomorphic events affecting 

By Patrick Pease and Basil Gomez (Abstract) 

karst landscape development in the southern 

portion of the Crawford Upland in Crawford 

County, Indiana. Wyandotte Cave exhibits 

two distinct levels separated by a 24-meter 

vertical gap. It is located near the Ohio River, 

which acts as the local and regional control on 

113


base level. The magnetostratigraphy suggests 

that the upper level of Wyandotte Cave was 

abandoned in the early to middle Pleistocene, 

following a drop in the regional base level 

that occurred no later than 0.78 Ma ago and 

accompanied the expansion of the Ohio River 

drainage system. Commensurate with the time 

taken for the effects of a drop in base level to 

propagate up-basin, it is likely the upper level 

in Marengo Cave was abandoned after the 

upper level in Wyandotte Cave was vacated 

(that is, < 0.78 Ma ago). The smaller (7-meter) 

separation between the upper and lower levels 

in Marengo Cave reflects the diminished 

influence that a drop in base level commonly 

has in locales relatively far removed from a 

The erosional history of Blue River is the 

key to understanding the history of cavern 

development in the Harrison Crawford State 

Forest area. The topography and caverns have 

developed contemporaneously as Blue River 

has established new and deeper channels in 

progressive stages. Perhaps as many as five 

stages will eventually be recognized and proved 

to exist along Blue River, and each stage may 

be reflected in cavern development in adjacent 

tributary areas. 

The earliest stage to be recognized is the late 

Tertiary peneplain. This erosion surface can be 

visualized by looking out from one of several 

high vantage points in the area, principally 

the Overlook at Leavenworth, the cemetery 

south of Frenchtown, along the ridge road 

south-west of Corydon, and in the vicinity 

of Pilot Knob near Corydon. Peneplains 

have long been a misunderstood feature. The 

concept of a peneplain intended here is that of 

a gently sloping land surface with slight relief 

in respect to a large area. Streams upon this 

surface meandered slowly in a southwesterly 

direction, separated from each other by low, 

rolling ridges. Small hills may have risen sharply 

from the plain in some places. By no means is it 

114 

Erosional History of Blue River 

basin outlet. Greater stability of the landscape 

in the vicinity of Marengo Cave implies that 

there the subsurface and surface landforms are 

more mature than caves and drainage basins 

in close proximity to the Ohio River. Stability 

also facilitates the development of an extensive, 

integrated drainage system in basins buffered 

by distance from the full impact of base level 

lowering. In these basins, a further drop in base 

level will likely be absorbed by the subsurface 

portion of the drainage network. Therefore, in 

the Crawford Upland, evolution toward a karst 

plain will progress more rapidly in tributary 

drainage basins that are relatively far removed 

from the Ohio River. (See Figures 17 & 20.) 

By Richard L. Powell, BIG Newsletter, Vol 5 No. 2, August 1963 

inferred that this surface was flat. [Note KLS: 

many geomorphic workers discount the notion 

of the peneplain, but it does seem to have some 

context on a regional scale to explain similar 

surfaces which appear to correlate. Many 

workers promote pedimentation, but can a 

regional scale feature be called a pediment? 

(See the Lost River discussion of localized 

pedimentation.) 

Eventually this peneplain or erosion surface 

was uplifted with respect to sea level or base 

level (the level to which streams will erode their 

channels). The meandering streams began to 

deepen their channels, first in the downstream 

portions, and eventually eroded headward into 

the area of the present Crawford Upland and 

Mitchell Plain. Blue River, Indian Creek, Buck 

Creek, and an ancestral Ohio River, which may 

have headed within the Norman Upland at this 

time, eroded their channels to a depth of about 

350 feet below the peneplain surface of the late 

Tertiary, or slightly below the present elevation 

of the Mitchell Plain. A temporary base level 

occurred, and the streams attempted to erode 

the adjacent land to the level of the streams (the 

process of peneplanation). During this period 

of constant base level the soluble limestones

of the Mitchell Plain were dissolved more 

rapidly than the shales and sandstones of the 

Crawford Upland were eroded. Caverns were 

formed during this stage within the Crawford 

Upland where the limestones of the Blue River 

Group were exposed along the valley walls and 

received subsurface drainage from the Mitchell 

Plain area. 

One example of such cavern development 

is that of Wyandotte Cave, but any caves that 

lie above the level of the Mitchell Plain could 

owe their origin to the extensive karstification 

(process of dissolving limestone by ground 

water) and subsurface solution which took 

place during the creation of the Mitchell 

Plain. The sediments which were deposited 

along the lower portions of the drainage of 

this stage are difficult to find, but there are 

patches of iron-coated pebbles and geodes in 

a few places. 

Toward the end of this stage the Mitchell 

Plain and the major streams became 

established much in their present positions. 

The Ohio River may have become a major 

stream of the area. Other surface streams were 

formed on the surface of the Mitchell Plain 

as its surface was dissolved to that of the base 

level. The presence of these streams is indicated 

by the dry valleys which extend from former 

drainage areas in the Mitchell Plain, through 

the Chester Escarpment, to Blue River. Some 

dry valleys within the Crawford Upland were 

once tributaries of Blue River that did not 

extend into the Mitchell Plain: Ripperdan 

Valley southeast of New Amsterdam, the 

valley heading at Frenchtown and extending 

southwestward, and Brushy Valley. 

A change in base level accompanied 

by rejuvenation of the meandering streams 

terminated the rapid lateral planation of the 

Mitchell Plain and Blue River. This change in 

base level was sufficient to allow Blue River to 

down cut its channel or entrench itself about 

50 to 60 feet below the level of the Mitchell 

Plain erosion surface. Throughout most of its 

course, the present route of lower Blue River 

was determined at this time. During this stage, 

as yet unnamed, the tributary surface streams 


to Blue River generally failed to downcut their 

channels in pace with that of Blue River. 

Consequently, the precipitation falling 

upon the Mitchell Plain and the dry valleys 

seeped into the joints and bedding planes of 

the limestones of the Blue River Group and 

rapidly dissolved subterranean channels that 

were at grade with the channels of the major 

streams. Boones Mill Cave [now Squire Boone 

Caverns] on Buck Creek is a cavern formed at 

grade with the lowest downcutting of this stage. 

In general, this stage can be summarized as one 

of rapid downcutting by the major streams that 

left the Mitchell Plain as a perched surface, 

and diverted surface tributaries of the Mitchell 

Plain to underground routes that were formed 

at grade with the surface streams to which they 

were tributaries. 

For reference, this erosion level might be 

called the Rothrock strath. Few examples of 

erosion surfaces of this stage have been found, 

inasmuch as the present channel of Blue River 

is a deepened route of the Rothrock strath. 

Generally all that may be attributed to this 

stage are a few meander channels that lie at a 

level about 20 feet above the present Blue River 

in the vicinity of the abandoned Rothrock Mill 

just east of Rothrock Pit). Three abandoned 

meanders of this stage are known; these are 

north of Harrison Spring, immediately east of 

Gary Pit, and southwest of Buzzards Roost. The 

Buzzards Roost locality is of special interest in 

that three levels of Blue River can be seen in 

a small area as one drives along the east-west 

road at Mt. Lebanon Church: Mitchell Plain 

level, the Rothrock strath, and the present bed 

of the Blue River. 

The Tertiary Period was succeeded by the 

Pleistocene (Glacial Period), which includes 

the present time. Four major glacial advances 

[actually, perhaps more than four (KS)] 

have been recorded on the North American 

continent. The first glaciation, the Nebraskan, 

is not known to have extended into Indiana, 

and so at that time erosion was probably taking 

place within the cave region. Each of the three 

succeeding glaciations, called the Kansan, the 

Illinoian, and Wisconsinan, failed to override 

115


the entire cave region. 

The second continental ice sheet, the 

Kansan, extended into Indiana and covered 

about five-sixths of the state, but it flowed 

around the southern two-thirds of the cave 

region. The exact extent of the Kansan ice 

sheet is uncertain because it was covered by the 

following (Illinoian) glacier. The Kansan ice 

sheet blocked the passage of many streams and 

rivers in its path, especially those streams that 

are now in the head waters of the present day 

Ohio but that once flowed to the north. 

These blocked streams flowed along the 

front of the ice sheet, in a westerly direction, 

to the headwaters of the ancient Ohio, and 

thence out to the Gulf of Mexico. The streams, 

surging with sediment-laden melt waters from 

the ice sheet, rapidly downcut the Ohio River 

bedrock channel. By the time the Wisconsinan 

ice sheet ablated, the Ohio River had extended 

its headwaters to their present position. 

During the Illinoian glaciation, the process 

was repeated. The Ohio channel was widened 

in some places and perhaps deepened in a few 

areas, but in general the sediment-laden melt 

waters from the ice sheet tended to fill the 

Ohio Valley. This fill generally lies below the 

present valley fill. 

The Illinoian ice sheet overrode the 

Knobstone Escarpment and the Norman 

Upland in northeastern Washington County. 


We will continue east on scenic State Road 

62 along the north side of the Blue River 

passing though the Harrison Crawford State 

Forest, portions of which were recently named 

O’Bannon Woods State Park (named after 

the late beloved Governor Frank O’Bannon, 

a Harrison County native, cave owner, and an 

active conservationist). We will travel about 

13 miles from Wyandotte through historic 

Corydon and past the first capital of Indiana, 

and then another 5 miles north on State Road 

135, crossing Interstate 64 to the Corydon 

Crushed Stone Company Quarry located 

on Quarry Road. See Figures 20 & 21 for 

116 

Melt waters from the glacier temporarily 

flowed into Blue River, possibly scouring and 

deepening the bedrock channel. Glacially 

derived sediments have been reported preserved 

as terraces within the headwater streams of Blue 

River; these sediments have not been detected, 

however, south of Washington County. 

The Wisconsin, the 4th and last major 

glaciation, did not extend into the southern 

third of Indiana as did the Kansan and Illinoian 

ice sheets. But melt waters from the ice sheet 

did reach many of the major streams, such as the 

Ohio River. The sediments deposited within the 

Ohio Valley overlie those of earlier glaciations. 

Blue River was a ponded stream during the 

period of time while the Ohio River received 

the Wisconsinan meltwater. As a result, some 

sediments, those of earlier glaciations, from the 

upper Ohio River were deposited at the mouth 

of Blue River. Blue River was a ponded stream 

during the period of time while the Ohio River 

received the Wisconsinan meltwater (generally 

at an elevation of 435 feet). Stream sediments 

borne by the upper part of Blue River settled 

out in the lake-like lower Blue River valley. 

These lacustrine (lake deposited) sediments 

are present today as terraces or remnants of the 

former lake bottom from the mouth of Blue 

River to the vicinity of Harrison Spring (these 

deposits at Harrison Spring are at an elevation 

of about 450 feet). 

topographic maps of the area. 

After leaving Wyandotte, we will continue 

to pass through the heart of the Blue River karst 

in more of the most heavily dissected portions 

of Indiana, then pass into the Harrison Spring 

area which is Indiana’s largest spring located 

just north of Interstate 64 on Harrison Springs 

Road in a corn field. We will also see Scout 

Mountain and Greenbriar Knob, and pass by 

State Road 462, off of which is the old caver 

barn reconstructed by the O’Bannon family 

into a rustic retreat. 

The highway in this area is built on 

Wisconsinan-age lake sediments derived from 

late glacial back flooding of the Blue River


Figure 21. Travel route eastward from Wyandotte Cave through the deeply dissected Blue River valley. 

Note Harrison Spring north of the Interstate, and other features such as Scout Mountain and White Cloud.. 

117


valley and remnants of the Blue River Strath, 

perhaps best seen to the south across the river. 

Just after coming very close to the south 

side of Interstate 64, we will begin to make a 

geological and topographic transition from 

the dissected Crawford Upland and into 

the western-most Mitchell Plain, and also 

descend into the incised Indian Creek valley 

into Corydon. Off to the south is both Indian 

Creek and the Pilot Knob of Harrison County, 

118 

an upland outlier whose summit is 180 feet 

above the Mitchell Plain. See Figure 24. 

Corydon was the first capital of Indiana 

and the original limestone capital building is 

in downtown Corydon on the Court House 

Square. The Civil War Battle of Corydon was 

fought nearby. There is a wide range of shopping 

available in Corydon’s downtown and the State 

Road 135 strip. 

Notes on Harrison Spring and the Sinks of Indian Creek 

Harrison Spring is Indiana’s largest spring 

with average discharge of 100 cubic feet 

per second (cfs), with a flood discharge estimated 

at over 900 cfs. It is located in an abandoned 

meander on Blue River in a non-descript 

cornfield just north of Interstate 64. There are 

remnants of the Blue River Strath to the west and 

south of the spring along the valley. Dye tracing 

and other investigation have demonstrated that 

the spring has a surprisingly large surface capture 

area with a somewhat unique shape as shown in 

Figure 22. The drainage basin covers at least 68 

square miles, as well as 200 square miles above the 

sinks of Indian Creek which drains a large area 

of the eastern Mitchell Plain and the Norman 

Upland. The location of the spring is conjectured 

to be structurally controlled, perhaps being the 

intersection of two joints or fractures. 

The Sinks of Indian Creek are located 

4 miles to the southeast of the Spring and 

depending upon flow, the entire summer/fall 

discharge of over 200 square miles of drainage 

basin can disappear into the sink, and can 

reappear at Harrison Spring in as little as one 

hour (Unterreiner, 2006), Water from numerous 

other cave systems and sinking streams finds 

its way to the Spring, often times in complex 

high water events. The spring appears to have 

formed after the establishment of the Blue River 

Strath, perhaps during the late Tertiary or early 

Pleistocene. Powell (1963) considered it to be a 

so-called alluviated spring with the flow welling 

up and through alluvial sediments related to late 

By Kevin Strunk 

Pleistocene back flooding of the Ohio River. 

Later cave diving has shown that it is in fact an 

artesian rise pit entirely in limestone. The spring 

basin is approximately 80 x 100 feet and about 

45 feet deep. The water comes out of a 15-foot 

slot, making the spring at least 60 feet deep. 

The sewage treatment plant for Corydon 

discharges into Indian Creek, so much of the 

flow of Harrison Spring is in fact treated effluent 

with a high E. Coli load (Silcox, et al, USGS, 

2001). A 2007–08 plant expansion is currently 

under review. 

Harrison Spring has long been a historical site. 

American Indians utilized the spring area heavily as 

evidenced by the many artifacts found there, many 

made from native Wyandotte Chert. The Spring 

(and the county) is named after President William 

Henry Harrison who owned the Spring in the 

early 1800s when he was Governor of the Indiana 

Territory. Harrison operated a whiskey distillery 

on the property and this became a presidential 

campaign issue. Thirsty voters elected him anyway. 

Harrison is perhaps most famous for defeating a 

multi-tribe Indian army led by The Prophet at the 

seminal 1815 Battle of Tippecanoe in northern 

Indiana which led to the defeat the of British in 

the War of 1812, as well as the 1840 Harrison 

presidential campaign slogan of “Tippecanoe 

and Tyler too!” Harrison died weeks after being 

inaugurated from the effects of foolishly giving a 

multi-hour speech during bitter winter weather. 

See “Karst Hydrology of the Harrison Springs 

Area,” page 212, for more information.


Figure 22. Harrison Spring geology from Gray and Powell ,1965, and drainage basin modified from Ehrenzeller, 1978. 

119


Southern Harrison County 

This guidebook does not address the large 

and separate sinkhole plain and upland karst 

areas of southern Harrison County south of 

Corydon and Indian Creek other than to note 

that such significant caves as the 20-mile-long 

Binkleys Cave and the heavily decorated and 

historic commercial Squire Boone Caverns 

(formerly Boones Mill Cave) are examples of 

a well developed cave area. The author laments 

not visiting this area on the trip and for not 

treating it more fully in the guidebook. 

See articles of these and other southern 

Harrison County caves and geological 

120 

references in the cave description articles. The 

area is crossed by Buck Creek and Mosquito 

Creek, both incised deeply into the Mitchell 

Plain. At least one Ohio River-related feature 

surrounded by the sinkhole plain is worthy 

of the drive, and that is to see the Mauckport 

Meander, Figure 23, a huge abandoned bend 

in the ancestral Ohio that contains very old 

glacial sand and gravel outwash sediments 

about 60 feet thick. Buck Creek discharges into 

this feature. The overall area can be reached by 

taking State Road 135 south from Corydon, 

and also by touring via State Road 11. 

Figure 23. The Mauckport Meander is a remnant of the confluence of Buck Creek and the 

preglacial ancestral Ohio River valley, incised into the Mitchell Plain.

The Battle of Corydon, Indiana’s Only Civil War Battle Site 

The Battle of Corydon was the only Civil 

War Battle fought on Indiana soil and 

occurred on July 9, 1863, when 450 members of 

the Harrison County Home Guard attempted 

to delay General John Hunt Morgan’s 2,400 

Confederate soldiers that day, in hopes that 

Union reinforcements would arrive and stop 

Morgan’s march through southern Indiana. 

Morgan’s raid began near Sparta in eastern 

Tennessee on June 11, 1863. It was intended 

to divert the attention of the Union Army of 

Ohio from Confederate forces in Tennessee. 

Morgan was ordered to confine his raid to 

Kentucky only and not to cross the Ohio 

River. For some unexplained reason, Morgan 

defied General Braxton Bragg’s command 

and led his cavalrymen on a 46-day, 1,000mile 

raid. It ended with his capture near New 

Lisbon, Ohio on July 26, 1863. 

Morgan and most of the division were from 

Kentucky and they were welcomed with open 

arms through much of Kentucky. However, 

they were forced into skirmishes with federal 

troops and home guards at several points. On 

the morning of July 8, they arrived at the small 

Kentucky River town of Brandenburg. Two 

steamers were seized, the Alice Dean and the 

T.J. McCombs, to transport the troops across 

the Ohio River to the Indiana shore east of 

Mauckport. 

The crossing was interrupted by some 

artillery fire from a small company of the 

Harrison County Legion and the riverboat, 

the Lady Pike. When Morgan’s artillery 

returned fire, the Lady Pike retreated and 

the six-pounder on the Indiana shore was 

silenced. The crossing was completed without 

further incident and the Alice Dean could be 

seen at low water resting on a sand bar near 

the Indiana shore. The gun which had fired 

on Morgan was captured, along with several 

prisoners. 

Indiana Governor at the time, Oliver P. 

Morton, on receiving the information of the 

invasion of Indiana soil, issued a proclamation 


ordering all able-bodied male citizens in the 

counties south of the National Road to form 

into companies and to arm themselves with 

such arms as they could procure. 

On the morning of July 9, the advance 

guard led by Morgan’s brother, Colonel 

Richard Morgan, moved north on the 

Mauckport Road. One mile south of Corydon, 

the county seat of Harrison County, the scouts 

encountered the Harrison County Home 

Guard (officially the Sixth Regiment of the 

Indiana Legion). 

The home guard, under Colonel Lewis 

Jordan, had drawn a battle line behind a 

hastily thrown up barricade of logs. In a short 

but spirited battle, lasting less than an hour, 

Morgan met his first and only organized 

resistance in the Hoosier state. By outflanking 

both wings at the same time, Morgan’s men 

completely routed the militia. Four of the 

guards were killed, several were wounded, 355 

were captured, and the remainder escaped. 

The victory was not without cost to the 

Raiders. Eleven Raiders were killed and 40 

were wounded. 

Morgan paroled the prisoners upon 

entering the town of Corydon. The Raiders 

began collecting the spoils of victory. Most of 

the afternoon was spent plundering the stores 

and collecting ransom money. The Harrison 

County treasurer was relieved of $690, two 

leading stores were relieved of $600 each, 

and contributions of $700 to $1,000 were 

demanded from the three mills to save them 

from being burned. 

Later that day, the rebels left Corydon 

and marched northward. The main column 

took New Salisbury. Several companies made 

sorties over the countryside to other villages, 

collecting fresh horses and plundering. They 

camped along the road south of Palmyra for 

a few hours that evening. On the morning of 

July 10, the troops reunited in Salem and the 

raid continued. 

121


Stop 4 

At the Corydon Crushed Stone Company 

Quarry just north of Corydon (Figure 24), 

we will again see the upper Mississippian 

limestones of the Blue River Group that 

122 

overlie older strata to be seen to the east. At the 

quarry, the Paoli, Ste. Genevieve, and St. Louis 

limestones have been quarried for use as crushed 

stone aggregate and building stone since about 

1885. The quarry also has an excellent exposure 

Figure 24. Corydon is located at the confluence of Indian Creek and Little Indian Creek, both of which 

are deeply incised into the Mitchell Plain. Stop 4, at the Corydon Crushed Stone Quarry, is located in 

the easternmost Crawford Upland outlier, Pennington Chapel Ridge.

of rocks above the Ste. Genevieve including 

the Aux Vases Shale, the Bethel Shale, and the 

Beaver Bend Sandstone. While at the quarry, we 

will discuss and see some New Albany shale gas 

wells. The New Albany is an organic-rich shale 

that is being developed throughout Indiana as 

a natural gas reservoir. 

Figure 24 shows the active mining areas as 

well as the large unmined areas, mostly within 

the large hill known as Pennington Chapel 

Ridge. The quarry is on the extreme eastern edge 

of the Crawford Upland, within an extreme 

eastern outlier of the westward retreating 

Crawford Upland/Chester Escarpment. 

These outliers are sandstone-capped hills of 

limestone that have been isolated from the 

main upland area. Other outliers can be seen 

sitting out on the Mitchell Plain like islands in 


a sea of sinkholes. The quarry has an excellent 

vista overlooking the Crawford Upland to the 

south and west, the Mitchell Plain as well as 

the Indian Creek Valley to the near east, with 

the Norman Upland far off to the east. 

The stratigraphy at the quarry is summarized 

in Figure 25 which is a cross-section of the existing 

quarry from the top of the northern highwall 

down to the lowest sump level near the southern 

highwall. The Paoli appears to be about 38 feet 

thick, and the Ste. Genevieve has an assigned 

thickness of 175 feet, for a total of about 213 

feet. The Ste. Genevieve/St. Louis contact has 

not been pinpointed, and it is possible that the 

Ste. Genevieve is only about 150 feet thick, with 

the rest being in the St. Louis. 

Figure 25 has vertical elevation control on 

the top of the various benches with the Indiana 

Figure 25. Corydon Stone and Asphalt stratigraphic section (provided by Corydon Stone). 

123


Department of Transportation “ledges” or 

rock subdivisions (for example, “1011”). 

These ledges have good physical testing 

values reported by the Indiana Department 

of Transportation (A is good, G is bad). The 

thickness of the bench-ledge combinations are 

noted. Many minerals, including world-class 

pink, curved dolomite crystals can be found in 

the quarry. There are also both an upper level 

air-filled cave in the upper Ste. Genevieve and 

a mud-filled lower level cave likely in the upper 

124 

St. Louis which have been uncovered during 

mining operations (Figure 26). Both features 

will be mined eventually. The Indiana State 

Museum assisted by the Indiana Geological 

Survey has been conducting a salvage effort 

of the speleothems for display in the museum 

in Indianapolis. Figure 26 is a photo of the 

north highwall of the quarry. Figure 27 is a 

panoramic vista looking south from the top 

of Pennington Chapel Ridge toward Corydon 

and the Crawford Upland. 

Figure 26. Northern highwall of Corydon Crushed Stone Company Quarry. Photo by Strunk, March 2007. 

Figure 27. Panoramic vista looking south from the top of Pennington Chapel Ridge 

toward Corydon and the Crawford Upland. Photo by Strunk, March 2007.

New Albany Shale Gas Wells: A natural gas resource 

that can impact karst features 

Another aspect of the Harrison County 

area is the presence at depths below about 

900 feet of the natural gas-bearing New Albany 

Shale. Since about 1995, much of southern 

Indiana underlain by the blanket-like New 

Albany Shale has been the focus of extensive 

leasing of gas rights, exploration drilling, and 

increasing production of natural gas from the 

Ohio River northward past Indianapolis. The 

New Albany is considered an “unconventional 

reservoir” as it is not a more typical oil and gas 

producing limestone or sandstone (Figure 28). 

The presence of the historic Laconia Gas 

Field in southern Harrison County has driven 

greatly renewed modern interest. Natural gas 

seeps were known to the American Indians and 

early pioneers and commercial shale gas wells 

have existed in Harrison County for nearly 150 

years (Collett, 1878). As part of the modern 

drilling wave Jet/Lavaway of Michigan drilled 

three gas wells and one saltwater disposal well 

on the property, along with many other wells 

in the vicinity. These particular gas wells are 

productive of modest amounts of gas, but gas 

is likely to be produced for many years into the 

future. The gas wells are about 1,425 feet deep 

with the New Albany about 916–1012 feet 

deep. As part of the long-term gas production 

process, the shale must be dewatered of the 

naturally occurring connate salt water to allow 

the gas to escape from the shale. This water 

must be disposed of per USEPA rules of the 

Underground Injection Control Program, 

which is administered in Indiana by the 

Division of Oil and Gas of the Indiana Dept. 

of Natural Resources. 

An unavoidable but difficult to predict 

aspect of drilling oil and gas wells within karst 

areas is the penetration of the near surface 

karsted limestone by the drilling process. 

Eventually, a cave passage of some size could 

logically be hit (known in the drilling business 


By Kevin Strunk 

as a “lost circulation zone”), and the cave 

environment could be impacted based upon 

the nature of the drilling process. Besides the 

physical borehole penetration, gas wells must 

have steel casing cemented in place to act both 

as a long-term groundwater protection barrier 

and as a gas production conduit. Cement is 

installed via pumping the slurry down the 

inside of the casing which then travels back to 

the surface on the outside of the casing within 

the borehole. Of course, if a cave passage of any 

size had been encountered, cement will flow 

into that passage until or unless some barrier 

becomes established which keeps the cement 

within the borehole, including simply filling up 

the void. The drillers may or may not know if a 

smaller cave passage or conduit has been hit, or 

may choose to ignore it. especially if there are 

no subsequent problems. 

Anecdotal rumors from geologists 

familiar with caves or feeder passages being 

supposedly encountered by gas wells drilled 

in the mid-1990s in the Harrison County 

area led the Indiana Karst Conservancy in 

1998 to work with the Division of Oil and 

Gas of the Indiana Department of Natural 

Resources to develop a “Non-Rule Policy 

Document” entitled “Drilling Procedures for 

Karst Prone Areas.” This document called for 

several precautionary measures to be taken by 

drillers and cavers. There are several technical 

considerations asked of the drillers, and the 

Indiana Department of Natural Resources 

asked the caving community to provide cave 

location and system data so that obvious 

large or otherwise significant caves could 

be protected by being a within the area of 

a designated “excluded cave.” To date, the 

Indiana caving community has not been 

able to determine protocols for releasing 

cave location and map data in such a fashion 

as to allow Indiana Department of Natural 

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Resources to designate “excluded caves.” At 

least one well-known Harrison County cave 

has reportedly had cement pumped into a 

larger passage from a small feeder conduit 

which happened to be penetrated by a gas 

well. Although this was known in certain 

caver circles, after consultation with the cave 

owner, no formal complaint was filed with 

Indiana Department of Natural Resources, in 

part due to the fact that the damage had been 

done, and was judged not to be a chemical 

threat to the cave system, although obviously 

being a physical alteration, and also because 

the gas-well owning cave owner was skittish. 

Cavers and Indiana Department of Natural 

Resources need to move towards a uniform 

implementation policy. 


While traveling east on Interstate 64 from 

Corydon to our next stop in the greater Louisville 

metro area, we will pass through the Mitchell 

plain into the Norman Upland, then down the 

Knobstone Escarpment into the Ohio River 

valley and the Scottsburg Lowland (Figure 29). 

We will pass through huge road cuts exposing 

the lower Mississippian strata including the 

Borden Group as well the mostly Devonian age 

New Albany Shale upon which the Knobstone 

is developed, and Devonian limestones upon 

which the Lowland is developed at the Falls of 

the Ohio. We will cross into Kentucky along the 

Louisville waterfront to reach the Falls. 

After leaving the quarry and getting onto 

Interstate 64 near some St. Louis Limestone 

road cuts, Indian Creek will be quickly crossed 

(Figure 24). Indian Creek is one of the major 

incised streams (as are Blue River and Buck 

Creek) which head in the Norman Upland, 

and then flows southwesterly across Harrison 

County towards the Ohio River, and acts as 

a local base level control stream. It is incised 

about 150 feet into the Mitchell Plain and is 

a local base level separate from the Blue River. 

Traveling east, the interstate crosses a section 

of the sinkhole plain along with some small 

tributary streams to Indian Creek. We will 

126 

Figure 28. Location of New Albany Shale gas wells 

in the Harrison County vicinity (March 2007, 

Indiana Geological Survey). 

drive across the Mitchell Plain from Corydon 

towards Edwardsville, crossing from Harrison 

County into Floyd County. The western dip 

slope border of the Knobstone Escarpment is 

the Mitchell Plain and Norman Upland where 

Borden Group clastics are decreasingly overlain 

eastward by the thinning mid-Mississippianaged 

limestones of the Ramp Creek and 

Harrodsburg limestones (Figure 5). Between 

the interchange at mile marker 114 and mile 

marker 117 at Edwardsville there has been a 

gradual loss of all limestone and the clasticcapped 

Norman Upland has truly been entered. 

East from Edwardsville for about 2 to 3 miles is 

the Upland proper. 

Beginning at about mile marker 119, which 

is about at the U.S. 150 Interchange (Figure 

29), the interstate enters large road cuts which 

expose all of the remaining lower Sanders 

Group, all of the Borden clastics, and all of the 

New Albany Shale as the interstate descends 

the Knobstone Escarpment down to the Ohio 

River outwash and glacial lake clay flood plain 

and the Scottsburg Lowland, losing about 

500 feet in elevation by the mile marker 121 

interchange of Interstates 64 and 265. 

See Figure 30 for a regional stratigraphic 

section and a depositional model of the Borden 

Group rocks, and see Figure 31 for a 344-foot


Figure 29. Interstate 64 travels through the Norman Upland, down the Knobstone Escarpment, skirts the 

Scottsburg Lowland, and crosses over the Ohio River on its way to downtown Louisbville. Large road cuts 

expose the Borden Group and the New Albany Shale. 

section of Borden rocks located on old U.S. 

150 just to the north of the interstate. 

We will actually cross over the Ohio River 

twice as we take I-64 along the south side of 

the Ohio River in downtown Louisville to 

best access the “Sunny Side of Louisville” at 

Clark County lying across the river. There are 

excellent views of the Ohio River valley, the 

Knobstone Escarpment, the McAlpine Lock 

and Dam, and the Falls of the Ohio. 

127


128 

Figure 31. Stratigraphic section near Interstate 64 road cuts along the 

Knobstone Escarpment ( from Stockdale, 1922). 

Figure 30. Knobstone and Borden group stratigraphy ( from Kammer, 

Ausich, and Lane; 1984).

Preglacial Regional Drainage and 

Glacial Origin of Ohio River and 

Regional Geology 

The several glacial meltwater episodes 

greatly impacted the formation of the Ohio 

River and reestablished over drainage patterns. 

As seen in Figure 32 from Powell’s (1965) 

publication “Geology of the Falls of the Ohio 

River,” in mid Tertiary times the Knobstone 

Escarpment was not breached by the river. 

The river headed within the Norman Upland/ 

Mitchell Plain area in what is now Kentucky, 

with the Indiana side being drained by what 

was called the Blue River, and Indian, Buck, and 

Mosquito creeks. So downstream of the Knobs 

the current valley is very much related to the 

pre-glacial valley as seen in the big entrenched 

meanders such as Horseshoe Bend. By the late 

Tertiary, the Knobstone had been breached by 

headward erosion by the ancestral Ohio. These 

glaciations and subsequent huge meltwater 


discharges lead to the formation of the modern 

Ohio River during the Pleistocene. 

The Falls of the Ohio vicinity is the only 

area on this field trip which has any known 

glacial deposits (Figures 32 & 33). The Falls 

vicinity is developed upon multiple terraces 

underlain by sand and gravels of Wisconsinan 

and possibly Illinoian age, with glacial lake 

clays in an overall area of Quaternary alluvium. 

The Illinoian glacial advance (about 100,000 

years ago) was unable to entirely overcome 

the abrupt Knobstone Escarpment on the 

east, or the Crawford Upland on the west, 

thus leaving the vast bulk of the karsted 

Mitchell Plain unglaciated. The Wisconsinan 

Glaciation, which ended about 15,000 years 

ago, terminated in central Indiana. 

The physiography of the valley area and 

topographic cross-sections of the valley are 

shown in Figure 33 and Section B-B’ is through 

the Falls. 

Figure 32. Maps showing the drainage routes in the vicinity of the Falls of the Ohio River during mid-Tertiary 

time (A) late Tertiary or early Pleistocene time (B), and Pleistocene time (C) ( from Powell 1965). 

129


130 

Figure 33. The physiography of the Ohio River valley area and topographic cross-sections. Section B-B’ is through the Falls ( from Powell, 1965).

Stop 5: The Falls of the Ohio vicinity 

The Falls of the Ohio is a premier, 

globally significant fossil, transportation, and 

historical location (Figure 34). It is near here in 

Clarksville that Lewis and Clark really began 

their journey, negating the spurious claim of 

St Louis. Although the name seems to imply 


waterfalls, in actuality, the Falls are cascading 

rapids, or cataract falls. They cause[d] the Ohio 

River to drop 26 feet in elevation over a 2½mile 

stretch. Early explorers found this area the 

only navigational barrier on the entire Ohio 

River. Historic records refer to the “Rapids” or 

“Falls” of the Ohio River. 

Figure 34. Louisville, Jeffersonville, New Albany, and Falls of the Ohio vicinity. 

131


The Falls are now owned by the states of 

Indiana and Kentucky, and the federal government. 

Although now tamed, greatly altered, and partially 

obscured by the presence of the McAlpine Lock 

and Dam operated by the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, the Falls of the Ohio is in fact a huge 

outcrop of heavily-fossiliferous Devonian- and 

Silurian-age reef rocks over which the Ohio 

River cascaded, making for long delays in river 

traffic prior to the building of the Lock and Dam 

to allow unrestricted traffic. American Indians 

utilized the area extensively as did the migrating 

pre-settlement herds of American Bison as the 

famous and regional scale “Buffalo Trace” crossed 

the Ohio River at this point. 

We will visit the Indiana side at the Falls of 

the Ohio State Park which has excellent access 

to the remaining Falls outcrop, a wonderful 

museum, and views of the Lock and Dam and 

downtown Louisville. Sorry, no collecting 

allowed. We will spend One Hour at the 

Falls visiting both the 16,000-square-foot 

Interpretive Center with a 2,000-square-foot 

exhibits gallery and viewing an award-winning 

14-minute movie about the 400-million-year 

history of the Falls area. Then we will visit the 

actual Falls and the associated fossil beds. The 

following is from the Falls Web site: 

Natural History 

The history of the Falls of the Ohio reaches 

back millions of years, leaving us with a wealth 

of natural wonders and resources to explore. 

They include 400-million-year-old Devonian 

fossil beds, a variety of flora and fauna habitats, 

and interesting geological formations such as 

sculpted limestone, natural arches, and small 

waterfalls. 

The formation of the Falls fossil beds dates 

back to the middle of the Devonian Period 

(in the Paleozoic Era) between 408–360 

million years ago. At that time a shallow sea 

cut diagonally across the eastern half of the 

North American continent from New York 

through Kentucky south and west over Texas. 

The continental sea was teeming with a variety 

of marine life including fish, echinoderms, 

trilobites, brachiopods, bryozoans, sponges, 

132 

and corals. The skeletal remains (mostly calcium 

carbonate) settled on the sea floor, steadily 

burying older layers of limestone sediments. 

The Devonian limestone extends to the 

north beyond Indianapolis, Indiana, and 

southeast to the Cumberland Plateau. It may be 

found in northern and central Ohio and swings 

into Canada and over to western New York. 

During the Devonian, the North American 

and African continental plates were not far 

apart. Fossils similar to those at the Falls can 

also be found in Morocco in northwest Africa. 

These fossil beds are considered to be among 

the largest naturally occurring laterally exposed 

Devonian coral beds in the world. Over 300 

species of fossils have been identified at the 

Falls, many of which are type specimens, being 

discovered and described from the Falls for the 

first time. 

The fossil beds are only one natural resource 

at the Park. There are over 270 species of birds 

recorded, including shore birds, wading birds, 

and song birds. The Falls have been used as a 

fishing area for thousands of years. Some 125 

species of fish have been reported. Various 

flora and fauna flourish at the Falls in a variety 

of habitats including river, stream, wetland, 

mudflat, sandbar, marsh, prairie, rock, and 

woodland. These diverse habitats co-exist in a 

concentrated area that has been altered both 

by man and nature. The diversity of the natural 

resources at the Falls provides an unlimited 

opportunity for study and simple enjoyment of 

a “natural” area rich in bio-diversity. The Falls 

was the location of a major Ohio River crossing 

of the Buffalo Trace. 

Cultural History 

The cultural history of the Falls is both rich 

and varied. Evidence of permanent settlements 

at the Falls of the Ohio by prehistoric peoples is 

considerable. Development of the cities around 

the Falls has destroyed many of these prehistoric 

sites. Construction of the levee following the 

1937 flood heavily altered or destroyed sites 

near the Falls. Numerous prehistoric sites in the 

Louisville area have been destroyed by filling 

swamps and lakes. More recent development

Figure 35. Historic map of the Falls of the Ohio. 

Note the many chutes and islands making up the 

then hazardous rapids area. 

has destroyed more. Still, there is an abundance 

of evidence that people lived in the Falls area. 

The first human habitation of the Falls 

reaches back about 12,000 years ago when 

the Paleo-Indian lived in the area. These early 

peoples were nomadic, following animal 

migrations and seeking raw materials such 

as high quality flint. They probably hunted 

mammoths, mastodons, and other ice age 

mammals that are now extinct. The Archaic 

people lived between 10,000 and 3,000 years 

ago. They were semi-nomadic tribes who 

moved seasonally to gather wild plants, to fish, 

and to hunt and trap animals. They produced 

tools such as adzes, axes, the compound spear 

(atl-atl), and baskets. The Woodland Culture 

developed in the region 2,000 to 1,000 years 

ago. They cultivated crops, established small 

villages with regional variations, buried their 

dead ceremoniously, used bows and arrows, 

and developed pottery techniques. Extensive 

trade networks were established. Large 

mound and earthwork complexes were built 

during this period. Late Prehistoric Cultures 

flourished between 1,000 and 300 years ago. 

They developed maize agriculture, as part of 

adapting to a floodplain environment. These 

cultures developed into “chiefdoms” with 


complex political and social systems. Large 

“towns” were developed by building large 

platform mounds around a central plaza. These 

“towns” were often surrounded by a stockade. 

The first documented European occupation 

of the Falls occurred in 1778 when George 

Rogers Clark, with a group of militia and their 

families, established a settlement on Corn 

Island near present day Louisville. From here 

he launched his successful military campaign 

in the Northwest Territories. It has been 

suggested, though not confirmed, that Robert 

LaSalle visited the Falls in the late 1600s. Daniel 

Boone may have passed through in 1771 (See 

Figure 35). 

After George Rogers Clark completed his 

military career and settled near the Falls, the 

area began to develop rapidly. Clark and his 

men were granted land in the area and Clark 

surveyed the town of Clarksville, Indiana. A 

representation of a cabin was assembled at his 

home site in 2001. In 1803, George Rogers 

Clark’s younger brother, William Clark, with 

his partner, Meriwether Lewis and the Corps 

of Discovery, began their famous exploration 

of the Louisiana Purchase near Mill Creek 

below the Falls. 

Several famous people visited and lived 

near the Falls. In the early 1800s, Henry Clay 

and Humphrey Marshall fought a duel at Silver 

Creek. John James Audubon lived in the Falls 

area from 1807 to 1810, where he completed 

more than 200 sketches of birds in the Falls 

area. Other famous dignitaries who visited 

the Falls include Presidents James Monroe, 

William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, 

and Herbert Hoover (also a geologist). Visiting 

literary figures include Charles Dickens, 

Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman. Mike Fink, 

the legendary “riverman,” visited. Big Jim 

Porter, the “Kentucky Giant,” ran a tavern on 

Shippingport Island (at that time a thriving 

community). Commentary on navigating the 

Falls includes that of Mark Twain who endured 

the original Falls and recorded, “We reached 

Louisville - at least the neighborhood of it. We 

stuck hard and fast on the rocks in the middle 

of the river, and lay there four days.” 

133


The Falls of the Ohio originally were long 

rapids caused by a 26-foot drop of the Ohio 

River over a 2.5-mile stretch of limestone ledges. 

This area became a natural stopping point for 

people traveling the Ohio River. The south side 

of the Falls became Louisville, Kentucky. On 

the north, the Town of Clarksville, Indiana, was 

founded. William and George Rogers Clark 

both owned parcels of land at the Clarksville 

original town site which is now part of the 

Falls of the Ohio State Park. Clarksville was 

the first American settlement in the Northwest 

Territory, established in 1783. George’s cabin 

and the surrounding area of the original town 

site on the riverbank were used as a base camp 

during Lewis and Clark’s preparations. George 

Rogers Clark operated a mill along nearby Mill 

Creek, 150 yards from where the creek entered 

the Ohio River. 

The George Rogers Clark Home Site, 

historically known as Clarks Point, is where 

William Clark was living with his older brother, 

George Rogers Clark, when Meriwether Lewis 

arrived in October of 1803. George Rogers 

Clark was a friend of Thomas Jefferson and 

corresponded with him about their mutual 

interest in paleontology and archaeology. At the 

Falls of the Ohio in the summer of 1803, William 

Clark received a letter from Meriwether Lewis 

inviting him to help command an expedition to 

explore the Louisiana territory and find a water 

passage to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis wrote to 

Clark: “Thus my friend ... you have a summary 

view of the plan, the means and the objects of this 

expedition. If therefore there is anything under 

whose circumstances, in this enterprise, which 

would induce you to participate with me in it’s 

fatiegues, it’s dangers and it’s honors, believe me 

there is no man on earth with whom I should feel 

equal pleasure in sharing them with yourself.” 

134 

Lewis and Clark, Indiana, 

and the Falls of the Ohio 

From the Indiana Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Web site 

(edited by Strunk, 2007) 

On October 14, 1803, Meriwether Lewis 

and William Clark met at the Falls of the Ohio, 

forming one of the most famous and successful 

partnerships in history. Lewis and Clark, no 

doubt, spent many hours in the cabin planning 

the journey and getting advice from George 

Rogers Clark, who was very knowledgeable 

about the West. Soon, thereafter, the Corps of 

Discovery was born. Nine men were inducted 

into the Army at the Falls of the Ohio. 

They formed one-third of the expedition’s 

permanent party. They were the foundation for 

what historians describe as the most famous 

exploring venture in the history of American 

exploration. On October 26, 1803, Lewis and 

Clark, together with the nucleus of the Corps 

of Discovery, set off down the Ohio River from 

Clarksville, Indiana, on a journey that would 

take them to the Pacific Ocean and back. With 

them went local recruits, handpicked by Clark, 

and Clark’s enslaved African American, York. 

York became the first African American to 

cross the United States from coast to coast. 

These first permanent members of the Corps 

of Discovery made significant contributions 

toward the success of the endeavor. 

Nearly 200 years have passed since their 

departure to the West and return in November 

1806. Their journey changed the course of 

American history. Their world has changed 

much in the two centuries since they traversed 

the Falls area. But the legacy of Lewis and 

Clark and their men is still with us today. It 

is with us in printed word, in institutional 

collections, and in landmarks. It is possible, 

today, to stand where the captains and the 

nucleus of the Corps of Discovery stood 200 

years ago; to visit where they visited; and to 

view expedition letters and artifacts.

After experiencing a boat trip down the 

Falls, Walt Whitman wrote that, “The bottom 

of the boat grated harshly more than once 

on the stones beneath, and the pilots showed 

plainly that they did not feel altogether as calm 

as a summer morning.” 

As navigation and commerce expanded 

on the Ohio River, the need for controlling 

the depth and flow of the river increased. To 

circumvent the dangerous rapids at the Falls 

of the Ohio, the Portland canal with locks 

was dug over several years and completed in 

1830. Over the years, it was enlarged to handle 

bigger steamboats. The first dam on the Ohio 

River was constructed beginning in 1868. Due 

to frequent interruptions by high water and 

runaway barges, the dam was not completed 

until 1881. The Ohio River Canalization Project 

was created to improve river navigation. A series 

of dams were constructed to control the river 

flow. The wickets consisted of 58 dams made 

of wood and metal which had to be raised and 

lowered individually by manual labor. The dam 

at the falls was number 41. Wicket construction 


began in 1885 and was completed in 1929. A 

decision was made to replace the wickets with a 

series of mechanized locks and dams. Currently, 

20 locks and dams help maintain water levels 

throughout the entire Ohio River system. Two 

wicket dams, dams #52 and #53, are slated to 

be replaced by a new dam near the mouth of 

the Ohio. The McAlpine Dam at the Falls of 

the Ohio was completed in 1964, replacing the 

aging wooden wickets. The locks and dams on 

the Ohio are operated and maintained by the 

Army Corps of Engineers, who are responsible 

for controlling the water level in the river. 

In 1982, after immense effort by groups 

and individuals, 1,404 acres of the Falls were 

designated a National Wildlife Conservation 

Area administered by the Army Corps of 

Engineers. In 1990, a section of the area became 

the Falls of the Ohio State Park, administered by 

the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. 

Between 2000 and 2003 another 76 acres of 

floodplain wetlands were added to the Falls of 

the Ohio State Park near the George Rogers 

Clark home site. 

Fossils and Rocks of Falls of the Ohio State Park 

The fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio are 

a Devonian-aged fossil coral “patch” reef. 

Nowhere else in the world does such a large, 

exposed fossil reef of this period exist. More 

than 220 acres of exposed fossil beds make up 

the Falls of the Ohio. The Devonian Period 

occurred between 395 and 345 million years 

ago. During that time, Indiana and Kentucky 

was covered by a warm, tropical sea and were 

located about 20 degrees south of the equator. 

Continental drift eventually moved this part 

of the earth’s surface to its current location. 

Scientists have identified more than 600 

Devonian fossil species at the Falls, two-thirds 

of them “type” specimens, or species discovered 

and recorded there for the first time anywhere 

By Alan Goldstein and Troy McCormick, Falls of the Ohio State Park 

(edited by Strunk, 2007) 

in the world. See Figures 33, 34, 35, and 36 for 

a detailed map of the Falls, and Lock and Dam 

area, and the stratigraphy of the Fall fossils bed 

strata (Powell, 1970). 

A “typical” coral reef consists of hundreds 

or thousands of intergrown coral colonies. Each 

coral colony consists of thousands or millions 

of soft polyp animals. There are a variety of 

different types of reefs. Reefs are formed in 

shallow marine (salt water) environments. They 

are built upon the skeletal remains of earlier 

organisms. Reefs need not be made up of corals 

at all. In the past some reefs were made from 

echinoderms (like crinoids), clams, sponges, 

brachiopods, and other skeleton-producing 

animals. 

135


The most well-known type of reef is a barrier 

reef. Barrier reefs can be enormous. They form 

parallel to coast lines. Australia’s Great Barrier 

Reef is more than 2,000 miles long. Other types 

include atolls, apron reefs, and patch reefs. 

Atolls fringe submerged volcanoes. Apron 

reefs form on shallow undersea slopes, away 

from land masses. A patch reef (or bioherm) 

forms mounds of isolated coral colonies. The 

coral bed at the Falls is a patch reef. It stretched 

some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) in length, 

was probably hundreds of miles wide and can 

be found in similar rocks in Columbus, Ohio; 

near Buffalo, New York; and in southern 

Ontario. Coral reefs are found only between 

27 degrees north and south of the equator 

(roughly between the Tropic of Cancer and the 

Tropic of Capricorn). Coral does not grow well 

in cool water and therefore does not form reefs 

outside of the tropics 

Within the Interpretive Center exhibit 

gallery, a marine diorama reconstructs, in 

detail, undersea life that existed here 425, 387, 

and 380 million years ago, respectively. From 

left to right, the diorama covers the Middle 

Silurian (Louisville Limestone), lower Middle 

Devonian (coral zone of the Jeffersonville 

Limestone) and upper Middle Devonian 

(North Vernon Limestone). 

Corals dominate the Louisville and 

Jeffersonville Limestone scenes, but are less 

important in the North Vernon Limestone 

where brachiopods and crinoids are more 

numerous. The Silurian rocks are characterized 

by over 150 fossil species. The Devonian (both 

Jeffersonville and North Vernon Limestone) 

contain over 300 species. The diorama recreates 

nearly 200 species of fossils. This is a small 

representation of the living ecosystem, where 

only a minute number of organisms were 

actually preserved. It is estimated only one 

percent of the species of plants and animals are 

preserved as fossils. 

The Silurian-aged rocks of the Louisville 

Formation at the Falls are dominated by the 

chain coral called Halysites within an interval 

called the “Corallaine Zone” so named because 

of its abundance of fossil corals—so many, in 

136 

fact, that visitors find it difficult to walk on this 

layer without stepping on fossils exposed in the 

bedrock. Scientists, geologists, paleontologists, 

and curious scientists have flocked to the Falls 

Coral Zone since the 1790s. Upright solitary 

corals, branching corals, stromotoporoids, 

brachiopods, a colonial coral called pipe organ 

coral, another called honeycomb coral, and 

hexagonaria (known as “Petosky Stone” in 

Michigan) are common. The largest of the horn 

corals (Siphonophrentis elongata) approaches 4 

feet in length. Some of the “coral heads” of the 

colonial corals measure 6 to 8 feet in diameter. 

Individuals forming the colony are linked 

together like a chain, hence its nickname. 

Other colonial corals, horn corals and sponges 

(the biggest are called stromatoporoids) make 

up this coral/stromatoporoid bioherm (patch 

reef ). A variety of other animals are found in 

the Silurian rocks. Tall stalked “flower-like” 

echinoderms are called cystoids. They are 

similar to crinoids in the Devonian, but have 

fewer arms. Unlike corals, the arms are not 

soft, consisting of skeletal plates. Fish are not 

preserved in local rocks, but no doubt swam in 

the ancient tropical seas. (Animals that swim 

are more rarely preserved as fossils compared to 

animals that were fixed or crawled on the sea 

floor.) Fish developed nearly 120 million years 

earlier, but did not reach abundance until the 

Devonian period. 

The overlying Devonian-aged Jeffersonville 

Limestone is dominated by corals in a true 

patch reef with large individual corals being 

scattered across the sea floor along with smaller 

colonial or solitary corals and other organisms. 

Preserved fish are almost unheard of in the 

Jeffersonville Limestone, but do exist. Reef 

environments are dynamic, soft body parts 

are almost always devoured by scavengers and 

bacteria. Quick burial and a quiet environment 

are essential to preserve delicate organisms 

like fish. The Jeffersonville sea was most likely 

shallow, from less than 3 feet (1 meter) to 

perhaps 30 feet (10 meters) deep. Scattered 

islands dotted the region. The evidence of 

these islands is very small (literally) being the 

freshwater charophyte algae eggs found in rock


Figure 36. Geologic map and cross section of the various fossil beds of the Falls of the Ohio 

( from Powell, 1965). 

137


layers which are about 0.5 mm across. Today, 

charophyte algae can be found in bodies of 

water where calcium is dissolved. During the 

Devonian, islands with freshwater ponds must 

have been common, allowing billions of algae 

eggs to get washed into the sea. 

The uppermost layer, or the youngest rock, 

is the Paraspirifer Acuminatus Zone, which 

contains fossils of brachiopods (including 

paraspirifers, a two-shelled animal similar to a 

clam); bryozoans (commonly called lace coral); 

trilobites; and some solitary, branching, and 

colonial corals. 

The second layer is called the Fenestrate 

Bryozoan-Brachiopod Zone. Named for 

the predominant fossils found there, this 

layer contains many of the same corals and 

brachiopods as the Paraspirifer Acuminatus 

Zone. Here one also can find crinoid stems in 

abundance. Crinoids are animals that looked 

like plants, sporting “roots” and “flowers.” When 

the crinoid died, the body segments separated 

and fossilized, leaving small, doughnut-shaped 

segments. Prehistoric man used these very 

popular fossils, which are often called “Indian 

beads,” to make necklaces. 

A six-inch-thick layer called the Brevispirifer 

Gregarius Zone is next lowest, and contains 

fossils of brachiopods and gastropods (sea 

snails). The smallest horn corals, or cup 

corals, begin to appear here. One of the Falls’ 

most unusual corals, called a stromatoporoid, 

first appears in this layer. It is unclear if the 

stromotoporoid is a reef-building colonial 

coral or a sponge, but the creature played an 

important role in the makeup of the fossil bed. 

The Amphipora Ramosa Zone, commonly 

called the Cave Zone, attracts attention for 

reasons other than the matlike stromotoporoids 

or the branching corals. Pocket caves have 

developed here due to the powerful erosive 

powers of the Ohio River rushing across the 

rock. This zone occurs along the vertical cliffs 

of the river channel, where the cutting force 

of the river reaches its peak. When water and 

oxygen come into contact with the limestone, 

a weak carbonic acid forms and dissolves the 

limestone. This phenomenon, combined with 

138 

freeze and thaw erosion and the sweeping 

power of the river, causes the bedrock to erode 

quickly and erratically, leaving shallow caves 

where the rock once lay. 

T h e l a r g e s t h o r n c o r a l i s c a l l e d 

Siphonophretis elongata. It was the first fossil 

from the Falls of the Ohio described in scientific 

literature (in 1820). This was the largest horn 

coral that ever lived. It is generally thought to 

lie prostrate on the sea floor, curving upward 

to catch plankton with its stinging tentacles. 

To reach lengths of up to 5 feet (1.6 meters), 

meant it had a long life span. 

Other contributors of mass to the reef 

include stromatoporoid sponges, some forming 

bumpy mounds, others short and grass-like. 

Lacy bryozoans - moss animals which had 

sieve-like fans, which allowed water currents 

to flow through. These microscopic animals 

fed on plankton. Perhaps because they shared 

an ecological niche similar to corals, bryozoans 

were not abundant while the coral patch reef 

was living. Trilobites were mobile scavengers, 

crawling around the sea bottom, much like 

lobsters today. Trilobites shed their skin by 

molting as they grew. Most fossil finds are of 

these molts. 

Shelly animals include snails big and small, 

brachiopods and clams.. Brachiopods are 

not clams, their internal anatomy and shell 

symmetry is different. These were stationary 

creatures, like barnacles are today. The shelly 

animals were much more abundant after the 

coral patch reef had been buried by sediment. 

Clams lived buried in the sediment and were 

usually found on the sea floor as empty shells. 

Coiled and straight-coned cephalopods swam 

in the Devonian sea, preying upon soft-bodied 

animals. 

Stalked echinoderms were more common 

after the corals had perished. Large flower like 

crinoids and nut-like blastoids fed on plankton, 

elevated above the sea floor into nutrient-rich 

currents. Mobile echinoderms like starfish and 

echinoids (urchins) existed, but are almost 

never found intact as fossils. 

The Devonian is sometimes called the “Age 

of Fishes” because they became abundant at

that time. Locally, they are rarely preserved, 

except as teeth and scales. The armored fish 

related to the giant arthrodire and cartilaginous 

fish-like sharks, and bony fish like coelacanths 

(lobe finned fish) developed in the Middle 

Devonian, therefore well-preserved remains are 

scarce. The needle-like teeth of one coelacanth 

can be found in the youngest layers of the 

Jeffersonville Limestone. 

The overlying Devonian-age North Vernon 

Limestone is found on the far end of Goose 

Island, near the upper gates of the dam. The 

best exposures of this strata are northeast of 

the Falls near Charlestown and Sellersburg. 

This formation has a different variety of fossils 

compared to the underlying Jeffersonville 

Limestone. Crinoids are more abundant and 

diverse. Corals are still common, but less 

diverse. Mollusks, especially snails and clams, 

are more common. Echinoderms include 

crinoids and blastoids. Crinoid stalks have 

spine-like flanges for hooking to the substrate, 

which kept the animal from being swept away 

by currents. Most other crinoids and blastoids 

had “rootlets” (called cirri) radiating away from 

the base. 

Mollusks include snails, clams, and 

Travel to Lost River along U.S. 150, 

Up the Knobstone, and across the 

Mitchell Plain along the Buffalo Trace 

Fr o m t h e Fa l l s o f t h e O h i o , w e w i l l 

retrace our Louisville Riverfront path back to 

Interstate 64 and up the Knobstone Escarpment 

near Floyds Knob, traveling a short distance 

across the Norman Upland to the U.S. 150 

interchange. We will then travel northwest on 

U.S. 150 across Norman Upland and the Mitchell 

Plain to Hardinsburg. The total distance is about 

34 miles. See Figures 36, 37, and 38. 

The Knobstone Escarpment is a classic 

regional erosional feature with up to 500 feet 

of relief developed upon resistant interbedded 

shales, siltstones, and sandstones of the Borden 

Group and the Kinderhookian Series rocks. 

The western dip slope border of the Knobstone 


scallops. Most clams are not visible in the 

living position because they lived buried 

in the sediment, with only their siphons 

sticking out. Their empty shells littered the 

sea floor, just as they do today. Brachiopods 

are among the most abundant animals in 

the North Vernon Limestone. A type called 

“spiriferids” are exquisitely preserved in 

some layers, and some show rare internal 

structure. One trilobite, called Phacops, is 

common in this formation. It can found flat 

or enrolled. Trilobites enrolled when they 

sensed danger. A storm or a shift in sea floor 

sediment might bury them. Most Devonian 

trilobites have multi-faceted eyes similar 

to an insect’s. These creatures may have 

been the first organisms to see the world 

around them clearly and in color. A large 

fish was Cladoselache, a primitive shark. The 

overlying Beechwood Limestone contains 

arthrodire (armored) fish plates, exceeding 

6” across. The fossil fish bone fragments 

are black, but turn blue upon exposure to 

sunlight. They are most common where 

limestone rock changes to black shale. The 

thin layer is called a “bone bed.” 

Escarpment is the Norman Upland, grading 

into the Mitchell Plain where Borden Group 

clastics are increasingly overlain by the mid- 

Mississippian-aged limestones of the Ramp 

Creek, Harrodsburg, and Salem limestones 

from east to west. State Road 150 crosses many 

surface streams in the Normal Upland. State 

Road 150 follows the historic Buffalo Trace 

and is often built along some ridge tops of the 

Mitchell Plain, offering the tourist many scenic 

vistas, especially across the headwaters valley of 

the Blue River. The highest Norman Upland 

elevations far to the east are underlain by the 

argillaceous, poorly consolidated quartz sand, 

Tertiary aged, Ohio River Formation. The 

Mitchell Plain begins near Galena in western 

Floyd County and is well developed about 

where U.S. 150 crosses from Floyd County into 

Harrison County near Greenville. 

139


Along U.S. 150 there are numerous 

exposures of the Borden, the Ramp Creek 

Formation, the Harrodsburg Limestone, the 

Salem Limestone, the St. Louis Limestone 

grading into the Ste. Genevieve from east to 

west. The massive and lighter colored Salem 

Limestone has distinctive and easily recognized 

cross-bedding, while the darker colored and 

fossiliferous Ramp Creek and Harrodsburg 

limestones contain the vast majority of the 

famous southern Indiana quartz geodes and 

many large crinoid stems. The argillaceous 

140 

Figure 37. Location of Geology trip stops 6 through 10 on the regional geologic base map 

(modified from Camp and Richardson, 1999). 

and thinner bedded nature of the St. Louis is 

distinct from the Salem and the overlying Ste. 

Genevieve. 

The Mitchell Plain and associated 

physiographic units are generally thought to 

have been largely developed in the Miocene 

Epoch of the Tertiary Period, or about the 

last 25 million years. During the Quaternary 

Epoch (the last two million years) the features 

have continued to evolve, with the numerous 

glacial periods adding new influences such as 

periglacial conditions (ice margin freezing)


Figure 38. U.S. 150 crosses the Blue River at Fredricksburg, which is incised about 100 feet below the 

Mitchell Plain surface. In this area South Fork Blue River joins the main stem of the Blue River in a 

greatly enlarged complex valley that is surrounded by sinkhole plain. 

and large scale down cutting of major base level 

streams such as the White River and the Ohio 

River which were major glacial sluiceways, 

and streams such as the Blue River which have 

drained the Norman Upland and Mitchell 

Plain for at least a few million years 

The entrenchment of the Ohio and White 

rivers and their tributaries readjusted the base 

level of the Mitchell Plain area, leading to the 

formation of the modern karst. While many 

141


of the Mitchell Plain and Crawford Upland 

caves no doubt have Tertiary-age passages and 

origins, many caves have a direct connection to 

incision of the White River (for example, Blue 

Spring, Donaldson, Hamer, Buddha, Dog Hill- 

Donnehue) ( Johnson, 1992), and the Ohio 

River and Blue River, notably Wyandotte, 

Binkleys, and Marengo (many workers, 

including Ash, Palmer, Powell, and others). 

U.S. 150 passes through Palmyra which 

is located on the “Central Barrens,” a former 

large prairie. The Mitchell Plain was either 

a prairie/savannah or was locally forested 

prior to European settlement, but the rolling 

topography is now largely farmed. Deforestation 

and farming practices have led to massive 

sinkhole and cave system siltation since the mid 

1800s. Terra rosa soil exposure and numerous 

sinkholes are along the roadside. Note the 

prevalence of small cedar trees which thrive on 

the highly mineralized and well drained terra 

rosa soils. Note Crawford Upland outliers and 

the Chester Escarpment to southwest and west. 

The summits are 150 feet above the Mitchell 

Plain and caves in the outliers are older than 

the Mitchell Plain. 

Continuing west, U.S. 150 comes to the 

Blue River at Fredricksburg which is incised 

about 100 feet below the Mitchell Plain surface 

(Figure 31). In this area South Fork Blue River 

joins the main stem Blue River in an greatly 

enlarged complex valley which is surrounded 

by sinkhole plain with thousands of sinkholes. 

The area has many sinking streams, caves and 

142 

The Buffalo Trace: The Original National Road 

As the Northwest Territory was opened 

to settlement in the early 1800s, settlers 

moved into southern Indiana via two major 

routes. Those from North Carolina moved 

westward into Tennessee, northward into 

Kentucky, then crossed the Ohio River into 

Indiana. One of the common places for crossing 

was at the Falls of the Ohio near Louisville, 

Kentucky. The territory that was to become the 

state of Indiana was covered with hardwood 

springs in this region. 

Continuing westward, U.S. 150 crosses 

into Washington County, and then enters 

a transitional area between the Plain and 

the Crawford Upland before coming to 

Hardinsburg which is just shy of the Orange 

County line. U.S. 150 travels on top of the Blue 

River Strath in this general vicinity (Powell, 

1964). Here we are still in the Blue River basin, 

but by traveling north from Hardinsburg, 

we enter the Lost River Basin portion of the 

Mitchell Plain within a few miles and exit the 

Crawford Upland. We are still in Washington 

County. Sunderman (1968) has prepared a 90page 

Washington County report published by 

the Indiana Geological Survey which discusses 

in detail the varied local geology of the eastern 

Lost River basin. To the north and east of 

Hardinsburg are the Sinks of Sinking Creek 

which receive stormwater from the karst valleys 

to the east and northwest, and then sink before 

it reemerges along the Blue River at Radcliff 

Springs about 2.5 miles to the south 

From the Hardinsburg area, the trip now 

begins a 30 to 45 minute tour of the eastern 

and western Mitchell Plain and Lost River 

karst, and up the Chester Escarpment to the 

Crawford Upland, finally arriving at Wesley 

Chapel Gulf, allowing for observation of 

unique Lost River topography. We begin by 

cutting northward cross-country through a 

series of alluviated valleys full of Tertiary-age 

material derived from the retreat of the lowered 

Crawford Upland outliers. 

forests and contained several areas of swamp 

land. Settlers found that they were not the first 

to use that crossing. For many years, perhaps 

millions of buffalo had migrated seasonally 

from central Illinois to Kentucky and had worn 

a wide path through the forests. Figure 39 is a 

regional map of the Trace. 

Two wagons could travel abreast over much 

of the trail. Being typically 12 to 20 feet wide in 

some places, it had worn through solid rock to a

depth of 12 feet. This became known as the Old 

Buffalo Trace. It is estimated that two-thirds of 

the early settlers of southern Indiana used this 

path. U.S. 150 from Louisville to Vincennes, 

Indiana, generally follows the same route as 

that early buffalo trail. As settlers progressed 

westward, many stayed at the small settlements 

that were established along the trail. The area 

of Washington, Orange, Martin, and Lawrence 

counties are full of the footprints of our early 

Indiana ancestors. Those coming from the 

east used the Ohio River as their highway and 

entered Indiana from several landing points 

Figure 39. Buffalo Trace map. 


along the river. Again, Louisville was a major 

entry point, but many also landed at Fredonia 

and moved northward along the Blue River 

Trace to where it intercepted the Old Buffalo 

Trace. 

[The above information was extracted 

from the book “Who’s Your Hoosier Ancestor? - 

Genealogy for Beginners” by Mona Robinson, 

1992, Indiana University, Bloomington, 

Indiana, and from the Historic Southern 

Indiana and Hoosier National Forest Web 

sites.] 

143

Sinking streams, sinkholes, springs, and 

caverns are common features of karst 

terrains and known to laymen as well as 

experienced cavers. The Lost River area has 

many classic examples of other subterranean 

drainage features, including swallowholes, dry 

bed or overflow channels, blind valleys, semiblind 

valleys, karst valleys, sinkhole ponds, 

karst fens (shallow sinkhole wetlands), karst 

windows, dolines, collapse sinkholes, gulfs, 

subterranean cut-offs, cave springs, and artesian 

or alluviated cave springs (Figure 17). 

Lost River heads in Washington County 

and flows westward as a normal surface stream 

until it reaches the eastern margin of the 

sinkhole plain (Figure 40). Here it sinks into 

the carbonate bedrock and flows through 

solution conduits to a resurgence some 7 

miles to the west. Between the river’s sink and 

resurgence are some 22 miles of meandering 

dry bed. This section of the river’s channel 

contains no water except during extremely 

wet periods. Lost River is the largest sinking 

stream in the state with over 48 square miles 

of drainage disappearing underground at the 

sinks [although Indian Creek is reported to 

have 200 square miles (KS)]. The entire Lost 

River drainage basin contains about 355 square 

miles, but the topographic basin upstream from 

the True Rise of Lost River that contains about 

144 

The Lost River Field Trip 

Written and compiled by Kevin Strunk, LPG, using numerous guidebooks, especially the 

1973 and 1992 NSS Convention Guidebooks (Powell and Bassett), and also including portions 

of field trips of the 1980 (Ruhe and Olson) and 1983 (Powell and Krothe) Geological Society 

of America conventions, various Indiana Geological Survey publications, and the independent 

work of Malott, Powell, Bassett, Armstrong, Hobbs, Fee, Deebel, and many others. The Lost 

River is covered on the Georgia, Mitchell, French Lick, and Paoli topographic maps, and is in 

Washington and Orange counties. 

Lost River Summary 

By Dr Richard L. Powell 

and John Bassett, LPG 

(edited and updated from the 1973 and 1992 NSS Convention Guidebooks, and the 1999 and 

2003 Lost River and Spring Mill guidebooks of the Indiana Geological Survey) 

163 square miles within the Mitchell Plain 

and Crawford Upland physiographic units 

is the part characterized by karst topography 

and subterranean drainage (Figure 30, Malott, 

1922). 

The Mitchell Plain is a low karst plateau 

underlain with limestone bedrock of 

Mississippian age which is dipping slightly 

westward to underlie the Crawford Upland— 

a rugged dissected cuesta capped with shales, 

sandstones, and thin limestones of the Chester 

Series. The Mitchell Plain itself contains two 

very distinct physiographic divisions that are 

readily distinguishable in the field. The easternmost 

of the units is a gently undulating surface 

of slight relief. This area is regionally inclined 

to the west, and a rather sharp boundary exists 

between it and an extensive sinkhole plain to 

the west. The sinkhole plain occupies a belt 

extending north to south through the basin. 

The sinkhole plain has been cited as a classic 

karst area. It contains several well-known karst 

features such as dolines, swallets, springs, grikes, 

karst windows, and the like, which will be seen 

on the trip. 

The western boundary of the Mitchell 

Plain in the Lost River area is the prominent 

Chester Escarpment oriented along a reentrant 

valley into the Crawford Upland. Outliers of 

the Crawford Upland in the Mitchell Plain

Lost River Field Trip 

Figure 40. Map of the Lost River area showinfg subterranean drainage routes. (See Figure 42, 43, and 44 

also) (modified from Powell, 1961, and Murdock and Powell, 1968). 

145


were formed as residual hills by surface stream 

erosion coupled with escarpment retreat 

(Ruhe, 1974) during Tertiary time, as was the 

dendritic drainage pattern of the deep valleys 

within the Crawford Upland. Some valleys of 

the Crawford Upland that are characterized 

by subterranean drainage are karst valleys. The 

floors of these valleys are at grade with the 

upland surface of the Mitchell Plain within the 

Lost River drainage basin, and were karsted 

during Pleistocene time as Lost River deeply 

entrenched through the Tertiary clay deposits 

into the limestone bedrock and developed 

subterranean tributaries at grade with the 

bedrock channel (Powell, 1964). 

The bedrock valley of Lost River 

downstream from the Orangeville area is 

backfilled with colluvial, alluvial, and lacustrine 

sediments of Pleistocene age which have 

effectively dammed the lower parts of caverns 

in the Lost River area, raising the water table 

and causing artesian conditions. The high water 

table conditions cause rapid and extensive 

flooding of the subterranean conduits and the 

temporary overland routes. 

146 

Dr Clyde A. Malott, a late geology 

professor at Indiana University, observed 

stream flow conditions within the Lost River 

area for over 25 years prior to his death in 

1952. He presented several papers dealing with 

detailed descriptions of the karst features and 

caverns and tracing the subterranean drainage 

routes (see references). Dr Malott constructed 

a topographic map of the entire area using an 

aneroid barometer and plane table, as well as 

detailed sketch maps and surveys of some of 

the individual major karst features. Malott’s 

methods would be considered somewhat 

primitive by today’s standards but modern 

methods have revealed only minor changes in 

his work and interpretations. 

Dye Traces and Drainage Basins 

Ten separate fluorescein tests were 

conducted to determine subterranean drainage 

routes within the Lost River watershed 

(Murdock and Powell, 1968). The results are 

summarized in Figure 41, which accompanies 

Figure 40. Additional dye traces have been 

reported by Noel Krothe and his students at 

Figure 41. Explanation of symbols and data for dye tracing results in Figure 43 

( from Murdock and Powell, 1968).


Figure 42 Physiography of the upper Lost River watershed. The Crawford Upland is shown in black. Symbols 

locate features: TR, Tom Rice Hills; F, Frederick soil site; M, Mann Farm sinkholes; O, Orleans outlier; W, 

Wesley Chapel watershed; G, Mt. Gilead watershed; T, Tucker watershed; and C, Tucker core site ( from 

Ruhe and Olson, 1980). 

147


Figure 43. Upper Lost River watershed showing the angular integrated drainage net and the sinkhole plain. 

Arrows show the subsurface flow paths to the Orangeville Rise (O), Lost River Rise (L), Lick Creek (L), and 

Spring Mill State Park (S); W, G, and T are subwatersheds; numbers 17, 34, and 80 are average thicknesses 

of terra rosa in feet. Note the orientation of the joint-controlled drainage net ( from Ruhe and Olson, 1980). 

This map has been updated by the John Basset map in figure 37. 

148


Figure 44. Compilation of multiple dye traces better defining the Lost River, Orangeville Rise, Blue Spring Cave, Spring Mill State Park, and other 

subsurface watersheds (Bassett, 2000). 

14


Indiana University. A new series of dye traces 

associated with the Indiana Department of 

Transportation and some regional groundwater 

quality studies have resulted in many more 

since 1992 as discussed below. (KS). 

The Lost River topographic watershed 

above the True Rise of Lost River can be 

divided into three parts on the basis of tracing 

the normal and low-flow subterranean drainage 

(Figure 30). The northeastern part includes 

about 40.7 square miles in the Crawford 

Upland and Mitchell Plain that is tributary to 

the rise at Orangeville. The central portion is 

mostly within the Mitchell Plain and covers 

about 107.8 square miles of drainage, including 

the upper part of the Lost River, which is 

tributary to the True Rise of Lost River. This 

portion includes the major part of the dry bed 

and sinkhole plain area commonly associated 

with Lost River. The remaining part is the karst 

valley of the South Fork of Stamper Creek 

that is tributary to Lick Creek, an area of 14.5 

square miles. Flood flows within the entire 

drainage basin fill the subterranean conduits 

and overflow into surface flood channels or dry 

beds, ultimately to discharge into Lost River. 

Modern flood flows essentially reoccupy the late 

Tertiary or early Pleistocene surface routes that 

were regularly used prior to the development 

of karst features and caverns during early and 

middle Pleistocene time. Surficial stream 

meanders are incised into both alluvium and 

bedrock, but demonstrate that the Lost River 

has in the past acted like a regular river during 

flood events, and continues to do so today. 

The northern boundary of the Lost River 

drainage basin with the Mitchell Plain is drawn 

(Figure 40) along a low topographic divide. 

Drainage to the north is to the East Fork White 

River through such caverns as Blue Spring Cave 

(Palmer, 1968), the three river caves in Cave 

River Valley, and the Donaldson-Twin Caves 

which drain the sinks of Mosquito Creek 

(Brune (1949) and Powell (1961) pp 60–61, 

63, and 73). 

Malott (1952) suggested that the drainage 

of the dismembered portions of Beaver 

Creek, including areas to the northwest of 

150 

Wadsworth Hollow, were tributary to the 

rise at Orangeville through caverns such as 

Beaver Creek Swallowhole Cave and Salts 

Cave. However, the fluorescein test has proven 

that the area drains instead to Sulphur Creek, 

more or less down the dip of the local bedrock 

rather than along the strike (1, Figure 40). The 

subterranean gradient from the swallowhole to 

the spring on Sulphur Creek is 27 feet per mile, 

which is about the same as the local dip of the 

bedrock. 

Show Farm Cave (2, Figure 40) trends 

along strike-oriented joints southward towards 

the rise at Orangeville (Powell, 1961, p 102). 

The dye test showed that the drainage resurges 

at Orangeville. Flood water follows surface 

channels of Dry Branch to Orangeville. 

Topographic maps show that the area’s 

surface drainage is toward Orangeville, but 

the divide between subterranean drainage that 

is tributary to the rise at Orangeville and that 

water which is tributary to the rise of Lost 

River, is not discernable on the surface. Two 

tests were made to trace subterranean drainage 

at Orleans that Malott (1952) suggested was 

tributary to the rise at Orangeville. Fluorescein 

was dumped into a sinking stream, Flood 

Creek, on the west side of the town of Orleans, 

and into the sewage plant (3 and 4, Figure 40) 

that discharges its wastes into a sinkhole on the 

south side of town. Both were detected at the 

rise at Orangeville. 

Drainage of the upper part of Lost River (5, 

Figure 40) was traced to the True Rise of Lost 

River about one mile south of Orangeville (C, 

Figure 40). The dye test was detected visually in 

the rise at Wesley Chapel Gulf, confirming the 

studies of Malott (1932). The stream includes 

drainage from Carter Creek, and the North 

and South Forks of Lost River. Near the sink 

where the dye was injected, Lost River is joined 

by an upland dry bed that carries overflow flood 

waters from the South Fork of Stamper Creek 

and joins Stamper Creek and several other 

small streams that drain westward off the thick 

clay-covered portion of the Mitchell Plain. 

The Sinks of Stamper Creek (6, Figure 40) 

were traced to the True Rise of Lost River, not

to Lick Creek to the southeast as proposed 

by Malott (1952). Hudelson Cavern (Malott, 

1948) lies along the direct route between the 

Sinks of Stamper Creek and the Rise of Lost 


The South Fork of Stamper Creek diverts 

drainage into subterranean routes through one 

or many swallowholes along the streambed, 

according to the amount of water in the stream. 

All of the subterranean drainage of the South 

Fork of Stamper Creek discharges into Lick 

Creek which lies down dip and topographically 

lower. The upstream part of the South Fork 

in the vicinity of Trotters Crossing (9, Figure 

40) was found to be diverted westward into 

the headwaters area of Lick Creek. All of the 

downstream part of the valley of South Fork (7 

and 8, Figure 40) is tributary to Spring Mill on 

Lick Creek. The downstream end of the South 

Fork was dyed during flood conditions, the only 

time that water flows this far downstream. 

Malott, on an unpublished map, indicated 

Stop 6, Intersection of State Road 337 

and State Road 56 at Livonia 

Turn/bear right (northwest) onto State Road 

337. Proceed about 6 miles and just past the 

small crossroads Village of Bromer, turn right 

(north) on County Road 650E at about 275 

N. Continue north about 1.5 miles to County 

Road 425N at the south edge of the Lost River 

valley. Turn left (west) and meander through the 

valley for about1.5 miles back to State Road 337, 

emerging at about 490N. The Stamper Creek 

basin is to the southwest (Figure 45). 

Note the rolling Mitchell Plain topography 

which will make an abrupt transition down to 

the entrenched surface stream of the wet Lost 

River several miles upstream of the dry weather 

sinks. While there are many sinks, there is also 

relatively thick soil over the limestone. There 

are two major soil/sediment types: the redcolored 

residual, limestone-derived soil called 

terra rosa (Latin: red earth ) that is Tertiary in 

age, and a buff to reddish wind-blown glacial 

Lost River Road Log from Hardinsburg 


that Half Moon Spring on Lick Creek (F, 

Figure 30) was in part fed by the South Fork of 

Stampers Creek, but the only drainage traced 

to that spring by the fluorescein studies was 

that from the Sinks of Lick Creek. 

Update on Lost River-Orangeville- 

Sulphur Spring-Blue Springs Dye 

Traces (1992–1999) 

Since 1992, many more dye traces have peen 

performed within the Lost River, Orangeville, 

Sulphur Spring, Blue Spring, and Spring Mill 

drainage areas by a USGS study (Bayless, et 

al; 1994), by the Indiana Geological Survey 

(Spring Mill State Park studies) and by John 

Bassett, Jim Keith, Andy Duwelius, and others 

associated with the consulting firms of Earth 

Tech and WW Engineering and Science 

(1994–2000). These have resulted in a refined 

basin delineation for the areas as seen in Figure 

44. A picture says a thousand words. 

silt (loess) Quaternary in age that frequently 

overlies the terra rosa. The distribution of both 

of these materials varies greatly. The soil cover in 

this portion of the Mitchell Plain can be 80 or 

more feet thick. Headward development of the 

Lost River and Blue River drainages in future 

millennia may greatly reduce the thickness of 

these sediments as has occurred in the western 

Mitchell Plain. 

In this vicinity is the confluence of the 

South Fork and the North Fork of Lost River, 

and the Lost River nearly has its greatest 

surficial flow at this point (the greatest surficial 

flow is downstream of the Carters Creek 

confluence, (Figure 45). Note that here the 

Lost River occupies a fair-sized, normal incised 

stream valley cut 30 to 50 feet into the soil and 

bedrock surface of the eastern Mitchell Plain. 

The incision suggests that the Mitchell Plain 

was formed prior to the current Lost River 

drainage being established. The valley is filled 

with Quaternary-age alluvial deposits derived 

from the upper Mitchell Plain. Here the valley 

151


152 

Figure 45: Tour map and topographic map of the area where Lost River makes the transition from an alluviated surface stream incised into 

the terra rosa-mantled Mitchell Plain to a dry bed incised into the sinkhole plain. Ten-foot contour interval.


Figure 46. Topographic map of the area where Lost River makes the transition from an alluviated surface stream to a dry streambed incised 

into the sinkhole plain. Ten-foot contour interval. 

153


is about 0.5 mile wide and has typical surface 

stream features. As the valley is traversed, the 

road ascends the western wall back up to the 

Mitchell Plain near State Road 337, offering 

views of many of the geomorphic features in 

the area (wet stream, alluviated valley, sinkhole 

plain, and upland to the west). 

154 

Figure 47. Tour map and topographic map showing Tolliver Swallowhole, Wesley Chapel Gulf, and other karst and geomorphic 

features of the Lost River, sinkhole plain, Chester Escarpment, and Crawford Upland. 

At State Road 337, turn right (northwest) 

and go about 0.75 miles to the intersection of 

State Road 337 and County Road 500N. Turn 

right (west). Do not turn on County Road 500E, 

which is near at hand also. 

Continue on 500N across the extreme 

western fringe of the eastern Mitchell Plain

Figure 48A though D. Clyde Malott’s sketches 

of the principal sinks and other features of Lost 

River (modified from Malott, 1952). 


155


which has a relatively thicker veneer of terra 

rosa than many other nearby areas. Note 

that the sinks are fewer in number, and both 

shallower and broader than the sinkhole plain 

will we cross closer to State Road 37. The Lost 

River surficial valley is to the north, and is 

beginning to narrow considerably. To the south 

about 0.75 miles are many karst fens, which are 

wetlands formed in the shallow, broad solution 

sinks in this area. Most of the sinks were small 

fens before European settlement disturbed the 

native landscape. 

Continue west into the transitional 

boundary between the eastern soil-blanketed 

Mitchell Plain and the western sinkhole plain. 

County Road 500N will come to the large 

Riverview Farms on the north. Note that the 

Lost River is immediately to the north and 

behind the farm buildings. The first dry weather 

sink is 0.25 miles north of the farm, as is a small 

in-channel resurgence termed the Orange 

County Bluehole (Robert Armstrong, personal 

communication, 1991). The first sink is about 

1 mile upstream of the principal dry-weather 

sinks. The true western sinkhole plain portion 

of the Mitchell Plain has now been entered. 

Continue to the Intersection of County 

Roads 500N and 200E. Turn right (north) 

onto 200E. Proceed 0.1 mile to the bridge 

over the Lost River with views up and down 

the valley (Figures 45 and 46). Note that the 

upstream valley has narrowed to about 0.3 

miles in width at this point and becomes more 

narrow still just downstream of the bridge. The 

southern riverbank is also the valley wall, and it 

is much steeper than the northern valley wall. 

To the north of the bridge the Lost River is still 

acting like a normal meandering surface stream 

in an alluviated valley, but to the south and 

west the river begins to downcut even more 

into a distinct channel below the grade of the 

Mitchell Plain, and looses the morphology of 

an alluviated valley. The sediments are being 

carried underground. Miles Cave (2,800 feet) 

is one of the eastern-most components of 

the underground Lost River, and is located 

downstream about 0.75 miles. Miles Cave 

exhibits some evidence of being controlled 

156 

more by bedding planes than vertical joints as 

it is up to 20 feet wide, but only 10 feet high 

(Bates, 1932, unpublished survey with notes). 

In this area of valley narrowing, the probability 

of a buried swallowhole with impeded inflow 

of storm water is high (Powell and Krothe, 

1983). 

Turn left (west) onto County Road 500N 

and proceed west towards State Road 37 past 

Roosevelt Road. Drive across the lower (most 

downstream) portion of the alluviated Lost 

River valley, up an erosional-alluvial terrace, up 

the true valley wall, and then along and up the 

southern flank of a large sandstone capped hill 

which is an outlier of the Crawford Upland. 

The Lost River valley, and the principal dry 

weather sinks (unnamed) are about 0.3 miles 

away on the south side of the road. Figure 48 

has Malott’s original (1949) maps of these and 

other features. 

Roosevelt Road (Highway 46) is the 

original settlement-era road to Paoli from 

Orleans. There are good views of the Lost 

River valley to the south. Note the fairly 

apparent erosion levels in the area. These 

represent the pre-Tertiary surface drainage 

(Crawford Upland outliers), the Tertiary 

surface drainage (Mitchell Plain), and 

the Pleistocene subterranean drainageinfluenced 

(Lost River) erosion-deposition 

surfaces. One mile south (and slightly west) 

at the Roosevelt Road bridge over the dry 

channel are several smaller storm-water 

swallowholes which are about 1 mile east 

and upstream of Stein Swallowhole. Stein 

Swallowhole, developed in the St. Louis 

Limestone, is the first wet weather sink 

(Figures 46, 47, and 48B). Following heavy 

rains, large quantities of water descend to 

the underground Lost River about 25 feet 

below the dry bed. Malott (1952) estimated 

its capacity at 750 cubic feet per second 

from a stream of water 7 to 8 feet deep. A 

huge timber raft 100 feet by 60 feet typically 

fills the sinkhole and no entry is available to 

the cave passages. When Stein overflows, 

the storm water travels down the dry bed 2 

miles to Turner Swallowhole.

State Road 37 Corridor to Wesley 

Chapel Gulf 

Stop 7 

Continue to the Intersection of County 

Road 500N and State Road 37 (Figure 46). 

Turn left (south). To the left (east) 0.3 miles is 

Stein Swallowhole, the first wet weather sink. 

Watch for the State Road 37 bridge over the dry 

bed of Lost River about 1.5 miles to the south. 

Here the dry bed is incised 45 feet below 

the Mitchell Plain. Turner Swallowhole is 

located 0.3 miles west, down the dry bed. 

Turner Swallowhole, also developed in the 

St. Louis, is the second wet weather sink, or 

actually a system of at least 40 individual holes 

which take storm water (Figures 47 and 48C). 

Turner has a more complex morphology than 

Stein, but takes at least as much water (750 cfs) 

according to Malott (1952). No cave entrances 

currently exist, although Malott notes that in 

early settlement days a large cavern entrance was 

present in the woods at the Turner Swallowhole 

area, but this has been washed full of timber 

and silt, and the locality now shows few signs 

of the existence of any such cavernous opening. 


[The editor suggests that deforestation and 

subsequent erosion of the Mitchell Plain in 

the mid to late 1800s has resulted in massive 

siltation and obscuring of this and many other 

Lost River features. Wouldn’t it be wonderful 

to have a time machine. (KS)] 

Note the dry bed on right (west) of State 

Road 37 at about 350N. Note the Crawford 

Upland and Chester Escarpment to south 

and west. The trip will ascend and follow the 

escarpment. On State Road 37, the route is 

now on the Mitchell Plain. On the left (east) 

is a small, abandoned, mostly collapsed spring 

alcove/sinkhole. 

Prepare to turn right (west) at the 

intersection of State Road 37 and County 

Road 250N (Figure 47). Turn right (west). 

Proceed west up the toeslope of the Chester 

Escarpment. 

The entire Lost River basin has been 

crossed and now lies to the north. The Lost 

River valley is now a major westward reentrant 

or embayment of the Mitchell Plain into the 

Crawford Upland, with the vertex of the 

embayment in the vicinity of Orangeville. 

West of Orangeville, the resurged Lost River 

Figure 49. A vista across the Lost River looking north across the western Lost River embayment from the 

Crawford Upland with the Tom Rice Hills in the background. Photo by Strunk, March 2007. 

157


is incised deeply into the Crawford Upland, 

attesting to its long history as an active stream 

draining the Mitchell Plain area prior to the 

Lost River becoming part of a subterranean 

network. Without the westward retreat of 

the upland and escarpment, the limestones 

under the Mitchell Plain would not have 

been exposed to the surficial karst processes, 

and the Lost River basin would not exist as 

it does today. Apparently, the Lost River had 

a Tertiary or earlier predecessor which was 

purely a normal antecedent stream eroding and 

downcutting the upland. This is comparable to 

the many antecedent streams in mountainous 

areas which have carved deep canyons, yet 

clearly cut across structure. The Lost River cuts 

perpendicular to the north-striking (and westdipping) 

rocks of the Crawford Upland. 

Proceed west along the flank of the 

escarpment. Along the road are good northerlylooking 

(right) views of the Lost River basin 

(Figure 49). Due north 5.5 miles is the upland 

outliers on the north side of the basin. 

Retreat of the Chester Escarpment and 

Crawford Upland 

Frequently in the above discussion, 

mention has been made of the retreat of the 

Chester Escarpment and Crawford Upland 

being linked to terra rosa origination. During 

the many studies emanating from the ill-fated 

Soil Conservation Service Lost River basin 

projects of the early to mid 1970s, the Crawford 

Upland and Mitchell Plain soils were studied 

extensively by retired IU soil geomorphologist 

Dr Robert Ruhe and his students, notably John 

Bassett, MS, Dr Robert Hall (retired from IU- 

Indianapolis) and Dr Carolyn Olson. These 

phenomena are occurring on the slope upon 

which the road is built. Note how the toeslopes 

resemble the scarp-front pediment erosionaldepositional 

surfaces of the arid western United 

States. Active escarpment retreat is occurring 

here, and the arid pediment model is modified 

(and obscured visually) due to the much wetter 

climatic conditions of Indiana and the resulting 

vegetative slopes. Various sized clasts of Chester 

rocks ranging from cobbles to boulders can be 

158 

found on top of, and mixed in with, limestone 

erosion surfaces and soils, indicating down 

slope transport. 

These researchers conducted investigations 

in this vicinity, which led to the conclusion 

that the sloped surface of the escarpment is 

shedding sediments onto the karsted Mitchell 

Plain which is increased areally as the shedding 

slope retreats to the west. Part of solving the 

origin problem was first recognizing that the 

volume of terra rosa soils far exceeds the volume 

of residual material that could have been 

deposited from the limestones eroded from the 

Mitchell Plain. Another facet was addressing 

the source of the iron which makes the terra 

rosa, well, rosa, since the limestones have a low 

natural iron content. Since the Mitchell Plain 

was never glaciated, the soils had to have a local 

origin (except for wind blown glacial silt known 

as loess). At the bottom of the escarpment 

slopes are piles of the (loess-covered) shedded 

clastic and iron-rich material (residuum) which 

is the parent material for terra rosa soils. Local 

fluvial and paludal depositional patterns greatly 

influence the depth and types and specific 

nature of the soils. The thicker terra rosa soils of 

the eastern and central Mitchell Plain are older 

than those of the western Lost River basin and 

have soil profiles which are dramatically more 

developed. The sinkhole-plain soils have also 

been greatly eroded by the Lost River and other 

sinking stream/cave systems, which post-date 

the retreat and Mitchell Plain development. 

See the numerous articles by Ruhe, Bassett, 

Olson, and Hall for more information. 

Go west about 1.2 miles and stop at the 

three-way triangular intersection with County 

Road 100W. Bear left (south) up the hill a short 

distance and prepare to turn right (west) at top 

of hill onto Sandy Hook Road. This road is on 

top of the Crawford Upland and the escarpment 

in this area. A good vista overlooking the Lost 

River basin is near a log cabin. The Mitchell 

Plain is about 200 feet below the road at this 

point. Note the cedar trees growing on the 

toeslope (pediment) sandy soils. Continue 

on this road in a winding westerly direction 

for about 2 miles until the road bends right,

then proceed down hill to the north towards 

Tolliver Swallowhole on County Road 200W 

(Figure 47). 

Begin to descend the escarpment. Note the 

long pediment-like toeslope to the east as the 

road goes down the slope. Do not turn left at 

next intersection. Proceed north on County 

Road 200W down to the Mitchell Plain level. 

This is a remnant area that is being actively 

altered by the Lost River processes. 

The Tolliver Swallowhole parking area about 

0.7 miles north of intersection. Pull off onto the 

east side of road, avoiding any crops. Prepare to 

walk carefully through crops about 1,500 feet due 

east through the fields to the dry bed. Enter the 

dry bed channel and walk northwesterly about 

1,000 feet to the wooded sink. If there are no 

crops in the fields, is possible to walk diagonally 

directly to the swallowhole, but one then misses 

the dry bed. The dry bed also exhibits normal 

wet-channel fluvial (river) features. NOTE: 

NSS trip will not stop at Tolliver. 

Tolliver Swallowhole (National 

Natural Landmark) 

Tolliver Swallowhole is the third major wetweather 

sink of the Lost River System (Figures 

50 and 51). Tolliver is developed in the upper 

St. Louis and lower Ste. Genevieve, and the 

Lost River chert outcrops. During dry weather 

the water typically sinks east of State Road 37, 

but during flood events the river sinks first at 

Stein Swallowhole, and then travels 2 miles 

to Turner Swallowhole, and then travels 3.75 

dry-river miles west to Tolliver Swallowhole. 

Tolliver Swallowhole handles all but the largest 

flood volumes and is a direct entry to the 

underground Lost River. The above ground 

Lost River is eroded about 25 feet below the 

soil-covered surface of the Mitchell Plain, and 

the incised limestone river floor drops quickly 

40 feet into the swallowhole. Figure 50 is a 

detailed topographic map of a portion of the 

dry bed, the swallowhole, and the cave passage. 

Note that there is a distinct limestone channel 

developed in the basal Ste. Genevieve and upper 

St. Louis leading into the swallowhole, and that 

channel is cut below the grade of the dry bed, 


which continues northward (downstream) past 

Tolliver Swallowhole (Figure 50). Malott placed 

the Ste. Genevive-St. Louis contact at about 590 

feet above sea level. Floodwaters do occasionally 

overflow the swallowhole, causing water to flow 

downstream to the Cul-de-Sac about 2.5 miles 

to the north (which easily overflows). In big 

floods, the entire Lost River is wet all the way 

to the confluence of the dry bed with the Rise 

channel south of Orangeville. Malott (1952) 

reported the dry bed to flood on an average of 

about three times a year, though periods as long 

as a year or more occur in which the entire length 

of the dry bed is not used. Tolliver is by far the 

most spectacular and largest of the swallowholes 

along the dry bed, and Malott (1952) considered 

it to really be a gulf, albeit much smaller than 

Wesley Chapel Gulf. A full-fledged gulf has a 

flat alluviated floor, which is only partially true 

at Tolliver Swallowhole. 

Figure 50 shows the cave passage 

connecting the swallowhole to the main 

passage of underground Lost River. It is muddy 

and dangerous, and is developed in cherty St. 

Louis about 30 feet below the Ste. Genevieve. 

The 1991 Fee survey shows that the cave 

passage drops 35 feet from the bottom of the 

sink, which is about 60 feet below the Mitchell 

Plain surface elevation (610 to 620 feet above 

sea level), placing the upstream underground 

Lost River 95 to 100 feet below the surface at 

an elevation of about 520 feet above sea level. 

The water also resurges via a vertical rise pool 

at Wesley Chapel Gulf, about 1.5 miles to the 

northwest. While there is always a flow from 

this rise pool, it is only during floods that the 

gulf receives much water. 

The fact that the dry bed of Lost River is 

some 35 feet above the bottom of Tolliver 

Swallowhole indicates that the dry bed 

predates the swallowhole. The Lost River is 

deeply incised into the Mitchell Plain, and 

has a meandering pattern across the entire 

surface basin reminiscent of a typical surface 

stream. Moreover, in the vicinity of Tolliver 

Swallowhole, there are at least two other large 

but apparently (entirely or largely) abandoned 

swallowholes. One of these is mentioned above 

15


160 

Figure 50. Map showing details of Tolliver Swallowhole ( from Powell and Krothe, 1983). 

Figure 51. A view of Tolliver Swallowhole. Photo by Byrd and Strunk, 1992.

and is located 0.5 miles north. The other is about 

1,300 feet southeast of Tolliver Swallowhole in 

the wooded area due east of the parking area. 

This feature appears to be a collapsed and 

alluviated former main swallowhole. Other 

apparent former (or current) swallowholes 

(and other features) can be located in the field 

or on topographic maps. Those with greater 

interest should read Malott’s articles. 

North of Tolliver Swallowhole, the dry 

bed meanders for 10 miles in a broad loop 

prior to turning westward. Only a few small 

swallowholes exist, but storm water rises begin 

to develop such as the Mather Storm Water 

Rises (Figure 48D). The Cul-de-Sac sinks are 

currently almost abandoned, but formerly 

directed water to the Mather Rises. 

Travel from Tolliver Swallowhole to 

Wesley Chapel Gulf 

Proceed north on County Road 200W 

about 0.25 miles to intersection with County 

Road 600N (Orangeville Road, Figure 47). 

Turn left (west). Note that there is a slight rise in 


the elevation which is part of a long toeslope of 

the upland outlier to the south beneath which 

is the apparent path of the underground Lost 

River. Watch for the historic Wesley Chapel on the 

south side of the road after 1.5 miles. Turn left 

(south) onto County Road 350W. Proceed 0.3 

miles. Turn left (east) into the lane marked with 

a USDA Forest Service Sign. Go to the loop. 

Stop 8: Wesley Chapel (Elrod) Gulf 

(National Natural Landmark) and The 

Lost River Cave System 

Wesley Chapel (Elrod) Gulf is perhaps 

the most interesting of the Lost River features 

(Figures 47, 52, 53, 54, and 55). The feature was 

originally named after the Elrod Family, a long 

ago owner, but the proximity of Wesley Chapel 

has led to a de facto name change. One of the 

gulf-related caves is named Elrod Cave. The 

term “gulf ” was defined by Malott (1932, pp 

287–288), as a collapse sinkhole that has steep 

walls and characteristically has an alluviated 

floor. There are many such features in Indiana 

(and elsewhere), not all actually called gulfs. 

Figure 52. The alluvial floor of Wesley Chapel Gulf. Photo by Rea and Strunk, 1992. 

161


The Wesley Chapel Gulf (Figure 53) is an 8.3acre 

sinkhole with a rim perimeter of 2,700 feet 

that has collapsed into the underground Lost 

River. The gulf is about 1,000 feet long north 

to south and averages about 350 feet wide east 

to west. It is oriented generally parallel to the 

regional strike of the bedrock. The gulf floor 

has an area of 6.1 acres with steep 25- to 95-foot 

bedrock walls on the southeast side. Wesley 

Chapel Gulf has exclusively formed in the Ste 

Genevieve Limestone, but the cave passages lie 

in the underlying St. Louis Limestone (Malott, 

1932, p 291). 

162 

Figure 53. A topographic map of Wesley Chapel Gulf and portions of the historically known 

Lost River Cave passages (Malott, 1931). 

There is a hanging valley in the northeast 

corner of the gulf which carries surficial 

drainage from the outlier to the east. The gulf 

must have been a local swallowhole in the past, 

but today only minor local surficial drainage 

is captured. Examination of the topographic 

map (Figures 47, 53, 55, and 56) indicates 

that the hanging valley continues west of the 

gulf, suggesting that surface drainage was once 

predominant, and (more obviously) that the 

gulf is younger than the hanging valley. The 

hanging valley is an example of subterranean 

stream piracy caused by the sinkhole collapse,

Figure 54. A view of the rise pool at the southern wall of Wesley Chapel Gulf. 

Photo by Rea and Strunk, 1992. 

with the water reappearing at the True Rise. 

This phenomenon should not be confused 

with subterranean cutoffs where water diverted 

underground from a surface stream (such as the 

dry bed in flood) reappears in the same surface 

channel further downstream (for example: 

perhaps on the other side of a large hill where 

the surface streams meanders around the hill 

while the cave passage travels under the hill). 

In the Lost River, the cutoffs are illustrated 

by the Mather Storm Water Rises where 

water sinking at the Cul-de-Sac swallowhole 

complex travels through Peacher Cave(s) and 

then resurges at the Mather Rises. The Tolliver 

Swallowhole diversion to the Orangeville Rise 

is also a cutoff. 

The relatively-flat and formerly-farmed 

alluviated floor of the gulf contains a perennial 

rise pool in the southeast corner that disgorges 

large volumes of water and sediment during 

floods. The rise is 14 feet deep during normal 

flow stage and discharges from a passage about 

3 feet in diameter that slopes downward until 

it intersects a larger passage about 160 feet 


from the entrance (apparently coming from 

Tolliver Swallowhole). The larger passage is 

10 feet high and 30 feet wide, and extends 

northeastward at least 300 feet according to 

local cave diver Steve Maegerlein. The water 

typically sinks near the pool in dry weather, 

but during a flood the water flows into an 

overflow channel which carries the water to 

numerous [100?] swallowholes along the west 

wall of the gulf where it then flows directly into 

the underground Lost River. Some of these 

cave passages contain a flowing stream during 

normal flow. Other passages are subterranean 

overflow passages. The entire floor of the gulf 

can be flooded if the swallowhole in-flow 

capacity is exceeded, allowing several feet of 

water to inundate the floor of the gulf. This 

has allowed for development of the alluviated 

floor. 

Note: In recent years, 20 plus miles of 

caves have been explored and mapped in the 

Lost River Cave which begins in the Gulf. 

See attached articles by Mark Deebel and 

map of Lost River Cave (Figure 55). 

163


164 

Figure 55. An overlay of the map of Lost River Cave on a topographic map. A—Lost River Cave System, B—True Rise of Lost River, 

C—Orangeville Rise, D—Critchfield Spring Cave, E—Toliver Hollow Cave (Deebel, April 2007).


Figure 56. Geomorphic surfaces within the Wesley Chapel Gulf basin ( from Ruhe and Olson, 1980). 

165


166 

Figure 57. Tour map and topographic map showing the western edge of the Lost River basin 

and embayment transition from the sinkhole plain to the Crawford Upland, as well as the 

Orangeville Rise and the True Rise.

Travel from Wesley Chapel Gulf to 

Orangeville Rise 

Leave the Gulf driveway. Turn right (north) 

onto County Road 200W. Go north to Wesley 

Chapel. Turn left (west) onto Orangeville 

Road. Proceed west passing over a bridge over 

the dry bed of Lost River (Figure 57). 

At the bridge, downstream is to the 

southwest. The dry bed has eroded a long, 

meandering channel pathway far to the north of 

this point. Note the bedrock valley wall incised 

into the Ste. Genevieve on the south side of the 

road. Proceeding west, the road ascends a small 

toeslope spur of the Chester Escarpment which 

is on the north side of the Lost River basin. 

At this point, the Lost River embayment and 

basin is rapidly narrowing, and is in a 1-milewide 

transition zone between the Mitchell 

Plain and the Crawford Upland. The dry bed 

swings widely to the south around this upland 

spur and begins to adopt the morphology of 

an antecedent bedrock stream incised into an 

upland (here the Crawford Upland). 

Come to Intersection of County Roads 

500W and 500N. Bear left (south). Drive to 

Orangeville (Figure 57). 

Note the Dry Branch channel, which is 

an upland stream, on the left side of the road. 

During times of excessive rainfall, surface 

waters overflowing from swallowholes in 

the karst valleys to the north rush down this 

surface channel and enter Lost River just 

below the Orangeville Rise. The karst valley 

of Dry Branch drains southward to the rise at 

Orangeville. Malott (1939, p 1984) described 

karst valleys as dismembered distal ends of 

the former surface systems (in which) the 

minor valleys have been cut through into the 

underlying limestones and karst features have 

developed in the valley floors. The change from 

surface to underground drainage is marked 

by dry beds and swallow-hole features, which 

receive and carry storm waters only. Some 

dismembered side valleys terminate in deep 

individual courses, producing blind valleys 

which end bluntly against higher land. More 

commonly the underground drainage is 

directed out from under the karst valley, but 


occasionally the drainage is recovered in the 

lower section of the same valley, appearing as 

a rise or karst spring. Later stages of the karst 

valleys lead to the development of small karst 

plains hemmed in by clastic ridges or hills. 

The floors of these karst valleys are at grade 

with the upland surface of the Mitchell Plain 

within the Lost River basin to the east. During 

Pleistocene time, the Lost River became 

entrenched through the Tertiary-aged terra 

rosa and other soils into the limestone bedrock 

beneath the Mitchell Plain surface, and 

subsequently developed subterranean routes at 

grade [or slightly below (KS)] with the dry bed 

of Lost River, while the (karst) valleys in the 

Crawford Upland lost their surface drainage 

through subterranean stream piracy (Powell, 

1964) 

The Dry Branch karst valley contains 

several sections of dry beds that empty into 

swallowholes. The subterranean drainage 

rises at the Orangeville Rise. This karst 

valley is unusual in that it carries water in 

its downstream part more often than most 

others in the Crawford Upland. Some karst 

valleys lack any significant dry bed and are 

more like a sinkhole plain. The diversion of 

surface drainage to the underground routes is 

favored by a lower base level of down cutting 

by the recipient stream. [Prior to Ruhe’s work 

(KS)], it was thought that most of the valleys 

may have been formed by antecedent surface 

streams during Tertiary time as a base-level 

counterpart of the Mitchell peneplain of Beede 

(1911, pp 95–97) prior to deep-stage channel 

development of subterranean drainage and 

karst features during Pleistocene time. 

Stop : Orangeville Rise (National 

Natural Landmark) 

The Orangeville Rise is an excellent example 

of a southern Indiana perennial vertical rise 

pool and spring. Figure 58 is a photo of the 

Orangeville Rise and Figure 59 is a sketch 

map and cross section. The Orangeville Rise is 

not the True Rise of the main Lost River but 

rather is the outlet for drainage captured in a 

Crawford Upland sub-basin of about 49 square 

167


168 

Figure 58. The Orangeville Rise. Photo by Strunk, March 2007. 

Figure 59. Sketch map and cross-section of the Orangeville Rise. From Steve Maegerlein, about 1979.

miles (Bassett, 1976 and 2000) to the north 

of the Lost River Basin. See Figure PP for the 

limits of this sub-basin in a new map by Bassett 

(2000). It is the most upstream of the two rises. 

The True Rise of Lost River is a less picturesque 

and less accessible feature located about 0.75 

miles to the south (Figure 60 and 61). 

The Orangeville Rise and the Rise of Lost 

River would have been flooded to a depth of 

about 15 feet by a proposed Soil Conservation 

Service dam on Lost River near Prospect. The 

project was defeated in the early 1970s by a 

coalition of environmental groups, cavers, 

and landowners whose property would have 

been flooded. Horton Hobbs and Robert 

Armstrong, along with many other cavers, 

were instrumental in preparing documentation 

and arguments for the National Speleological 

Society as part of the still-active Lost River 

Conservation Task Force of the NSS. The 

Soil Conservation Service once had long-term 

plans to make drainage improvements to the 

Lost River basin, and a private landowner once 

purchased much of the Lost River downstream 

of the rises with the idea of creating a resort 

lake via a dammed impoundment. The rises 

supposedly would not be inundated, even 

at high lake levels. The Orangeville Rise was 

given to the Indiana Karst Conservancy by 

The Nature Conservancy in 1998 (verbal 

communication, 2007, Keith Dunlap) and, 

like Tolliver Swallowhole and Wesley Chapel 

Gulf, has been declared a National Natural 

Landmark by the National Park Service. 

[Downstream from the Orangeville Rise, 

the Lost River valley widens considerably and 

is filled to a depth of several feet with alluvium. 

Powell (1963) speculated that the rises, 

interpreted to be alluviated, might once have 

been open gravity-flow springs during early or 

middle Pleistocene time. In recent years Powell 

and others have re-thought this hypothesis 

because diving of the True Rise showed that it 

is over 180 feet deep, far below the bottom of 

the alluviated channel of Lost River. See Figure 

61. (KS)] 

The drainage basin supplying the 

Orangeville Rise has been delineated, generally 


at least, by the dye tracings discussed previously. 

The Orangeville Rise is known to drain much 

of the Crawford Upland north of Orangeville, 

as well as a large section of the Mitchell Plain 

north of the Dry Bed. Based on the dye tracing 

work, the Rise is believed to drain over 49 

square miles of the basin. The hydrology of 

the area is a little more complex than was once 

thought. During periods of excessive rainfall, 

much of the water supplying the Rise leaks 

to the surface via several storm water rises 

(Mathers Rises) located principally along the 

Dry Bed in SW ¼ , Sec 34, T3N, R1W, about 3 

miles to the north. (See Figure 44.) 

The water issuing from the Orangeville Rise 

surges upward about 20 feet from openings 

under a ledge of Ste. Genevieve Limestone 

which forms an overhang about 110 feet across. 

Turbid storm waters boil up with great force, 

and flood backwaters frequently overflow the 

deeply incised surface channel downstream 

from the spring and cover the bedrock face 

above the spring. A minimum flow of 9 cubic 

feet per second (cfs) and a maximum flow of 185 

cfs were reported by Bassett (1976, pp 80 and 

83). Maximum discharge at the Rise probably 

does not exceed 250 cfs. Great variation of flow 

is characteristic of most karst springs, especially 

those fed by large or extensive cavern systems. 

The valley of Lost River downstream of the 

Orangeville Rise (and True Rise) is alluviated 

to a depth of 20 to 30 feet. Most of the valleyfill 

material is alluvium and colluvium of 

Pleistocene age. 

In 1973 the chemical character of the 

water emerging at Orangeville was calcium 

bicarbonate. Calcium is the dominant cation, 

making up 71.7 to 80.7 percent of the total 

cation molality, with a mean of 75.9 percent. 

Bicarbonate is the main anion, totaling from 

80.7 to 88.3 percent of the anion molality, with 

a mean of 85 percent. Sulfur isotopic studies 

show a mean isotope 34S (SO 4 ) of 11.51 %, 

indicating shallow flow input and low residence 

time of the water. 

The True Rise of Lost River is located 0.75 

miles south and downstream of the Orangeville 

Rise. It consists of a channel about 100 feet 

16


170 

Figure 60. The True Rise of Lost River. Photo by Byrd and Strunk, 1992. 

Figure 61. Cross-section of the True Rise of Lost 

River. From Steve Maegerlein, about 1978. 

long east to west, 30 feet wide north to south, 

and 11 feet deep confined by mud banks on 

the east side of the Lost River. An underwater 

opening near the east end of the channel is a 

nearly vertical slot that allows divers to descend 

to a depth of 160 feet. Most of the water rises 

in this slot-like passage, as yet unexplored, at 

about the same stratigraphic position of the 

gypsum beds in the lower part of the St Louis 

Limestone. Chemical analyses indicate higher 

sulfate percentages. The True Rise is available 

for visitation by smaller field trip parties. An 

old iron bridge over the dry bed of Lost River 

limits bus traffic. See Figures 60 and 61. 

Travel to State Road 56 and 

French Lick 

From the Orangeville Rise, travel westerly 

and southerly almost 5 miles through the Lost 

River Valley and Crawford Upland to the 

intersection of County Road 725W with State 

Road 56 just east of Prospect. This drive allows 

reexamination of the topographic transition 

from the Crawford Upland to the Mitchell 

Plain, the general Chester Escarpment and

Crawford Upland morphology, and the nowwet 

bed of Lost River. At State Road 56 turn 

right (west) and travel about 1.0 mile to the 

State Road 56 intersection with State Road 145. 

Turn left (south) at the triangle intersection at 

Prospect and travel south to West Baden and 

French Lick. 

Stop 10: Travel to Campground from 

French Lick via Patoka Reservoir, 

Eckerty, and Marengo 

This stop is also a driving tour as we drive 

back to the Campground. We will take the 

Orangeville Road and State Road 145 to the 

historic gambling towns of West Baden and 

French Lick then travel south via State Road 145 

past Patoka Reservoir to Eckerty Junction, and 

then east on State Road 64 to Marengo, and then 

south on State Road 135 to the campground just 

south of Marengo. The scenic route to the NSS 

Campground is about 47 miles long, and takes 

about one hour. (See Figure 37.) 

We will be passing numerous sandstone 

and other outcrops of the Stephensport Group 

strata south along State Road 145 past Patoka 

Reservoir, then the lowermost Pennsylvanianage 

sandstones and shales of the Mansfield 

Formation beginning just north of Eckerty 

and then east on State Road 64 from Eckerty 

Junction for 5 or 6 miles before passing back 

through the Chester Series into the Blue River 

Group limestone exposed near Marengo. The 

creek and river bottoms contain alluvium 

derived from the Crawford Upland. 

French Lick and West Baden Springs 

French Lick does not describe a favorite 

caver delight, but rather harkens back to the 

early French colonization of southern Indiana 

and the nearby salt licks and mineral springs. 

The springs are the mineral-laden discharge 

from the porous sandstones of the Upland. 

These mineral springs, located in a valley of the 

Crawford Upland, became a village which grew 

into an early resort area as the springs became 

famous for their restorative powers. Folks 

would come from across the nation to “take 

the cure” with the local favorite, “Pluto Water.” 


Eventually two major hotels with large casinos 

would be built in the early1900s: the French 

Lick Springs Hotel with it’s classic southern 

style veranda and the West Baden Springs Hotel 

which is known as the “Eighth Wonder of the 

World” as it is the largest free-standing arched 

roof enclosing a huge interior mutli-story 

dining area surrounded by sleeping rooms, all 

of which opened onto the vast void. The early 

casinos, while then illegal, drew the rich and 

famous, including many Chicago gangsters like 

Al Capone and Dave Haun in a more leisurely 

time when travel by train to a resort area was a 

desirable vacation. Golf and use of the springs 

was also hugely popular. Over time the glamour 

faded, and Prohibition and enforcement of 

gaming laws led to the sad slide and decay of 

the facilities. A local billionaire named Bill 

Cook began to restore the West Baden Hotel 

several years ago after a 1980s law change led 

to gaming throughout Indiana on riverboats. 

The recent relocation of the boat reserved for 

Patoka Reservoir to a newly excavated “lake” 

between the hotels has brought legal gaming 

back to the area. Both historic hotels have 

been refurbished and are now an opportunity 

for a return of the glory years for “The Valley.” 

Basketball legend Larry Bird grew up here 

and collected garbage before going on to star 

at Indiana State University and some eastern 

team. If some locals have their way, there will 

be huge numbers of Indianapolis-area folks 

coming down to gamble. They could demand a 

four-lane highway be built across the sinkhole 

plain of the Lost River basin to avoid Paoli and 

local two-lane roads, potentially reigniting old 

conservation efforts. 

Patoka Reservoir 

The 8,800-acre Patoka Reservoir was 

completed in 1979 and is owned by the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers. The reservoir has 

impounded the Patoka River which heads in 

southwest Orange County, and then flows 

west by having down cut as an antecedent 

stream through the Crawford Upland. It is 

another regional base control of the karst 

and is separate from Blue River and Lost 

171


River. Flowing westward, it passes from the 

Blue River rocks into Chester Series and 

younger clastic and limestone rocks, and 

eventually the thick Pennsylvanian rocks to 

the west of State Road 145. Then it heads 

down section first in the Stephensport 

Group and then the West Baden Group. The 

dam site has been a sometime engineering 

quagmire as the dam is on top of the 

karsted limestone and leaked like a sieve 

until vast amounts of concrete finally sealed 

the conduits. There was supposed to be a 

gambling boat on the reservoir, but the feds, 

to their credit, refused to allow this use, as 

well as other obnoxious developments such 

as the proposed and finally defeated exotic 

animal zoo and theme park to have been 

built on Tillery Hill. Today the reservoir is 

a local favorite for water-based recreation, 

camping, fishing, and hunting. 

At Eckerty Junction turn left on State 

Road 64. We are now going from west to east 

in the Crawford Upland and down section to 

Marengo as we pass through Taswell and by 

“new” English. The town was severely flooded 

in the 1990s and a new town center was built 

on higher ground. 

At Marengo, we have entered a karsted valley 

reentrant (Brandywine Creek and Whiskey 

Run) within the Crawford Upland in the Blue 

River Group limestone with numerous caves 

including Old Town Spring located just to the 

north of town, and of course Marengo Cave on 

the east side of town. While we will not stop 

at either of these locations, they are worthy 

of some mention of the geology. After leaving 

Marengo, we will travel from the Mitchell 

Plain reentrant up the Chester Escarpment to 

the top of the Crawford Upland to White Oak 

Ridge and the campground. 

172 

Old Town Spring 

Prominently and conspicuously located 

next to the road in the “Old Town” section of 

Marengo (Fidlar 1935), Old Town Spring is 

the emergence of several swallowholes located 

several thousand feet to the northwest. This 

cave is believed to be younger than Marengo. 

It is a classic example of hillside drainage 

becoming a subterranean cave stream. See the 

cave description and map elsewhere in this 

guidebook. It has been connected to Marengo 

Cave via a side passage. 

Marengo Cave 

A National Natural Landmark and one of 

the most decorated show caves in the United 

States, Marengo Cave is an older and complex 

cave which was apparently developed during 

the deep erosion interval that followed the 

formation of the Blue River Strath (Gray and 

Powell, 1965). See the cave description and 

map elsewhere in this guidebook. 

Marengo Underground 

Limestone Quarry 

The other obvious geologic feature in 

the town of Marengo is the former Marengo 

Underground Limestone Quarry, now 

converted to a unique industrial storage facility 

called the Marengo Warehouse & Distribution 

Center, and the site of the NSS Photo Salon 

and the Awards Banquet. A map of the quarry 

is shown in Figure 63. 

The rocks mined at the quarry are in the 

Ste. Genevieve Limestone. In the highwall 

there is at least 12 feet of Bethel Sandstone 

over a reported thickness of 48 feet of Paoli 

Limestone over at least 63 feet of Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone. Below is the edited history of the 

quarry from their Web site and a “cave map.” 

History of the Development of Marengo Warehouse 

Commonly referred to by the locals for the 

past 113 years as “The Rock Quarry,” the 

From the Warehouse Web site, 

(edited by Strunk 2007) 

dates and events discussed in this narrative 

history are derived from court records, local

historians and eyewitness accounts. This 

history of the development of Marengo 

Warehouse covers a time period of 113 years 

from 1886 to 1999. 

In a book titled “History of Crawford 

County,” H.H. Pleasant, devoted the following 

three paragraphs to the beginning of the Stone 

Quarry at Marengo, Indiana. They are quoted 

as follows: 

“On June 10, 1886, men became interested 

in the rock at Marengo. The railroad was a means 

of getting the stone away. Joseph Garrow was the 

first man to undertake to open the quarry. He 

has a good chance to sell to Wash DePauw of the 

New Albany Glass Works. The first load or two 

he let his men mix clinker with the rock. When 

DePauw saw this he would not buy any more 

crushed rock from Garrow. 

“Garrow sawed out the rock, which he 

sold wherever he could get market. One day in 

November 1886 he was injured and died. Then 

his two sons, Joseph and Milton Garrow, took 

up the work. They did so much work that their 

business was soon running fairly well. 

“Other men took shares in the rock quarry 

and business went rapidly on with various degrees 

of success. Today one can get some idea of the great 

amount of rock shipped away by the hole in the 

hill.” 

The identity of the group of investors 

taking over the mining operation from the 

Garrow brothers, and the company name under 

which they first operated in 1887, cannot be 

immediately determined, as Crawford County 

records of land title transfers does not date 

back past 1891, a few years after the untimely 

mine blast killed Milton Garrow, in late 1886 

or early 1887. The fate of the surviving son, 

Joeseph Jr, could not be verified. However, 

court records reveal that on April 15, 1915, 

by court decree. Title to the land of the Joseph 

Garrow heirs, passed to the only surviving 

Garrow, in Crawford County, a woman by 

the name of Isabel Garrow, believed to be the 

mother of Joseph Garrow, Sr. In 1916, the 

court ordered Isabel, to surrender the title to all 

Garrow property to two men, named Arthur 

B. Harris and David M. Seyton. These men 


appear to be two of the original investors that 

financed continued mining operations at the 

Garrow Rock Quarry after the death of Milton 

Garrow. 

Beginning in 1909, a series of land 

acquisitions led to unifying adjacent land 

parcels into a 205-arce tract which today 

makes up the present day Marengo Warehouse 

property. The quarry operated as the “Marengo 

Lime Stone Company” or variations of that 

name under many owners. From 1886 until 

1936, the quarry was operated as an open pit 

mine, resulting in a 350-foot-long limestone 

quarry highwall. In 1936, Rudy Messinger 

bought the quarry, and changed its name to 

High-Rock Mining Company, and began to 

mine underground using the room and pillar 

mining method. High-Rock Mining operated 

the Quarry until it sold to the Bowen Family in 

1947. Prior to 1947, only minor underground 

quarrying apparently occurred. But beginning 

in 1947 though the mid-1980s the Quarry 

opened up 36 miles of tunnels and roads under 

nearly 100 acres of cavernous open spaces called 

“rooms” left inside the quarry by the Bowen, 

and the later Marengo, LLC operations. 

From 1947 until they sold the High-Rock 

Quarry to Marengo LLC in the fall of 1984, 

the Bowen Family aggressively pursued the 

room and pillar mining method to remove and 

sell rock at the Quarry. After buying the Quarry 

from the Bowens in 1984, Marengo LLC 

completely renovated the mining operation 

inside and out by updating and modernizing 

mining methods and equipment to meet 

higher production demand by his customers for 

crushed rock. Marengo LLC also aggressively 

mined, squaring up the roof support pillars 

and the huge rooms that had been left standing 

vacant in the underground area. Always looking 

with an entrepreneurial eye toward a second 

benefit, Marengo LLC envisioned what could 

be reaped from their investment in Marengo 

Quarry. Others saw it as just “a hole under the 

hill,” Marengo LLC saw what could be valuable 

storage space in the “raw” waiting for someone 

to “modernize” and market it. 

In 1986, Marengo LLC took advantage of an 

173


Figure 62. Matt Lattis inside the Marengo 

Warehouse &Distribution Center. 

Photo by Aaron Atz. 

over abundance of grain and the unavailability 

of enough grain storage facilities to meet the 

demand. To prevent loss from damage to grain 

from outside storage in huge piles by the Federal 

Commodities Corporation, Marengo LLC 

convinced the federal government to license the 

underground storage space in Marengo Quarry 

as a Federal Grain Storage Facility. However, by 

1990 the government had changed their policy 

of renting grain storage facilities from third 

parties, switching to the farmer who produced 

the crop to store the grain on the farm. In 

1990 an end user bought the grain stored in 

the underground confines of the quarry. At 

that time, Marengo LLC ceased to operate as a 

storage facility and loaded out the grain stored 

in the quarry. 

The storage space in the quarry was vacant 

until 1992. Late in 1993, Marengo LLC began 

to prepare a portion of the interior for further 

development. A modern 100,000-squarefoot 

warehouse was constructed to be rented 

for custom storage space. Other customers 

wanted to rent the storage space as it was in 

the raw, except for some preliminary cleaning 

and lighting. In 1995, problems with fugitive 

dust and floors too rough for forklift traffic 

compelled the warehouse tenant to negotiate 

with Marengo LLC to provide them with 

174 

modern storage space inside the Quarry. In late 

1995, Marengo LLC finished the first 100,000 

square feet of modern storage space in the 

Quarry’s interior. A customer was waiting to 

occupy it all before it was completed. 

During the years of 1996 and 1997, five 

more 100,000-square-foot storage areas 

inside the Quarry were completed and called 

“Warehouses.” In late 1998, Marengo LLC 

began construction of five additional individual 

warehouses inside the Quarry, all of which are 

now complete. 

Marengo Warehouse &Distribution Center 

now houses 12 individual warehouses, totaling 

in an excess of 1,300,000 square feet. When 

fully developed the Quarry’s interior will 

house 28 warehouses, totaling over 3,000,000 

square feet of modern storage space. With the 

constant 56 to 60 degree temperature, and with 

the high cost of natural gas and other forms of 

energy, Marengo LLC is able to offer the most 

economical solution for warehousing in the 

Midwest. 

Figure 63. A map of the Marengo Underground 

Limestone Quarry. The shaded portion is 

developed as a warehouse.

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176 

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Evolution in the Crawford Upland, South. 

Central Indiana, American Journal of Science. 

Vol. 290, May, 1990, pp 569–599 

Moore, M.C.: Stratigraphy and Lithology of 

the Karst Bearing Units, 1973 and 1992 

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NSS Convention Guidebook, Natl. Spel 

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Murdock, S.H. and R.L. Powell 1968: Subterranean 

Drainage of Lost River, Orange 


Vol 77, pp 250–255, 1 Fig. 

Nicoll, R.S., and C.B. Rexroad, 1975, Stratigraphy 

and conodont paleontology of the 

Sanders Group (Mississippian) in Indiana 

and adjacent Kentucky: Indiana Geol. Survey 

Bull. 51, 33 pp. 

Olson, Carolyn G. 1979: A Mechanism for 

Origin of Terra Rosa in Southern Indiana, 

unpub PhD thesis, Indiana Univ, Bloomington, 

Ind 198 pp. 

Palmer, A.N., 1968: The Survey of Blue Spring 

Cave, Indiana Acad. Sci. Proc., Vol 77, pp 

245–249. 

__________, 1987: “Cave Levels and Their 

Interpretation,” Nat’l Spel. Soc. Bulletin, 

Vol 49 pp 50–66. 

__________, 1991: Origin and Morphology 

of Limestone Caves, Geol. Soc. of America 

Bulletin, Vol 103 pp 1–21. 

__________ and Palmer, M.V.,1975: Landform 

Development of the Mitchell Plain 

of Southern Indiana: Origin of a Partially 

Karsted Plain, Zeit. f. Geomorph. new 

serv. Vol 19, pp 1–39, 15 fig, 7 photos, 2 

tbls. 

Palmer, Margaret, 1976, The Mitchell Plain 

of Southern Indiana, The NSS Bulletin, 

October, 1976, Vol. 38, No 4, p. 74-79 

Pease, Patrick, and Gomez, Basil, 1997: Landscape 

Development as Indicated by Basin 

Morphology and the Magnetic Polarity 

of Cave Sediments, Crawford Upland, 

South-Central Indiana, American Journal 

of Science. Vol 297, October, 1997, pp 

842–858 

Pinsak, A.P., 1957, Subsurface stratigraphy of 

the Salem Limestone and associated formations 

in Indiana: Indiana Geol. Survey 

Bull. 11, 62 pp. 

Perry, T.G., and N.M. Smith, 1958, The Meramec-Chester 

and intra-Chester boundaries 

and associated strata in Indiana: Indiana 

Geol. Survey Bull. 12, 110 pp. 

178 

Powell, R.L. 1961: Caves of Indiana, Indiana 

Geological Survey Circ. 8, 127 pp, 4 plts., 

58 figs., 1 table. 

__________, 1963: Alluviated Cave Springs 

in South-Central Indiana, Indiana Acad. 

Sci. Proc., Vol 72, pp 182–189, 5 figs. 

__________, 1963, Erosional History of the 

Blue River. BIG Newsletter, Vol 5, No. 2 

__________, 1964: Origin of the Mitchell 

Plain in South-central Indiana, Indiana 

Acad. Sci. Proc., Vol 73, pp 177–182, 2 

figs. 

__________, 1965: Development of a Karst 

Valley in Western Monroe County Indiana 

(abs): Ind. Acad. Sci. Proc., Vol 74, p 222. 

__________, 1965 & 1999: Geology of Falls 

of the Ohio River, Circ. 10, Ind. Geol 

Surv, 45 pp. 

__________, 1971: Some Physical Factors 

Concerning Land Use on the Mitchell 

Plain of South-Central Indiana (abs.): Ind. 

Acad. Sci. Proc., Vol 80, p 311. 

__________, 1973; Physiography and Development, 

in 1973 and 1992 NSS Convention 

Guidebook, Nat’l Spel. Soc, Huntsville, 

Ala. 

__________, 1975: Joints in Carbonate 

Rocks in South-Central Indiana, Ind. 

Acad. Sci. Proc., Vol 84, pp 343–354. 

__________, 1976: Some Geomorphic and 

Hydrologic Implications of Jointing in 

Carbonate Strata of Mississippian Age 

in South-Central Indiana, (PhD thesis, 

Purdue Univ, W. Lafayette, Ind, 196 pp, 

48 figs, 20 plts, 4 tbls. 

__________, and Thornbury, W.D., 1967: 

Karst Geomorphology of South-Central 

Indiana: in Geologic Tales Along Hoosier 

Trails, Guidebook for North-Central Section, 

Geol. Soc. America, Ind. Dept. Geol. 

and Geol. Survey, pp 11–38. 

__________ and Bassett. J. L, 1973: Lost 

River Field Trip, 1973 and 1992 NSS 

Convention Guidebook, pp 69–77, Nat’l 

Spel. Soc. Huntsville, Ala. 

__________ and Krothe, N.C.O.., 1983, 

Mitchell Plain portion of: Groundwater 

Hydrology and Geomorphology of the

Mammoth Cave Region, Kentucky, and of 

the Mitchell Plain, Indiana, in Quinlan, 

J.F, et al, part of Field Trips in Midwestern 

Geology, Vol 2, Geol. Soc. Am, Indianapolis 

meeting. 

Ruhe, R.V., 1975: Geohydrology of Karst 

Terrain, Lost River Watershed, Southern 

Indiana, Water Resources Res. Center Rpt. 

Inv. 7, Indiana Univ, Bloomington, Ind, 91 

pp. 

__________, 1977: Summary of Geohydrologic 

Relationships in the Lost River 

Watershed, Indiana, Applied to Water Use 

and Environment in, Dilamarter, R.R. and 

Csallany, S.C., Hydrologic Problems in 

Karst Regions, Western Kentucky Univ, 

pp 64–78. 

__________ and Olson, C.G., 1980: The origin 

of Terra Rosa in the Karst of Southern 

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trips from the IU Campus: Geol. Soc. Am. 

North-Central Sec, pp 84–122, 27 figs. 

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of Paleozoic Rock-Unit: Stratigraphy in 

Indiana A Revision: Ind. Geol. Surv. Bull. 

59, 203 pp. 

Silcox, C. A., Robinson, B.A., and Willoughby, 

T.C., 2003: Concentrations of Escherichia 

coli in streams in the Ohio River 

Watershed in Indiana, May-August 2000, 

U.S. Geological Survey Water Resource 

Investigations Report 02-4064, with Ind. 

Dept of Environmental Management 

Smith, N.M., 1965, The Sanders Group and 

subjacent Muldraugh Formations (Mississippian) 

rocks in Indiana: Indiana Geological 

Survey, Rpt Prog.. 29, 20 pp. 

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the Roger and Porter Cave Systems and 

Glacial Lake Quincy, Indiana, (abs.), Ind. 

Acad. Sci. Proc., Vol 89, p 273. 

References 

___________, 1992: Editor/Author: Classic 

and Karst Geology of South-Central 

Indiana, featuring the Lost River, and 

Mississippian-aged Carbonate and Clastic 

Rocks, 1992 NSS Convention Guidebook, 

Nat’l Spel. Soc, Huntsville, Ala. pp 

1–64. 

____________ 2007: Regional and Karst 

Geology of the Ohio River Fringe and 

South-Central Indiana, featuring the Lost 

River, and Carbonate and Clastic Rocks of 

the Mississippian; 2007 NSS Convention 

Guidebook, Nat’l Spel. Soc, Huntsville, 

Ala. 

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of the West Baden Group in Indiana: Indiana 

Geol. Survey Bull. 47, 31 pp. 

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Resources of Washington County, Indiana, 

Indiana Geol. Surv., Bull. 39, 90 pp. 

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and Chesterian (Late Mississippian) 

rocks of Illinois: Illinois Geol. Survey 

Rept. inv. 216, 91 pp. 

Thornbury, W.D., 1931: Two Subterranean 

Cutoffs in Central Crawford County, 

Indiana: Ind. Acad. Sci. Proc., Vol 40, pp. 

237–242. 

__________ 1965: Regional Geomorphology 

of the United States, John Wiley and Sons, 

Inc., New York, 609 pp. 

Unterreiner, G.A., 2006, Hydrogeology of 

Harrison County, Indiana, Bull 40, Ind. 

Dept. of Natural Resources, Div. of Water, 

Indianapolis, Ind. 

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Monroe County, Indiana : Ind. Acad. Sci. 

Proc., Vol 59, pp 258–263. 

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County: Kentucky, Geol. Survey, 

Series VI, Vol 28, 246 pp. 

17

Although the earliest works on cave life in 

Indiana date to the early 1870s, the single largest 

early contribution to our knowledge of the 

state’s cave fauna was the result an expedition by 

State Geologist W.S. Blatchley. For five weeks 

in 1896 Blatchley drove a two-horse spring 

wagon through the south-central Indiana karst, 

mapping and collecting specimens from 20 

caves. His sampling established the foundation 

of our knowledge of Indiana’s cave fauna. This 

was built upon by Arthur M. Banta with his 

1907 treatise on the fauna of Mayfields Cave 

in Monroe County. More than just an analysis 

of a single cave, Banta encapsulated essentially 

everything that was known about the cave fauna 

of Indiana. In 1928 the Frenchmen C. Bolivar 

and R. Jeannel visited Marengo and Donaldson 

caves and discovered numerous new species of 

troglobites at these sites. 

Many other individuals have contributed 

to our knowledge of Indiana’s cave fauna 

through the preparation of numerous theses, 

reports, and published papers. Most of these 

have concentrated on narrow areas of interest, 

for example, taxonomic revisions of genera, 

descriptions of new species, ecological studies 

of individual sites, or checklists of species of an 

area. Over the past 35 years we have visited over 

500 Indiana caves for the purpose of sampling 

to amass a comprehensive understanding of 

the fauna. 

Although conservationists face many 

challenges in preserving Indiana’s unique 

subterranean biodiversity, great strides have 

been made. Much of what is now known about 

the cave fauna of Indiana is due to bioinventory 

projects sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, 

Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 

Hoosier National Forest, and U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service. These projects allow datadriven 

decisions to be made in conservation 

planning for the caves and karst. Tens of 

thousands of acres of karstlands, containing 

180 

The Cave Fauna of Indiana 

By Julian J. Lewis and Salisa L. Lewis 

hundreds of caves, have been acquired by these 

agencies. 

Ecological studies such as the long-term 

monitoring of the federal endangered Indiana 

bat take the conservation effort to a higher 

level in attempting to manage and protect 

species threatened with extinction. Currently 

a program is being instituted to re-introduce 

numbers of Allegheny woodrats to bolster the 

viability of this animal in the state. 

A significant obligate subterranean fauna 

(troglobites) exists in Indiana’s caves, but 

with the exception of the northern cavefish, 

all of them are invertebrates. The average 

observer is unlikely to see much of this fauna 

without careful observation, as the animals 

are frequently tiny (less than 5 millimeters), 

confined to specific microhabitats, limited in 

their overall distribution to just a few caves, 

and sometimes seasonal in occurrence. 

To a careful observer, however, almost any 

cave in Indiana will provide a diverse array of 

interesting animals. The following is an overview 

of the cave fauna of Indiana: 

Mammals – Four species of bats include 

the most commonly seen kinds. The smallest, 

the eastern pipistrelle (Perimyotis pipistrellus) 

is ubiquitous, usually roosting individually. 

Allegheny woodrat.

Little brown bat. 

The endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) 

hibernates in large clusters in sites like 

Wyandotte Cave, but with the exception of 

“bachelor colonies” of males, it is absent from 

caves during the summer. The little brown bat 

(Myotis lucifugus) and big brown bat (Eptesicus 

fuscus) usually hang singly or in small clusters. 

The white-footed mouse is perhaps the most 

common mammal in Indiana caves, but is rarely 

Big brown bats. 

Cave Fauna of Indiana 

seen. Likewise, raccoons are common in our 

caves, although the latrines are seen much more 

frequently than the animals. The Allegheny 

woodrat is present in a few caves along the Ohio 

River in Harrison and Crawford counties. 

Birds – The eastern phoebe (Sayornis 

phoebe) is commonly found in cave entrances, 

where it places its nest on the wall in the 

twilight zone. 

Salamanders – The most brightly 

colored animals occurring in Indiana caves 

are undoubtedly the cave salamander 

(Eurycea lucifuga) and long-tail salamander 

(E. longicauda), which are bright orange and 

yellow, respectively, dotted with black spots 

or bars. The slimy salamander (Plethodon 

glutinosis) is solid black with white spots, 

while the related zigzag salamander (Plethodon 

dorsalis) is shorter and mottled in appearance 

with a zigzag stripe down the back. 

Fish – The only troglobitic vertebrate in 

Indiana is the northern cavefish (Amblyopsis 

spelaea), which is known from numerous caves 

south of the East Fork of White River. It occurs 

only in the south-central karst, where it is usually 

found in places where there is relatively deep 

water. The banded sculpin (Cottus carolinae) 

is a bizarre-looking fish with a large head and 

mottled appearance that blends in remarkably 

well with the stream gravels it rests upon. It is 

a common fish in Indiana caves and sometimes 

occurs by the hundreds. 

Crayfish – Two subspecies of the cave 

crayfish occur in Indiana, Orconectes inermis 

Cave crayfish (Orconectes). 

181


inermis from the Ohio River to about Monroe 

County, then Orconectes inermis testii in Monroe 

and Owen counties. It occurs only in the southcentral 

karst. The troglophile Cambarus laevis 

occurs in both of Indiana’s karst areas, and its 

paleness and relatively small eyes can lead to it 

being mistaken for its eyeless relative. 

Isopods – The cave isopod Caecidotea stygia 

is ubiquitous in the caves of the south-central 

karst, and Clark and Jefferson counties in 

southeastern Indiana. There it is replaced by the 

related Caecidotea rotunda in Jennings, Ripley, 

and Decatur counties. The two species look 

essentially identical. The familiar pillbugs that 

roll into balls are also isopods, and almost all 

have been introduced from Europe. The native 

land isopods are tiny and not commonly seen. 

182 

Cave isopod (Caecidotea). 

Amphipods – The common amphipods 

in Indiana caves are in the genus Crangonyx. 

Packard’s groundwater amphipod (C. packardi) 

is found in both karst areas. Barr’s (C. barri) and 

the Indiana (C. indianensis) cave amphipods 

occur in the south-central karst, while Lewis’ 

cave amphipod (C. lewisi) is limited to the 

southeastern karst. Several undescribed species 

of Stygobromus are tiny and extremely rare, 

mostly found in drip water where they fall from 

their native habitats in the epikarst. 

Millipedes – Several species of Pseudotremia 

are found in caves of the counties along the 

Ohio River, but most are very rare. They are 

typically about three quarters of an inch in 

length and vary from white to bluish, all with 

reduced eyes. The three more common species 

are the Indiana cave millipede (P. indianae) in 

the Blue River basin, Salisa’s cave millipede (P. 

salisae) from the Little Blue River, and the Clark 

cave millipede (P. nefanda) in Clark County. 

Sollman’s cave millipede (Scoterpes sollmani) 

is completely white and eyeless. It is known 

only from two caves in Harrison and Crawford 

counties. In the northern half of the southcentral 

karst the straw-colored Bollman’s cave 

millipede (Conotyla bollmani) is common. 

Cave millipede (Pseudotremia). 

Spiders – The most obvious spider in 

Indiana is the cave orb-weaver (Meta ovalis), 

first described from the Marengo Cave System. 

This large troglophile spins its prominent orb 

webs from cave walls, sometimes in association 

with its egg sacs. Several species of troglobitic 

spiders occur in Indiana, but most are tiny (in 

the neighborhood of 2 millimeters) sheet-web 

spiders. The subterranean sheet-web spider 

(Phanetta subterranea) probably occurs in 

nearly every cave in Indiana, where it is found

under flat stones or sticks. Its web consists of a 

few fine threads in a fissure or between stones. 

The egg sacs are seen more frequently than 

the spiders, where the spiders stick them to 

the undersides of stones. Two other rarer cave 

spiders are known from Indiana (Porrhomma 

cavernicola, Islandiana cavicola), along with 

new species of another sheet-web spider as well 

as a leptonetid cave spider. 

Pseudoscorpions – These animals resemble 

tiny scorpions without the stinger tails. Two 

general types are found in Indiana caves. The 

first (Hesperochernes mirabilis) is relatively 

common in mammal dens in caves, but has 

never been found in a surface habitat. It is brown 

in color with relatively short appendages. The 

other kind includes the unpigmented species 

that are either eyeless or have reduced eyes, 

and possess elongate appendages. Examples of 

these range from the troglobitic Packard’s cave 

pseudoscorpion (Kleptochthonius packardi), to 

the somewhat less troglomorphic Indiana cave 

pseudoscorpion (Apochthonius indianensis) to 

the troglophilic Lewis cave pseudoscorpion 

(Kleptochtonius lewisorum). Several new 

species are known from Indiana caves and await 

description. 

Cave pseudoscorpion (Kleptochthonius). 

Mites – Free-living mites are common in 

leaf litter and the cave mites (Rhagidia s. latu) 

are sometimes mistaken for small, confused 

spiders due to their habit of rapidly running 


about mudbanks in figure-8 patterns. Several 

kinds of mites, chiggers, and ticks are common 

on bats, woodrats, and raccoons. 

Springtails – These tiny (usually a 

millimeter or less) insect-like creatures have 

an elongate structure on their underside that is 

similar to a loaded catapult. When the springtail 

is threatened it uses this to leap into the air, 

sometimes several inches, which is many times 

the body length of the animal. Thus the name 

“spring tail.” The micro-arthropods frequently 

constitute about a quarter of the troglobitic 

community in Indiana caves. Two forms are 

typical, the elongate species like the cavernous 

springtail (Sinella cavernarum) or Indiana cave 

springtail (Sinella alata), or the globose forms 

like Lewis’ cave springtail (Arrhopalites lewisi). 

Dozens of other springtail species are recorded 

from Indiana caves. 

Diplurans – These insects resemble white 

silverfish. They are very rare in Indiana caves and 

all of the known kinds remain as undescribed 

species (Litocampa spp.) new to science. 

Crickets – Three species of cave crickets are 

common, but none are obligate cave animals 

and many related species live in Indiana’s forests 

and prairies. The most familiar is the stygian 

cave cricket (Ceuthophilus stygius), which 

occurs across the southern part of both of our 

karst areas as well as Kentucky and Tennessee. 

The southern cave cricket (C. meridionalis) 

occurs with the stygian, from which it can be 

easily separated by the prominent yellow stripe 

down its back. Hanging in clusters on the cave 

ceiling these two crickets literally rub elbows. 

The spotted cave cricket (C. brevipes) is usually 

found around entrances, although it is more 

common in the northern part of the central 

karst area. 

Beetles – Although many kinds of these 

insects occur in our caves, the ground beetles are 

the predominant group. The most commonly 

seen ground beetle in Indiana caves (Platynus 

tenuicollis) has large eyes, is dark brown with 

tan-colored legs, and is a widespread troglophile 

in the eastern U.S. The much smaller troglobitic 

cave beetles (Pseudanophthalmus) are much 

smaller, mostly a quarter of an inch or less 

183


in length. All are eyeless and unpigmented, 

which in cave beetles translates to red in color. 

Over a dozen kinds are known in Indiana, 

and many are incredibly rare, some remaining 

undescribed. The most commonly seen are the 

Wyandotte cave beetle (P. tenuis) in Crawford, 

Harrison, and southern Washington counties; 

Marengo cave beetle (P. stricticollis) in northern 

Crawford and Washington, Orange, and 

Lawrence counties; and the Shiloh cave beetle 

(P. shilohensis) in Lawrence, Monroe, and 

Owen counties. 

The rove beetles are probably the most 

common beetles in Indiana caves. The largest, 

the spelean rove beetle (Quedius spelaeus), 

is mostly red in color and about half an inch 

in length. It is widespread in the U.S. where 

it is usually found on various sorts of animal 

droppings (common in raccoon latrines). 

Over a dozen other rove beetle species are 

commonly found in our caves, although all are 

inconspicuous in color and small in size, less 

than a quarter of an inch in length. 

The rarest animals in this group in the 

state are the ant beetles. Krekeler’s cave beetle 

(Batrisodes krekeleri) is known from four caves 

in Clark, Crawford, and Lawrence counties. An 

undescribed cave ant beetle is known from one 

cave in the Hoosier National Forest in Monroe 

County (Batriasymmodes). Other beetles 

that are sometimes found in Indiana caves are 

feather-winged beetles, round fungus beetles, 

scarab beetles, and carrion beetles. 

Flies – The first animal a visitor is likely 

to see in an Indiana cave is a mosquito, 

hanging on the ceiling near the entrance. Two 

species are common (Culex pipiens, Anopheles 

punctipennis). One kind of fly is troglobitic, 

the cave dung fly (Spelobia tenebrarum). This 

small black fly is commonly found on animal 

droppings and comes to cheese bait in almost 

any cave habitat. A troglophile, the cave humpbacked 

fly (Megaselia cavernicola) is equally 

common. The pinkish-brown heleomyzid flies 

(Aecothea specus, Amoebaleria defessa) are easily 

seen on cave walls. Other common kinds in 

Indiana caves are the fungus gnats (so-called 

184 

glow-worms) and moth flies. 

Moths – One kind commonly over-winters 

and is frequently noticed due to its rather bright 

pink coloration. The herald moth (Scoliopteryx 

libatrix) is the harbinger of winter in Indiana 

caves. 

Snails – Both aquatic and land snails live 

Herald moth (Scoliopteryx). 

in Indiana caves. The troglobitic spiral cave 

snail (Antroselates spiralis) occurs only in cave 

streams in the Blue River basin. Many calciumloving 

land snails live around the entrances 

to caves, like attractively banded alternate 

anguispira (Anguispira alternata), or common 

three-toothed snail (Triodopsis tridentata) with 

the three “teeth” in the shell’s opening. The 

inflected land snail (Inflectarius inflectus) lives 

deeper in caves and may be a troglophile. 

Flatworms – One kind occurs in caves 

across both karst belts, Weingartner’s cave 

flatworm (Sphalloplana weingartneri). These 

small worms are free-living (not parasites) and 

are almost always found on the undersides of 

stones. In quiet pools they may glide upside 

down on the surface tension of the water. 

References 

Lewis, Julian J. 1983. The Obligatory Subterranean 

Invertebrates of Glaciated Southeastern 

Indiana. NSS Bulletin, 45: 34–40. 

Lewis, Julian J. 1998. The Subterranean Fauna 

of the Blue River Area. Final Report, U.S. 

Geological Survey, Species at Risk Program, 

Indiana Natural Heritage Program, 


and The Nature Conservancy, 266 pages.

Lewis, Julian J.; R. Burns; and S.L. Lewis. 

2004. The Subterranean Fauna of the Hoosier 

National Forest. Final Report, USDA 

Forest Service, Hoosier National Forest, 

181 pages. 

Minton, Sherman A. 2001. Amphibians and 

Reptiles of Indiana. Indiana Academy of 


Science, monograph 3, second edition, 

404 pages. 

Mumford, Russell. E. and John O. Whitaker. 

1982. Mammals of Indiana. Indiana University 

Press, Bloomington, 537 pages. 

Pillar of the Constitution in Wyandotte Cave. Photo by Don Martin. 

185

Wyandotte Cave was first explored by 

American pioneers in the year 1798, 

about the same time as Mammoth Cave 

(George, 1991), with discovery of the upper 

level and westernmost passage. In 1818 the 

cave was known as Epsom Salts Cave after the 

mineral that was mined from it. It was also 

called Indiana Saltpeter Cave, although some 

confusion exists whether that name was actually 

for the nearby cave that at present is called 

Saltpeter Cave. Additional discoveries were 

made in 1850 that opened into a lower level that 

became known as the “New Cave.” The upper 

level then became known as the “Old Cave.” 

Subsequent exploration led to the naming of 

the “South Branch” and the “Northern Arm” in 

1850–1851. Another major discovery in 1858 

opened the upper level subsequently named the 

“Unexplored Regions.” In the 1960s Richard 

L. Powell updated the name to the “Langsdale 

Passage” because this area was first mapped by 

George I. Langsdale. Many later discoveries 

have increased the known length of the cave, 

beginning with “The Discovery of 1941.” The 

1960s survey by the Indiana Geological Survey, 

assisted by the Bloomington Indiana Grotto, 

finally resulted in a viable and accurate survey 

of known passages and minor new discoveries. 

In 1981, cave employees discovered Kings 

Gauntlet, adding about 1,500 feet to the 5.36 

miles that had been mapped in the 1960s 

by Powell and others. In the mid-1980s, 

the Wyandotte Ridge Exploration Group 

discovered 3 more miles of passages in Easter 

Pit. Discovery of a flash bulb in a small hole led 

explorers to excavate and break into Avenue 

Three of Wyandotte Cave. 

The ridge that contains Wyandotte Cave 

is located in the eastern part of the Crawford 

Upland just north of Blue River. The upper 

part of the ridge is capped with about 200 feet 

of alternating units of sandstone, shale, and 

limestone of the West Baden Group. The base of 

186 

The Geology of Wyandotte Cave 

By Sam Frushour, NSS 6184 

this group is at an altitude of about 620 feet near 

the entrance of Wyandotte Cave. The lower part 

of the ridge and adjacent valleys are underlain 

by carbonate strata of the Blue River Group. 

These strata contain the more or less horizontal 

Mississippian age stratigraphy in the 

Wyandotte Cave region. Courtesy of 

Indiana Geological Survey.

cave passages ranging in altitude from 460 to 

580 feet (Frushour and Komisarcik, 2002) 

while the nearby Blue River flows at about 390 

feet above sea level. The entrance to the cave is 

at 575 feet in altitude and is stratigraphically 

in the lower part of the Paoli Limestone, as are 

the ceilings of Odd Fellows Hall and the ceiling 

above Monument Mountain, two of the larger 

rooms in the cave. The remainder of the known 

passages is entirely within the Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone, but there are indications that some 

of these passages have deep alluvial materials 

and may be developed as deep as the upper part 

of the St. Louis Limestone. Richard L. Powell 

(1968) indicated that a large passage, now likely 

alluvium-filled, of early to middle Pleistocene 

age may lie at grade with the deep channel of 


Blue River. The reasoning was that collapse 

at The House of Representatives, Monument 

Mountain, and Odd Fellows Hall resulted in 

large rooms with too little volume of rubble 

for the volume of void in the rooms. It is also 

plausible that streams in the passages were able 

to dissolve and erode enough rock to make way 

for additional collapse rock. There is no real 

evidence for a large alluvium-filled lower level. 

Four major factors have controlled 

orientation and the evolution of the passage 

levels of Wyandotte Cave: bedrock joint 

pattern, piezometric slope, lithology, and 

geomorphic history of the area. The cave 

consists of a series of sub-parallel passages that 

trend from the northeast to the southwest, 

generally following the local dip of the 

The physiographic regions of southern Indiana and the location of Wyandotte Cave. The Crawford Upland, 

Mitchell Plateau, and Muscatatuck Plateau are regions with karst features (modified from Gray, 2000). 

187


188 

Wyandotte Cave superimposed upon topography, with points of interest. 

Courtesy of the Indiana Geological Survey.


Monument Mountain in Rothrocks Cathedral, the highest room in Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by Sam Frushour. 

bedrock. Passages in the New Cave south of the 

Monument Mountain exhibit solution features 

that have only minor collapse modification. 

These passages were totally inundated for a 

significant period and have fine-grained slackwater 

deposits to a depth of at least 12 feet in 

the vicinity of the House of Representatives. 

The elevation of the passage at the south end 

of the New Cave correlates, more or less, with 

the poorly defined terrace (Pease, 1997) along 

Blue River at an elevation of about 420 feet. 

Three large trunk passages developed with a 

complicated network of diversion or overflow 

passages that moved drainage from one trunk 

passage to another and around progressive 

rock collapse. The parallel development of 

these trunk passages from east to west as water 

infiltration areas moved west owed to the valley 

deepening above the cave passages. 

The Langsdale Passage and the higher parts 

of the Old Cave apparently began development 

first. The elevation of the Old Cave ranges from 

460 to 540 feet altitude when considering only 

solution-enlarged ceilings and the surface of 

the alluvium floor. Stream downcutting in the 

Old Cave allowed influx of drainage from the 

northwest; the result was additional passage 

downcutting that created a meandering canyon 

that is greater than 90 feet high. Subsequent 

collapse at passage junctions, passage sinuosity, 

and alluvium obscure one from viewing parts 

of the Old Cave canyon. Valley downcutting 

moved principle infiltration westward with 

subsequent and nearly concurrent development 

of two more large, parallel passages. 

The easternmost level of passage 

development was the Easter Borehole. This 

passage lies at about 473 to 519 feet altitude 

and apparently received major infiltration 

of drainage from approximately the same 

northern region as the New Cave. After initial 

development of the northern region of the 

Easter Borehole, some drainage was received 

from the northern part of the New Cave via 

Fritsch Hall. The ceiling and alluvium floor of 

the Easter Borehole are generally higher than 

18


the New Cave; however two alluvium-filled 

passages of this level of development formerly 

provided drainage into the developing New 

Cave via the Discovery of 1941. These passages 

enter the New Cave at Neptunes Retreat and 

at the Crater Room or south of it, and are 

now buried in deep alluvium. The Developing 

New Cave received drainage from the Easter 

Borehole and possibly from the Old Cave as 

well. The New Cave lies at an elevation of 460 

to 519 feet (Frushour and Komisarcik, 2002); 

slightly lower in elevation that the Easter 

Borehole. 

Four erosion surfaces are recognizable 

in the Wyandotte Cave area. The highest 

level, represented by summits on the ridges 

of the Crawford Upland, has been called the 

Lexington, or Highland Rim, Peneplain and 

is of Tertiary age. The present topography 

postdates this erosion surface. The valley 

of Blue River, which is deeply entrenched 

below the Lexington Peneplain, contains 

two bedrock terrace levels above the deeply 

1 0 

filled bedrock valley bottom. The Blue River 

Strath (Powell, 1968) is the uppermost of 

these terraces and lies at an altitude of about 

525 feet in the vicinity of Wyandotte Cave. It 

may be traced upstream to lie at grade with the 

Mitchell Plateau. This erosion surface is of Late 

Tertiary or of early Pleistocene age. A lower 

bedrock terrace is not well preserved at about 

420 feet altitude, just southwest of the cave 

in an abandoned meander loop of Blue River 

(Powell, 1968; Pease, 1997). Other remnants 

of this same terrace along Blue River upstream 

of Wyandotte Cave lie at grade slightly above 

the present stream level. These remnants 

represent the Rothrock Strath or stage of valley 

deepening of early or middle Pleistocene age 

(Pease, 1997). The extent that this stage of valley 

development influenced the morphology of 

Wyandotte Cave is unclear. The bedrock floor 

of Blue River valley was established by erosion 

during middle Pleistocene time and is probably 

of Illinoisan age. The valley of Blue River in the 

vicinity of Wyandotte Cave was the site of a 

Pillar of the Constitution at the Senate Chamber in Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by Sam Frushour.


Hall of Ruins located north of Monument Mountain in Wyandotte Cave. 


Dry passageway south of the Junction Room in Wyandotte Cave. 


1 1


Wisconsin-age lake. The extent of the lake was 

large enough that sediments were deposited 

in Sharpe Creek Cave 0.7 miles northwest 

of the Wyandotte Cave entrance and caused 

inundation and deep alluvium buildup in the 

southern half of Wyandotte Cave. The present 

stream of Blue River has become incised into 

the lacustrine sediments. 

The highest part of the Old Cave and the 

Langsdale Passage lie approximately at grade 

with the Blue River Strath and is therefore 

of similar age. The deepest parts of the Old 

Cave, along with the New Cave and the Easter 

Borehole, are apparently of similar age as the 

420-foot elevation terrace only a few feet 

higher than the Blue River. The Old Cave 

initially formed in the upper part of the Ste. 

Genevieve Limestone below a prominent bed 

of thick dolomite that resembles siltstone. The 

dolomite bed formed the ceiling of the original 

1 2 

solution conduit that became the passage 

from Bandit Hall to The Cliffs. North of The 

Cliffs, limestone units above the dolomite 

have collapsed into the passage. The true 

bedrock floor of the Old Cave is found only 

in the passage found by Roger Glietz north 

of the Senate Chamber; everywhere else the 

bedrock floor is covered by thick sediments 

and breakdown. 

The highest level of development in the 

Old Cave and the Langsdale Passage formed at 

the top of a fluctuating water table just above 

a shale bed seen in the Talbot Pit area. These 

passages were developed by precipitation 

that was diverted underground more or less 

vertically from hillsides to the water table. 

Water then flowed down the piezometric slope 

and down dip along bedrock joints southward 

to Blue River where it discharged at the level of 

the Blue River Strath (Powell, 1968). The Old 

The Northern Arm in the New Cave north of Monument Mountain in Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by Elliot Stahl.

Cave fine-grained sediments were probably 

deposited as a result of aggraded conditions at 

the level of the Blue River Strath. 

Horizontal passages of the New Cave, the 

Easter Borehole, and the lowest part of the 

Old Cave have formed in the Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone within the Wyandotte Chert zone 

and at grade with the top of the Lost River 

Chert in the northern half of the cave. Some 

passage development can be found below the 

Lost River Chert beyond the Air Torrent at 

Kings Gauntlet and in three locations where 

there is vertical solution. At a collapsed dome 

beyond Teasing Wind Trail and at the north 

end of the Easter Borehole in Wyandotte Pit, 

vertical solution has reached down 12 to 15 feet 

below the Lost River Chert, indicating drainage 

may be in conduits at a similar elevation as the 

deep alluvial sediments in the buried part of 

passages at the southern half of the cave. 

Wyandotte Cave lacks any known 

significant stream although a small amount 

of water is encountered at Milroys Temple, 

Crayfish Spring, the collapsed dome beyond 

Teasing Wind Trail, Wyandotte Pit, and 

sometimes at Helens Dome. Locally occurring 

hillside infiltration is apparently the source 

of this water. It probably emerges along Blue 

River in one or more of the various small 

springs south of the cave. The question of what 

happened to the water that formed Wyandotte 

Cave or why there is no present lower stream 

level has been the subject of much discussion 

and may be attributed to the down cutting 

of Blue River in early to middle Pleistocene 

time. Malott (1949) suggested that Blue River 

could have had water diverted underground to 

enlarge the passages we know as Wyandotte 

Cave. Infiltration into Wyandotte Cave was 

eliminated by further down cutting of Blue 

River. The probability that the northern extent 

of the cave was to Blue River is small because the 

cave passages diminish in size going from south 

to north, and it is more than 2 miles beyond 

presently known passages to the incised Blue 

River Valley. A suggested mechanism for loss 

of water is that Blue River has become incised 

into the Crawford Upland to the extent that 


the hydraulic gradient became reversed in the 

primary infiltration region of northern cave 

passages or conduits nearest to Blue River. A 

hydraulic gradient to the northeast would have 

resulted in a reversed piezometric slope which 

would have overcome the influence of local dip 

to capture infiltration and developed new and 

lower conduits to move ground water opposite 

its former direction. Whatever the reason for 

loss of water, each of the three major trunk 

passages has their basal development separated 

by only a few feet. The lowest part of the Old 

Cave was apparently the last part of the cave 

to lose water evidenced by its greater depth 

while the Easter Borehole was first to lose 

flow evidenced by the higher sediments in its 

northern part. 

Wyandotte Cave is unique among caves 

of the Crawford Upland because of the 

clarity with which the stratigraphic position 

may be interpreted and difficulty with which 

the geomorphic history may be interpreted. 

Sam Frushour. Photo by Aaron Atz. 

1 3


Wyandotte Cave has developed along joints 

in the bedrock more or less along the dip of 

the strata as a subterranean tributary of Blue 

River. The major passages probably developed 

concurrently with the erosion levels of late 

Tertiary through middle Pleistocene age. Each 

major passage has development influenced by 

lithology and changing infiltration. 

References and Literature Cited 

Frushour, S.S., and K. Komisarcik, 2002, Leveling 

Surveys in Wyandotte Cave and Related 

Caves, 1998–2002: (unpublished report). 

George, A.I., 1991, Wyandotte Cave Down 

Through the Centuries: George Publishing 

Company, pp 2–3. 

Gray, H.H., 2000, Physiographic Divisions of 

Indiana, Indiana Geological Survey Special 

Report 61, Indiana University, Plate 1. 

Malott, C.A., 1946, “Recent Wyandotte 

Research,” National Speleological Society 

1 4 

Above Slippery Hill in Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by George Jackson. 


Bulletin 8, pp 58–59. 

Pease, P.P., and Gomez, B., 1997, Landscape 

Development as Indicated by Basin Cave 

Sediments, Crawford Upland, Indiana: 

American Journal of Science, v. 297, pp 

842–858. 

Powell, R.L., 1964, Origin of the Mitchell 

Plain in South-Central Indiana: Proceedings 

of the Indiana Academy of Science, v. 

73, pp 177–182. 

Powell, R.L., 1968, The Geology and Geomorphology 

of Wyandotte Cave, Crawford 

County, Indiana: Proceedings of the 

Indiana Academy of Science, v. 77, pp 

236–244. 

Swinnerton, A.C., 1932, Origin of Limestone 

Caverns: Geological Society of America 

Bulletin 43, p. 663–694. 

Thornbury, W.D., 1950, Glacial Sluiceways 

and Lacustrine Plains of Southern Indiana: 

Indiana Division of Geology Bulletin

Projected Passage Profiles for the 

Wyandotte, Easter Pit, and Everton 

Caves System 

There are 57,702 feet (10.93 miles) 

of passages in caves in the vicinity of 

Wyandotte Cave, as follows: Wyandotte Cave 

26,928 feet (5.1 miles), Easter Pit Cave 21,648 

feet (4.1 miles), Everton Cave 8,597 feet (1.63 

miles), Little Wyandotte Cave 412 feet (0.08 

miles), Saltpeter Cave 550 feet (0.10 miles), 

and Big Red Shaft 95 feet (0.02 miles). These 

passages underlie an area half a mile wide 

(about 2,400 feet) and 1.8 miles long (about 

10,000 feet), oriented in a northeast-southwest 

direction. There are generally four to seven 

subparallel passages between the entrances of 

Wyandotte Cave and Everton Cave. 

The total relief of passages in the system, 

excluding Big Red Shaft, ranges from a high 

of 626.3 feet above mean sea level (msl) at the 

entrance to Easter Pit to the lowest known 

point in the system near Fools Dome in Easter 

Pit at an elevation of 434.9 feet msl. The total 

vertical extent is 191.4 feet. The elevations at 

Big Red Shaft range from 630.6 feet msl at the 

entrance to 592.1 msl at the lowest point which, 

if included, would extend the relief within the 

passage system to 195.7 feet. 

Blue River is at about 393 feet msl as 

interpreted from the Leavenworth 1:24,000 

scale topographic quadrangle (USGS, 1981 

edition). The highest ridge tops directly 

overlying passages in the area of the caves 

generally attain elevations up to about 835 feet 

msl (as estimated from the USGS topographic 

map). 

Elevation data for nearly all of the known 

cave passages was obtained by level tube survey. 

Overland surveys between cave entrances 

were determined with survey grade leveling 

instruments. This task has been accomplished 

By Richard L. Powell 

over the past 11 years, primarily by Indiana 

cavers Sam Frushour, Kevin Komisarcik, John 

Bassett, and Steve Clark, assisted by many 

other cavers. 

The provisional projected partial passage 

profiles presented here consist of representative 

segments of selected passage profiles and a few 

cross sections superimposed to a common 

plane. The profiles are plotted as if along a 

line from northeast (generally, but not always 

upgradient) to southwest. The passage profiles 

are shown as generalized or even idealized 

lines representing the ceiling and floor of the 

passage. The profiles were plotted at 1 inch 

per 100 feet horizontally and 1 inch to 50 feet 

vertically (2x vertical exaggeration). An inked 

line weight on the original drawing was about 

2 feet thick. Accurate details of the character 

of the ceiling (solution channel vs collapse) 

and floor of the passage (bedrock, breakdown, 

or sediments, for example) are commonly 

lacking on the drawings shown here, although 

some major breakdown areas are indicated by 

breakdown symbols. Any measurements taken 

from these profiles are not likely to be accurate, 

so one should refer to the original data. 

Partial segments of passage profiles and 

a few cross sections (Milroy Temple, Round 

Room, and so on) are shown as segments where 

the levels of different passages would have been 

superimposed and thus not discernable. More 

complete profiles are shown for the southern 

end of Wyandotte Cave, the northeast end 

of Everton Cave, Little Wyandotte Cave, and 

Saltpeter Cave. Some of the segments have 

been shifted laterally a short distance from 

the more accurate profile location in order to 

show the relative elevation without blocking 

1 5


the drawing for some other segment. Accurate 

horizontal distances can not be taken from 

the profiles owing to the artistic displacement 

(shiftiness) and projected profile shortening. 

Accurate determinations of passage gradients 

from the diagram are thus not possible. 

The profiles are regarded as preliminary 

because additional passages may be added in 

1 6 

future versions to further clarify cavern level 

relationships. Many other passage profiles are 

possible. This diagram should, however, give a 

general concept of the various cavern passage 

levels present in the system caves. 

The profiles described here can be found on 

the Wayndotte Cave map in the map folder. 

George Jackson and Bob Braybender climbing in Wyandotte Cave 

north of the Mountain Room. From the John Benton photo collection.

The History and Status of Karst Vertebrate 

Paleobiology in Indiana 

By Ronald L. Richards, Indiana State Museum, Department of Natural Resources, NSS 8326 

Abstract 

The number of extinct and extralimital 

taxa are disproportionately high when 

Indiana karst faunas are compared with those 

of open air sites, and the karst deposits can be 

much older. Cave faunas are largely composed 

of extinct, extralimital, and resident taxa, a 

reflection of equable late Pleistocene climates. 

Thirteen extinct and 18 extralimital taxa have 

been recorded from Indiana caves. The history 

of Indiana karst vertebrate paleontology is 

examined, with three notable faunas emerging: 

Pipe Creek Sinkhole, Harrodsburg Crevice, and 

Megenity Peccary Cave. Field methodology 

and the age of the Harrodsburg Crevice fauna 

are commented upon. 

Introduction 

The caves of Indiana’s south-central and 

southeastern karst preserve a unique 

and diverse concentration of primarily 

terrestrial vertebrate fossils that are not 

preserved in Indiana’s other major depositional 

environments. While the other major 

depositional regimes in Indiana, the bog 

and lake deposits, as well as glacial sluiceway 

deposits, often produce large, now-extinct 

megavertebrate remains such as those of 

mastodont, mammoth, giant beaver, and 

muskox, the associated remains usually 

reflect the accumulation of aquatic and semiaquatic 

vertebrates. Indiana cave faunas, in 

contrast, have a predominance of terrestrial 

vertebrates, many of which are extinct and 

many of which no longer occur in the area 

today (are extralimital). The numerous modes 

of cave faunal accumulation, including pit 

entrapment, habitation mortality, den refuse, 

scat and stomach contents, wash-in, owl pellet 

debris, and woodrat-caching, enhance the 

diversity and abundance of remains, especially 

of herptiles (reptiles and amphibians), and 

such mammals as insectivores, carnivores, and 

rodents that are incorporated within the cave 

sediments. 

Late Pleistocene faunas are composed 

of mixtures of modern “resident” species 

that still live in the area today, species that 

no longer occur in the area (extralimital 

species), and species that are now extinct, 

forming unique communities with no modern 

analogues (Graham and Mead, 1987). Both 

the resident and the extralimital species have 

environmental tolerances that are observable 

today, unlike extinct species for which habitat 

preferences and environmental tolerances are 

unknown. Some of the most important taxa 

(that is, species and subspecies) for tracking 

environmental changes are extralimital 

taxa that have exhibited dynamic changes 

of distribution, including the shrews and 

microtine mice in particular (Graham, 1976; 

Semken, 1988). 

Some 15 species of extinct and 9 species 

of extralimital taxa are known from aboveground 

localities throughout most of the 92 

Indiana counties (Hay, 1912, 1923; Lyon, 

1936; Richards, 1984). Yet 13 extinct and 18 

extralimital species have been recovered from 

just 32 counties where some form of a cave has 

been reported. 

Extinct taxa recovered from open sites that 

have not yet been recovered from Indiana karst 

deposits include the Jefferson’s ground sloth 

(Megalonyx jeffersonii), giant beaver (Castoroides 

ohioensis), giant short-faced bear (Arctodus 

simus), stag moose (Cervalces scotti), Jefferson’s 

mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersonii), woolly 

mammoth (M. primigenius), and the ancient 

bison (Bison bison antiquus). Blanding’s turtle 

1 7


(Emydoidea blandingi), and the star-nosed mole 

(Condylura cristata), tundra muskox (Ovibos 

moschatus), and caribou (Rangifer tarandus) 

are the only extralimital taxa recovered aboveground 

that have not yet been found in cave 

deposits. 

Of the approximately 500 late-Pleistocene 

open-air occurrences of extinct vertebrates 

in Indiana, perhaps only 17 have been 

systematically excavated with methods that 

include the washing of sediments for small 

vertebrates. Of these localities, only one from 

northern and two from southern Indiana have 

produced environmentally sensitive extralimital 

taxa: the copper redhorse (Moxostoma hubbsi) 

from the Kewanna mastodont locality, Fulton 

County (Richards, under study); the boreal 

voles Clethrionomys and Phenacomys from the 

Alton Mammoth locality, Crawford County 

(Richards, 1991); and numerous taxa from 

the Prairie Creek locality, Daviess County 

(Richards, 1992; Holman and Richards, 

1993). 

In contrast, Quaternary remains (that is, 

remains recovered from combined Pleistocene 

and Holocene epochs) recovered only from 

Indiana’s karst deposits, and not on open 

sites, include the extinct giant land tortoise, 

[Hesperotestudo (= Geochelone) sp.], large black 

bear (Ursus americanus amplidens), jaguar 

(Panthera onca augusta), sabertooth (Smilodon 

fatalis), and Leidy’s peccary (Platygonus vetus), 

and such extralimital taxa as the hairy-tailed 

mole (Parascalops breweri), arctic shrew (Sorex 

arcticus), longtail shrew (Sorex dispar), large 

form of smoky shrew (Sorex fumeus), northern 

bog lemming (Mictomys borealis), ophisaur 

(Ophisaurus cf. O. attenuatus), smooth green 

snake (Opheodrys vernalis), plains pocket 

gopher (Geomys bursarius), thirteen-lined 

ground squirrel (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), 

and eastern woodrat (Neotoma magister). A 

notable limitation to cave deposits other than 

the most recent is the lack of preservation 

of plant macrofossils. Vegetational histories 

are flawlessly strong in Indiana’s lake and bog 

deposits. 

Indiana karst fossils can often be of much 

1 8 

greater geological age than the fossils from 

non-cave deposits. Most of the northern 

two-thirds of Indiana has been scoured by 

glacial ice, so most of those Late Pleistocene 

accumulations post-date glacial stagnation, 

with northern Indiana mastodont localities 

typically producing AMS bone dates of 

11,100–12,200 years before present (BP) 

(Richards, unpublished data). Exceptions are 

some of the major glacial sluiceways where 

deeper deposits may date to Illinoian glacial 

times (Melhorn, 1997). The karst in unglaciated 

southern Indiana has probably been serving as 

a depositional maze for sediments and bones 

for several million years (much of the latter 

Tertiary period), as evidenced by northern 

Indiana’s Pipe Creek Sinkhole biota described 

below. However, cave faunas from the 

relatively late Irvingtonian land mammal age, 

such as those recovered from Conard Fissure, 

Arkansas; Port Kennedy Cave, Pennsylvania; 

Cumberland Cave, Maryland; and Trout 

Cave, West Virginia (Kurten and Anderson, 

1980), as well as the fauna from Hamilton 

Cave, West Virginia, with an estimated age 

of 600,000–700,000 years before present 

(Holman and Grady, 1989), are hardly 

recognized in Indiana. The Harrodsburg 

Crevice deposit, Monroe County, dated by 

the composition of its fauna, was thought to 

be from the last (Sangamonian) interglacial 

period (Parmalee, et al., 1978), some 70,000– 

110,000 BP, (Melhorn, 1997), and the giant 

land tortoise in Megenity Peccary Cave 

suggests a similar Sangamonian interglacial 

age for the cave’s earliest deposits. The earliest 

AMS radiometric dates are from Megenity 

Peccary Cave (50,090 ± 3,390 BP and greater 

than 50,700 BP), where dates of 24,000– 

34,000 years BP are common. 

Table 1 presents a list of the extinct and 

extralimital taxa recovered to date from 

Indiana caves. The abundant remains of 

resident Indiana species, though represented as 

fossils, are not listed, nor are the remains from 

northern Indiana’s Pipe Creek Junior sinkhole 

fauna. Figure 1 shows the location of karst 

faunas referred to in this paper.

Karst Vertebrate Paleobiology in Indiana 

1


History of Cave Vertebrate 

Paleobiology in Indiana 

The first to record traces of ancient 

vertebrates in Indiana caves was State 

Geologist Willis S. Blatchley, who noted bear 

wallows and claw marks in Eller and Saltpeter 

caves, Monroe County, and in Conneleys 

Cave, Lawrence County (Blatchley, 1897). 

Banta (1907) later recorded bear wallows 

in Mayfields Cave, Monroe County, just 

about the time Hahn (1907) had turned 

his attention to Donaldson Cave, Lawrence 

County, identifying the skeletal remains of 11 

200 

extant mammals collected from the cave floor. 

Indiana’s first late Pleistocene cave fossils were 

some fragmented molar teeth of Leidy’s Peccary 

(Platygonus vetus) and a fragmentary jaw and 

teeth of what is perhaps the long-nosed peccary 

(Mylohyus nasutus), embedded in flowstone in 

Rock Cliff Quarry Cave, Lawrence County 

(Hay, 1912, 1923). Those specimens cannot 

now be located. 

Engels (1932) described a second Indiana 

specimen of Cope’s “extinct” deer (Odocoileus 

dolichopsis), recovered by Lyon from a woodrat 

den in the limestone bluffs at Tobacco


Figure 1. Location of cave and karst features discussed in this paper (extreme northern Indiana not included): 

1, Cave (name withheld), Tippecanoe County; 2, Pipe Creek Sinkhole biota, Grant County; 3, Flatrock 

Cave, Shelby County; 4, Dead Man’s Cave, Decatur County; 5, Cave (name uncertain), 6, “Cave near 

North Vernon” (5-6, Jennings County); 7, Kent Cave, Jefferson County; 8, Mill Cave, Greene County; 9, 

Freeman’s Pit, 10, Mayfield’s Cave, 11, Knob Rock Cave,12, Thundermug Bone Cave, 13, Saltpeter Cave, 

14, Eller Cave, 15, Cave (name withheld), 16, Anderson Pit Cave, 17, Harrodsburg Crevice, 18, Indun 

rockshelter (9-18, Monroe County); 19, Sullivan Cave, 20, Rock Cliff Quarry Cave, 21, Dog Hill Cave, 

22, Conneley’s Cave, 23, Carcass Crypt Pit Cave, 24, Donaldson Cave (19-24, Lawrence County); 25, 

Waterfall Cave, Washington County; 26, Megenity Peccary Cave, 27, Wyandotte Cave (26-27, Crawford 

County); 28, King Leo Pit Cave, 29, Parker’s Pit Cave, 30, Passenger Pigeon Cave, 31, Bear Plunge, 32, 

Jim Cave, 33, Fair-to-Middl’in Well Pit, 34, Tobacco Landing bluffs and caves (28-34, Harrison County). 

201


Landing, Harrison County. That species 

is likely synonymous with O. virginianus, 

the white-tailed deer. It was Bader and Hall 

(1960), however, who first revealed how an 

ancient woodrat den accumulation could 

contain a concentration of skeletal fragments 

of numerous vertebrate species. The deposit, 

in Sullivan Cave, Lawrence County, included 

the extralimital occurrence of both the eastern 

woodrat (Neotoma magister) and the spotted 

skunk (Spilogale putorius), and such Indiana 

extirpated (exterminated) species as porcupine 

(Erethizon dorsatum) and elk (Cervus elaphus). 

The periodic excavation of Thundermug Bone 

Cave, Monroe County, began in 1964 and 

lasted for several years. Here, the “entire” part 

of the small sandstone-capped cave with an 

entrance connection was excavated, though 

only Holocene remains of black bear, whitetailed 

deer, vultures, and ten other species were 

recovered (Richards, 1970). Thus, the actual 

cave excavation for vertebrate fossils began 

relatively late in Indiana, since Port Kennedy 

Cave, Pennsylvania, was being dug in 1870; 

Potter Creek Cave, California, in 1902; Conard 

Fissure, Arkansas, 1904; Frankstown Cave, 

Pennsylvania, 1907; and Cumberland Cave, 

Maryland, 1912 (Davies, 1966). Moreover, the 

Indiana results to this point were meager. 

Starting in 1972 and for a period from 

1980–1994, there was an approach by the 

author to document various species recovered 

by the washing of sedimentary deposits 

sampled from numerous caves throughout 

the Indiana karst. As a great abundance of 

microfauna emerged from nondescript or even 

“sterile” cave sediments, the great warehouse 

of bones preserved in the caves became 

apparent. The first attempt was to document 

the former distribution of the eastern woodrat 

in Indiana (1972), a project expanded in 1987. 

It was notable that the woodrat once ranged 

throughout the south-central and southeastern 

karst in Indiana, well beyond the two southern 

Indiana counties where it resides today. 

Subsequent studies examined rice rat, 

Oryzomys palustris (1980); hairy-tailed mole, 

Parascalops breweri (1982); and pygmy (Sorex 

202 

hoyi) and smoky (S. fumeus) shrew remains 

(1983a). The shrews, including rare taxa, were 

so abundant that a follow-up interpretation and 

broader study reviewed the current knowledge 

of Indiana shrews (Whitaker and Richards, 

2005). Other cave studies included the spotted 

skunk (Spilogale putorius), which has an affinity 

for leaving its bones in caves (1985), and the 

heather (Phenacomys intermedius) and boreal 

red-backed (Clethrionomys gapperi) voles 

(1986). Neither of these northern-occurring 

voles had ever been recovered from Indiana, but 

their remains occurred throughout cave deposits 

in both of Indiana’s karst areas, serving as strong 

indicators of late Pleistocene deposits. The 

timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) left cave 

remains beyond its known historic distribution 

in Indiana (1990). The previous occurrence 

of the fisher (Martes pennanti), a northern 

carnivore, was detailed, including two cave 

localities (1994), as were the cave remains of the 

yellow-cheeked vole (Microtus xanthognathus), 

a mouse that today occurs 1,325 miles north of 

the Indiana fossil localities (1994). 

In 1977 Volz, and independently Parmalee, 

Munson, and Guilday (1978) reported upon a 

spectacular fossil assemblage recovered from a 

Monroe County cave exposed during highway 

construction. The fauna of the “Harrodsburg 

Crevice” included the extinct sabertooth 

(Smilodon fatalis), jaguar (Panthera onca 

augusta, Figure 2), dire wolf (Canis dirus), 

Figure 2. Bones of the Pleistocene jaguar, Panthera 

onca augusta, such as this right dentary from the 

Harrodsburg Crevice, Monroe County, Indiana, 

are 15%–20% larger than those of the living jaguar 

(Kurten and Anderson, 1980). Scale in centimeters. 

Fred Lewis photo.

Leidy’s peccary (Platygonus vetus), horse (Equus 

cf. E. complicatus), and remains of extralimital 

small mammals. The warm-climate taxa 

accumulated primarily as refuse in a carnivore 

lair, immersed in an open environment with 

nearby wooded tracts (Figure 3). The fauna 

was thought to date to the last, Sangamonian, 

interglacial period. A follow-up paper refined 

the Smilodon identification and affirmed the 

site’s probable Sangamonian age (Munson, 

Parmalee, and Guilday, 1980). 

Figure 3. Artist’s depiction of the Harrodsburg 

Crevice, Monroe County, Indiana believed to have 

been used as a carnivore lair during a warm 

interglacial period. Artist Karen Carr, Courtesy of 

the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. 

It was in working with a woodratinfluenced 

ledge deposit in Anderson Pit Cave, 

Monroe County, that contained remains of the 

extinct beautiful armadillo (Dasypus bellus), 

rice rat (Oryzomys palustris), smooth green 

snake (Opheodrys vernalis), and numerous 

other species, that the equable climate model 

was first evoked in Indiana, influenced by the 

mentorship of Drs Russell W. Graham and J. 

Alan Holman. This climatic model provided 

an explanation for the remains of currently 

ecologically incompatible vertebrates that were 

recovered in the same sedimentary deposit 

(Holman and Richards, 1981). It was the less 

extreme climatic conditions (cooler summer 

extremes and warmer winter extremes) and 

more evenly distributed moisture that allowed 

northern, western, and southern taxa to occur 

together (Graham, 1976, 1985). 

Intermeshed with the equable climate 


model is the concept that species respond to 

climatic changes “individualistically” and not 

as integrated migrating communities (King and 

Graham, 1981; FAUNMAP Working Group, 

1996). Together, these principles can account 

for the greater species diversity during the late 

Pleistocene than occurs today. This is reflected 

in the rich microfaunal deposits in the caves of 

Indiana and surrounding regions. Klippel and 

Parmalee (1984), in comparing the size of the 

Anderson Pit Cave and many other D. bellus 

osteoderms, suggested that the remains of 

larger armadillos from northern latitudes may 

be of interglacial (for example, Sangamonian) 

age. 

The 1983 discovery of long-snouted 

peccary (Mylohyus nasutus) remains in Knob 

Rock Cave, Monroe County, was among the 

very few recorded from Indiana (Munson, 

1984), even though the type specimen 

had been recovered from a well digging in 

southern Indiana’s Gibson County (Hay, 

1912, 1923). Munson and Keith (1984) 

quantified prehistoric predation of the raccoon 

(Procyon lotor) on bats of the genus Myotis in 

Wyandotte Cave, Crawford County. Teeth of 

the extinct flat-headed peccary (Platygonus cf. 

P. compressus) were described from a Monroe 

County rockshelter, accompanied by a mixture 

of 44 primarily resident vertebrate taxa 

(Richards and Munson, 1988). 

An intriguing deposit was encountered 

deep within King Leo Cave, Harrison County, 

containing the disintegrated remains of 

two adult Harlan’s muskoxen, Bootherium 

bombifrons (Figure 4; Richards and McDonald, 

1991). Entry must have come during the late 

Pleistocene, when the nearby truncated passage 

was open to the surface. 

The most extensive cave dig that will ever 

take place in Indiana may be the excavation 

by the Indiana State Museum of Megenity 

Peccary Cave, Crawford County (Richards, 

1988, 1996). This excavation, now in the 

21st season of a likely 24-year recovery, has a 

strategy to excavate the entire cave, leaving 

behind untouched sedimentary sequences for 

future studies. Notably, the cave had served as a 

203


Figure 4. Lower right third molar of an adult 

Harlan’s muskox, Bootherium bombifrons, 

recovered from King Leo Pit Cave, Harrison 

County, Indiana. Note the dark calcium carbonate 

encrustation on the white tooth enamel. Scale in 

centimeters. Ron Richards photo. 

shelter for the flat-headed peccary (Platygonus 

compressus) for thousands of years (Figure 

5), and at least 600 individuals, including 

juveniles, are represented by a count of just the 

canine teeth. Natural attrition of the herd and 

occasional entrapment likely were major causes 

of peccary accumulation. 

Figure 5. Artist’s depiction of Megenity Peccary 

Cave, Crawford County, Indiana, 25,000 years ago 

when it served as a shelter for the flat-headed peccary 

(Platygonus compressus). The dire wolf (Canis 

dirus) was the major predator of young peccaries. 

Artist Karen Carr, Courtesy of the Indiana State 

Museum and Historic Sites. 

Interestingly, there is only one complete 

peccary skull (Figure 6). While most skulls 

had disintegrated into fragments and isolated 

teeth where they lay on the cave floor, this 

skull had been preserved by rapid burial in 

204 

Figure 6. The only complete skull of the flat-headed 

peccary, Platygonus compressus, from Megenity 

Peccary Cave, Crawford County, Indiana. Scale in 

centimeters. Fred Lewis photo. 

a water-filled chamber (Figure 7). The large 

predator was the dire wolf, also represented by 

one good skull (Figure 8). The earliest date of 

accumulation is suggested by the presence of 

the extinct giant land tortoise (Hesperotestudo 

sp.), a species which today can only survive 

in frost-free environments (Hibbard, 1960; 

King and Saunders, 1986). This indicates a last 

interglacial (Sangamonian) age for the earliest 

deposits. 

The bulk of accumulation suggests an open 

environment with grassland species through 

the 24,000–34,000 BP time period. A later, 

cooler climate fauna with extralimital arctic 

Figure 7. Skull of a black bear, Ursus americanus 

(left) and of the flat-headed peccary, Platygonus 

compressus (top right), recovered “snout-to-snout” 

in the 25,000-year-old level of the Microfauna 

Room, Megenity Peccary Cave, Crawford County, 

Indiana. Black-and-white scale in centimeters. 

Ron Richards photo.

Figure 8. Skull of the dire wolf, Canis dirus, 

from the Microfauna Room, Megenity Peccary 

Cave, Crawford County, Indiana. This wolf 

suffered a dislocated rear leg, likely rendering 

him susceptible to entrapment. Fred Lewis photo. 

Scale in centimeters. 

shrew (Sorex arcticus), northern bog lemming 

(Mictomys borealis), and yellow-cheeked vole 

(Microtus xanthognathus), was dated at 14,125 

BP, long after peccary accumulation had ceased. 

Other extinct taxa are represented by several 

osteoderms of the beautiful armadillo (Dasypus 

bellus), a tooth portion of a tapir (Tapirus sp), 

five teeth of the long-nosed peccary (Mylohyus 

nasutus), and one disintegrated tooth of a 

horse. Additional extralimital taxa include 

heather vole (Phenacomys intermedius), boreal 

red-backed vole (Clethrionomys gapperi), and 

snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). More 

recent accumulations are from the activities 

of woodrats, wandering carnivores (scat), 

and humans. After the grueling 24 years of 

excavation have been completed will come the 

great reward of cataloguing and analysis. The 

occurrence of any bone recovered in the cave 

can be plotted, revealing concentrations and 

suggesting patterns of selection, accumulation, 

and change through time. 

A chapter on the origins of and change in 

Indiana’s vertebrate fauna, with descriptions of 

cave fossil occurrences (Richards and Whitaker, 

1997), was included in The Natural Heritage of 

Indiana. 

The biggest surprise of Indiana’s karst 

faunas was the 1996 discovery of a bone-rich 

sinkhole deposit in Pipe Creek Junior Quarry, 


Grant County, containing the remains of 

extinct rhinoceros, camel, llama, giant land 

tortoise, and others among abundant bones 

of turtles, frogs, snakes, and plant macrofossils 

(Farlow, et al., 2001). Initially formed during 

early Pliocene and or late Miocene times as a 

collapsed cave roof, the passage became plugged 

with sediment, forming a sinkhole pond at the 

surface. An aquatic biota flourished, leaving 

their remains in the dark organic pond fill, 

supplemented by the bones and teeth of larger 

animals (Figure 9). The 5 million year old 

northern Indiana sinkhole remains were later 

overridden by the ice of numerous glaciations 

until discovery. The biota, under study by 

numerous specialists, is among the few faunas of 

its age in the interior of eastern North America 

(Farlow, et al., 2001). 

Figure 9. Artist’s rendering of the Pipe Creek 

Sinkhole Biota, Grant County, northern Indiana. 

Some 5 million years ago, this karst pond supported 

a rich biota, including rhinoceros (Teleoceras sp.), 

bone-crushing dog (Borophagus sp.), bear 

(Plionarctos edensis) and a large species of peccary. 

Artist Karen Carr, Courtesy Indiana State 

Museum and Historic Sites. 

205


Commentary and Discussion 

Comparison of the relatively greater number 

of terrestrial species recovered from 

Indiana’s karst over that of open-air sites shows 

the benefit of cave deposits in interpreting 

regional vertebrate paleoecology. With 

northern lake and bog deposits and southern 

caves, Indiana is an ideal laboratory for study 

of Quaternary biota. Unlike surface localities, 

where impending construction often forces a 

salvage-like recovery of mastodont and other 

large mammal skeletons, the cave environment 

is one in which most investigations can be 

methodically planned. Human cave traffic can 

be the most detrimental factor for underground 

paleontological sites, particularly where such 

trace fossils as bear beds, claw marks, and 

potential footprints are involved. 

Many Indiana caves have been shown to 

house rich paleontological resources. However, 

many more resources have yet to be discovered, 

and it is likely that there are a couple dozen 

prolific deposits like those of Harrodsburg 

Crevice or Megenity Peccary Cave distributed 

throughout both karst areas. Most of the old 

deposits are buried below Holocene fill. This 

should be true especially of pit caves, where wall 

and ceiling disintegration and sediment influx 

are accelerated. Open pits, where there may 

have been a different type of biotic selection, 

have only been superficially investigated in 

Indiana. Bears in particular were commonly 

entrapped in pits (Figure 10), likely while 

Figure 10. The articulated skeleton of a black bear 

(Ursus americanus) was recovered where it was 

eroding from a sand deposit below the 88-foot 

entrance drop of Bear Plunge Pit, Harrison 

County, Indiana. David Rieger photo. 

206 

negotiating a slippery entrance searching for a 

winter den (Richards, 1984b). One Lawrence 

County pit contained the remains of five bears 

that had met a similar doom (Richards, 1981). 

Most bone deposits were encountered on 

cave floors and indicated what lay buried. Some 

were exposed where water had eroded through 

sedimentary banks, and many occurred as 

woodrat den debris. Find the ancient woodrat 

dens—occurring both high and low in the 

cave—and you will gain audience to an ancient 

collection of bones. I have found armadillo 

osteoderms (that had obviously been gathered 

elsewhere) in woodrat den areas of two 

different caves. A woodrat deposit perched high 

upon a wall in Carcass Crypt Cave, Lawrence 

County, contained a bear vertebra snatched by 

the rat from the skeletons on the floor below. 

A woodrat midden in Megenity Peccary Cave 

contained a beautiful large molar of the extinct 

dire wolf. 

Even when good deposits are encountered, 

there often has been so much dynamic 

movement of materials through the cave that 

locating deposits with secure stratigraphy 

can be difficult. This occurs through cutting 

and redeposition of cave sediments by 

water, solution of buried limestone along 

water channels with deposit slumping, longterm 

drying and fissuring of sediments, 

and the bioturbation of sediments by such 

trapped animals as groundhogs. While most 

investigations usually include the removal of 

obviously bone-bearing soils surrounding the 

fossils of interest, when practical, I try to follow 

the caution given by Egyptologist George 

Andrew Reisner to physical anthropologist 

Carleton S. Coon, who later dug a dozen caves 

in the Middle East: “Never quit until you get 

down to bedrock” (Coon, 1957). And getting 

“plenty” of radiometrically dated bone from a 

cave fauna is advice from J. Alan Holman that 

the author has heeded well. Often, however, 

groundwater has leached the collagen from 

cave bones, making AMS dates untenable. 

The success at Megenity Peccary Cave is due 

in part to fine-screening everything (collecting 

“all” vertebrates, using a 1.2 millimeter

Figure 11. The Bat Room of Megenity Peccary Cave, Crawford County, yielded 

bones of peccary and dire wolf, among others, as the sedimentary deposits were 

systematically removed down to bedrock. Scale in centimeters. 

Ron Richards photo. 

mesh); digging to bedrock (getting the oldest 

deposits); using small dig units (minimizing 

contamination by using 0.5 meter square 

grid units, with 10 centimeter deep levels); 

and obtaining many AMS radiometric dates 

(Figure 11). 

The Harrodsburg Crevice deposit, dated 

by the development and composition of its 

fauna, including Leidy’s peccary (Platygonus 

vetus, Figure 12) was thought to be of last 

(Sangamonian) interglacial age (Parmalee, 

et al., 1978), some 70,000–110,000 years 

BP (Melhorn, 1997). The giant land tortoise 

(Hesperotestudo sp.) in Megenity Peccary Cave 

also suggests a Sangamonian interglacial age, but 

the flat-headed peccary (Platygonus compressus, 

Figure 12) is the associated peccary. Because P. 

vetus is the dominant Irvingtonian peccary of 

the east, and was thought to have died out by 

the end of the Illinoian glacial phase (Kurten 

and Anderson, 1980), Indiana’s Harrodsburg 

Crevice fauna should be from an earlier 

(perhaps Yarmouthian?) interglacial period. 

The P. vetus fossils from Rock Cliff Quarry 

Cave, Lawrence County, should likewise be of 

Irvingtonian land mammal age. 

Fossil remains such as the two Harlan’s 


muskoxen from King 

Leo Cave and an 

American mastodont 

long bone recovered 

from Dog Hill Cave, 

Lawrence County, 

in the 1970s, attest 

that remains of large 

extinct mammals do 

accumulate in caves. 

When these extinct 

m e g a v e r t e b r a t e 

species are recovered 

in karst context, they 

may be accompanied 

b y s m a l l , 

e n v i r o n m e n t a l l y 

sensitive, terrestrial 

herptiles and 

mammals that may 

reveal the habitats and 

environmental tolerances which are otherwise 

known for those extinct species. 

While archaeological deposits are relatively 

scarce in Indiana caves, some debris (usually chert 

flakes) can occur near cave entrance areas. However, 

in Indiana, one cannot dig into archaeological 

deposits in caves, including those on private 

property, without a permit. Even the Indiana State 

Museum must get a permit from a sister agency to 

Figure 12. Teeth of Leidy’s peccary (Platygonus 

vetus, above) from Harrodsburg Crevice, Monroe 

County, are notably more massive than those of the 

flat-headed peccary (Platygonus compressus, below) 

from Megenity Peccary Cave. Scale in 

centimeters. Ron Richards photo. 

207


dig either on state or private property. 

Three core exhibitions at the Indiana State 

Museum, Indianapolis, detail the fossil record 

from Indiana’s karst. The first floor “Missing 

Record” area introduces the 5-million-year-old 

Pipe Creek Junior Sinkhole locality, a preglacial 

pond formed by the collapse of a cave 

ceiling. Actual fossils and casts from this warm 

climate site include rhinoceros, camel, bonecrushing 

dog, bear, numerous turtles, snakes, 

and others. The “Age of Ice” hall includes 

a treatment of the Harrodsburg fauna (the 

“Carnivore Lair”), and an extensive treatment 

of Megenity Peccary Cave, with an actual cast 

re-creation of the water-filled pit where a dire 

wolf, hampered with a dislocated rear leg, met 

its doom in a watery grave. Both real fossils and 

accurate casts from both cave sites are on display 

(Figure 13). As shown below, an adequately 

funded museum, when attuned to traditional 

values, can pursue the full spectrum of heritage 

revelation, from fieldwork, preservation, 

analysis, and interpretation in both a scientific/ 

technical and a public format with exhibitions 

and educational programming. 

Figure 13. Mounted skeletal cast of the flat-headed 

peccary, Platygonus compressus, on exhibit at the 

Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, showing the 

formidable canine teeth, the edges of which were 

kept sharp as the teeth sheared past one another. 

Steve Happe photo. 

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211

Harrison Spring is, by any measure, the 

largest spring in Indiana. The spring is 

located in an abandoned meander loop of Blue 

River at about 440 feet elevation in the NE¼, 

Section 19, T3S, R3E. Water emerges from a 

submerged cavern at a depth of 45 feet beneath 

a rise pool about 95 feet wide and 120 feet long. 

The flow from the spring feeds a three-quartermile-long 

spring run that discharges to the 

main stem of Blue River just north of the I-64 

bridge near White Cloud (Figure 1). It has been 

estimated that the spring accounts for roughly 

one-fourth of the low-flow discharge of Blue 

River at this point. The spring is unique both 

from historical and geological perspectives. 

William Henry Harrison, governor of 

the Northwest Territory from 1800 to 1812, 

owned property near the spring and built 

and operated a mill 100 feet downstream of 

the spring. Squire Boone is reported to have 

established a community near the spring in 

1802 that became known as Wilsons Springs. 

Later, a second mill, the Lemay Mill, was 

built on the spring run near the Blue River 

confluence. Young Abraham Lincoln passed 

through the area to visit his uncle Josiah who 

in 1815 owned land to the northwest in the 

vicinity of Lincoln Springs. 

Spring Flow Rate 

The United States Geological Survey 

performed monthly flow measurements at 

Harrison Spring from 1958 until 1964. The 

measurements included flow from the much 

smaller Harrison Cave Spring, located along 

the spring run to the southeast, but give a 

good indication of the flow magnitude. The 

measurements ranged from a low of 6.89 cubic 

feet per second (cfs) in November 1963 to a high 

566 cubic feet per second in March 1956. The 

212 

Karst Hydrogeology of the 

Harrison Spring Area 

By John Bassett, LPG, NSS 10525 

average of 134 discharge measurements was 100 

cubic feet per second. Based on a flow correlation 

to the nearby Geological Survey gage on Blue 

River at White Cloud the average spring flow was 

155 cubic feet per second. The Geological Survey 

data suggest that at extreme low flow conditions 

the discharge from Harrison Spring makes up 

about 49 percent of the flow in Blue River. 

Indiana State University graduate student 

Jeffery Ehrenzeller performed the seminal 

hydrogeologic investigation of Harrison 

Spring to date (Ehrenzeller, 1978; Ash and 

Ehrenzeller, 1981). Ehrenzeller performed 21 

discharge measurements at Harrison Spring 

during the period July 1977 to March 1978. The 

measurements ranged from 92.0 to 730 cubic 

feet per second. Ehrenzeller (1978) estimated, 

by flow correlation procedures similar to those 

used earlier by the United States Geological 

Survey, that Harrison Spring contributed up to 

65 percent of the flow of Blue River at White 

Cloud during low flow periods, but at high 

flow periods this value dropped to less than 13 

percent. Clearly, the karst drainage system stores 

a large volume of groundwater that is released 

via spring flow during low flow periods. 

The hydrogeologic significance of Harrison 

Spring is further indicated by the comparative 

spring flow estimates reported by Earth Tech 

(1998). During a two-day base flow field 

reconnaissance in August 1997, flow estimates 

were made for several other major springs in 

the area. Spring locations are shown in Figure 

1. A reconnaissance of the main stem of Blue 

River was conducted from near Leatherwood 

Island Spring downstream to the vicinity of the 

State Road 62 bridge. A similar reconnaissance 

was conducted along Indian Creek between 

State Road 64 and I-64 near Corydon. The 

estimated discharges are shown in the table.

Harrison was by far the largest spring visited 

in the 1997 reconnaissance. Hunter Spring 

near Fredricksburg had the second largest flow. 

Leatherwood Island and Harrison Cave Spring 

had significant flows, but were much smaller. 

Crane is another large spring in the area, but 

was not visited in 1997. 

Groundwater Basin Delineation 

Harrison Spring is the single resurgence 

point of what must be a very large groundwater 

basin. The area draining directly to the spring 

(the groundwater basin) is approximately 

known from dye tracer tests that have been 

conducted over a period of several years. A 

compilation of the test results is shown in 

Figure 1. Ehrenzeller (1978) reported the 

results of dye tracers from Baker Hollow Cave, 

Smokes Swallowhole, and Grandma Davis 

Cave, all located on the Mitchell Plateau and 

adjacent parts of the Crawford Upland north 

and northeast of Harrison Spring. All locations 

resurged at Harrison Spring. Earth Tech (1998a) 

showed using spectrofluorometric tracing that 

a sinkhole at North Harrison High School at 

Ramsey drained to Harrison Spring and did 

not drain to any other spring in the area. Later, 

Earth Tech (2005) performed tracer tests from 

two sinkholes adjacent to State Road 64 east 

of Ramsey (Figure 1, SH-1 and SH-14), and 

these also drained to Harrison Spring. Dye was 

not detected in any other monitored spring. 

Karst Hydrogeology of the Harrison Spring Area 

Table 

Estimated Spring Flows – August 1997 

Spring Name Location 

Estimated 

Flow (gpm) 

Babcock SE SW SW 36 T2S R2E 30 

Carter Byrnes SW NW NE 28 T2S R4E 20 

Harrison Cave Spring NE SE NE 19 T3S R3E 100 

Harrison Spring SE NW NE 19 T3S R3E 5000 

Hunter Spring SE NE SW 19 T3S R3E 2500 

Hunter Spring at Milltown NE SE SE 17 T1S R3E 20 

Lincoln I NW NE NW 12 T2S R2E 50 

Lincoln II SW NE SW12 T2S R2E 50 

Leatherwood Island SW NE SW 36 T1S R2E 100 

Mott Station SW SE NE 32 T2S R4E 5 

The SH-14 tracer traveled a straight line vector 

distance of 7.6 miles and is one of the longest 

dye traces conducted in Indiana. 

Based on these dye traces and surface 

watershed boundaries, an approximate 

groundwater basin size of 39 square miles that 

extends northeast of Harrison Spring between 

Blue River and Indian Creek may be inferred. 

Within this area virtually all runoff and 

infiltration reaches the spring. The spring flow 

data suggests the basin area may be larger. The 

western boundary of the groundwater basin 

is drawn along a topographic divide in the 

eastern portion of the Crawford Upland. This 

divide runs northeast from Harrison Spring, 

between Depauw and Ramsey, and is easily 

traceable to a point about 3 miles northeast 

of Ramsey (Figure 1). At this point the divide 

becomes indistinct across the Mitchell Plateau. 

Surface drainage west of this divide occurs in 

numerous karst valleys and sinking streams that 

are probably tributary to several smaller springs 

along the east bank of Blue River. 

The groundwater basin boundary, as drawn 

in Figure 1, extends about 12 miles from the 

spring in the vicinity of Central Barren. In this 

area, the northern boundary of the Harrison 

Spring groundwater basin is drawn though 

an apparent inter-basin area of low sinkhole 

density. North of Central Barren toward 

Palmyra, dye traces by Earth Tech (1998b) and 

the Town of Palmyra indicate subterranean 

213


214

drainage is north to Blue River. There are 

several moderate-size springs (Redman, Parker, 

Cedar, and Glen May) on the south bank of 

Blue River in this area that receive drainage 

from the sinkhole plain. 

There are a few large springs on the east 

bank of Blue River southwest of Fredricksburg. 

These include Hunter, Crane, and Leatherwood 

Island. No dye traces have ever been made to 

any of these springs. Crane Spring is located 

in an unusual position on the inside of a Blue 

River meander loop. Although the spring is on 

the southeast side of the river, divers report that 

the conduit system feeding the spring actually 

extends westward beneath Blue River (Dillon, 

2004). Most of the flow to Crane Spring thus 

appears to be from the sinkhole plain northeast 

of Blue River. Hunter Spring is the second 

largest spring in the area, and probably drains 

a large part of the sinkhole plain southwest of 

Palmyra. Dye traces in the “?” areas of Figure 

1 are needed to more definitely establish 

the groundwater basin boundaries between 

Harrison and Hunter Spring. 

Farther south along Blue River, 

Leatherwood Island and the Lincoln Springs 

appear to drain sinking streams in the eastern 

part of the Crawford Upland. There are a large 

number of swallets in the Depauw area and 

none of these have been traced. It is possible that 

drainage from some of the sinking streams in 

the Depauw area crosses beneath topographic 

divides and discharges to Harrison Spring as 

well. 

The only significant springs on the east 

bank of Blue River downstream from Milltown 

to Harrison Spring are Hunter at Milltown and 

Babcock. Hunter at Milltown is the resurgence 

of karst valley drainage entering the Brushy 

Creek Cave System. The drainage area for 

Babcock Spring is unknown. The absence of 

large springs along this reach of Blue River 

suggests that the Harrison Spring groundwater 

basin boundary extends westward and is in 

close proximity to the Blue River. 

Few large springs are located on the west side 

of Indian Creek east of Harrison Spring basin. 

It is believed that the basin boundary is close to 


Indian Creek in the New Salisbury area. Dyetraced 

sinkhole SH-14 must be very close to 

the eastern edge of the groundwater basin. But 

dye from SH-14 moved southwest 7.6 miles 

to Harrison Spring rather than east the short 

distance to Carter Byrnes Spring on Indian 

Creek. The hydraulic gradient southwest to the 

entrenched Blue River is much steeper and this 

may be the reason for the longer groundwater 

flow route. 

Sinks of Indian Creek 

The Sinks of Indian Creek are a series of 

swallets located in and adjacent to the channel 

of Indian Creek southwest of Corydon in 

NE¼, Section 3, T4S, R3E. The Indian Creek 

drainage area above the Sinks is approximately 

200 square miles. At low flow, the entire flow 

volume of Indian Creek enters the Sinks, and 

there is no flow in the channel downstream. 

There have been a few tracer tests conducted 

east of Indian Creek. Nicoll (1968), Roberson 

(1969), Ehrenzeller (1978), Ash and Powell 

(1980), and Palmer and others (1981) 

summarize these tests. Nicoll (1968) reported 

from tracer tests conducted in the early 1960s 

that both the Main Stream Passage and the 

Overflow Passage in Binkleys Cave resurged 

at Bickel School Spring (now more commonly 

known as Seven Springs) on the east side of 

Indian Creek (Figure 1). The Overflow Passage 

test further showed that the Binkleys Cave 

water flowed down Indian Creek from Bickel 

School Spring to the Sinks of Indian Creek 

and then resurged at Harrison Spring 4.1 miles 

to the northwest. This was the first definitive 

evidence that the Sinks of Indian Creek were 

hydrologically connected to Harrison Spring, 

as hypothesized earlier by Powell (1963). 

Quantitative fluorometric dye tracing 

investigations by the United States Geological 

Survey (Marie, 1968) further demonstrated the 

hydrologic connection between the Sinks of 

Indian Creek and Harrison Spring. Discharge 

measurements by the Geological Survey suggest 

that the Sinks of Indian Creek may contribute 

over one-half of the flow to Harrison Spring 

during low flow conditions. Cave diving at 

215


Harrison Spring has confirmed the presence 

of water-filled solution channels at a depth 

of at least 45 feet extending both north and 

southeast from the spring opening. [See “The 

Exploration of Harrison Spring” beginning 

on page 61.] The solution channel leading to 

the southeast contains notably warmer water 

in the late summer months, and is assumed to 

be the conduit supplying water to the spring 

from the Sinks of Indian Creek. Travel times 

through this flow system range from 24 hours 

to 5¼ days (Marie, 1968). 

Ash and Powell (1980) report that, at 

high flow, Binkleys Cave storm water follows 

an apparent overflow route west to Blowing 

Hole Cave. However, Blowing Hole Cave 

was not observed to resurge in Indian Creek. 

Dye injected into Miller Cave, east of Indian 

Creek, was detected at Harrison Spring, but 

not at the Sinks of Indian Creek (Ehrenzeller, 

1978). Dye injected at Manhole Cave was also 

detected at Harrison Spring. Palmer and others 

(1981) suggest that Blowing Hole Cave drains 

beneath the bed of Indian Creek directly to 

Harrison Spring. Based on the Miller Cave dye 

trace data, Ehrenzeller (1978) included areas of 

the sinkhole plain east of Indian Creek within 

an estimated 68 square mile Harrison Spring 

drainage area. The clear implication of these 

tests is that drainage from the sinkhole plain 

east of Indian Creek may pass entirely beneath 

the creek and flow directly to Harrison Spring. 

Indian Creek may thus be both a gaining 

and loosing stream within the same reach. 

Additional hydrogeologic investigation in this 

area is warranted. 

Harrison Cave Spring and 

Hickman Branch 

An area of sinkhole plain and a large dry 

valley (Hickman Branch) exists along and 

north of the dye flow vector between the Sinks 

of Indian Creek and Harrison Spring (Figure 

1). There has been no dye tracer testing done, 

but some drainage from the areas indicated by 

“?” in Figure 1 may also contribute to Harrison 

Spring flow. But, the conduit bringing water 

from the Sinks of Indian Creek to Harrison 

216 

Spring must lie in close proximity to Harrison 

Cave Spring, a moderate sized spring located 

1,000 feet southeast of Harrison Spring (Figure 

1). No dye trace conducted to date has shown 

the two springs to be connected. They appear 

to be the resurgence points of two independent 

drainage systems. It is possible that Harrison 

Cave Spring drains some of the sinkhole plain 

and dry valley areas between Blue River and 

Indian Creek in a shallow circulating system 

that overlies, and is independent of, the deeper 

conduit from the Sinks of Indian Creek to 

Harrison Spring. 

The enigmatic Bussabarger Cave, referred 

to as Rhodes Cave by Collett (1897), is also 

located close to the dye flow vector between 

the Sinks of Indian Creek and Harrison Spring. 

The cave consists of a single steeply descending 

chamber that ends in a permanent pool 93 feet 

below the entrance. The cave is not a swallet, 

and does not receive a significant amount of 

drainage. Collett (1897) reported blind fish 

in the pool, and the pool elevation appears to 

be very close to the level of Harrison Spring. 

Bussabarger Cave might thus provide a direct 

hydraulic connection to the deep Harrison 

Spring system, but this remains to be confirmed 

by a tracer test. 

Hydrologic and Geomorphic 

Influences 

It is interesting to speculate on what 

hydrologic or geomorphic conditions 

contributed to the development of the Harrison 

Spring groundwater basin. A striking feature 

of the groundwater basin is that it is oriented 

roughly parallel to the entrenched surface 

drainage systems of Blue River to the west and 

Indian Creek to the east. Subterranean drainage 

in the northern part of the area follows a longer 

flow path southwest to Harrison Spring than 

would have been available southeast to Indian 

Creek. A likely factor related to the preferred 

southwest drainage is that Blue River is more 

deeply entrenched than Indian Creek and flows 

at a lower elevation. Both streams discharge 

southwest to the Ohio River, but Blue River 

follows a significantly shorter pathway.

It may also be noted that Harrison Spring 

is located at a point where Blue River makes 

an extreme eastward updip deviation. This 

would appear to be an advantageous position 

for capturing of drainage from a large portion 

of the Mitchell Plateau. The Sinks of Indian 

Creek contribute a significant fraction of the 

flow at Harrison Spring. The extreme eastward 

deviation of Blue River also shortens the 

distance and maximizes the gradient related to 

piracy of Indian Creek drainage. The capture of 

Indian Creek drainage via the Sinks of Indian 

Creek occurs where the two river systems are 

near their closest point. 

References 

Ash, Donald W. and Jeffery Ehrenzeller, 1983. 

“Geochemical and Hydrogeologic Analysis 

of Harrison Springs, Harrison County, 

Indiana,” in P.H. Dougherty (ed.) Environmental 

Karst, Geospeleo Publ., Cincinnati, 

Ohio, pp 137–164. 

Ash, Donald W. and Richard L. Powell, 1980. 

“Geomorphology and Karst Development 

in the Mitchell Plain and Adjacent Crawford 

Upland in South-Central Indiana,” 

in Field Trip Guide 1980, Ronald R. 

Dilamarter and Wayne L. Hoffman (eds.), 

National Meeting of the Association of 

American Geographers, Louisville, Ky. pp 

39–52. 

Collett, John, 1897. “Geological Report on 

Harrison and Crawford Counties, Indiana,” 

Indiana Geological Survey Ann. 

Reports 8, 9, and 10, p. 291-522. 

Dillon, Clarence, 2004., personal communication. 


Earth Tech, 1998a. Fluorescent Dye Tracing 

Investigation, North Harrison Community 

School Corporation, Wastewater Treatment 

Plant NPDES Permit IN0038890, 

Ramsey, Indiana: 15 pp. 

-----, 1998b, Investigation of Karst Features in 

the Vicinity of State Road 135 Between 

Palmyra and Salem, Harrison and Washington 

Counties, Indiana, and Recommendations 

for Their Protection: Indiana 

Department of Transportation, 30 pp. 

-----, 2005, Description and Delineation of 

Karst Features along the Proposed Sight 

Alignment Improvement on SR 64 at 

Mayden Trail, Harrison County, Indiana: 

Indiana Department of Transportation, 12 

pp. 

Ehrenzeller, Jeffery L, 1978.: Geochemical and 

Hydrological Analysis of Harrison Spring, 

unpublished M.A. Thesis, Indiana State 

University, Terre Haute, 94 pp. 

Marie, James R., 1968. Harrison Spring Investigation, 

unpublished field notes. 

Nicoll, Robert S., 1968. “Binkley Cave,” 

Bloomington Indiana Grotto Newsletter, 

vol 7. no. 4, pp 50-58. 

Palmer, Arthur N., Margaret V. Palmer, and 

Richard L. Powell, 1981. Guidebook to 

the Indiana Excursion – 1981 International 

Congress of Speleology. 

Powell, Richard L., 1963. “Alluviated Cave 

Springs of South-Central Indiana,” Proc. 

Indiana Academy of Science, vol. 72, p. 

182-189. 

Roberson, Gary, 1969. Binkleys Cave: Indiana 

Speleological Survey, 78 pp. 

217


218 

Caver at the entrance to Shaft Cave in 1964. 

Photo by Don Martin.

Section IV: Indiana’s Cave Organizations 

21


220

The Indiana Karst Conservancy, Inc. 

If you were asked, could you name 

something good that came out of cave 

vandalism? 

The Indiana Karst Conservancy was 

formed in response to several decades of 

vandalism taking place in a number of caves 

in the Bloomington, Indiana, area. Several 

widely known caves had become local 

nuisances, attracting significant numbers 

of “spelunkers” on weekends. Some of these 

individuals later made contact with NSS 

grottos in the region and became responsible 

cavers; others did not. Whatever the outcome 

for the spelunkers, the outcome for the caves 

was the same—enormous amounts of trash 

were laboriously carried in and abandoned 

and most passage surfaces within reach were 

covered, sometimes layered, with graffiti. 

Bats, including the now federally endangered 

Indiana bat, were driven out or killed. 

Carbide lamps were in extensive use at the 

time and the residue was dumped wherever 

the charge ran low. Often, the caves were 

permeated with the sickening smell of beer 

mixed with urine. 

By the mid-1980s, cavers including Bill 

Wilson, Keith Dunlap, Dave Haun, Tom 

Rea, Kathy Welling, Glenn Lemasters, and 

Cindy Riley had had enough. They resolved 

to do something about the situation, but 

needed an organization structured and 

focused differently from a grotto. Through 

incorporation as a non-profit organization 

in 1986, the Indiana Karst Conservancy had 

the legal standing to negotiate management 

agreements and lease caves from private 

landowners, allowing access to be properly 

regulated and demonstrating that negative 

impacts to Indiana’s caving resources would 

no longer be tolerated. The first action 

taken was a series of cleanups in Wayne and 

Sullivan caves. 

Unfortunately, there were far more 

By Richard Vernier, President, Indiana Karst Conservancy, Inc. 

vandals than conservationists at work at the 

time and these spelunkers clearly were not 

lazy; they simply lacked the good sense or 

moral values to know that they were doing 

something wrong. As a result, they were 

gaining the upper hand in the situation. In 

response, in an action that was controversial 

at the time, the Indiana Karst Conservancy 

installed several gates on popular caves to 

curb the culture of vandalism. While some 

cavers were vocally against the gates, others 

applauded the action and were motivated to 

participate in restoration projects, knowing 

their hard work would not be undone the 

next weekend. 

In Wayne Cave, people had hauled 

bottles, cans, and all manner of other junk 

through the 1,250-foot entrance crawl. A 

good portion of that passage is a moderately 

tight belly crawl and the trash, packed in 

haul bags by the cleanup crew, had to be 

dragged, pushed, and stuffed through this 

obstacle from over a mile back in the cave to 

a dumpster waiting at the surface. 

Sullivan has a similar length stoopway 

(called the “Backbreaker”) but the relative 

ease of access had only served to encourage 

even more damage. To compound the 

problem, the cave was operated on a semicommercial 

basis for a time. People had to 

pay a “parking fee” for access but, beyond 

that, there were few rules. While there was 

no actual advertising involved, secrecy about 

the cave location and access was hardly a 

policy. More cleanups were scheduled and 

this evolved into an ongoing annual tradition 

known as “Under-Earth Day.” 

As the organization matured, the Indiana 

Karst Conservancy’s mission was expanded 

to include an educational component to 

make the public aware of the consequences 

of cave vandalism and sinkhole dumping. A 

groundwater system model nicknamed the 

221


“ant farm” was procured with the assistance 

of the NSS; and Kriste Lindberg began 

making the rounds of local schools and 

civic organizations showing graphically that 

whatever you dump in the sinkhole ends up 

in your drinking water. 

The organization entered another phase 

in 1998 with the decision to purchase its 

first preserve—Sullivan Cave. This decision 

did not come easily but two of our members 

were willing to bankroll the acquisition until 

the organization could raise the funds. The 

caving community responded with enthusiasm 

and the property was paid off in short order. 

After a “mission accomplished” moment, we 

learned that we now had to deal with things 

like insurance, property taxes, invasive species, 

abandoned trailers, collapsed culverts, and how 

to appropriately regulate access. 

Over the years, four additional 

preserves have been added, totaling 128 

acres. Management agreements are still 

administered for several other cave properties 

for private landowners. Three of the caves 

owned or managed by the Indiana Karst 

Conservancy are significant hibernacula for 

the federally endangered Indiana bat. 

Another long-term project the Indiana 

Karst Conservancy has undertaken is a karst 

inventory program on the 200,000-acre 

Hoosier National Forest. The Federal Cave 

Resources Protection Act mandates that 

federal properties inventory cave resources 

within their boundaries and develop 

management plans for those deemed 

significant. Indiana Karst Conservancy 

members are locating caves, evaluating them 

for biological, geological, paleontological, 

and cultural values, nominating caves for 

designation as significant and writing 

management plans. Literally thousands of 

volunteer hours have been invested in this 

project by members of the Conservancy, 

area grottos, and the Indiana Cave Survey. 

The staff and management of the Hoosier 

National Forest have been extremely 

supportive of this effort and in 2005 the 

222 

Eastern Region of the USDA Forest Service 

selected our organization to receive their 

award for “Volunteer of the Year.” Several 

of the caves in this guidebook are found 

in the Hoosier National Forest. We wish 

to commend the Forest for its progressive 

attitude towards its karst resources and 

ask that cavers respect the fragile nature of 

these caves and understand that some have 

biological values that can be impacted by 

overuse or careless activities. 

Since its inception, the Indiana Karst 

Conservancy has been involved with the 

recovery effort for the Indiana bat, taking part 

in the biennial population survey, managing 

access to known hibernacula, and acquiring 

and protecting a Priority III hibernaculum. 

The organization also worked with the 


to install 22 gates on abandoned coal mines 

to protect alternative habitat for a number 

of bat species. The Conservancy has also 

been involved in several research projects 

including extensive temperature monitoring 

in bat caves, as well as developing a compact 

and inexpensive SpeLogger for monitoring 

visitation patterns and access management 

effectiveness. 

An exciting new project is the co-sponsorship 

with the Hoosier National Forest, The 

NSS, and Ravenswood Media of the educational 

video: Caves: Life Beneath the Forest. The goal 

is to make this video available to schools, nature 

centers, environmental organizations, civic 

organizations, and anyplace where we can get 

the message out about the importance of the 

life found in caves. The next step is to develop a 

teaching guide based on Indiana state standards 

so that this can be used in science classrooms 

throughout the state. The video will be shown 

in full during the convention and copies will be 

available. 

The Indiana Karst Conservancy is an 

affiliate organization of the NSS and, as 

such, works closely with Indiana’s grottos, 

as well as several grottos in neighboring 

states. The Conservancy is an acknowledged

esource in cave and karst conservation in 

Indiana and frequently assists and advises the 


the Hoosier National Forest, the US Fish 

and Wildlife Service, and The Nature 

Conservancy in a variety of cave- and karstrelated 

projects. 

The Indiana Karst Conservancy has a 

membership-based governing structure, 

which elects an Executive Board to run the 

organization. The Board consists of three 

Officers and twelve Directors, providing 

a diverse background of experiences, but 

a common appreciation for caves and a 

dedication to protecting them. We are an 

all-volunteer organization with no paid 

staff. Our primary means of communication 

with our members is through our quarterly 

newsletter, the IKC Update. We also 

maintain a Web site (http://www.caves.org/ 

conservancy/ikc) that serves as an education 

resource and a repository of information 

and documents related to the Conservancy 

Indiana Karst Conservancy 

and its preserves. 

The Indiana Karst Conservancy, both 

directly and through its partners, has played 

a major role in the change in attitude of 

Indiana’s citizens towards caves and other 

karst features, as well as bats; and with 

the video, some may even come to respect 

springtails and pseudoscorpions. Malicious 

damage is down considerably; some major 

caves have been kept available for responsible 

recreation and study and now we need to 

expand our focus to include the impacts of 

urban sprawl, pollution, and other threats. 

Following is a guide to IKC Preserves: 

Sullivan Cave: 

Our First Nature Preserve 

In 1998, the IKC took possession of 28 acres, 

including the principal entrance to Sullivan 

Cave, one of Indiana’s longest and most wellknown 

caves. 

At over 9.6 miles long and containing river 

River Passage in Sullivan Cave. Photo by Richard Vernier. 

223


passage and some of the larger cave rooms in 

the state, Sullivan is a significant and sporting 

horizontal cave. Years of overuse and vandalism 

have taken their toll on the more accessible 

parts of the cave; but through the dedicated 

effort of hundreds of volunteers including 

cavers, scouts, and members of the public who 

often had no idea what they were getting into, 

the cave has been restored to some of its former 

glory. 

Surface management goals have included 

repairs to the driveway and parking area and 

reforestation of approximately 5 acres in two 

open fields. 

Permission and a key are required to access 

the gated cave. A liability release must be signed 

in advance for any underground activities. 

Orangeville Rise 

In 1999, the IKC acquired the Orangeville 

Rise. The second-largest spring in Indiana, 

the Rise provides a major input to the Lost River 

system and is a National Natural Landmark and 

a state-dedicated nature preserve. The property 

consists of a little over 3 acres of land within the 

224 

Orangeville Rise from the air. Photo by Richard Fields and Hank Huffman. 

town of Orangeville, Indiana. Surface access is 

available anytime during the day. There is no 

underground access. 

The property was a gift from The Nature 

Conservancy of Indiana when The Nature 

Conservancy recognized that this property 

would benefit from the kind of increased 

focus and active stewardship that the Indiana 

Karst Conservancy could provide. 

Buddha Karst Preserve 

In 2001, the Indiana Karst Conservancy 

purchased the Buddha Karst Preserve. The 

property consists of 37 acres of rolling karst 

topography containing several wet-weather 

swallets, numerous sinkholes, two sinkhole 

ponds, and two caves. Buddha Cave was 

also featured on the cover of the 1992 NSS 

Convention guidebook. This cave has a little of 

everything to offer: a large entrance room, some 

crawling, exposed climbs, a 20-foot ladder or 

rope drop, and a nicely-decorated lower stream 

passage. 

Buddha Karst Preserve is a state-dedicated 

nature preserve and, as such, is subject to


daylight hours for 

nature appreciation 

and hiking. The 

C o n s e r v a n c y 

maintains a loop 

hiking trail and 

has an on-going 

reforestation project 

on the property. 

Wayne Cave 

Preserve 

The Indiana Karst 

C o n s e r v a n c y 

purchased the Wayne 

Cave Preserve in 2003. 

The property consists 

of 20 mostly wooded 

acres overlying the 

entrance and much 

of the cave passage. 

With over 4.2 miles 

of passage, Wayne 

Cave has long been 

in the top ten cave 

systems in Indiana 

and is considered one 

of the classic Indiana 

caves. 

Most of the 

recent effort on the 

preserve has gone 

into establishing 

an off-street 

parking area, a trail 

to the entrance, 

and some primitive 

c a m p s i t e s . 

A d d i t i o n a l l y , 

Jaime Fee in Buddha Cave. Photo by Scott Fee. 

slash piles from 

earlier logging 

special management requirements and limits were removed. Current property manager 

on access. It is available for responsible Robert Sollman undertook much of this 

recreational caving. As with other Indiana work as an Eagle Scout Project with 

Karst Conservancy properties, permission assistance from Conservancy volunteers. 

must be obtained and a liability release must Permission and a key are required to 

be signed in advance for any underground access the gated cave. A liability release must 

activities. The surface is open during be signed in advance for any underground 

225


activities. 

Robinson Ladder Cave Preserve 

Acquired in 2005, the 40-acre tract contains 

the entrance and virtually all of the land 

overlying Robinson Ladder Cave. Robinson 

Ladder is a Priority III hibernaculum for the 

federally endangered Indiana bat. Robinson 

Ladder extends the Indiana Karst Conservancy’s 

226 

Robert “Bugs” Armstrong in Wayne Cave (about 1958). Photo by Don Martin. 

landholdings into the Harrison Crawford area 

of southern Indiana and is only minutes from 

the 2007 NSS National Convention. 

The Indiana Karst Conservancy has 

regularly visited this cave for bat inventory 

since the late 1980s. The cave is registered 

with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 

is closed to visitation between September 1 

and April 30 to avoid disturbances during


Heading for the Ladder in Robinson Ladder Cave. Photo by Ernie Payne. 

the hibernation season. Access to responsible 

cavers is allowed during the summer months; 

permission must be obtained and a liability 

release must be signed in advance for any 

underground activities. 

In conjunction with the Indiana 

Department of Natural Resources and The 

Nature Conservancy, which owns adjoining 

properties, we are proceeding with a project 

to restore the surface to pre-settlement 

conditions. Alien and invasive species will 

be eradicated where possible and native 

plants will be encouraged. 

227

The gathering of information about Indiana 

caves started in the 19th century and has 

taken on many forms and involved many cavers 

through the years. The sources of the data 

used to create the initial catalog were varied. 

Richard L. Powell received and collected 

data from several groups and individuals, 

including Willis S. Blatchley’s reports from 

the late 19th century, reports from the state of 

Indiana geologists from about 1937, as well as 

Roy Davis, Lewis Lamon, Art Davis, and the 

Purdue Outing Club in the late 1950s. This 

information provided the basis for data that 

subsequently went into the Indiana Geological 

Survey publication Caves of Indiana, which 

Richard Powell started in 1956. The data kept 

flowing in and, after revising the book three 

times, he released it for publication in 1961. 

During subsequent years, personnel at 

the Indiana Geological Survey typed out cave 

locations and information on 3x5 index cards 

and sorted them manually into categories. 

Since there were no Xerox machines and 

similar reproduction capability was not readily 

available at the time, various lists were compiled 

on paper and updated periodically as new 

information flowed in. The system was later 

upgraded by transferring the data to 5x8 cards 

but continued to be maintained at the Indiana 

Geological Survey. 

The cave files got their computer-age start 

in early 1970, when punch cards containing 

the cave data were created and maintained at 

the Indiana Geological Survey. Richard Powell 

also was responsible for that effort, as new data 

continued to be compiled and processed. By 

about 1971 the data was divided up among 

three or four individuals so as not to have one 

complete set of data in any one person’s hands 

or in any single location. This was done for 

228 

The Indiana Cave Survey: 

Past, Present, and Future 

By Dave Everton, NSS #25891RE 

security and integrity of the data. 

An awakening came about not long 

afterward when a reporter from the New 

Albany area requested the cave data from the 

Indiana Geological Survey with the intention 

of publishing a book. This created quite a stir 

and local cavers decided against it. They told 

him the cave files didn’t belong to the Indiana 

Geological Survey, but to cavers. Although the 

reporter was rather persistent for some time, 

he finally gave up. It was then decided that 

the cave data should change hands out of the 

Survey. This was due to concerns that it might 

be considered public information and that 

eventually someone would be able to obtain it 

forcibly by legal means. 

Dick Blenz moved to Bloomington in 1966 

and lived in Highland Village until finishing 

his Eller Road house in 1975. He was one of 

the individuals in possession of portions of the 

cave data Dick Powell had parsed out. He was 

also responsible for the NSS Cave Files, having 

been asked to do so by Tom Rea. The NSS Cave 

Files contained very little data on Indiana caves 

since it wasn’t standard practice at that time to 

provide the NSS office with copies of published 

information or newsletters. 

Dick also had one of the first computers 

that could plot survey data. He and Sam 

Frushour used it to crunch data from the 

Sullivan Cave Project. This computer was used 

as a dumb terminal connection and was hooked 

up to an Indiana University mainframe. It 

used a program developed by Randy Jackson 

that utilized FORTRAN and enabled him to 

process the data. Among the data processed was 

information compiled by Dick Powell, as well 

as a big, thick log book that was a compilation 

of Indiana cave information recorded over 

many years by individual cavers at the Blenz

property. Meanwhile, Randy Jackson used a 

card reader to read the computer cards created 

by the Indiana Geological Survey and Dick 

Powell. Kevin Komisarcik took stacks of cards 

to Randy, who would feed them into the reader. 

Each card contained 80 text characters and 

there were a total of about 1,200 cards. Randy 

then took the card image files and developed 

the FORTRAN random access database. This 

took place in the early 1980s. 

In 1986, Randy spurred an effort with 

a small group of cavers to form a legal entity 

that would take over the Indiana cave data. In 

addition to finding new and suitable software 

for the cave database, a quality-control system 

was also set up to improve the quality of the 

cave data; much of this data had gotten into 

the database with little or no quality control. 

Furthermore, most cave locations up to that 

time were only reported to within a 600-squarefoot 

area using the traditional Congressional 

System (township, range, section, and quarter 

section location). The new system required 

establishing a dot location and required each 

location to be entered into the database in 

latitude/longitude or Universal Transverse 

Mercator (UTM) coordinates. Many other 

improvements and additional data collection 

were also set up and incorporated into the 

program. 

Since that time, the personal computer 

has become popular and most cavers now own 

and use one regularly. In recent years the paper 

cave report form was upgraded to an electronic 

version that was made available on the Indiana 

Cave Survey Web site. Members and nonmembers 

use the report to submit updates for 

Indiana Cave Statistics 

Indiana Cave Survey 

possible inclusion in the database. An important 

graphical capability was also incorporated using 

Topozone.com. When a person completes the 

coordinates for a particular location on the 

form during the submission process, the form 

displays the Topozone location along with the 

other information submitted. 

Although computers have changed the 

way data are collected and processed, the 

basic mission of Indiana cave data collection 

remains the same. The organization is now 

on the brink of a major upgrade of data entry 

and distribution to an online environment. 

Each person responsible for updating cave 

information can do so on a personal computer 

and upload the changes so the updated data 

can be immediately viewed by all persons with 

access. Additionally, scanned cave maps will 

be available in electronic format in the new 

environment as well as entrance photos, scanned 

newsletter articles, and other references. Thus, 

an entire electronic library of Indiana cave data 

will hopefully someday exist. The organization 

would also like to incorporate Geographical 

Information Systems (GIS) software, coupling 

database and graphical information together to 

tap into the strengths and capabilities of that 

environment. 

The Indiana Cave Survey partners 

with various organizations, including the 

Indiana Geological Survey, the Indiana Karst 

Conservancy, and the Hoosier National Forest. 

With continued awareness of the importance of 

karst and caves, it is expected that partnerships 

with even more organizations will continue 

to grow as the value of sharing information 

continues to benefit caves and cavers. 

Source: ICS database as of February 1, 2007, unless otherwise noted. 

(Note: in order to be counted as a “cave,” the state minimum requirement is 25 feet traverse length or depth.) 

Caves: 3,112 

Entrances: 3,416 

Pits: 711 

Maps: 2,496 

References: 6,543 

Counties: 37 

7.5-minute quadrangles: 124 

22


230 

Indiana’s 20 Longest Caves by Length 

Name County Length (miles) Source 

1. Binkley Harrison 22.097 Gary Roberson 

2. Bluespring Cavern Lawrence 20.890 Sam Frushour 

3. Lost River System Orange 20.550 Mark Deebel 1-2007 

4. Sullivan Lawrence 9.632 

5. Wyandotte Crawford 9.200 

6. Whistling Lawrence 7.810 

7. Marengo Crawford 5.560 Gary Roberson 

8. Reeves Monroe 4.950 Garre Conner 

9. Wayne Monroe 4.250 

10. Saltpeter Monroe 3.460 

11. Charles Washington 3.407 

12. Two Bit Pit Harrison 3.390 

13. Fredericksburg Washington 3.343 

14. Dog Hill-Donnehue Lawrence 3.250 

15. Blair Spring System Monroe 3.120 

16. Upper Twin Lawrence 3.097 

17. Parkers Pit Harrison 2.803 

18. Boone-Cannonball Owen 2.790 

19. Pless Lawrence 2.700 

20. Buckner Monroe 2.699 

Caves longer than 1 mile (5,280 feet): 63 

Top 20 Indiana Caves by Depth 

Name County Depth (feet) 

1. Heisers Mystery Well Washington 253 

2. Two Bit Pit Harrison 251 

3. Hanging Rock Drop Harrison 243 

4. Parkers Pit Harrison 206 

5. Wyandotte Crawford 190 

6. Big Rock Swallowhole Harrison 182 

7. Sinking Foot Harrison 178 

8. Raymond Bliss Harrison 172 

9. Louden Pit Harrison 168 

10. Rolling Rock Harrison 166 

11. Devils Graveyard Harrison 162 

12. Powerline Crawford 162 

13. Rise of Lost River Orange 160 

14. Teds Dig Harrison 158 

15. Paradise Lost Cavern Harrison 158 

16. Birthday Plunge Harrison 154 

17. Batwing Harrison 153 

18. Bryant Harrison 152 

19. BBUB Harrison 150 

20. Vorhies Vat Monroe 150

Number of Caves 1,000 Feet or Longer, by County: 

1. Harrison 48 

2. Lawrence 44 

3. Orange 44 

4. Washington 39 

5. Monroe 27 

6. Crawford 20 

7. Greene 12 

8. Jennings 11 

9. Owen 10 

10. Jefferson 9 

11. Dubois 3 

12. Ripley 3 

12. Clark 2 

13. Floyd 1 

14. Putnam 1 

Total: 280 

Number of Caves Deeper than 100 feet, by County: 



3. Crawford 9 

4. Monroe 9 

5. Orange 3 

6. Owen 1 


Total: 77 



3. Monroe 352 

4. Orange 292 

5. Crawford 218 


7. Jennings 191 

8. Jefferson 158 

9. Martin 133 

10. Owen 107 

11. Greene 84 

12. Clark 63 

13. Ripley 32 

14. Decatur 19 

Number of Total Caves by County: 


231


232 

15. Putnam 19 

16. Dubois 13 

17. Morgan 11 

18. Wabash 11 

19. Perry 9 

21. Tippecanoe 8 

22. Floyd 5 

23. Shelby 5 

24. Jackson 4 

25. Vanderburgh 4 

26. Delaware 2 

27. Fountain 2 

28. Parke 2 

29. Brown 1 

30. Clay 1 

31. Scott 1 

Total: 3112 

Summary of Cave Length by County 

County Length (feet) 

1. Lawrence 431,085 

2. Harrison 340,336 

3. Washington 206,878 

4. Monroe 193,540 

5. Orange 173,114 

6. Crawford 146,952 

7. Jennings 42,332 

8. Greene 42,291 

9. Owen 41,293 

10. Jefferson 36,511 

11. Martin 17,742 

12. Dubois 7,789 

13. Ripley 7,163 

14. Clark 4,649 

15. Morgan 2,716 

16. Putnam 2,689 

17. Decatur 1,701 

18. Floyd 1,330 

19. Bartholomew 1,293 

20. Perry 703 

21. Delaware 561 

22. Shelby 319 

23. Wabash 316 

24. Tippecanoe 171 

25. Vanderburgh 150 

26. Parke 87

27. Warren 74 

28. Miami 63 

29. Fountain 49 

30. Jackson 14 

31. Brown 10 

Total: 1,703,918 

Edwin Hubble at Fairground Spring, the resurgence 

of the Binkleys Cave stream, about 1914. 


233

234 

Indiana Grottos: Past and Present 

Compiled by Bill Torode, NSS Library 

Inactive Grottos 

Number Name Location Years Active 

024 Tarevac Tell City 1950–54 

046 Scotto Grotto Scottsburg 1953–54 

084 Washington Grotto Washington 1958 

113 Depauw Grotto Greencastle 1963–1965 

133 Western Indiana Grotto Terre Haute 1966–1968 

204 SSG Grotto Indianapolis 1973–1987 

211 Horace C Hovey Grotto Crawfordsville 1974–1977 

245 Purdue Outing Club West Lafayette 1977–1982 

247 Columbus Indiana Grotto Columbus 1977–1981 

259 Western Indiana Grotto Terre Haute 1979–85; 1996–? 2004 

269 Southern Indiana Grotto Seymour 1980–1984 

296 Mid-Hoosier Grotto Franklin 1983–? 1997 

Active Grottos 

Number Name Location Years Active 

021 Evansville Metropolitan Grotto Evansville 1949–50; 1961–present 

060 Central Indiana Grotto Indianapolis 1955–present 

080 Bloomington Indiana Grotto Bloomington 1958–present 

200 Northern Indiana Grotto Fort Wayne 1972–present 

413 St Joseph Valley Grotto Mishawaka 1997–present 

334 Harrison Crawford Grotto Georgetown 1988–present 

Not Included on Library List (Missing Pages) 

Eastern Indiana Grotto—library has newsletters for dates of 1989–1999 

Other Groups: The Library has Newsletters but These are Not 

Listed as NSS Grottos 

Independent Association of Indiana Cavers 1963–1973 

Indiana University Spelunking Club 1955–56; 1970–1983 

Cave Man Expedition Newsletter 1962–1965 

The Southern Indiana Speleo-Group 1960–1973 

IMU Spelunking Club (Indiana University) 1959–1960 

Midwest Caver 1975 

Midwest Region Newsletter 1967–1968 

John Marshall High School Spelunking Club 1973–1975 

Indiana Speleological Survey 1977–1978 

Edinburg Cave Club 1958–1959 

IKC Update 1986–present 

Indiana Cave Survey 1997–present

Section V: History 

235


236

Lewis D. Lamon: 

Indiana’s Grand Ol’ Man of Caving, 

NSS 2187–CIG 

Photos FroLewis Denbo Lamon was born 

in 1905 and died on June 9, 1990, in 

Harrison County, Indiana. “Lewie,” as he 

was affectionally known, was a caver. Lewie 

did most of his caving in southern Indiana, 

especially Harrison and Crawford counties. 

But he also caved in Tennessee along with 

his son Lewis David Lamon, as well as Roy 

Davis, Tank Gorin, and many others. They 

made numerous trips and discoveries in 

Higgenbottom Cave (present day Cumberland 

Caverns). Lewie was a contemporary of caver 

Leo Schotter of Milltown. In those earlier days 

of southern Indiana caving, Leo explored caves 

north of present day I-64 and Lewie explored 

caves pretty much south of I-64, although the 

two did go caving together. Lewie resided in 

the southern part of Corydon, within sight 

of Fairgrounds Spring. This spring is one of 

the main drains for Binkleys Cave, currently 

Indiana’s longest cave. Lewie was involved in 

much of the early exploration in Binkleys, and 

was among the first to see the Mountain Room 

there. 

Lewie owned a hardware store in downtown 

Corydon, Indiana. Outside his store hung a 

placard that detailed services offered, such as: 

keys made, screens repaired, and the like, but 

prominently listed at the bottom was “NSS 

2187 CIG,” a reference to his NSS number and 

affiliation with the Central Indiana Grotto. 

He predated Bob and Bob, and always carried 

caver supplies such as helmets, rope, carbide 

and carbide lights, gloves, and other caver 

items at his store. Lewie loved caves and caving. 

Anyone who knew or worked with Lewie soon 

learned of his interest in caves, and if not was 

By John Benton, NSS 10689F 

Illustrations from the John Benton photo collection. 

Langdons Cave 1938: Oliver Rothrock, John 

Martin Hagwald, Hurst Miles, Frances Simler, 

Lewie Lamon, Jack Parks (Lewie at top looking to 

the left. Note the one-armed man). 

pulled along on a caving trip or had to hear of 

caving tales and cave passage, real or imagined. 

Lewie became known as the local caving expert 

and as farmers and landowners would come 

into his store to buy needed hardware, tales 

and information about local caves would be 

exchanged. You would hear, for example, the 

“pond on the Miles Farm that fell in,” or “that 

hole on the bluff of Indian Creek that blows 

cold air.” Many leads, both good and bad, were 

237


investigated by Lewie. 

It is often said that Lewie forgot more 

about caves than most people know. Most of 

his caving came before surveying was widely 

done, so little written record of his explorations 

exists. The author recalls many trips into his 

hardware store and being enchanted with his 

caving stories. As a young teenager, Lewie got 

me interested in caving and was my sponsor 

to join the NSS, as was needed in those days. 

Over the years I sent a lot of friends to Lewie’s 

store for supplies and cave leads. Not only local 

cavers sought Lewie for cave information. A 

young college student from Yellow Springs, 

Ohio, named Roger Brucker made several 

1950s visits to Lewie’s store. Brucker later 

recalled that some of the trips they went on 

were wild goose chases where the cave never 

materialized. 

Lewie was semi-famous for his “sketch 

maps” that he used to detail cave leads, maps, or 

directions. From small scraps of paper to larger 

238 

Lewie Lamon in Shiloh Cave. 

store glass-wrapping paper, Lewie would start 

a cave story or lead, and his eyes would sparkle 

as the information unfolded and notes were 

scribbled. I still prize several of those sketch 

maps that Lewie produced for me. Although 

Lewie never made up a story, his memory of just 

where the cave was located could sometimes be 

off. But we’ve all been there, right? 

While caving near age 70 in Coons Cave 

west of Corydon, Lewie wedged his body into 

a slot he could not easily exit from. He gave 

instructions on where to locate his daughter on 

a weekend to unlock the store and bring back 

a small sledge hammer (no Wal-Marts in those 

days) to a couple of cavers on the trip, while I 

waited with Lewie. A couple hours later, the 

passage was easily enlarged, and Dallas Taylor 

got a free hammer from Lewie as a thank you. 

In 1937 when Federal Highway 460 (State 

Highway 62), also called the Wonderland Way, 

was being built across southern Indiana, Lewie 

was one of a handful of people who got to enter 

Firetail Cave, near the Harrison-Crawford 

County line. Firetail Cave (or Loudens Cave) 

was not far from Wyandotte Cave to the west. 

Firetail Cave was so named because as Lewie’s 

party was on an exploring trip, water started to 

rise in the cave, and the group made a hasty exit, 

as if “a fire was on their tails.” The construction 

crews sealed the cave shut within days of its 

discovery near the new roadbed. Generations 

of cavers since have looked for a way into 

Firetail Cave, but without luck. The passages 

were reported large and “Wyandotte like.” No 

maps or survey was made. Someday some caver 

Lewie Lamon’s Cave Capers ticket. He was an 

“honored guest” at Cave Capers 1974.

will find a way in. 

Lewie’s softspoken 

and kindmannered 

ways 

sometimes got in 

the way of running 

his business or so 

thought his wife, 

Evelyn. More than 

once, while taking 

time to talk to cavers 

on a busy Saturday, 

Evelyn would 

interject, “Lewie, quit 

talking about those 

caves!” Lewie would 

usually acknowledge 

her, give a faint 

smile and resume his 

conversation with 

cavers. The Central 

Indiana Grotto annually gives the “Lewis D. 

Lamon Award” to a caver worthy of recognition, 

in Lamon’s honor. When Lewie passed away in 

1990 at age 85, his cave helmet and light rested 

on his casket, as an honor and reminder of his 

Lewie Lamon sketch map of Louden Cave. 

Bob Armstrong in the Wayne Cave crawlway in 1959. 

Photo by Don Martin. 

Lewis D. Lamon 

caving passion. 

The author wishes to thank Gary Roberson, 

long time caving associate, for discussion and 

some information for this story. 

23

This is an account of George F. Jackson, of 

whom many photographs are featured in 

this year’s Convention Guidebook. 

George F. Jackson first visited Wyandotte 

Cave in 1923 as a 13-year-old boy scout. Later, 

he became a guide there and ended up marrying 

into the Rothrock family. Through the years, 

he participated in numerous explorations in 

Indiana and Kentucky; among them was the 

well-known Russell T. Neville’s Salts Cave 

expedition in 1927 with Neville and some of 

the Collins brothers (Floyd Collins had died in 

Sand Cave in 1925). In 1929 he had an account 

published in NSS Bulletin 8 on the Unexplored 

240 

George F. Jackson: NSS 151 By John Benton 

Photos from the John Benton photo collection. 

George Jackson with two tripods. 

Regions of Wyandotte Cave. 

He joined the NSS in 1941, its first year of 

existence. Soon, George began to knock out cave 

articles left and right. By 1973 he had well over 

100 articles published many in the NSS News 

and Bulletin. He was an avid photographer and 

contributed many of his pioneer cave photos for 

his and others articles. Much of his adult life he 

worked in an Evansville, Indiana, camera shop, 

enabling his photographic endeavors. He helped 

to organize the first grotto in Indiana. 

In the 1940s and 1950s he served two long 

stretches on the NSS Board of Governors and 

from 1948 to 1966 he prepared the annual 

George Jackson rigging at the top of 

Double Pit 1939.

George Jackson getting a drink at 

Crawfish Springs. 

index for the NSS News. In 1955 George moved 

from Indiana to New Jersey. There he was active 

with the Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey, 

and Kittatiny grottos. He was a member of 

the NSS News staff and in 1956 was associate 

editor. Also in that year he served as editor of 

George Jones and George Jackson with rope, 

pointing upward 1938. 

George F. Jackson 

NSS Occasional Papers and from 1956 to 1968, 

Assistant Editor of the NSS Bulletin. In 1958 he 

became NSS Vice-president for Publications. 

In 1963 George moved to California 

and assisted the Sierra-Mojave and Southern 

California grottos with publications and as a 

board member. In the 1970s he became active 

in spelean history with numerous publications 

and talks with American Spelean History 

Association. He wrote two books, a pamphlet, 

and innumerable articles on Wyandotte Cave. 

In his later years, George moved back to 

southern Indiana relocating to New Albany, 

Indiana, not far from Wyandotte Cave. He 

died in August 1981 at age 74 and is buried in 

Fairview Cemetery in New Albany. (All photos 

are in Wyandotte Cave and are from the John 

Benton collection.) 

(The author would like to acknowledge 

William R. Halliday for assistance in gathering 

information for this article). 

George Jackson hand-over-hand climbing at 

Double Pit. 

241

It stood as the silent sentinel alongside the 

dirt road that passed from the dead end of 

Eller Road to the entrance of Buckner Cave. It 

was of poplar and oak, well built, with timber 

frame construction. Approximately 20 feet 

wide and 30 feet long, with two stories and a 

roof of corrugated galvanized steel. Of classic 

design, it was one of many hundreds, perhaps 

thousands, that dotted the Indiana countryside 

during the first half of the last century. The 

main floor contained the box stalls, individually 

fenced, with floors of compacted mule exhaust 

of the natural variety. The second floor was an 

empty hayloft. The hay hood sported a stop 

sign. The north, south, and east walls were 

painted red. The west wall displayed a veneer of 

brown inselbrick asphalt siding. It was referred 

by several names; Buckner’s Barn, Blenz’s Barn, 

242 

The Barn 

The Barn at Buckner Cave. Photo by Don Martin. 

By Don Paquette 

the Speleospot, but to many of us it was simply 

“The Barn.” 

About 50 feet straight off of the end of Eller 

Road was the shell of a small two-room house. 

Someone had taken the “Chapel” section from 

a broken off wooden “Garrison Chapel Road” 

sign and nailed it over the front door. We 

referred to it as “The Chapel.” 

This was the center of caving in the Garrison 

Chapel Valley in the early 1960s that I met 

shortly after I had met my teenage years. It was 

a magical place, not just because of the land 

and the buildings but because of the cavers. 

Almost every weekend a dozen or two cavers 

from near and far would gather for a couple of 

days of caving and fellowship among kindred 

spirits. For someone who had been hooked on 

the underground since his first trip into Ruby

Falls at the age of six, it was paradise. It was real 

caves and real cavers. 

The mules never made it up to the hayloft 

in the barn, so rolling out a sleeping bag there 

provided good sleeping in the summer. The 

Chapel had a wood stove. It made for good 

sleeping in the winter. One day The Chapel 

disappeared. The Chapel had a wood stove. 

We would spend the days caving, surveying, 

or digging in the various sinkholes. In the 

evenings we would sit around a fire and swap 

opinions, theories, and stories. The topics 

ran the gamut from the virtues of kneepads 

in Wayne’s crawl, to the virtues of aluminum 

flywheels in Volkswagens, to various methods 

of removing the virtue from members of the 

opposite gender. 

Dick Blenz owned the barn and the 

surrounding 50 acres, including the entrance 

to Buckner Cave. He lived in Griffith, Indiana, 

in the northern end of the state and commuted 

to his property almost every weekend. He 

would frequently bring a mob including Jim 

Rodemaker, Phil King, Craig Rohrsen, Ron 

Martel, and others from Windy City Grotto. 

Bill Mixon, Dick Flagel, and Marsh Kevit 

would drive down. To our high school gang 

they were the older guys in their early twenties. 

Bill soon became “Uncle Willie” to us. Marsh 

became my mentor. One of the pioneers of cave 

radio, he was an electrical engineer, a genius 

who could talk intelligently and in depth about 

any subject that I could bring up. In addition 

to the Windy City regulars, one weekend a 

month, the grotto would have a novice trip to 

Indiana. 

We installed a wall to convert the northern 

half of the main floor of the barn into an 

insulated room. We poured a concrete floor 

and insulated the ceiling, covering the 

insulation with old aluminum plates from an 

offset printing press. We gathered up a bunch 

of old mattresses and created a field house. 

Then one weekend it arrived—The Blenz Water 

Heater. The thing had a large steel bowl on top 

leading into a spaghetti of pipes, valves, electric 

elements, a radiator, and a fan. A scientific and 

technological marvel, it could heat a block of 

The Barn 

ice to boiling in 20 or so microseconds and 

probably dimmed the runway lights at the 

nearby Bloomington Airport when fired up. 

The wonder of technology that it was became 

secondary to many of us. We simply did not 

need the Chapel and its rogue woodstove any 

more on cold winter nights. 

Warren Lawton and his younger son, Leigh, 

came almost every weekend for several months 

and worked at digging through the top of the 

breakdown at the end of Buckner’s entrance 

room. The theory being that the breakdown 

was caused by a Civil War era blast that may 

have sealed some saltpeter mining stuff in the 

passage beyond. Good theories can sucker in 

lots of labor. He moved several tons of rock 

but never got through. A subsequent ground 

resistivity study several years later shows an 

anomaly where the passage should be, so that 

peach may still be there for the pickin’. At least 

that’s the theory. 

The road between the barn and the end 

of Eller Road would become a true slime hole 

almost every time it rained. We became very 

proficient at almost every technique of getting 

vehicles buried up to their axles in the mud 

unstuck. Dick would dig drainage troughs in 

vain attempts to empty the ruts and expedite 

drying. One Sunday, on his way out, Warren 

shoved some cash into Dick’s hand and said, 

“Get some gravel on this road.” Dick did. It took 

a couple of months for the mud to swallow the 

stones and return to its slimy rutty ways. 

One of Dick Blenz’s many attributes is 

his easygoing live-and-let-live philosophy. I 

remember well the one and only time I ever 

saw him thoroughly and completely pissed off. 

Windy City Grotto was having its monthly 

novice trip to Bloomington, so there was quite 

a lively group on site. We had had a fun trip 

to Cave River Valley, near Campbellsburg, 

Indiana, that Saturday and were back at the barn. 

We built a campfire in front of the barn under 

the hay hood and spent the evening discussing 

all sorts of virtues. Now admittedly, several of 

us were partaking of fermented beverages, so 

the discussions of virtues became louder and 

louder. Dick was trying to sleep in the hayloft 

243


and was having difficulty because of the noise. 

His suggestions and encouragements to end 

the ruckus were grossly disregarded and, in fact, 

the discussions of virtues increased in volume. 

After several more rounds of encouragements 

and disregarding, Dick presented himself 

at 2:00 a.m. at the campfire with a 5-gallon 

bucket of water and proceeded to instantly and 

completely douse the flames. “Now go to bed!” 

he ordered. 

“Expletive you, Blenz!” we responded in 

inebriated unison. We marched up the road 

to The Chapel, built a new campfire, and 

continued the discussions of the virtues of 

property lines, freedom, and not sleeping. I 

have never seen Dick that mad since. 

We built a platform in the hay hood with 

a stairway leading up to it. From the platform 

we could rig a rope on the hay loading trolley 

beam. Many people who are or were worldclass 

cavers took their very first step into thin 

air connected only to that thin piece of nylon 

from this hayloft. We learned on tandem 

carabineer brake bars, or carabineer wraps, or 

rappel spools. We learned on laid gold line. 

Rappel racks and kernmantle rope were in the 

distant future. During the 1965 NSS National 

Convention Sara Corrie produced a huge 

carabineer made of 1-inch aluminum bar stock, 

around 10 inches long and 6 inches wide with a 

non-locking gate. Her friend Delbert Province 

made it. We rappelled with it using a carabineer 

wrap technique. Someone then discovered that 

an 8-ounce coke bottle perfectly fit for a brake 

bar. In the interest of promoting vertical safety, 

I will abstain from discussing what happened 

next. Suffice it to say that we had a lot of fun, 

and no one got hurt. 

In the spring of 1965 the Gahimer brothers, 

Art and Dave, opened Queen Blair Cave. Dave 

was in the Navy and home on leave from his 

submarine, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The 

entrance was just above Blair Springs, at the 

bottom of Blair Hollow. The top of Thunder 

Hall, the breakdown pile at the end of the main 

passage, was located to the bottom of a sinkhole 

on Dick’s property. After the NSS convention 

came and went, we spent the majority of the 

244 

summer digging into Queen Blair from the 

bottom of the sink. One person would be in 

the bottom of the hole digging. Someone else 

would haul the bucket out of the hole, carry the 

debris out of the sinkhole and dump it. The rest 

of us would sit around the sinkhole and talk or 

play guitars. Every half hour or so we would 

shift, taking turns digging, hauling, or sitting. 

When we broke in, we lined the hole with five, 

55-gallon drums welded end to end. It lasted 

for over 20 years. 

Around this time Dick Blenz relocated to 

Bloomington. He moved into a trailer just up 

Eller Road from his property, behind Buddy 

Rogers’ house. Without the long drive back to 

Griffith, he had the time to stay until all of the 

cars parked around the barn were gone. This led 

to the great Buckner Cave non-rescue. Late one 

Sunday afternoon Dick gathered the remaining 

stragglers and announced, “We are mounting 

a rescue.” There was a blue Mustang in the 

parking lot with no owners around. We divided 

into small teams and swept Buckner with a 

plan to check specific areas then rendezvous 

in the Volcano Room. Larry Townsend and I 

dashed off to the Waterfall, found no one, and 

went to the Volcano. As the groups trickled in 

we began discussing the situation. One group 

asked, “Who are we looking for?” When told, 

“The people in the blue Mustang,” they replied, 

“Oh that’s us.” They had been in Blue Spring 

Cave all day, having ridden in another vehicle. 

When they returned to their car, they found 

a note on the window, “Search in progress in 

Buckner.” They came in the cave to help. 

In the spring of 1966, my academic 

performance at Indiana University was so 

stellar that I was offered, by the United States 

government, an-all-expense paid trip for two 

years to Southeast Asia. My thoughts went 

back to sitting around the barn and listening 

to Dave Gahimer’s tales about the virtues of 

nuclear submarines. I joined the Navy and 

volunteered for submarine duty. My first year 

of training found me at the Great Lakes Naval 

Base, just north of Chicago. Eight-section duty 

meant that I had six out of eight weekends 

free. I commuted to Bloomington on those

weekends. Sometimes I would bring a classmate 

or two with me, and my girlfriend would fix 

them up with her friends. We would go caving 

and hang out at The Barn. 

That summer of 1967 Dick decided to build 

his house in the Volcano Room of Buckner 

Cave. Having a 600-foot crawlway for a front 

porch is not too practical. Dick began digging 

a pit entrance just off of the “S” curve on Eller 

Road into the far end of the Volcano Room. 

We spent several weekends using the same 

basic technique used for the Thunder Hall 

entrance of Queen Blair. One would dig, one 

would haul, and the rest would sit and watch. 

When we broke in it meant we could now do 

a through trip in Buckner, or better yet, do the 

circle route without the crawlway. Dick never 

built his house in the cave. After a few years, the 

back entrance to Buckner collapsed into itself. 

That fall I shipped out to the west coast to 

begin a five-year odyssey of military adventures. 

Whenever I got home on leave, I would head 

straight for the barn. There I would meet new 

cavers, catch up with the old ones, hear all about 

the latest happenings in the caving world, and 

take a romp or two around the circle route. I did 

happen to notice that the weekend crowds were 

larger, with fewer cavers in the groups. One night 

I was in a bar in Rota, Spain, enjoying a beer 

and the company of a lovely young bartender 

from New Zealand. When she asked me where 

I was from, and I said Bloomington, Indiana, 

her face lit up. She told me about a quaint 

free hostel in an old barn out in the country. 

She and a friend had been hitchhiking across 

the United States and caught a ride with some 

students from Southern Illinois University. I 

asked her if there was a cave behind the barn. 

She excitedly asked me if I had been there. 

Wanting to extend the conversation, I lied and 

told her no, but that I had heard about it. She 

spent the next three beers telling me all about 

it and insisted that I check it out the next time 

I was home. I promised that I would. The Barn 

was officially world famous. 

Service completed, I returned home and 

bought a house just off of the opposite end of 

Eller Road. It was 1973 and Dick was building 

The Barn 

his house on the east side of the road to the 

barn just off of Eller Road. That summer, 

several cavers helped Dick finish his house. 

Around the Christmas holidays he took a 

vacation to Mystery Cave in Minnesota. One 

weekday afternoon I received a phone call from 

Bud Dillon. He had just been to Dick’s house, 

and someone had kicked in the front door. I 

called Mystery and told Dick. He asked me to 

see if any of his valuable tools were still in the 

basement and, if so, to take them to my house 

until he returned. I backed my truck up to his 

basement door, went through the busted front 

door and began loading anything I could find of 

value into my truck. Since it was the middle of 

the week I was surprised when, about half way 

through the job, I looked up to see two people 

standing by the corner of the house staring 

intently at me. They were camping in the barn 

and happened to walk up by the house. They 

noticed the busted in front door and heard 

some noise in the back. They walked around 

and saw someone they did not know loading 

all of Dick’s valuable tools into his truck. It 

is what I have always considered an awkward 

moment. I finally asked them if they were cavers 

and they said they were. I told them I was also, 

and that if they would help me load the rest of 

the stuff and follow me to my house, I would 

give them some good locations. They agreed. I 

have always assumed they figured that if I were 

a thief, I would not have let them actually see 

where I was stashing the loot. That is how I met 

Dar Groves and Chuck Guemple. 

Dick’s relocation to his property was too 

little, too late. His generous giving of the use 

of his property was falling into the hands of 

those with absolutely no appreciation of what 

they had. The pigs of society had invaded. They 

came in droves and left the place scarred and 

trashed. Thus also began the era of the rescue. 

The local cavers expended countless man-hours 

dragging dimwits who had run out of light or 

gotten lost out of the local caves. The era of 

the rescue would continue until late into the 

1990s. 

In 1986 The Barn died. The invading scum 

had begun tearing the sides and hayloft floor off 

245


of it to use as firewood. The material condition 

became so poor it was dangerous. It was simply 

pulled to the ground. I was not there to watch 

it. I did not want to see it. In actuality, the time 

of the barn had ended some years earlier. The 

hot caving was south in Harrison and Crawford 

counties. Many of us were caving in Kentucky 

and TAG. The crowds at the barn were just too 

disgusting to endure. 

The Barn, however, was more than wood, 

nails, and corrugated steel. For nearly 25 years 

it was an anchor, a constant in a variable and 

changing world. It was a place to meet, a place 

246 

to stay. It kept us warm in the winter and dry in 

the rain. It was a place to test a cave radio or learn 

and practice vertical techniques. Friendships 

began there that have endured for years. We got 

to know each other as cavers. We got to know 

each other as people. On any given weekend 

cavers would gather to go caving, practice rope 

work, help Dick maintain the property, or 

just hang out in the company of peers. In the 

world of today with e-mail, instant messaging, 

cell phones, and multitasking lifestyles, some 

slowdown can be a good thing. We could use a 

few more barns. 

Bob Braybender photographing in Bandits Hall in Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by George Jackson. From the John Benton photo collection.

Caves, Cave Rescue, and the National Cave 

Rescue Commission in Indiana 

The earliest known rescue from a cave in 

Indiana was in the 1880s, a newspaper 

account tells of Indiana University students 

who had to be rescued from Truitts Cave 

near Bloomington. We can all agree that if 

done properly, caving is a pretty safe activity. 

The consequences of making a mistake can be 

more severe, but in all, most cavers don’t run 

much risk if they follow safe caving guidelines. 

When something does go wrong, a number of 

cavers are trained in performing cave rescues, 

and for the most part the caving community 

rescues itself, sometimes with the assistance of 

responsible agencies and sometimes in spite of 

that assistance. I’m going to talk a bit here about 

the history of how some of that experience 

came to be. 

Most of the caves in Indiana are located 

in a triangle with the peak located near 

Bloomington, fanning out south to the 

Ohio River. This narrow band of exposed 

Mississippian limestone is part of the section 

of the state that was not covered by the last few 

glacial periods. Indiana north of Martinsville 

exhibits classic post-glacial topography while 

Bloomington southwards has a combination 

of karst topography and ridge and valley 

systems where overlaying sandstones cap thick 

limestone beds. 

Starting in the 1950s cavers in Indiana were 

beginning to get organized. By the 1960s several 

grottos and other caving groups were working 

hard to explore and map some of Indiana’s caves. 

There are approximately 3,000 known caves 

currently in the Indiana Cave Survey database 

and most likely there are many times more that 

number yet to be discovered, all in a relatively 

small corner of the state. Indiana has numerous 

pits as well; none to rival TAG pits in depth, 

but some impressive nonetheless. 

By Anmar Mirza 

Along about the mid 1960s, cavers were 

gathering in an area near Bloomington located 

above Buckner Cave, the entrance of which had 

been recently purchased by Richard Blenz, a 

Chicago caver with the Windy City Grotto who 

fell in love with the area and was determined to 

own Buckner Cave. This area was known as the 

“SpeleoSpot” and cavers from all over the area 

converged because within a couple of miles 

there were dozens of significant caves, including 

Wayne, Trapdoor, Queen and King Blair, Triple 

J, Shaft Pit, Coons, Grotto, and so on. Within 

half an hour’s drive were literally hundreds of 

other caves such as Freeman Pit, and Sullivan, 

Dog Hill, and Donnehue in Lawrence County. 

Mr. Blenz had installed electricity in the barn 

located on the Buckner property and on any 

given weekend twenty or thirty cavers could be 

found there working on various projects or just 

hanging out enjoying the fellowship. 

Quickly these cavers opened up notable 

caves like Salamander and Small Dull Cave. A 

seminal work on the geology and description 

of caves of Indiana was published in 1961. 

The State of Indiana put in the four-lane State 

Highway 37 and opened up another entrance 

to the Dog Hill-Donnehue System. All was 

going well until the mid 1970s. 

Cavers began to lose interest in the 

SpeleoSpot as many of the larger cave systems 

had been discovered and surveyed. Cavers 

were starting to move south into Harrison 

and Crawford counties where exciting new 

discoveries awaited. During this time there 

had been a few problems in caves in Indiana, a 

couple of deaths and miscellaneous problems, 

but for the most part, Indiana caving had 

enjoyed a renaissance period. Cavers were 

starting to become more and more organized 

as better training and techniques became 

247


available and the young hotshots of the 1960s 

and 1970s matured and became interested 

in organized caving. Then along came the 

infamous publication by Doug Love of The 

Spelunker’s Guide to the Garrison Chapel Valley. 

This publication included not only maps of the 

caves, but exact locations to most of the caves 

west of Bloomington. The publication was 

circulated widely and quickly found its way 

into the hands of noncavers. 

In the late 1970s, cavers across the country 

started to recognize a need for training in cave 

rescue. Organized caving had matured to the 

point that experienced cavers were starting to 

be called to assist with rescuing people from 

caves on a regular basis, so cavers from regions 

where there were large numbers of rescues 

occurring were becoming experienced with it. 

One of those locations was the Bloomington- 

Bedford area of Indiana. 

Most areas that have caves might only see 

a need for a rescue from a cave every decade or 

so. Not so with some places. Regions like TAG, 

West Virginia, and southern Indiana could see 

several rescues from caves a year, and cavers in 

these areas were starting to develop techniques 

and theories, as well as relationships with the 

responsible agencies. In 1961 in Show Farm 

Cave in Indiana, Tom Arnold and Ralph 

Moreland, the first two NSS cavers to die in 

a cave, drowned when the cave flooded while 

they were scoping out trips for Cave Capers. 

Within the Society, it was recognized that 

there was a Need. 

This eventually led to the National Cave 

Rescue Commission (NCRC) being born 

after a few fits and starts. The NCRC was 

commissioned by the NSS to be the Society’s 

voice regarding cave rescue. The NCRC was 

chartered to develop and implement cave 

rescue training curricula and to act as liaison 

between the Society and organizations charged 

with public safety, among other duties. Don 

Paquette, a Bloomington caver who had 

performed numerous rescues, was to become 

involved in NCRC almost from the start. Don 

had been involved in a number of rescues and 

had even assisted during the triple drowning 

248 

in Salamander Cave in the early 1970s and 

a successful high water rescue from the 

Donaldson-Bronson System. He, and several 

other cavers near Bloomington, had a gained 

lot of experience with cave rescue. 

By the early 1980s, very few active and 

organized cavers were hanging out at the barn 

near Buckner, yet on any given weekend there 

could be as many as a couple of hundred people 

visiting all of the caves nearby. Most of these 

people had no prior caving experience and had 

very poor conservation or safety ethics. Many 

of them were armed with The Spelunker’s Guide 

to the Garrison Chapel Valley. As a result, a 

lot of the caves in the surrounding area were 

becoming completely trashed and cave rescue 

calls for lost or overdue people were happening 

monthly or more. Buckner, Trapdoor, Shaft, 

Coons, Doghill-Donnehue, Salamander, the 

Blair System, Sullivan, and Langdons, were 

all sites of repeated rescues, mostly due to 

inexperienced people getting lost or out of 

light. A large number of these problems were 

alcohol induced as partying was becoming 

endemic. 

Mr Blenz’s property sits at the end of a 

dead end road with little other traffic. During 

this period he was spending a lot of his time 

working his two jobs and almost all of the 

experienced cavers had abandoned the area, so 

it was the perfect place to party. In a span of 

about five years, vandals had almost completely 

destroyed the barn and the amount of garbage 

dumped had grown to epic proportions. 

Cavers made some effort to stem the problem, 

but it seemed insurmountable. More serious 

rescues were starting to occur as more and 

more inexperienced people were starting to go 

caving without guidance or training. This was 

not limited to the Garrison Chapel Valley area; 

people getting their first taste of caving here 

were starting to branch out, seeking other caves. 

When asked why they were at a particular cave, 

the response was often that they had already 

done Buckner several times and wanted more 

adventure. 

In the mid 1980s to late1990s, a series of 

serious rescues occurred along with the usual

lost or overdues or minor injuries: A person 

died after falling, having tried to descend an 80foot 

pit on a 15-foot rope in Copperhead Pit. A 

professor from Illinois fell off a ledge in Wayne 

Cave and sustained severe facial fractures. The 

ensuing rescue took most of the night and next 

morning as part of the evacuation involved a 

1,400-foot crawlway with several very tight 

squeezes. A couple of spelunkers entered the 

Donaldson-Bronson System during a period 

of heavy rains and one of them was washed 

through and sustained serious injuries while 

the other was trapped in the cave for a period 

of three days, making national headline news. 

A spelunker was crushed in a cave in Greene 

County when a rock he was crawling past 

shifted. A party of drunk spelunkers entered 

Buckner and one of them was left behind asleep 

in the cave. Upon waking he walked off a 12foot 

ledge and sustained severe spinal injuries 

halfway around the circle route. A caver fell in 

the Blair System and sustained serious injuries 

an hour’s fast travel time into the cave. A caver 

on a CIG trip fell in Dog Hill-Donnehue Cave 

and broke her lower leg. She had a choice of a 

very long, tight series of crevices to get out one 

entrance, or a long series of bathtubs to get out 

the other. An experienced caver fell 25 feet in 

Birthday Plunge and was severely injured. To get 

him out meant getting him up 25 feet, through 

a crawlway, up 60 feet, through a squeeze, and 

up another 65 feet. A spelunker fell in Buckner 

Cave, fracturing her tailbone, and had to be 

evacuated. There were two simultaneous rescues 

in two different caves due to entrapment from 

high water from the same storm system. Three 

cavers got lost in the Blair system and spent 

54 hours in the cave before they were found. 

Another caver fell in Doghill-Donnehue Cave 

fracturing her ankle. A caver rappelled off the 

end of a rope and fell 20 feet in Freeman Pit. A 

couple of spelunkers spent 60 hours in Reeves 

Cave before being found. A spelunker fell 25 

feet in Langdons Cave and was injured when 

his friend fell on top of him trying to get him 

out. An intoxicated man fell 30 feet in a pit 

suffering minor injuries but feeling no pain; his 

friends initially tried to haul him up the pit and 

The National Cave Rescue Commission 

through the entrance squeeze with the winch 

on their jeep. They stopped when he started 

screaming in pain. A 14-year-old boy fell 35 

feet, fracturing his ankle, in another unnamed 

cave, 1,800 feet into the cave through a series of 

very-tight, water-filled canyons. 

During this period, aside from all of 

these rescues, there were also over 50 lost and 

overdue calls for the caves in southern Indiana, 

including such memorable ones as the fellow 

who threatened suicide in Buckner and the 

three searches in a row in Doghill-Donnehue 

Cave, the last two due to people reading the 

newspaper article (which included the map 

of the cave and how to get to it) about the 

previous ones, or the fellow who was rescued 

three times, each time due to alcohol (once 

he and his girlfriend burned their clothes for 

warmth.) Not only have we rescued people, but 

a number of dogs have been rescued, a couple 

of cows, and even a goat. We were even called 

to get a horse out, but luckily it was extricated 

before we got there. 

This rather high number of cave rescues can 

be attributed to several factors. First, during 

this era extreme sports were becoming popular 

and caving was considered “extreme.” The types 

of people who participated in extreme sports 

then weren’t the type who got involved in the 

caving community so they had limited access 

to proper training. Second, Bloomington and 

Bedford were expanding towards the caving 

areas and people were made aware of the 

locations of caves by publications such as The 

Spelunkers Guide to the Garrison Chapel Valley, 

which was distributed by the Bloomington 

Welcome and Visitors Center. Third, there was 

little control on access to many of the caves in 

the area. Finally, a culture of folks using caves 

to party had developed. 

During the previously mentioned period, 

NCRC training had really started to become 

common. More and more cavers and agency 

personnel were being trained in cave rescue 

techniques, and a happy side result was that 

cavers were paying more attention to safety. 

Several cavers in Indiana were heavily involved 

in cave rescue and the NCRC. Don Paquette 

24


had been in the lead in pushing for rescue 

training and preparations. Dr Noel Sloan, Frank 

Reid, Frank Lamm, Jim Johnson, Randy Bugh, 

Amanda Clark (now Mortimer), David Short, 

David Randall, and I all went through NCRC 

trainings to become instructors. Don Paquette 

was both the Regional Coordinator and the 

National Coordinator 

during some of this 

time. Dr Sloan did a 

stint as the Regional 

Coordinator, as 

did Amanda. I have 

been the Regional 

Coordinator since 

2001. Along with the 

one of the highest 

number of NCRC 

instructors on a per 

state basis, quite a 

few Indiana residents 

went through NCRC 

training and helped 

out on numerous cave 

rescues, including 

T o n y E m m o n s , 

W e n d y W e n t e , 

G r e t c h e n S c h e n k 

250 

(now Baker, now also 

an NCRC instructor), 

and Allen Hutchison. 

Others had significant 

involvement in cave 

rescue training and 

planning including 

Dean Myer, Dwight 

Hazen, and Rick 

Nicholson. These 

people took lead 

roles in pushing other 

people to obtain 

training and spent 

considerable time and 

resources to make it 

happen. 

Frank Reid demonstrating cave radio during NCRC weeklong 

The Central 

in Bloomington. Photo by Don Paquette. 

Region since the late 

1980s has conducted 

four or five Orientations to Cave Rescue 

(OCR) per year. Usually at least one of those 

has been in Indiana. Every decade from 1980 

to present has seen the National Weeklong 

NCRC here in Indiana, once in Bloomington, 

once in Marengo, and once in Corydon. 

On top of that, both the level 1 and level 2 

NCRC Weeklong 2004, Langdons Cave. 

Photo by Anmar Mirza.

modular NCRC trainings have occurred. For 

those unfamiliar with cave rescue training, for 

such a small geographic area southern Indiana 

has had a lot of cave rescue training, and the 

people involved have had a very high degree 

of practical cave rescue experience, a degree 

matched only by a couple of other places in 

the U.S. Indiana has the highest number of 

cave rescue trained people in the U.S. on a 

per capita basis. It should be emphasized that 

no Indiana NCRC instructor has ever been 

paid to teach NCRC curriculum and all have 

heavily subsidized the training other cavers 

have received by volunteering their time and 

money to keep training affordable. 

All good things must come to an end though, 

and in this case, we are fortunate. By the turn of 

the century, many of the caves formerly heavily 

traveled had either been completely closed by 

landowners, or had had their access controlled 

by organizations such as the Indiana Karst 

Conservancy. The infamous Buckner Cave had 

a patron, Art Gahimer, who took over turning 

away the riff-raff and partiers, and the number 

of cave rescues dropped dramatically. What 

was for a 15-year period a rescue every month 

The Pillared Palace in Wyandotte Cave. 



The National Cave Rescue Commission 

somewhere in the state, has turned into one 

every year or so. Buckner Cave is now controlled 

by the Richard Blenz Nature Conservancy and 

major cleanup efforts have been implemented 

and much of the graffiti and garbage is being 

cleaned up. 

We seem to be breaking the cycle of people 

who think of caves as party places, cavers are 

more aware than ever of the need for safety 

and conservation, and a number of problems 

that might have been rescues in the past are 

being handled by people on their own trips. 

This is a good thing. One of the unfortunate 

consequences of cave rescues occurring is 

landowners closing off access to their caves. 

Publicity from cave rescues causes more 

people to think of exploring caves on their 

own. Bureaucrats seek to legislate activities 

and insurance companies put pressure to cut 

off access. Indiana is blessed with a very high 

density of caves in a fairly small geographic 

region, and it is up to responsible cavers to make 

sure that we can continue to do what cavers do 

best, getting one of our own out when they are 

in trouble. 

251

“I don’t remember exactly what month it 

was but it was during one of the warm months 

of 1974. There were some divers from Indiana 

University diving at Harrison Spring and they 

discovered a van at the bottom. They called 

the State Police and being a trained diver I was 

dispatched to the site. Harvey Sloan’s wrecker 

service was on the site and they gave me a cable 

to be taken down to the van so it could be 

hoisted out. 

I entered the spring not long before the IU 

divers ran low on air and I was soon by myself. 

The visibility was not very good but when I got 

to the bottom I found the van. It was a VW van 

on its top and it had slid down a slope into the 

252 

A Not Uncommon Event at 

Harrison Spring 

Interview of Hugh Couch on January 7, 2007 

By Aaron Atz 

cave slot at the bottom of the wall. I hooked 

the wrecker cable onto the van and started 

my ascent. Shortly after, I was startled since I 

banged into a large overhanging ledge above 

me. I further exited without incident. 

Once the van was brought to the surface we 

soon found out that it was stolen. It was later 

written up in the Corydon Democrat.” 

According to Steve Maegerlein’s notes, the 

van was resting at a depth of 46 feet when it 

was recovered. 

Note: More often than you would believe, 

vehicles have been recovered from Harrison 

Spring. 

From left to right (clockwise) Stephen Maegerlein, Hugh Couch, and Jim Fishback.

A History of Indiana Caving 

We do know when the first explorers of 

Indiana caves began exploring them, but 

we do not know much about those explorers. 

According to Indiana University archaeologists 

Patrick and Cheryl Munson, radio carbon 

dating of artifacts indicates that prehistoric 

cavers entered Wyandotte Cave in Crawford 

County, Indiana, about 2200 B.C. and such 

activity lasted until about A.D. 800. Travel to 

remote sections of the cave such as the Senate 

Chamber was accomplished not with carbide, 

electric, or LED lights but with hickory bark 

torches. This span of caving activity lasted 

3,000 years and represents a longer span of 

caving activity than occurred at Mammoth 

Cave, which lies to the south of Wyandotte 

by 150 miles or so. Maybe some prehistoric 

cavers saw both caves. Any virgin cave we find 

may not actually be virgin. Watch for signs 

of previous visitation, such as torch remains, 

footprints, glyphs, or other artifacts left 

behind. Maybe none of the prehistoric cavers 

had an NSS number, but they shared an urge 

like us to journey into caves. What reason did 

they go? Was it for shelter, mining of minerals, 

recreation, worship, curiosity, or some other 

reason? We really don’t know. 

This article is about the history of Indiana 

caving. I know I am going to leave someone and 

some things out that I should have included. 

There simply is TMI (too much information!). 

So if I don’t mention something that you 

thought I should have included, I apologize. 

And let me know so I can work it in on the next 

article. 

President William Henry Harrison (for 

whom Harrison County is named) explored 

in Wyandotte Cave, left his name there (now 

too faded to be legible) and supposedly made 

a written account of his trip although no 

account has ever been found. Harrison also has 

a spring (largest by volume in Indiana) and a 

cave named after him near the community of 

By John Benton, NSS10689F 

White Cloud, on land that he owned, which is 

not far from the convention site. Squire Boone, 

brother of famous Daniel Boone, also has a cave 

south of Corydon named after him. Squire 

Boone Caverns is today a show cave, and was 

the site of a gristmill, cave spring, and property 

once owned by Squire Boone. 

Early geologists, who researched, visited, 

and wrote about Indiana caves included Prof. 

E.T. Cox, Willis S. Blatchley, John Collett, 

Richard Owen, and A.R. Addington. Most of 

those geologists surveyed caves and left maps 

prior to 1900. Geologist Clyde Malott came 

along some 50 years later and spent most of 

his time researching the Lost River area in 

Orange County. In the 1950s and 1960s, native 

Hoosier and geologist Preston McGrain of 

the University of Kentucky studied and wrote 

several articles about helictites in Wyandotte 

Cave. Don Ash (who also did caving with 

the ISS (Indiana Speleological Survey) and 

Binkleys Cave) and Jim Quinlan, were two 

hydrogeologists who conducted water-tracing 

studies on Indiana caves in the 1960s and 

1970s. And no list of Indiana geologists would 

be complete without Richard L. Powell, author 

of Caves of Indiana, a 1961 publication of the 

Indiana Geological Survey. 

Biologists of note who have conducted 

studies on Indiana caves include C.H. 

Eigenmann, a German born (1863) scientist 

who observed and wrote about blind cave fish 

while at Indiana University. He researched 

the blind cave fish population in Spring Mill 

State Park caves. Prof. E.D. Cope and R.E. 

Mumford studied the mammal population in 

Indiana caves. Recent and ongoing biological 

studies are being done by Horton “Beep” 

Hobbs (Wittenberg University), Dr Wm. 

Bill Pearson (University of Louisville) on cave 

fishes, Dr Julian Jerry Lewis on all cave life 

especially crustaceans and non crustaceans, and 

Scott Johnson of the Indiana Department of 

253


Natural Resources on cave pack rats. 

Paleontological and archaeological 

scientists like Patty Jo Watson (Washington 

University), Patrick and Cheryl Munson 

(Indiana University), Ron Richards (Indiana 

State Museum) and Ken Tankersly have done 

extensive research on Indiana caves. Richards 

has conducted an ongoing excavation at a 

Crawford County cave for over 20 years that 

has yielded information and clues about the 

prehistoric fauna that inhabited Indiana caves. 

H.C. Mercer was an early archaeologist who 

wrote and studied on the aragonite mining 

done in caves by early Indians in Indiana. 

James P. Stelle had a book published in 1864 

on Wyandotte Cave. Horace C. Hovey was an 

author and studied Indian artifacts as well as 

the geology of caves in Indiana, Kentucky, and 

elsewhere in the United States. Ben Hains was 

a cave photographer from New Albany who 

produced many stereo views of cave scenes, 

especially in Marengo and Wyandotte caves. 

H.C. Grosvenor was an early producer of 

cave maps, and left his signature in at least one 

Indiana cave. In 1927 Russell Trail Neville, a 

lawyer from Kewanee, Illinois, filmed several 

scenes from Crawford County caves (and also at 

Mammoth, Luray, and Carlsbad) and lectured 

extensively on caves throughout the Midwest for 

several years. And in this era Angelo I. George 

from Louisville, Kentucky, has documented 

much historical research on Indiana caves and 

continues to do so. Cave entrepreneur Gordon 

L. Smith Jr is a well-known fixture on the 

Indiana caving scene as a cave owner, developer, 

surveyor, explorer, digger, and founder of the 

National Cave Museum. 

The Indiana Cave Survey lists over 3,000 

caves from 34 counties. Over the years, 

there have been numerous grottos and other 

organized caving groups in the state doing 

exploration, mapping, and survey. Some early 

Indiana grottos, now defunct, were the Tell 

City Grotto, and the Scotto Grotto based in 

Scottsburg, where Roy Davis (Cumberland 

Caverns, Tennessee, developer) and Jack Dorsey 

(Dorsey Cave in Cave River Valley) among 

others were founders. The Geo-Lucifigus 

254 

group was active in the 1950s and early 1960s. 

The SISG (Southern Indiana Speleo Group) 

was headed up by Leroy Vanscoy and Larry 

Fisher from the Bedford area and they were 

very active in the 1960s. CHUG (Crawford 

Harrison Underground Group) was headed by 

Greg Spaulding, Bill Steele, Cathy Roundtree, 

Skip Roy, and others, and they did extensive 

work in Harrison and Crawford counties in 

the 1970s and early 1980s. CHUG used the 

O’Bannon cabin, which is now used by the 

family of the late Governor Frank O’Bannon 

as a homestead, as base camp for a number of 

years. In the 1980s WREG (Wyandotte Ridge 

Exploration Group) worked Easter Pit and 

found a back entrance to Wyandotte Cave and 

several miles of virgin cave. In the 1990s they 

also re-opened the entrance to B-B Hole Cave, 

found an extension off of the Senate Chamber 

in Wyandotte, and others. Primary members of 

this group are Joe and Tina Oliphant, Danny 

Dible, Ted Wilson, Glenn Lemasters, Greg and 

Val McNamara, George Cesnik, Tony Akers, 

Ron Adams, and others. WREG has had a 

major impact in finding new cave in the area 

and their finds will long endure in caving. Dave 

Black, a Lew Bicking Award winner, is a wellknown 

fixture on the Indiana caving scene. He 

alone is responsible for hundreds of Indiana 

Cave Survey cave submissions in Harrison and 

Crawford counties. Dave is the founder of the 

Harrison Crawford Grotto and is a boundless 

explorer, mapper, and photographer. 

The ISS (Indiana Speleological Society) 

originated in 1965 to undertake the surveying 

and exploration of Binkleys Cave south of 

Corydon in Harrison County. The BIG 

(Bloomington Indiana Grotto) started the 

survey in the early 1960s but the owner had 

some problems with non-organized cavers and 

had closed the cave to all for a time. The mostlyhigh-school-aged 

cavers of the ISS approached 

the owner on Thanksgiving weekend 1965 and 

were granted permission to cave. Several of the 

original ISS members are still active cavers today 

including the author, Terry “Dog” Crayden, 

Gary Roberson, Richard “Fig” Newton, and 

George Jaegers. Binkleys Cave is currently over

22 miles long. The addition of the Millennium 

Passage in 2000 yielded over 4,400 feet of 

new cave on one survey after a series of 18 dig 

trips to gain access to this upstream section. 

As of this writing, the ISS is digging on a new 

cave that lies on a farm west of the Binkleys 

entrance, and near highway 135, that could 

potentially connect into the system and also 

into the Blowing Hole drainage to the west. A 

connection to Blowing Hole would instantly 

add nearly 2 miles of cave to the system and 

put one into an area of karst where no other 

caves have been found. The core ISS group 

has remained active during five decades on 

the Indiana caving scene, not only in Binkleys 

but also in other caves especially in Harrison 

and Crawford counties. A publication was 

done by the ISS in the late 1970s on Binkleys 

exploration but it needs to be updated. 

Some early NSS cavers who explored caves 

in Indiana are Sara Corrie; historians and 

authors Harold Meloy from Shelbyville and Dr 

William R. Halliday; and past NSS presidents 

like Russell and Jeanne Gurnee, Bill Stephenson 

(first NSS president), and Brother G. Nicholas, 

who like many of the above have served multiple 

NSS functions. Later Tom Rea served in every 

major office in the NSS, including President. 

And Bill Tozer, the current NSS President, is 

also a Hoosier. In the 1970s and 1980s Tom 

Fritsch, founder of Lost Creek Packs, did a 

tremendous amount of caving and ridge walking 

in the Harrison Crawford County area before 

his untimely death. And Roger Brucker, now 

with a long list of caving credentials and kudos, 

remembers using southern Indiana caves as a 

springboard to bigger and longer caves in the 

Mammoth Cave area. But at the time, Roger 

much preferred Indiana caves over the caves of 

Ohio and western Pennsylvania. 

How many cavers can remember the annual 

slide get-together that Milltown caver J. Leo 

Schotter would hold at his plumbing shop at 

the south edge of town? Leo did a lot of his 

caving with his sons, as well as Neil Proctor. 

His grandson, Chris Schotter, continues this 

tradition. Lewie Lamon of Corydon was a 

contemporary of Leo Schotter, and the two did 


go caving together although written records of 

their accounts are few. 

Willie Clifton, a Marengo Cave guide for 

over 50 years, was not only associated with 

Marengo Cave but explored countless other 

caves in the area where he left his signature. At 

Wyandotte Cave in Crawford County, there 

was a list of families that explored and found 

caves such as Bob Louden, Marion Sibert, and 

numerous Rothrock family members. The 

Peter Rothrock family started in the show 

cave business around 1850. Charlie Rothrock, 

along with Louden and Sibert, found, 

explored, and enlarged the New Discovery 

of 1941 in Wyandotte. However, it may have 

been Wally Wilkins of Leavenworth who 

found the extension a few years earlier. Gordon 

C. Curry, Gordon L. Curry, and A.K. Sears 

were 20th century cavers who left their marks 

on the history of Wyandotte Cave. One of 

the most well known cavers in Indiana in the 

1940s and 1950s was George F. Jackson (NSS 

151), and he was also the author of numerous 

books and articles on caves. Jackson married 

Lotys Rothrock, and was an integral part of 

Wyandotte Cave for years. 

In 1972, Indiana University caver Steve 

Wells was one of the cavers who made the Cave 

Research Foundation connection trip between 

Mammoth Cave and Flint Ridge in Kentucky. 

Like many others listed in this account, his areas 

of interest overlapped: geologist, caver, explorer, 

author, and so on. Other Indiana cavers have 

contributed much to the Indiana caving scene 

over the years such as Dave DesMarais, Ted 

Petronoff, Ted Wilson, Greg Spaulding, Dave 

Everton, Scott Fee, and others. 

In no order, but worth mentioning on the 

Indiana caving scene over the years— 

— Pete Crecelius, who headed up SWISS 

(Southwest Indiana Spleleological Society) 

and also caved heavily with the ISS. 

— Charlie Fort, Jack Reccius, Bill Walter, 

Bill Lawson, and other Louisville area cavers 

who explored Windigo Dome in Evertons Cave. 

Charlie also may have performed Indiana’s first 

cave dive in Harrison Spring in the late 1950s, 

with a galvanized bucket as his headgear. The 

255


good news is he did not drown. 

— Richard “Dick” Blenz, Bloomington 

Indiana caver, and owner of Buckner Cave, 

Monroe County; generous benefactor to NSS 

and friends. 

— Dave McGowan, film producer of Cave 

Biota, premiering in 2007. 

— Blue Spring Cave survey and exploration, 

Lawrence County, starting in the 1960s, Art 

and Peg Palmer, Sam Frushour, Dan Chase, 

Jim Richards, Bugs Armstrong, and countless 

others. 

— Doug Love and his very controversial 

publications in the 1970s on caves in Garrison 

Chapel Valley and Cave River Valley. 

— Carroll Ritter, Bedford area caver 

and educator, who documented many caves, 

especially in the Lawrence County area. 

— The 1960s era feats of the Sullivan 

cavers, Bugs Armstrong, Sam Frushour, and 

many others. 

— The 1992 Marengo Cave Discovery 

and Extension, found by Joe Oliphant, Chris 

Schotter, Danny Dible, Greg McNamara, 

Aaron Green, Ted Wilson, Tony Akers, and 

Witek Jokiel. 

— Harold and Loretta Meloy: lawyers and 

cave historians from Shelbyville who wrote 

many articles and books. Harold’s expertise 

was Mammoth Cave, especially the mummies 

found in the area. 

— Edwin Hubble, whom the Hubble 

telescope is named for, was a teacher in New 

Albany and made visits to Fairground Springs 

(in Corydon) and Wyandotte Cave before 

leaving the area for a career in astronomy. 

— The Indiana University Spelunking Club: 

Many cavers got their start here and went on to 

grottos such as Bloomington Indiana Grotto). 

For example, Frank Reid, the late electronics 

and cave radio specialist. 

— The Purdue Outing Club has had its 

share of cave contributions in Indiana; George 

Jaegers, and “Fig” Newton got their start 

there. 

— Cave diving in Indiana: Steve Maegerlein, 

Sam Frushour, Jeff Forbes, Bud Dillon, Dave 

Strickland, Dave Black, Noel Sloan, Mark 

256 

Hermerding, and others. 

— Grottos in Indiana; Central Indiana 

Grotto, Bloomington Indiana Grotto, 

Evansville Metropolitan Grotto, Harrison- 

Crawford Grotto, St. Joseph Valley Grotto, 

Western Indiana Grotto, Eastern Indiana 

Grotto, Northern Indiana Grotto, Mid 

Hoosier Grotto, and defunct grottos: Tell City 

and Scotto. 

— The survey and exploration of Lost River 

Cave System: over 20 miles and what could be 

the longest cave system in the state. This project 

is headed by Mark Deebel and the St. Joseph 

Valley Grotto and Northern Indiana Grotto. 

— Jefferson Proving Grounds and Crane 

Studies, headed up by Jerry Litaker, Bruce 

Trotter, Ray Sheldon, Jerry Walker, Keith 

Dunlap, and others. 

— Evansville Metropolitan Grotto area 

cavers, Don Shoftstall, Ernie Payne, Richard 

and Sue Vernier, Bob Sergesketter, and Tom 

Sollman. Sollman conducted crayfish counts in 

Shiloh Cave, Lawrence County, in the 1980s. 

— The Indiana Karst Conservancy is a 

positive voice for karst in Indiana. People like 

Tom Rea, Keith Dunlap, Bill Tozer, Jim Adams, 

Kriste Lindberg, Larry Reece, Scott Fee (past 

NSS president). 

— The 1965, 1972, and 1992 NSS National 

Conventions held in Indiana. 

— The new generation of Indiana cavers, 

Brian Killingbeck, Mark Sparks, Jamie Winner, 

Todd Webb, Sean Lewis, Aaron Atz, Elliot 

Stahl, and others. 

— The development of Squire Boone 

Caverns as a show cave , mainly by ISS cavers 

and owner Fred Conway in the early 1970s. 

— The tragedy and drownings of NSS 

cavers at Show Farm Cave near Orleans in the 

1960s. 

— Ben Hains, New Albany native and cave 

photographer, maker of cave stereo view in the 

late 1800s. 

— The Indiana Cave Survey data base; 

Browsing the list of cave mappers and surveyors 

among those mentioned; (by last name), 

Sheldon, Nicoll, Black, Morthland, Spaulding, 

Henrisey, Metz, Komisarcik, Lemasters, Doolin,

Pace, Fort, Reeves, Sollman, Powell, Litaker, 

Moore, Blatchley, Addington, ISS, Fidlar, 

Rea, McNamara, Crecelius, Bailey, Simerman, 

Maegerlein, Forbes, Lindsey, Collett, Gahimer, 

Fee, Seng, Eckerty, McGrain, Selig, Ritter, 

Richards, Sloan, Conner, Sperka, Vogel, 

Crayden, Arnold, DesMarais, Keller, Benton, 

Chase, Nugent, Wilson, Van Note, Collins, 

Keithley, Dunlap, Carrigan, Davis, Wells, 

Hosley, Frushour, Steele, Bassett, Cox, Blenz, 

Riley, Lewis, Zehr, Sheldon, Trotter, Malott, 

Everton, Palmer, Miller, Webb, Geick, Deebel, 

Roy, Tozer, Weimer, Haun, George, Groves, 

Hobbs, Sweeney, Strunk, Countryman, Hauser, 

Olson, Hill, Adams, Love, Hood, Greenwald, 

Jackson, Banta, Northland, Scheltens, Ash, 

Miller, Higbie, Burns, Bates, Wolford, Levell, 

Abdulla, Fisher, Sloan, Schulze, Hissong, 

VanScoy, Killingbeck, Atz, Sparks, Webb, 

Winner, and others. 

The list could go on. It is by no means 


complete. The idea is that Indiana caving is 

rich in caves, cavers, and cave history. There 

remains more to be found, new rooms to be 

discovered, crawls to be pushed, air and water 

to be followed. Maybe you and your group will 

find it. If so, consider writing or recording your 

feats (not on the cave walls) for future cavers to 

study and enjoy. 

John Benton at the entrance of Jewel Box Cave. 


Dick Hughes, Bob Braybender, and Goerge Jackson resting in 

Wyandotte Cave. Photo by George Jackson. 


257

Newspaper pronouncements and 

advertising for Wyandotte Cave heralded 

the southern Indiana cave with descriptions a 

little short of miraculous. They touted the cave 

as the monarch of underground vistas with only 

one precursor—Mammoth Cave. These two 

caves were often compared in the same context 

as equals in grandeur. Each had marvels of the 

“biggest this” or “biggest that” in length, pits 

and domes, and formations. Only Wyandotte 

boasted the largest room in America, up to 

when Carlsbad Caverns was discovered in 

1901. 

Wyandotte is distinguished as the third 

oldest continuously operated commercial 

cave in America. First opened to the paying 

public in 1851, it has prospered as a show cave 

through a Civil War, two World Wars, oil and 

gas rationing, energy embargos, hotel fires, and 

change of ownership and exhibitors. The main 

draw for the public was the entertainment value 

of large rooms, great length, exciting stories of 

discovery, exploration into Unknown Regions, 

the abode of robbers and counterfeiters, a 

produce warehouse, ghosts, and other things 

that go bump in the darkness of the cave. 

Whether true or not, visitors came away with 

feelings of conquest, exploration adventures, 

and pumped up thoughts from enthusiastic 

guides’ descriptions of the cave’s visual 

geography and history. 

Discovered by unknown individuals in 

1798, its fame became a local legend by 1806 or 

1807, with reports of fabulous crystal deposits 

of Epsom salts. Some occurred in crystal masses 

weighing 200 pounds. Indiana Territorial 

Governor William Henry Harrison explored 

258 

A Historical Narrative of Wyandotte Cave 

“We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time” 

T.S. Eliot 

By Angelo I. George 

the cave along with his friends Major Davis 

Floyd and Major Warren. The accounts were 

true, Wyandotte was a big cave with a treasure 

trove of mineral resources. 

From 1808 to 1812, war clouds gathered 

against old adversary Great Britain. Imports 

were cut off from Europe and saltpeter 

and gunpowder became scarce strategic 

commodities. America’s Industrial Revolution 

starts at this time and caves would play an 

important role. Saltpeter was mined in scores 

of Indiana caves as well as in over 198 Kentucky 

caves, and possibly three times that number of 

Kentucky sandstone rockshelters. 

In January 1810, Charles Wilkins of 

Lexington and Fleming Gatewood of Louisville, 

Kentucky, purchased Mammoth Cave. Shortly 

thereafter on September 30, 1810, Wilkins’ 

distant cousin, Levi Brashear of Nelson 

County, Kentucky, purchased Wyandotte and 

nearby Saltpeter Cave. Brashear was a salt 

maker by trade. His crew mined saltpeter from 

both caves. The water source for the Wyandotte 

operation was supplied by a copious spring 

located above the cave entrance. By wars end, 

Brashear chose to default on his land purchase 

and the property reverted back to the state of 

Indiana. 

The cave was all but forgotten until a 

hunter brought samples of Epsom salts and 

cave exploration news to an enterprising 

medical practitioner and pharmacist named 

Benjamin Adams, MD, in Louisville. Hearing 

the firsthand report, Adams made an on-site 

inspection and purchased the cave on December 

27, 1815. To mine Epsom salts and saltpeter 

required a great amount of capital expenditure.

He formed a short-lived partnership with 

William Burrell, MD. They mined saltpeter 

in addition to Epsom salts, because there was 

still demand to make gunpowder. Saltpeter was 

also used as a preservative in Louisville’s meat 

packing industry. 

By 1818, all the mining had probably 

ceased at Wyandotte. Failing to sell the cave, 

Adams opted to suspend payments to the 

Jeffersonville Land Office, and once again the 

cave and property became public land. People 

knew about the cave and when they went there 

for recreational cave exploring, they sought 

lodging at nearby neighbors, especially with 

Henry P. Rothrock or the Siberts. Rothrock 

operated a grist and sawmill on Blue River and 

needed additional timber to fuel his operation. 

In 1847, he purchased a section of timberland 

north of his house, which came with what was 

then called Dr Adams Cave. 

Visiting cavers had often pressed for too 

much of Rothrock’s time and hospitality 

and he turned most away. One day between 

November 20 and 24, 1850, Norman Jay 

Colman, a young, brash attorney, from New 

Albany, with a penchant for mischief, and 

Harvey Link, MD, from Greenville, showed 

up at Rothrock’s house. They talked their way 

into the cave and asked young Henry Andrew 

Rothrock to guide them. Along the way they 

met three cavers, O’Bannon, John Milton 

Cummings, and Collinswood from Fredonia 

who wanted to tag along and see the cave. They 

explored what today is called the Old Cave. 

While taking a respite in Bandits Hall, and 

enduring Colman’s practical joke of a bandit 

robbery on the men from Fredonia, Colman 

observed bats flying out of a small hole in the 

floor and reasoned more cave might lie beyond 

the constriction. Securing digging tools from 

Rothrock’s house, they commenced moving 

rock and excavating a hole just big enough for a 

man to shinny down. Colman was the only one 

with enough caving experience and courage 

to make the descent. In no time, the low 

crawlway passage opened up into a large room. 

Making his way back and reporting his find 

was enough inducement for the party to see for 


themselves and they all entered the New Cave. 

Passing through one big room after another, 

exploration stopped at the largest room in the 

cave near a flowstone-choked passage too small 

for a man to fit through. Procuring more tools, 

the Auger Hole was breached large enough for 

11-year-old Henry Andrew Rothrock to push 

through and confirm the existence of yet bigger 

cave. The exploration party went to Crawfish 

Spring in the far north end of the cave. 

Colman’s newspaper report put Wyandotte 

on the map as a place of exceptional beauty 

and large extent. The one thing the discoverers 

found was that they were not the first to see 

these wonders. Myriads of footprints and torch 

material established that American Indians had 

been here before. Researchers later determined 

that the Indians had been using the cave for 

over 3,000 years (2200 B.C. to A.D. 800) and 

had mined onyx, chert, and Epsom salts. 

Colman’s article as well as another one even 

better by Alex S. Burnet caused a parade of cavers 

to make their way to Wyandotte. Needless to 

say, Henry P. Rothrock was swamped with new 

visitors seeking admission. With only three 

other commercial caves existing in mid 1851, 

he established a hotel ledger, a bill of fare for 

lodging, food, and admission rates to the cave. 

His small house and out buildings could not 

accommodate many people and some had to 

sleep on the ground under the stars. He built a 

larger home with cabins in 1860, and even those 

were not spacious enough to accommodate the 

visitor influx. At different times two fine hotels 

(1866 and 1934) were constructed up on the 

hill near the cave entrance. Both succumbed to 

fire in the 20th century (1933 and 1955). The 

high level spring that supplied processing water 

to the saltpeter and Epsom salts works now 

serviced the hotel and would remain a public 

water source into the 1960s. 

Tourist facilities at Wyandotte were 

comparable with Mammoth Cave’s, although 

on a smaller scale. Each offered similar 

amenities, equaling the health spas of the era 

without the benefits of foul tasting water. Oh, 

there was always the Sulphur Spring near the 

Auger Hole to make up for any difference in 

25


taste. 

The one thing show caves had in common 

during the 19th into the 20th century, was that 

a person really had to want to go to get there. 

Road conditions were awful and only started 

to improve after World War II. 

Luxurious excursions during the steamboat 

era after the Civil War offered an elegant and 

leisurely way to reach the cave, landing nearby 

at the Leavenworth dock. A faster method 

began with the railroad (1884) from having 

a stop at Milltown and an overland taxi ride 

to the cave. All this changed when the first 

motorcar reached Wyandotte in 1907. From 

mid 1851, the cave was a destination stop up 

to the building of the Interstate Road System 

in the 1960s. 

Last quarter 19th century academics and 

their students came to the cave to collect 

fauna and flora, conduct archaeological 

investigations, and hypothesize the origin of 

caves and cave formations. The prime reason 

most of these people came to the cave was 

the facilities at the hotel. Here one could cave 

all day, collect and measure to their hearts 

content, exit the cave, clean up, have a hot 

meal, organize their collections, and write up 

field notes before turning in for a nights sleep. 

Mammoth Cave offered similar facilities. These 

two caves became yardsticks (type examples) by 

which all other caves would be compared. Ease 

of reproducibility of observations and biologic 

collections was paramount for the fledgling 

science of biospeleology. The cave environment 

was teaming with uniquely adapted and newly 

discovered life forms, which were prime 

candidates to support Darwin’s theory of 

evolution (1859). 

Cavers went to Wyandotte Cave to 

experience an underground adventure. Its 

rudimentary trail and breakdown rock as steps 

fostered an almost wild caving experience. The 

Rothrock family was against improving the 

trail system by installing wooden or concrete 

steps, hand railings, or electric lights. These 

improvements grated their sensibilities as 

to how the cave should be exhibited. They 

were early proponents of an environmental 

260 

conservation ethic to keep the cave in as natural 

a condition as possible. Henry P. Rothrock 

handed down his steadfast beliefs that were 

centered on resurrecting a vanished frontier 

America draped by primitive forces in a wild 

and rugged underground terrain. His feelings 

echoed sentiments voiced by America’s cultural 

social consciousness during the 1820s to 1850s. 

Making improvements in the cave was not 

about spending money; rather it was the family 

mandate to keep the cave in a natural state. 

Through the first 70 or so years of commercial 

life, the cave was closer to a wild caving 

experience than any other cave in the nation. It 

was a step back in time and the rugged vistas and 

excitement of Arcadian wonders that delighted 

visitors. On the surface, the experience was like 

walking in a park, not unlike at Mammoth 

Cave. In the 1920s, some improvements were 

made but only of a limited nature. Electric 

lights were installed only in 1969 to 1970 after 

the state of Indiana purchased the cave. 

Wyandotte filled a void in mid 19th century 

cities by providing open public manicured 

spaces with recreation facilities. The concept of 

public parks had yet to take hold in America. 

Locally, Wyandotte and Mammoth Cave along 

with garden cemeteries consisting of sinkhole 

studded Walnut Hill ( Jeffersonville, Indiana) 

and Cave Hill (Louisville, Kentucky) filled 

this recreation gap until the public park ideas 

of Frederick Law Olmsted took hold in major 

cities. 1 Keeping the cave in a pristine condition 

was consistent with visual ideas expressed in 

landscape paintings of the Hudson River school 

of art and literature of the time, especially works 

by James Fenimore Cooper and Washington 

Irving. 

Strong Cooperesque characters filled the 

1 Mammoth Cave caver and civil engineer, Edmund 

F. Lee, of Louisville, Kentucky, designed the 

two mentioned cemeteries. And yes, people went 

to garden cemeteries to have fun, party, commune 

with nature, picnic, feed the wildlife, go caving, 

and swim in the creek. Recreation wise, garden 

cemeteries and commercial caves were the Disneyland 

of the day.

manufactured history of Wyandotte Cave. A 

spurious altered inscription in the cave, F.I. 

Bentley 1801, sparked a Wyandotte romance 

with all the trappings of fact. Who Bentley was, 

no one had a clue, but in 1942 cave manager 

Samuel L. Riely supplied a biography of Bentley 

exploits borrowed from a popular children’s 

novel, Uncle Tom Andy Bill by Charles Major. 

In the book, Wyandotte Cave was used as 

the action centerpiece. Riely just changed the 

protagonist’s name for his story to F.I. Bentley, 

pioneer hero. Bentley had left his name all over 

the Old Cave, and in the hidden Lost Bentley 

Room behind the Pillar of the Constitution. 

Roger Gleitz discovered the identity of 

Bentley’s name, Francis Ignatius Bentley, and 

the date he was in the cave. A party of 13 cavers 

left their names and places of origin on two 

trips into the cave on October 17–18, 1821. 

A significant number of the cavers were from 

England, and Bentley (also an Englishman) 

was living in Evansville, Indiana. The Bentley 

party was just one of hundreds of cavers to 

visit the cave prior to the commercial era. They 

immigrated from near the Peak District famous 

for its caves and mining as well as being the seat 

of some of the earliest European recreational 

sport caving activity. 

Soon after discovery of the New Cave, a 

number of maps appeared based on “surveys.” 

Wyandotte guide patter, guidebooks, and 

newspapers used a length of 23½ miles, while 

Mammoth Cave boasted an impressive 150 

miles. For Wyandotte, this figure stood for 

almost 120 years. Only with the modern era of 

cave mapping has the true length of these caves 

been realized. Mammoth Cave proved out to 

be over twice as long and Wyandotte shrunk to 

9.1 surveyed miles 2 

The first map was a compass, tape, and level 

survey made by engraver and future Arizona 

silver mine manager, Horace Chipman 

Grosvenor in 1852. Based upon passage 

discovery events, the map probably charted 

less than 3½ miles of passage. At the time, 

2 Samuel Frushour, personal oral communication, 

March 17, 2007 


the Wyandotte map was actually the second 

longest instrument cave survey in America. 

The Mammoth Cave map was the longest with 

8 miles surveyed by Edmund F. Lee in 1835. 

Nineteenth century Wyandotte maps used the 

Grosvenor survey as a base map, inflated its 

length, and omitted the bar scale and north 

arrow. French speleologist and geologist Max 

Le Couppey De La Forest, visited the cave 

in 1903. He used the 1878 John Collett map 

as a base and adjusted the cave length of key 

passages using pace measurements. He added 

a bar scale and north arrow and arrived at 

a length of 8.85 miles. By his estimate the 

Unknown Regions (which he had not visited) 

threw his measurements off by about 3.49 

miles. In hindsight, this was the first inkling 

the Collett map was based on a real instrument 

survey. Registered engineer Herbert E. Samms 

made a transit survey of about 4½ miles in 

1928 (excluding the Unknown Regions). The 

Rothrock family and management no doubt 

was devastated by the survey and continued to 

use the old length of 23½ miles. 

Prior to purchasing the cave in 1966, the 

state of Indiana wanted to know just what they 

were getting for their money. How long is the 

Cave? Geologist Richard L. Powell and the 

Bloomington Indiana Grotto started surveying 

the cave that year and logged 5.359 miles of 

actual passage. Additional surveys several 

decades later, encompassing Easter Pit, Teasing 

Wind Trail, Adventure Trail, and Operation 

Exit, elevated the length to 9.1 miles. Much of 

Wyandotte’s discoveries have materialized by 

cavers following the airflow. The potential for 

more passage is great. 

Source: Angelo I. George, Outer Door to 

the Auger Hole ... and Beyond, the Exploration 

of Wyandotte Cave, H. M. I. Press, 2001. 

261


262 

Boating in Twin Caves. Photo by George Jackson. 


Section VI: Conservation 

263


264

The Richard Blenz Nature Conservancy: 

Home of Buckner Cave 

Bloomington is located in the south-central 

part of Indiana, about 50 miles south of 

the state capital of Indianapolis. A few miles 

farther west of Bloomington is an area known 

as the Garrison Chapel Valley, where karst 

topography predominates and there are several 

known caves greater than 1 mile in length, as 

well as many smaller ones. One of the larger 

caves is Buckner Cave, which indisputably has 

the infamy of being the most heavily-visited 

cave in the state. Unfortunately, it has suffered 

not only the effects of careless visitors but the 

ravages of intentional abuse by the hordes of 

party cavers throughout the course of more 

than 40 years. Local cavers have spent much 

time inside as well. Many trips were taken by 

certain of them in order to search for those illprepared 

visitors who couldn’t make it out on 

their own or to rescue persons with injuries, 

both minor and 

major. While much 

could be said about 

that and the years of 

abuse, the focus of 

this story is about 

recent efforts to end 

that cycle of damage 

at the property and 

cave and turn it into 

to one of restoration. 

Many reactive 

steps have repeatedly 

been taken by cavers 

throughout the 

years to counteract 

the negative actions 

of others on the 

property and cave. 

One of the biggest 

factors in recent years 

By Dave Everton, NSS 25891RE 

for the reversal of abuse is due to a long-time 

caver and friend of Dick Blenz named Art 

Gahimer. Between 2001 and 2005, he lived 

on the property in the role of caretaker, and 

constantly took an aggressive approach in 

deterring any visitor he believed would leave 

a negative impact on the property or cave. He 

also enforced some standard safe caving rules, 

such as making sure each visitor wore a helmet 

and had adequate light sources. While those 

things may seem small, they absolutely were 

not. This was compounded by the fact that 

the property had been a free-for-all for many 

years, and weekends commonly saw hundreds 

of visitors per day including all through the 

night. Many came simply to party both above 

and below ground. Many visitors also seemed 

to believe the cave belonged to them and 

vehemently argued with Art who, although he 

Typical graffiti in Buckner Cave. Photo by Willie Hunt. 

265


took more crap than many cavers would have 

taken, was very capable of holding his own. That 

persistence eventually won out in each battle 

he fought. Gradually, over the period of Art’s 

four-year war, visitation to the property and 

cave, especially by those who had no legitimate 

reason to be there, decreased. 

Another caver who has been instrumental in 

the positive turnaround that the property and 

cave is experiencing is Anmar Mirza. For years 

he has made regular visits to the cave, logging 

more than 4,000 hours inside during 1,100 

trips. Most were of his own choosing, although 

many were search and rescue, which at one time 

averaged weekly. He has, over the years, also 

removed much trash and graffiti from inside 

and outside the cave. His obvious love for the 

cave caused him to play an instrumental role 

in seeking protection of the cave and property, 

and improvement of the situation there. 

It has long been the intention of the cave’s 

owner, Dick Blenz, that his property and 

cave become the property of the NSS after 

his passing. For a long time, local cavers have 

known that it was in their best interests to 

ensure that an established management plan 

was implemented in order for the transition 

to be successful. In the early part of the 21st 

century some definitive steps were taken by 

a small group of individuals, and in early 

2005 an official, not-for-profit group became 

incorporated. The Richard Blenz Nature 

Conservancy was born, with the founding 

members being: 

Anmar Mirza, President 

Patti Cummings, Vice President 

Richard Blenz, Treasurer 

Sam Frushour, Secretary 

One of the first steps the newly-formed 

group took in management of the property was 

to modify access policies and require visitors to 

arrange visitation in advance, which is being 

handled electronically. A requestor sends an 

e-mail to an account monitored by the officers 

and one of them responds. The communication 

goes to each officer, thereby keeping everyone 

in the loop on each request. 

Responsible visitors are being allowed entry, 

266 

provided they agree to follow the property 

and cave rules. Although the cave is not gated, 

the property is. This system of access, while 

not perfect, has been working, allowing the 

cave to stay open while, hopefully, limiting it 

to responsible persons. Unfortunately, there 

remains a possibility of irresponsible visitors and 

trespassers gaining access to the cave. However, 

one important benefit of the existence of the 

formal managing organization for the property 

and cave is the legal right of the executive board 

to prosecute violators if warranted or desired. 

At least one incident took place during 2006, 

when two board members were on site and 

detained two trespassers until the local law 

enforcement personnel arrived. Although the 

violators were not ultimately prosecuted, they 

got the clear message that trespassing would 

not be tolerated. 

Property Improvements 

Aside from owner Dick Blenz’ house, the 

property is unimproved (no water, sewer, or 

other utilities present). However, the drive 

back to the parking area, which was very rutted 

in the past due to heavy and careless use, was 

smoothed out. The ruts were filled, and new 

gravel is put down periodically, which is now 

lasting longer between applications, due to 

decreased visitation. Crushed stone was also 

put down along the extremely-eroded, worn 

path leading down to the entrance of the cave, 

and that measure has been reasonably effective 

at retarding erosion. Certain areas of the trail 

were fortified with sandstone blocks at the 

sides to help in that regard. Other measures to 

funnel surface runoff, prevent gravel loss, and 

check erosion have also been effective. 

The Graffiti Removal Project 

During the 2003 NSS National 

Convention, owner Dick Blenz saw a 

demonstration of Ray Keeler’s sandblasting 

equipment designed specifically for graffiti 

removal in caves. Dick expressed interest in the 

possibility of borrowing it for use in Buckner 

Cave, and tentatively reserved it at that time. In 

early 2006 he was informed that it was available

The Richard Blenz Nature Conservancy 

of one year. There were 

also limitations on 

how far work could 

proceed into the cave, 

due to the 1,500foot 

length of large 

air hose available. 

Graffiti-covered ceiling in Buckner Cave. Photo by Willie Hunt. 

Additionally, it was 

known there wouldn’t 

be enough time to 

eradicate all graffiti 

within reach of the 

equipment. 

Therefore, at the 

outset of the project 

an area was targeted, 

formerly called the 

Signature Room but 

now called the L.V. 

Cushing Room for 

the late 18th century 

for use, and Bloomington caver Dave Everton original signature left there, as a primary focus 

began the pursuit. The equipment was now of removal. It was known that there would be 

owned by the Peppersauce Cave Conservation plenty of graffiti to remove in every direction 

Project but still managed by Ray. The Richard in that immediate vicinity for as long as the 

Blenz Nature Conservancy Executive Board equipment was available. 

gave Dave the green light to coordinate the It should be noted that since the cave 

project. The trailer with equipment was located received visitors during the 19th century 

in Sewanee, Tennessee, so arrangements were and was known to contain several historic 

made to transfer it to Bloomington. The signatures, an effort was made to document the 

Peppersauce Cave Conservation Project kicked historic graffiti so it could be spared. Therefore, 

in some grant money for transportation and the several markings were found, documented, and 

trailer was moved to the Richard Blenz Nature photographed by Randy Jackson in areas of the 

Conservancy property in March 2006. 

cave which were targeted for cleaning. 

To kick off the project, Ray flew out to Rather than head to the Cushing Room 

Bloomington from his temporary location right away, graffiti removal began in the entrance 

in New Mexico and gave an orientation to room; later, the air, power, and phone lines 

a group of cavers in the entrance room of were extended into the cave through the 700- 

Buckner Cave on Saturday, April 15, 2006. That foot crawlway and into an intersecting passage 

started a series of work weekends held there at adjacent to the Cushing Room. This area is 

the property, with graffiti removal using the commonly referred to as the “T” and is where a 

sandblasting equipment as the highest priority. central base of operations was set up. Since three 

The following is an overview of the project to separate teams could sandblast simultaneously, 

date. 

one team ran lines backward and worked in 

Before actually starting the work, Dave certain areas in the crawlway while another 

had no real clue of what kind of effort would team worked at the T. The third team worked 

be needed. It was known up front that the in the passage adjacent to the Cushing Room. 

equipment would be available for a limited time Each subsequent workday, the crawlway team 

267


continued toward the 

T, while the T team 

kept working. The 

third team worked in 

the areas adjacent to 

and in the Cushing 

Room. Richard Blenz 

Nature Conservancy 

President Anmar 

Mirza and others 

created a section of 

scaffolding in the 

Cushing Room, 

which was very 

useful. At the earliest 

stage of the project, 

all equipment and 

gear was stowed away 

securely, but as the 

project proceeded, approval was given by the eboard 

to leave the air, power, and phone lines set 

up inside the cave, which expedited equipment 

set up and stowage time needed for each project 

workday, which were held monthly. 

From May to November 2006, workdays 

were held on both Saturday and Sunday in order 

to maximize the time spent while equipment 

was set up and volunteers were available, and 

also in hopes of encouraging weekend-long 

activity by cavers who had to travel a long 

distance to participate. During the winter 

months, which typically hold less appeal for 

camping in Indiana, efforts were scaled back to 

a single workday per month, held on a Saturday. 

The work weekends resumed in March 2007, 

and plans are to continue that pattern into the 

summer months. 

It has been somewhat difficult for the 

Project Coordinator to be objective about the 

project results. At first it seemed to be going very 

slowly, and at times manpower was minimal. 

However, after looking at some photographs 

taken prior to much graffiti removal, it was a 

pleasant surprise to realize that a lot of graffiti 

had been removed in certain parts of the cave, 

which was very encouraging. Another big 

boost was to see one of the main walls of the 

Cushing Room come clean. It was formerly 

268 

The graffiti-covered wall after the work crews have passed. 

Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 

a particularly offensive area, and it was an 

extremely good feeling to see that change take 

place. It was absolutely astounding to imagine 

how in the world some of the offenders armed 

with spray paint were able to reach the spots 

they did in order to leave their mark. Even 

creating human pyramids doesn’t seem to be a 

plausible explanation for it. It’s a wonder that 

necks and other bones weren’t broken in order 

to leave certain graffiti. 

In the fall of 2006, the Project Coordinator 

got a verbal commitment from equipment 

manager Ray Keeler to continue to use the 

equipment beyond the initially-established 

one-year time frame, although it wasn’t 

discussed exactly how much longer. Once that 

commitment was made, efforts were started 

to open a hole large enough to permit air and 

power lines to be run into the cave through the 

former Domicile Pit entrance, which would 

allow graffiti removal in the Volcano Passage. 

That area is well beyond the reach of air lines 

where the compressor is currently set up at the 

main entrance. On the September 30 workday, 

a 5-inch diameter hole was dug 20 feet deep 

by Sam Frushour and Bill Baus, using hand 

augering equipment donated for use on that 

day by the Indiana Geological Survey. The hole 

was afterward protected with a length of PVC

pipe. Several dig trips subsequently took place 

inside the cave where the passage intersected 

the former pit entrance, and much clay and 

rock has been relocated. A sound connection 

was later made, with a caver banging on the pipe 

from the surface at an established time, while 

other cavers listened for the sound inside; they 

felt the vibrations as well. When the physical 

connection is made, the air compressor can 

be relocated close to the former entrance 

and the lines can be run into the cave there, 

although all other equipment will continue to 

be transported into the cave from the historic 

entrance. In the meantime, plenty of work 

remains in the Cushing Room and adjacent 

areas, although we realize that there will come 

a time to move on, without actually removing 

all the graffiti present. 

Ultimately, the Project Coordinator’s 

idea of a successful job is for the future visitor 

to the cave to have no clue of what has been 

done. That’s not to say there will be no trace 

of graffiti removal having taken place; those 

persons who’ve removed it can easily pick out 

spots where the surface colors of areas worked 

will never blend in with the natural color of 

the walls and ceilings, and anyone stopping 

to observe closely will likely notice unusual 

patterns, including traces of graffiti too difficult 

to obliterate. However, if a visitor simply passing 

through doesn’t immediately notice, that will be 

a favorable result. In addition to trying to make 

The Richard Blenz Nature Conservancy 

the surfaces blend in to unmarked areas when 

removing the graffiti, the used blast material that 

wasn’t collected with tarps during sandblasting 

is gradually being removed from the floor 

and rocks. Some cavers have even had the rare 

distinction of operating a vacuum cleaner in a 

cave. At any rate, the closest approach possible 

to “leave no trace” is being attempted. 

The 2007 NSS National Convention 

provides a unique opportunity for cavers 

interested in the possibility of obtaining the 

sandblasting equipment to make arrangements 

to visit and to see first-hand what has been 

accomplished in the cave. To arrange visitation 

to the property and cave during the Convention, 

please consult the cave trips area. To arrange 

visitation at all other times, please visit http:// 

www.caves.org/grotto/big/rbnc/rbnc.htm for 

specific access, property, and caving policies, as 

well as any other information about the Richard 

Blenz Nature Conservancy and Buckner Cave. 

Lastly, the effort of each and every person 

who has participated in the project in any way 

up until now is greatly appreciated, as well as 

continued participation and new involvement 

by each person willing to help. For more 

information on the Buckner Cave Graffiti 

Removal Project, visit http://www.caves.org/ 

grotto/big/rbnc/Graffiti%20Removal.htm 

or contact Project Coordinator Dave Everton 

by e-mail at deverton@indiana.edu or phone 

812-824-4380 (evening land line). 

26

There are currently 47 recognized species of 

bats found in the United States. Indiana 

has at least 12 of them. Of these, four species 

are rarely, if ever, encountered in caves here. 

These are the silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris 

noctivagans), eastern red bat (Lasiurus 

borealis), hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), and 

evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis). These are 

all tree-roosting species, except the evening 

bat, which sometimes also roosts in buildings 

and other man-made structures. Tree bats are 

often very colorful (except the plain brown 

evening bat), but their solitary, tree-roosting 

behavior means that most cavers will never see 

one except in books. That still leaves eight bats 

that might be seen in Indiana caves, and some 

of them look very much alike. Four of these are 

reasonably distinct and they can be identified 

Lasionycteris noctivagans (silver haired bat), 

perched on a `cave wall. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat 

Conservation International. 

270 

Bats in Indiana Caves 

By Jim “Crash” Kennedy, NSS 26791 RL, FE 

Cave Resources Specialist, Bat Conservation International 

by passing cavers without too much difficulty. 

The most obvious of these is the eastern 

pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus). One of the 

smallest bats in the East, it is easily recognized 

by its light-colored fur and ears, and pinkish 

forearms. All other bats of this size are darker, 

with dark ears and forearms. “Pips” are solitary 

roosters, and may be seen in caves during 

summer and winter. While never numerous in 

a single cave, they are found in more caves than 

any other bat species. During hibernation, they 

seek out cool, stable temperature zones in the 

caves. Cavers often encounter these diminutive 

bats so covered with condensing water droplets 

that they appear white. They are some of the 

first bats to enter hibernation in the fall, and 

the last to leave in the spring. 

Another fairly easy bat to identify is the 

Lasiurus borealis (red bat), sleeping male in green 

foliage. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation 

International.

Lasiurus cinereus (horary bat), female in flight, ¾ 

view. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation 

International. 

Pipistrellus subflavus (eastern pipistrelle), 

hibernating, close-up. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat 



Nycticeius humeralis (evening bat), roosting in a 

building. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation 


big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus). These often 

hibernate in particularly cold areas of caves, 

such as near an entrance. They usually enter 

hibernation late, and leave early. In summer 

they mostly use attics, bridges, barns, bat 

houses, and other man-made structures. A semicolonial 

species, big browns are found in small 

clusters of several to hundreds of individuals. 

This bat is considerably larger than the Myotis 

bats, with long, glossy fur and a broad muzzle. 

The rounded, dark ears and darkish “mask” 

across the face are other good identifying 

characteristics. 

The last distinctive cave bat is the 

Rafinesque’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus 

rafinesquii). It is easily distinguished from 

other bats by its extremely long ears, which 

may be curled like ram’s horns when roosting, 

especially in hibernation. Rafinesque’s bigeared 

bat has white belly fur, and the toe hairs 

extending beyond the end of its toes. It often 

roosts near cave entrances or in rock shelters, 

and sometimes in abandoned buildings and 

hollow trees. It is included in this list because 

271


Eptesicus fuscus (big brown bat), roosting under a cement bridge. © Merlin D. 

Tuttle, Bat Conservation International. 

it was once recorded from several caves in the 

state, although it has not been seen in recent 

years and is probably extirpated. Any sightings 

of these bats in Indiana should be reported to 

the Division of Fish and Wildlife in the Indiana 

Department of Natural Resources. This is 

important to track behavior and movements 

Corynorhinus rafinesquii (Rafinesque’s big-eared 

bat), perched. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat 


272 

of the species and 

does not mean that 

those caves will 

automatically be 

gated. 

Now we come to 

the five myotids in 

Indiana. There are 

17 Myotis species in 

the United States, 

and most are pretty 

nondescript, small, 

brownish bats. 

Actual identification 

for most can only 

be determined by 

experts using minute 

characteristics, and sometimes only by skull 

examination. However, cavers can still identify 

some of these to a pretty reasonable degree 

of accuracy, mostly by eliminating the species 

they are not. If it seems like the bats you see are 

one of the endangered species, or even a species 

of concern, then you should get a professional 

bat biologist to confirm your identification by 

revisiting the site. Let’s start with what I consider 

to be the easier species to differentiate. 

The northern myotis (Myotis 

septentrionalis), is a relatively easy myotid to 

identify. They may be found singly or in small 

clusters throughout the cave, but seem to have 

an affinity for tight holes and crevices, such as in 

flowstone drapery, where only the tips of their 

ears and nose are visible. The most distinctive 

characteristic of this bat is the length of the 

ears, which are obviously much longer than 

other eastern members of this genus (extending 

several millimeters past the end of the nose 

when laid forward). The ears have a long, sharp 

tragus, the little doohickey that sticks up inside 

the ear. They are fairly common in forests in the 

summer, and occasionally roost in buildings 

and bat houses. 

The next bat to consider is the federally 

Endangered gray myotis (Myotis grisescens). 

Gray bats are slightly larger than other myotids, 

and have dull fur. In the summer, this is 

probably the only species you will find roosting

Myotis septentrionalis (northern myotis), in flight. © Merlin D. Tuttle, 

Bat Conservation International. 

in large numbers in caves, and then usually only 

in exceptional caves with good warm-air traps. 

Watching summer emergences from some of 

the largest maternity sites has become a popular 

activity in the Southeast. In the winter, they 

congregate in a few suitable sites to hibernate, 

usually roosting with wings splayed outwards 

instead of tight to their sides like other 

species. Gray bats are a federally listed species, 

however recent population increases have been 

Myotis grisescens (gray myotis), clusters aroused. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat 



encouraging and give 

us hope that they 

may be transferred 

from Endangered to 

Threatened status 

soon. 

The southeastern 

myotis (Myotis 

austroriparius) in 

another largish myotis 

with dull, wooly fur. 

It can occur in either 

gray or red color 

phases, sometimes 

mixed in the same 

colony. It is limited 

to more southeastern 

states as its name 

implies, barely reaching southern Indiana 

where it is known from only a few caves. It 

hibernates in cool caves in northern areas and 

rears young in warm caves, tree hollows, and 

sometimes man-made structures like bat houses 

and bridges. It can be distinguished from other 

eastern myotids by its white-tipped, blackbased 

belly fur. Indiana sightings of this species 

should also be reported to the Department of 

Natural Resources. 

Finally we come 

to the little brown 

myotis (Myotis 

lucifugus) and the 

federally Endangered 

Indiana myotis 

(Myotis sodalis). It is 

extremely difficult 

to tell the common 

species from the 

rare one without 

handling the bats and 

looking for obscure 

characteristics, like 

toe hairs and keeled 

calcars (a thin bone 

extending from the 

ankle and supporting 

the tail membrane). 

Little brown myotis 

273


have long toe hairs and unkeeled calcars. 

Handling bats (such as to look for these small 

differences) is something that cavers should 

never do unless they are also trained, licensed 

wildlife professionals 

with pre-exposure 

rabies vaccine. In 

the summer, these 

two species are 

rarely encountered 

in caves, and then 

mostly as individual 

males. In the winter 

they both can form 

large clusters, but 

Indiana bats prefer 

colder, more stable 

temperatures and 

form denser clusters, 

while little brown 

bats like more humid, 

even damp, roosts. If 

a large, tight cluster of 

bats is seen, it should 

274 

Myotis austroriparius (southeastern myotis), 

roosting. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat 


Myotis lucifugus (little brown myotis), perched on 

the cave wall. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation 


be reported. Several of the most important 

hibernacula in Indiana are closed to caving 

during the critical winter period, usually from 

Labor Day (to account for fall swarming) 

through the end of April. 

Myotis sodalis (Indiana myotis), cluster hibernating, close-up. © Merlin D. 

Tuttle, Bat Conservation International.

Cavers have already contributed large 

amounts of knowledge about bats, including 

the locations of some of the most important 

colonies. Cave cleanups, protection efforts, 

assisting bat counts, and collecting information 

are all activities that have a positive effect on 

bats and their habitat. But sometimes we 

unknowingly can have the opposite effect. 

Visiting bat caves at the critical times of year 

(winter hibernation and summer maternity) 

can have disastrous results. Recent research 

shows that bats awaken and are disturbed even 

if the human intrusion is kept brief and as quiet 

as possible. The moral here is that if you see 

significant numbers of bats in a cave, stop, leave, 

and plan to return at a different time of year. 

Your observations should also be reported to 

the appropriate researcher and wildlife agency. 

Another thing cavers can do for bats is to 

report sites that may have had bats at one time. 

These caves often still have suitable conditions, 

but have been abandoned by bats because of 

disturbance, predation, or some other factor. 

These caves tend to be good cold air traps, at 

least for hibernacula. We are interested in 

any unusually cold cave, whether or not bats 

are currently seen there. We might be able to 

look for old guano deposits or roost stains on 

the walls and ceiling to determine past bat use. 

Other caves with old bat signs may have been 

altered in some way, such as by the enlargement 

or closing of one entrance, which may change 

the airflow and temperature of the roost. Caves 

that have their temperatures altered by as little 

as a degree or two may become unsuitable 

for bats. There are many techniques available 

to restore cave microclimates and still allow 


human access, and we would like to know more 

about these caves as well. 

For more information on bat natural history 

and identification, including photos and range 

maps, go to http://www.batcon.org/discover/ 

species/naturalhistory.html. Some more 

technical information can be found at http:// 

animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/chordata/ 

mammalia/chiroptera.html and http:// 

gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~atkins/newwebpages/ 

Mammalia/chiroptera/chiroptera.html. Since 

Texas has 33 of the 45 bat species in the United 

States, a good source for information is also 

the Online Edition of the Mammals of Texas 

at http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/ordchiro. 

htm. 

Excellent reference books on 

bats of Indiana: 

America’s Neighborhood Bats. Merlin D. Tuttle. 

University of Texas Press, 96 pp 1988. 

Bats. M. Brock Fenton. Facts on File, 207 pp. 

1992. 

Field Guide to Eastern Cave Bats. Merlin D. 

Tuttle and Jim Kennedy. Bat Conservation 

International, Austin, Texas, 40 pp 2005. 

National Audubon Society Field Guide to 

North American Mammals. Revised 

Edition. John O. Whitaker Jr, Alfred A. 

Knopf, Inc., New York, 942 pp 1996. 

Mammals of the Eastern United States. John O. 

Whitaker Jr, and W. J. Hamilton Jr, Cornell 

University Press. 583 pp 1998. 

Mammals of the Great Lakes Region. Allen 

Kurta. University of Michigan Press, 376 

pp 1995 revision. 

275

Welcome to the caves of Indiana! We hope 

you find something to your taste, be it 

dry and horizontal or wet and vertical. 

Indiana has had a long and sometimes 

checkered history of caving. On the one hand, 

our universities have produced many fine 

scientists who have had cave-related specialties 

and interests and on the other hand, we have 

produced many party-hearty types. The former 

have been responsible for much written about 

caves and the latter have been responsible for 

much written in caves. 

The bad old days of careless attitudes 

towards caves are mostly over but unfortunately 

you will still find some graffiti and the occasional 

pile of trash. Quite a great deal of effort has 

been expended by our grottos in the cleaning 

and restoration of some of the more abused 

caves. The effort continues to this day. 

The rural nature of the NSS National 

Convention setting belies the fact that 

Indiana is the 14th most populated state while 

ranking 38th for land area. This makes it one 

of the more densely populated states in the 

nation. Furthermore, Indiana ranks 46th in 

the amount of publicly owned land set aside 

for conservation and recreation, with over 96 

percent of its land area being privately owned. 

My point is that wherever you go, the land—no 

matter how wild it seems—belongs to someone, 

and that someone may still remember past 

problems with “spelunkers.” 

Indiana’s organized caving community 

has worked hard over the years to establish 

good relationships with as many landowners 

as possible and to educate them on the value 

of their caves, whether it be the relationship to 

their drinking water or the lives of the creatures 

within. Attitudes towards bats are changing as 

well, thanks to favorable press coverage and 

classroom science courses. There is even a push 

to have the Indiana bat designated the Indiana 

State Bat. Please help out by treating with 

276 

Caving and Conservation in Indiana 

By Richard Vernier, Convention Conservation Chairman 

respect any landowners you might encounter 

and let them know that you appreciate the 

opportunity to visit their caves. 

In the area of the convention, both the 


and the Hoosier National Forest are large 

landowners. They are aware of the caves on their 

properties and take an active interest in them. 

They are progressive regarding recreation in 

their caves and are very conservation minded. 

Studies of cave life have been contracted and 

management plans written for many of the caves 

on these properties. A number of the employees 

of these entities are cavers and will be present 

at the convention to answer questions and lead 

a few trips. Please respect them and don’t do 

anything to the detriment of their relationship 

with the caving community. 

Similarly, our commercial cave owners are 

mostly NSS cavers and are very supportive 

of cave conservation efforts. Please be a good 

representative of the NSS National Convention 

when you visit their properties. Also, try to 

be unobtrusive if you are on a tour with noncavers. 

Have a great time at the convention, party 

all you want at the campground and the Howdy 

Party but please be responsible when you cave. 

Please respect the landowners (private and 

public); and above all, respect the caves and 

their inhabitants. 

Some things that you can do to help: 

• Follow the instructions regarding access. 

• Close any gates you open and don’t annoy 

the cattle, pigs, goats, skunks, and the 

like. 

• Be discrete when changing clothes. 

• Pack it in, pack it out. 

• Stay on established trails. 

• Try to avoid muddying cave streams (I 

know, that’s going to be hard to do in 

Indiana but do your best). 

• Don’t hassle the cave critters, even the

ugs. 

• Pick up litter (use good judgment regarding 

potentially historic items.) 

• Don’t attempt any restoration work 

without first consulting the landowner. 

• Don’t modify the passages. 

• Don’t break the formations or deface the 

cave surfaces (I hope I don’t really have 

to say that.) 

• Don’t smoke in the caves. 

• No cooking, campfires, fireworks, firearms 

or flaming torches in the caves (carbide 

lamps are OK but refer to “pack it in, 

pack it out.”) 

• Use “common sense.” 

NSS Conservation Policy 

The National Speleological Society 

believes: 

• Caves have unique scientific, recreational, 

and scenic values 

• These values are endangered by both 

carelessness and intentional vandalism 

• These values, once gone, cannot be 

recovered 

• The responsibility for protecting caves 

must be formed by those who study and enjoy 

them. 

Accordingly, the intention of the Society 

is to work for the preservation of caves with a 

realistic policy supported by effective programs 

for: the encouragement of self-discipline among 

cavers; education and research concerning 

the causes and prevention of cave damage; 

and special projects, including cooperation 

with other groups similarly dedicated to the 

conservation of natural areas. Specifically: 

All contents of a cave—formations, life, 

and loose deposits—are significant for their 

enjoyment and interpretation. Therefore, 

caving parties should leave a cave as they find 

it. They should provide means for the removal 

Caving and Conservation 

of waste; limit marking to a few, small, and 

removable signs as are needed for surveys; 

and, especially, exercise extreme care not to 

accidentally break or soil formations, disturb 

life forms or unnecessarily increase the number 

of disfiguring paths through an area. 

Scientific collection is professional, 

selective, and minimal. The collecting of 

mineral or biological material for display 

purposes, including previously broken or dead 

specimens, is never justified, as it encourages 

others to collect and destroy the interest of the 

cave. 

The Society encourages projects such as: 

• Establishing cave preserves 

• Placing entrance gates where appropriate 

• Opposing the sale of speleothems 

• Supporting effective protective measures 

• Cleaning and restoring over-used caves 

• Cooperating with private cave owners by 

providing them knowledge about their cave 

and assisting them in protecting their cave and 

property from damage during cave visits 

• Encouraging commercial cave owners to 

make use of their opportunity to aid the public 

in understanding caves and the importance of 

their conservation. 

Where there is reason to believe that 

publication of cave locations will lead to 

vandalism before adequate protection can 

be established, the Society will oppose such 

publication. 

It is the duty of every Society member to: 

Take personal responsibility for spreading a 

consciousness of the cave conservation problem 

to each potential user of caves. Without this, 

the beauty and value of our caves will not long 

remain with us. 

For more information on cave conservation, 

check out the NSS Cave Conservation and 

Management Section Web site: http://www. 

caves.org/section/ccms/. 

277


278 

F.M. Rothrock, Bob Louden, and two others in Little Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by George Jackson. From the John Benton photo collection.

Section VII: Miscellaneous 

27


280

Bluespring Caverns “Myst’ry River Voyage” 

uses custom electric boats to pilot 

passengers along a part of the winding course of 

one of America’s longest navigable underground 

rivers. As visitors follow the river’s course 

through joint-controlled passages, the usually 

clear water reveals blind cavefish and crayfish. 

Onboard electric lighting briefly illuminates 

the sculpted passages as the boat passes. Hourlong 

tours cover over a mile by boat from 9:00 

a.m. to 5:00 p.m. eastern time. A special halfprice 

tour rate is available to NSS members 

during the 2007 NSS National Convention. 

Bluespring Caverns consists of more than 

20 miles of passages carved by the numerous 

smaller streams that flow to the Main Stream 

Passage and, ultimately, to Blue Spring on the 

East Fork of White River. Surface facilities are 

centered in a large, partially alluviated collapse 

sink with the visitor center overlooking the 

large entrance that opened overnight over 60 

years ago. Bluespring Caverns Park also offers 

a gemstone mining sluice, gift and souvenir 

shop, picnic facilities, and open recreation 

areas. 

History 

Bluespring Caverns or Blue Spring Cave (as 

it was known before being opened as a show 

cave) was likely first explored by American 

Indians from its spring entrance in a low bluff 

on the bank of White River East Fork. The 

first documented exploration of the cave was 

by Indiana geologist John Collett in 1874. He 

reported exploring 3 miles of passage by boat 

upstream from the spring. In 1912 an early 

hydroelectric dam built on the White River 

East Fork at the town of Williams raised river 

levels to submerge the Spring Entrance to the 

cave and flood over half a mile of passage. 

This section of the cave has been flooded since 

Indiana Show Caves 

Bluespring Caverns 

By Jim Richards, NSS 7774 

that time, though the dam no longer is used 

to produce electricity. Following a heavy rain 

in 1941, a collapse within a shallow sink on 

the farm of George and Eva Colglazier opened 

into a high passage directly adjacent to the 

main underground stream and subsequent 

subsidence and erosion created a large 

entrance. Several years later, earth subsidence 

on the nearby farm of Emery and Ruth Bolton 

created a crawlway entrance at the bottom of a 

large, deep sinkhole; again leading directly to 

the main underground stream passage. For a 

period of several years cave files reported three 

caves: Blue Spring Cave, Colglazier Sink Cave, 

and Bolton Sink Cave. 

In 1964, an informal caving group known 

as Geo-Lucifugus began exploring the large 

underground stream from the Colglazier and 

Bolton entrances. Late in the summer, a group 

consisting of Dale Chase, Dan Chase, Tony 

Moore, and Jim Richards boated to the upstream 

end of the main river passage and noted a low, 

water-filled passage leading off. Following air 

flow through a network of intersecting crawls 

and wet passages later named the Maze, they 

eventually came into a large walking stream 

passage, the First Discovery. Spurred by this 

significant discovery and joined by other cavers 

including, most importantly, Art Palmer (who 

directed the survey efforts) and his wife Peg, the 

group discovered and surveyed over 18 miles 

of tributary passages off the main river passage 

over the next seven years. These tributaries 

include the First Discovery, Second Discovery, 

Third Discovery, and Fourth Discovery in the 

order of their initial explorations. 

All of the exploration and survey efforts 

were greatly assisted by the continuing support 

of George and Eva Colglazier, owners of the 

Colglazier Entrance. No history of the cave 

can ignore their unflagging enthusiasm and 

281


An Inner Oddysey,” a 

half-mile boat ride 

upstream from the 

Colglazier Entrance 

was opened that fall 

to large crowds and 

numerous problems. 

The boat tour was 

operated with 

progressively smaller 

crowds for the next 

1½ years before 

declaring bankruptcy. 

The leased property 

reverted to the 

Colglaziers who still 

held their dream but 

had no way to bring it 

to reality. 

After a year of 

planning, Indiana 

cavers Jim Richards, 

Sam Frushour, and 

Bob Hosley (later 

joined by Bob 

Armstrong, another 

Indiana caver), began 

work which led to 

re-opening the show 

cave operation as 

Bluespring Caverns in 

the fall of 1974. With 

improved boats and 

lighting, stabilization 

of the highly erosionprone 

Colglazier 

A tour boat in the Narrows in Bluessring Caverns. 

Entrance, and finally 

the construction of 

a new visitor center 

cooperation. Early on in the exploration the located in the large entrance sinkhole directly 

Colglaziers expressed their dream that someday overlooking the entrance, they were able to 

this wonder of the underworld would be made finally fulfill the long-held dreams of the 

available for the public to experience. 

Colglaziers. Today, hour-long boat tours allow 

As is usually the case with dreams, visitors to explore the twisting course of the 

fulfillment would be slow to come. Finally, in underground passages and view the numerous 

1971 a local group expressed a desire to open blind cavefish and crayfish in their natural 

and promote a boat ride on a section of the 

underground river. Billed as “Blue Spring Cave, 

habitat. 

282

Marengo Cave, located on the edge of the 

small town of Marengo, was named a 

National Natural Landmark in 1984. The cave 

drains a karst valley north of Marengo and south 

of the Patoka River watershed in neighboring 

Orange County. Three springs drain different 

sections of the cave into Whiskey Run, a 

tributary of the Blue River. The westernmost 

spring is Old Town Spring, the middle spring 

and the largest of the three is Stewart Spring, 

and the farthest east is the Ross Spring. While 

Old Town Spring and Stewart Spring have been 

physically connected into the Marengo System, 

the Ross Spring is only hydraulically connected 

into the system. The main tourist portion of 

the cave is essentially on one level along an 

abandoned riverbed and contains beautiful 

formations of all types. 

Convention families can choose from 

two easy walking tours, the shorter Crystal 

Palace tour of about 30 to 40 minutes with 

a presentation on the discovery of the cave, 

or the longer Dripstone Trail tour (about 60 

to 70 minutes) with its larger passages and 

Marengo Cave 


formation-filled rooms. Few steps are involved 

since the tour mainly follows the river bed. 

Natural trips will be available (unguided) 

in the Old Town Spring Section of the cave 

during the convention. No fee will be charged 

for the Old Town Spring trips but they will 

have to be coordinated with other groups using 

this section of the cave and a key (or possibly a 

combination) will be required for entry since 

the entrance is gated. 

History 

Marengo Cave was discovered on 

September 6, 1883, by Marengo siblings 

Orris and Blanche Heistand, ages 11 and 

15 respectively. Landowner Samuel Stewart 

learned of the discovery and opened the cave 

on a fee basis almost immediately and the 

Stewart family operated the cave as a show cave 

continuously until it was sold in 1955. 

The original entrance was in the bottom 

of a large sinkhole and an entrance building 

was constructed over the sinkhole with steps 

leading downward into the cave. A trail leads 

The Crystal Palace in Marengo Cave. Photo by Gary Berdeaux. 

By Gordon Smith, NSS 8847RL 

283


from the present gift shop to the original 

entrance and a photo of the original entrance 

building is on the gift shop wall. In 1910 a new 

entrance was blasted into the cave with a short 

set of steps leading down directly into one of 

the main passages. A new entrance building 

was also constructed on the site of the present 

entrance building/giftshop. 

During the early years, most visitors arrived 

by train which benefited the entire town as well 

as the cave. The Murphy Hotel was constructed 

along the railroad tracks and local wagons 

delivered visitors from the hotel and train 

station to the cave, located on the northeast 

side of the small town. The town even got its 

water supply from Stewart Spring until the 

1980s when the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency decided that another source should be 

found. 

A young man named William “Willie” 

Clifton was hired as a guide in 1913 and 

provided tours of the cave for 50 years. Willie 

was available to take tours 24 hours a day, 7 

days a week. If no one was at the cave when a 

visitor arrived they would ring a large bell on 

the side of the building and Willie would leave 

his home near the cave and come up the hill 

to take the tour. Willie may have walked more 

miles underground than anyone else in history; 

he estimated the distance at 75,000 to 80,000 

miles. Willie loved the cave and often sang for 

guests and played music on speleothems in the 

Crystal Palace. In the days before the NSS, 

Willie explored many caves in the area often 

leaving his initials. On his 50th anniversary 

with the cave, a special celebration was held. He 

had to be forced to retire in 1963 at age 80, but 

surprised everyone by living another 16 years. 

The Stewart era ended with the sale of the 

cave to local businessman Floyd Denton in 

1955. Denton had big plans for the cave and 

initiated lighting of the cave. Unfortunately he 

had a heart attack in 1960 while working on the 

lights in the cave and died shortly afterward. 

His wife Lucille and daughter Pat Hollis, along 

with Pat’s husband Jack Hollis operated the cave 

for 13 years after Floyd’s untimely death. They 

added a swimming pool during this period and 

284 

improved access to the new State Road 64 that 

passed in front of the cave. Lucille really didn’t 

want the cave when Floyd purchased it and she 

certainly didn’t want it after Floyd died, so the 

cave was put up for sale. Attendance averaged 

about 5,000 to 10,000 visitors a year and the 

cave was closed during the winter months. 

In 1973 the NSS National Convention was 

to be held in Bloomington, Indiana. Gordon 

Smith knew that Marengo Cave had some early 

black and white photo postcards of the cave for 

sale and he stopped by the cave to purchase 

some of them before all the NSS cavers visited 

the cave during the Convention. He had heard 

that the cave was for sale and he casually asked 

Jack Hollis about the price for the cave. Hollis, 

quickly recognizing a sucker when he saw one, 

told Smith that not only was the cave for sale 

but they had recently cut the price in half. 

Smith, who was working as an engineer in 

Louisville, took the bait and quickly formed a 

corporation with three other cavers to purchase 

the cave. Gary Roberson, Pat Stephens, and 

Terry Crayden joined with Smith and signed 

the papers to acquire the cave on August 18, 

1973, changing the cave’s ownership for only 

the third time in 90 years. It should be noted 

that even though the price for the cave was 

reasonable for 1973, the four cavers did not 

have a penny to their names and had to even 

borrow the down payment. 

Terry Crayden was the Manager for the 

first year but left the corporation after one year 

and Gary Roberson was named as Manager, 

a position he would hold for 27 years. Pat 

Stephens opted out in 1979 and eventually 

Smith purchased Roberson’s interest in 2001. 

All four cavers are still close friends, which is 

amazing given the ups and downs of the past 

34 years. Today the cave is owned by Gordon 

and Judy Smith, long-time NSS members. 

From 1974 through 1978 an overnight 

scout program was included to help pay the 

bills during the long winter months. During 

the winter of 1978–79, the Dripstone Entrance 

was opened up into the Ross section of the 

cave by Roberson, Bob Wyman, and Darwin 

Groves. With the opening of the Ross section

of the cave, the 

scout program was 

eliminated. Roberson 

also initiated 

development of a 

campground and 

natural trips and made 

major improvements 

to the property. 

With the help of 

many cavers, the 

owners convinced the 

National Park Service 

to name the cave a 

National Natural 

Landmark in 1984. 

Exploration 

Marengo Cave 

has had a long history 

of exploration since 

its discovery in 1883. 

However, when four 

cavers purchased the 

property in 1973, 

the cave would never 

be the same again. 

The first dig in the 

cave was started in 

1974 to try to extend 

the “crawling” tour 

for the overnight 

scout program. The 

“Masher” section of 

the cave has been a 

big success ever since, 

with tens of thousands 

of young cavers squeezing through 

the tight crawlway over the past 33 years. More 

recently, a major dig was initiated by Gordon 

Smith in the Masher section in December of 

2005 resulting in a major discovery of a highlevel 

canyon and dome rooms unlike any other 

areas in Marengo. Access is through a very 

tight bedrock tube vertically upward through 

the ceiling of the crawlway. Work continues. 

By far the most significant discovery in 

Marengo Cave was initiated by Willie Clifton 

Another view of the Crystal Palace in Marengo Cave. 

Photo by Gary Berdeaux. 


when he started the excavation of a small 

crawlway off the Pillared Palace section of the 

cave sometime prior to 1960. The crawlway 

started as a high lead directly off the tourist trail 

and was famous for the wind that came out of it 

and the bats that occasionally flew out past the 

visitors. Clifton had penetrated the crawlway 

about 50 feet where it ended without much 

chance of continuing. The air was coming out 

of a small crack at floor level and there wasn’t 

any room to work. This didn’t stop cavers and 

285


Smith soon was enlarging the small crack and 

pushing forward. Eventually Smith reached a 

spot where the ceiling and floor were bedrock 

and there was only about 8 inches of space. 

Smith was able to proceed through this spot 

wearing only a tee shirt and shorts but was soon 

stopped in a very small breakdown chamber 

with the air coming up through large blocks in 

the floor. No further digging was attempted for 

several years. 

In 1992 Smith and Roberson realized that 

it would take younger, smaller cavers to push 

the passage if it was to continue and Roberson 

contacted Dave Black to see if any of his group 

of cavers would be interested. On Friday, June 

12 at about 10:00 p.m., Chris Schotter, Ted 

Wilson, Joe Oliphant, Danny Dible, and Greg 

McNamara went into Marengo to check out 

the end of the crawl. Ironically, Dave Black 

was not available that weekend to join them. 

They were impressed with what they saw and 

decided to attack the end of the crawl on 

Sunday evening, June 14. They added Aaron 

Green, Ron Adams, Tina Shirk, and a Polish 

Squire Boone Caverns is located in 

southern Harrison County in the Buck 

Creek drainage basin. It’s a beautifully 

decorated cave that is developed in the St. 

Louis Limestone and was formed by two 

active streams that drain the sinkhole plain 

west of Laconia. 

The entrance to Squire Boone Caverns 

was first used by American Indians at least 

hundreds of years ago. Many artifacts have 

been found around the mouth of the cave. 

It’s believed that the Indians used the cave 

for its cool water and for storing perishables. 

In 1790 the cave was discovered by Daniel 

Boone and Squire Boone, Jr. They were on 

an expedition when they came across the 

stream flowing out of the hillside. Squire 

kept the cave in his mind and returned to the 

area to live the final years of his life. Squire 

286 

Squire Boone Caverns 

caver named Vetek to the team and after some 

chemical persuasion they were the first to enter 

what has become know as the “New Discovery” 

section of Marengo Cave. This section of the 

cave is the main stream passage feeding Stewart 

Spring and contains several miles of passage 

that some consider the largest passage in any 

cave in Indiana. Blind fish and blind crawfish 

are plentiful in the stream passage. 

In 1993 Chris Schotter and Aaron Green 

led an effort to connect Old Town Spring Cave 

with the newly discovered section of Marengo. 

In what many consider the “Mount Everest” 

of Indiana caving, they were eventually able to 

connect the two caves in 1994 after grueling 

trips involving two sumps, multiple digs, 

and tight, twisting canyons. Frank Lamb of 

Bloomington joined them and the three are the 

only ones who made the eventual connection. 

It probably will never be attempted again. 

Marengo Cave is currently about 6 miles 

long but exploration continues and more virgin 

passage is just around the next bend. 

By Claudia Yundt 

used the water from the cave to power the 

gristmill he built in 1804. He built his home 

on the ridge above the mouth of the cave. 

The Boones’ entry was the first documented 

exploration of the cave. 

Entering the cave prior to commercial 

development was not an easy task. You 

had to crawl and stoop through a 300-foot 

passage that contains a stream, two 8-foot 

waterfalls, and a 12-foot waterfall. By the 

1960s Boones Mill Cave (as it was known 

at the time) was well known by the caving 

community. 

Fred Conway purchased the cave and 

surrounding land in 1971. Three men were 

in charge of its development: Gary Roberson, 

Terry Crayden, and Kenny Hoover, all ISS 

members. At that time the three men were 

mapping nearby Binkleys Cave. They were

avid spelunkers and 

loved the cave. They 

took great pains to 

preserve the beauty 

and integrity of 

the caverns during 

commercialization. 

It took several 

hundred man-hours 

to construct steel 

bridges, concrete 

walkways, and 

indirect lighting. 

They also blasted 

a 60-foot shaft so 

the cave could be 

easily accessed. 

It took them 2½ 

years to develop the 

cave. On May 31, 

1973, Squire Boone 

Caverns opened to 

the public. 

The cave has not 

changed much in 

its 34 years of being 

open to the public. 

In 2006 Bob Wyman 

was hired to restore 

the cave and help 

protect it for future 

generations. Great 

things are happening 

once again in this 

beautiful cave. 

Wyandotte Cave is located on a high ridge 

just north of scenic State Road 62 in 

eastern Crawford County. Formed within the 

Paoli and Ste. Genevieve limestones, Wyandotte 

is unique among Indiana caves for its enormous 

breakdown rooms; large, dry passageways; and 

long, colorful human history. Many books have 


Sean Lewis beside the Rock of Ages in Squire Boon Caverns. 


Wyandotte Cave 

By Gordon Smith, NSS 8847RL 

been written on Wyandotte Cave over the past 

160 years. 

Tours of the undeveloped sections of 

Wyandotte Cave that will be available during 

the Convention will include dry, dusty crawls; 

large rooms; and passages that seem to go on 

forever. Regular tourist trips involve lots of 

287


climbing with nearly 500 steps along the 90minute 

Monument Mountain Tour. The 30minute 

tour of Siberts Cave (Little Wyandotte) 

is far easier. 

While Wyandotte Cave is the fourth oldest 

show cave in the country and the third oldest 

continuously operated cavern, its human activity 

reaches back nearly 4,000 years. Extensive 

archeological research conducted in the 1980s 

revealed that the earliest explorers penetrated 

nearly all parts of the cavern within 3,000 feet of 

the entrance during this time. They left behind 

considerable evidence of their time in the cave 

including charred hickory bark fragments that 

were used to light the cave. For approximately 

2,000 years the extremely high quality dark 

grey chert known as the “Wyandotte chert” 

was mined from several locations up to 2,000 

feet from the entrance. Extracted chert was 

widely traded throughout the region for tool 

making and other uses. Later, native explorers 

concentrated on mining aragonite. Most 

of the mining was done at the base of the 

Pillar of the Constitution at the back of the 

“Old Cave” section. At least 40 documented 

artifacts from sites over several states were 

made from aragonite mined in Wyandotte 

Cave. More recently (about A.D. 240–390) 

288 

Epsom salts were removed by scraping the cave 

walls. Wyandotte Cave is the only known site 

of these types of mining activities in Indiana 

caves. Evidence of this early exploration ends in 

the late Woodland Period (A.D. 800). 

Called the “Mammoth Cave of Indiana” 

in the first published reference to the cave, Dr 

Henry McMurtrie referenced a 1789 visit and 

added that General William Henry Harrison 

visited the cave in 1806. This earliest written 

account of the cave is from his 1816 letter. 

Saltpeter leaching at nearby Saltpeter Cave 

during the War of 1812 may have included 

digging in what was then known as Epsom 

Salt Cave and Dr Adams Cave. Adams later 

dropped his claim to the cave and in 1820 

the Peter Rothrock family purchased the cave 

along with a large tract of wooded hills along 

the Blue River. Over the next few decades their 

holdings increased to 4,000 acres that included 

several caves. At that time only the large passage 

leading to the Pillar of the Constitution (the 

Old Cave) was known. 

The discovery of the “New Cave” section in 

1850 forever changed the Rothrock’s lives and 

tours began officially in 1851. Rothrock offered 

lodging and board in his home at first but soon 

expanded into a spacious hotel at the bottom 

Panoramac view of the Hall of Representatives in Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by Gary Berdeaux.


hire Richard L. Powell 

(author of the Caves of 

Indiana) to map the 

23 miles of cave they 

had purchased. In 

1968, Powell, aided 

by the Bloomington 

Indiana Grotto, had 

completed the map 

but unfortunately 

the length was only 

5.359 miles. The 

Department of 

Natural Resources 

added lights in 1970 

but they really didn’t 

have any experience 

in operating a show 

cave and attendance 

continued dropping. 

By early 2002 the 

cave was losing so 

much money that the 

state contemplated 

Washington Avenue in Wyandotte Cave. 

Photo by Gary Berdeaux. 

closing the cave. In 

an effort to keep the 

cave open, Gordon 

Smith, a long-time 

of the hill; the hotel still stands today. Early NSS member and owner of nearby Marengo 

visitors included Horace C. Hovey who made Cave, formed a corporation with Tim Grissom 

his first visit in 1853. Geologists, biologists, and of Ohio Caverns to operate the cave for the 

tourists soon followed. A larger hotel was built Department of Natural Resources under a 

closer to the cave in 1866 and it was rebuilt in concession arrangement. This arrangement 

1933 and 1956 following fires. 

continues today. While Siberts Cave is open 

The Rothrock family continued exploring from March through October, Wyandotte 

and new sections were developed and opened Cave is open only from May 1st through 

throughout their 115 years of cave management Labor Day in an effort to protect the largest 

and promotion. The cave was even featured in population of Indiana bats known to exist. In 

“Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” in 1932 for having 2003 Wyandotte Cave was incorporated in 

the world’s “largest underground mountain.” the new O’Bannon Woods State Park that was 

Attendance grew to over 40,000 visitors in carved out of the center of Harrison Crawford 

1951. The Rothrock’s were proud of their cave, State Forest. 

touting its length at an exaggerated 23 miles and During the early days of the NSS, 

showing the cave by lantern light in its “natural Wyandotte was a center of exploration. George 

condition.” They sold the cave to the state of “Wyandotte” Jackson (NSS 151) made his 

Indiana Department of Natural Resources in first visit to the cave in 1923 as a Boy Scout. 

1966. 

He returned to work as a guide and led many 

One of the first things the state did was to of the early exploration trips into the cave. 

28


Exploring with Bob Louden, Rothrock, Sibert 

family members, and others, he dug into B-B 

Hole and many nearby caves in a futile search 

for the elusive stream level of Wyandotte Cave. 

He later married one of the Rothrock daughters 

and wrote several books on the cave. Evidence 

of these early efforts remain today with 

wooden tracks, winches, and cables outside the 

promising sites. 

Discoveries within the cave slowed following 

a flurry of exploration and development 

through the 1940s. In 1967, Leo Schotter—a 

renowned, old-time local caver—shared the 

location of a pit near Wyandotte Cave that he 

had discovered many years earlier. Members 

of the Indiana Speleological Society (ISS) 

including Gary Roberson, Richard Newton, 

Terry Crayden, George Jaegers, and Al and 

Neal Erickson decided to explore the pit on 

2 0 

Wallace Rothrock in Little Wyandotte Cave. 



Easter Sunday, 1967. There was a small opening 

at the bottom of the pit that was blowing air 

but an altercation broke out between the 

Erickson brothers and the dig was abandoned. 

The pit they named Easter would not be visited 

again for almost 20 years. In October 1986 the 

squeeze at the bottom of the pit was enlarged 

and pushed by Glenn Lemasters, Danny Dible, 

and Ted Wilson into going cave (see page 21). 

Surveying began in November and the tight 

canyon crawl connected to a large dry walking 

passage similar to those in Wyandotte Cave. 

Over two miles of new cave was mapped by 

Dible, Lemasters, and Wilson who were joined 

by Joe Oliphant, Dave Black, Holly Cook, and 

others. A difficult climb in Fools Dome by Ted 

Wilson, aided by Dible and others led to a tight 

crawl and eventually to Wyandotte Cave. The 

connection was made on October 3, 1987, and

Section VIII: Cave Descriptions 

2 1


2 2

Cave Maps and Descriptions 

The following is only a sampling of all the 

caves offered. There are many caves with guided 

trips not listed in the guidebook. For more in- 

The caves published in the 2007 Convention 

Guidebook are generally caves with only 

full or open access. This list focuses mostly on 

caves on government-owned land. When caves 

on privately owned land were considered, the 

long-term effect of guidebook publishing on 

both the landowner and the cave itself were 

given highest priority. 

We decided that caves where the landowner 

relations have a strained history yet the cave is 

still open should probably be led trips only and 

the maps not published in the Guidebook, only 

available at the kiosk. 

The Cave Selection Process 

depth information and details please visit the 

caving kiosk. 

All these factors plus a familiarity of the 

landowner’s unique wishes and personality as 

well as the history of a cave’s access were taken 

into consideration in the final judgment of 

whether to publish the cave in the Guidebook. 

These maps are now in your hands. Please 

be mindful of their sensitive nature. 

Ron Adams 

Caves Chairman 

Aaron Atz 

Editor 

Three unknown explorers in Wyandotte Cave. 



2 3

B-B Hole is a gated cave in the Harrison 

Crawford State Forest. Special permission 

has been arranged for access during convention 

week only. Check with the caving kiosk for 

access rules and details. 

B-B Hole was discovered in the mid 1950s 

by Wyandotte Cave personnel who were 

searching for another piece of the Wyandotte 

Ridge puzzle. The cave had a history of opening 

294 

Crawford County Caves 

B-B Hole 

A George Jackson photo of the passage in B-B Hole on the 

Cover of the NSS News. 

By Aaron Atz 

and closing over the years until 1998 when 

members of the Wyandotte Ridge Exploration 

Group got permission to install a large culvert 

and stabilize the entrance to this fine cave. The 

entrance is gated and from there is a 20-foot 

sloping rappel into the side of a medium-sized 

room. This drop could be rigged with a cable 

ladder but full vertical gear is advised. A hole in 

the floor on the other side of the room leads to 

a short climb down to 

the stream passage. 

The stream 

passage is almost all 

walking in mostly 

clean-washed passage 

for approximately 

1,500 feet to where 

a major collapse 

terminated access to 

the upstream passage. 

One may choose 

to climb upward 

through breakdown 

to the Fools Room, 

a nice-sized mudfloored 

room formed 

by the collapse below. 

There is a very muddy 

blowing crawlway 

lead at the northern 

end of the room. 

The water leaves 

B-B Hole in low 

breakdown just 

downstream of the 

entrance room climbdown 

and quickly 

reappears in Breathing 

Hole Cave. No 

physical connection 

between the caves has

een made but a voice 

connection should 

be possible. Pushing 

the Talus Passage 

upstream in Breathing 

Hole could lead to 

a new route around 

and upstream of the 

upstream breakdown 

collapse in B-B Hole. 

Furthermore, there is 

a massive swallowhole 

just south of I-64 

at around 680 feet 

in elevation that 

probably contributes 

much water to the 

B-B Hole-Breathing 

Hole system and it 

should be dye-traced to support or disprove 

this theory. The entrance to B-B Hole is at an 

elevation of approximately 525 feet. The cave 


Marc Pedersen at the entrance to B-B Hole. Photo by Aaron Atz. 

was mapped by Greg Spaulding in 1973 and is 

1,824 feet long according to his map. A map of 

B-B Hole is included in the map package. 

295


Beech Tree Cave is located on the north 

side of Wyandotte Ridge on a wooded 

hillside. It is located on Harrison Crawford 

State Forest property, but private property 

has to be crossed to reach the cave. Please 

ask permission. From a small cemetery, walk 

north down the dry streambed. It is a 2,000foot 

walk down the valley losing 220 feet in 

elevation. After crossing the power-line cut, 

walk another 200 feet before cutting up the 

west (left) hillside. 

From the dry 

streambed follow 

the rock cairns to 

the cave entrance. 

The entrance is in 

a 25-foot-diameter, 

collapsed sinkhole 

about 250 feet west 

and 50 feet above 

the dry streambed. 

The entrance 

is a 2-foot-high by 

7-foot-wide crawl 

at the base of a 10foot-high 

limestone 

bluff, which forms 

the uphill side of the 

entrance sinkhole. 

In 40 feet, a canyon 

opens in the floor of 

the crawlway. This 

canyon leads down 

a couple of climbs to 

Expectation Room, 

a dead-end room. 

The main way on 

is to continue into 

the crawlway for 

another 20 feet, 

where a second 

canyon forms in the 

floor. This canyon 

is a tight 40-foot- 

296 

Beech Tree Cave 

By Dave Black, 1992, updated 2000 

deep chimney that ends at the top of a 31foot-deep 

pit. This pit is named Flashlight 

Pit. It takes a 45-foot rope to rig the drop 

from a flowstone column in the floor of 

the tight canyon. A major ledge is reached 

after 14 feet and is the main way on into the 

cave. The ledge opens into Turners Dome, 

a 50-foot-long by 20-foot-wide 40-foot-tall 

dome. A crawlway-sized drain along the left 

wall of the dome leads immediately to a T-

intersection. The left-hand passage becomes 

too tight while the right hand (up-steam) 

passage is the way on into the cave. In 15 

feet, a 12-foot-deep, flowstone-covered wall 

is reached. A 50-foot-long rope is needed 

to traverse the next three obstacles. These 

obstacles are the traverse of the well, a 

climb-down, and a climb-up. The rope can 

be rigged off some flowstone along the left 

wall. The flowstone traverse is about 10 feet 

long along the right wall to a 3-foot-thick 

limestone partition. It is a 10-foot, hand-line 

climb to the floor of Fakers Dome. The dome 

is 20 feet long by 10 feet wide and 20 feet 

tall. Immediately opposite the climb-down 

is a 12-foot climb-up into Chisel Crawl. 

An old, mud-coated piece of Goldline leads 

up to the crawlway, but it is best if the first 

person free-climbs up and rigs the other end 

of the 50-long traverse rope. Chisel Crawl 

is a very tight, 7-foot-long crawl, which was 

chiseled open in 1967 by Terry Crayden. It 

opens at the base of the 20-foot-high Rappel 

Pit. The crawlway continues on the other 

side of the dome, and ends in 20 feet at a 

balcony overlooking Calcite Dome. An easy 

16-foot climb-down leads to the base of 

this very impressive dome. The dome is 25 

feet in diameter and is 85 feet tall. In wet 

weather there are three waterfalls entering 

the dome. The waterfalls have dissolved and 

recrystalized some calcite, to give the dome 

its name. This dome is also the “practical” 

end of the cave. Only a short, very-muddy 

crawlway at the top of the far waterfall leads 

away from the cave complex. 

The remainder of the cave is in the middle 

and upper levels. The upper most level is the 

entrance crawl. It continues past the floor 

canyon for about 150 feet. At one point there 

is a very tight squeeze through a formation 

area. The crawlway ends at Calcite Dome. 

It is an 85-foot free rappel to the floor of 

Calcite Dome. Just before reaching Calcite 

Dome one can climb up a small dome-pit 

to the Calcite Dome Attic. From the top of 


The first drop in Beech Tree Cave. 

Photo by Tom Rea. 

Calcite Dome a 95-foot rappel can be rigged. 

The middle level can be reached by doing a 

difficult traverse called the Pearly Gates over 

Turners Dome. There are two domes in the 

middle level before it reconnects with the 

rest of the cave at Rappel Pit. 

This cave is a short, complex series of 

domes, pits, and connecting crawlways that 

form a challenging cave. Only two short 

ropes (40 and 50 feet) and vertical gear are 

needed to see the main portion of the cave. 

References: IU SpeleoTymes V.3#2, 1971, 

D.DesMarais 

CHUG Preconvention Guidebook, 1973 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1984 

NSS 1992 Convention Guidebook 

297


(Editor’s note: there is a tight vertical squeeze 

between the entrance and the river passage that 

Bmay filter out larger cavers.) 

reathing Hole Cave is located between the 

B-B Hole sinkhole and Wildcat Cave. The 

entrance is a 7-foot climbable pit to a slope 

leading to a 9-foot climbdown into a breakdown 

room. In the southeast corner of the room is 

a down-climb between the breakdown and 

the ceiling that becomes tight. The location 

and airflow of this lead stirred the interest of 

many cave explorers investigating the caves on 

Wyandotte Ridge. In 1983 Dave Black, Ted 

Wilson, and Danny Dible mapped the cave 

from the entrance to the tight spot and Dave 

Black drafted and published the map. 

In the summer of 1989 Danny Dible and 

Ted Wilson returned to the lead to try to 

remove the rocks blocking the route following 

the airflow. Through five trips that summer and 

298 

Breathing Hole Cave 

Ted Wilson among the formations in Breathing Hole. 

Photo by Dave Black. 

By Ron Adams 

with the help of David and Richie Dible, Glenn 

Lemasters, Greg McNamera, Joe Oliphant, 

Tina Shirk, and Ron Adams, the lead was 

opened enough to continue exploration. The 

breakthrough was made on Saturday, August 

12, 1989, and Danny, Ted, Glen, Joe, Tina, 

and Ron were present when the tight spot 

was breached. The cave was partially explored 

that day and Greg joined them the next day to 

continue exploration. 

Most of the cave was mapped in 1989 and 

then finished in 2002. The cartographer, Glenn 

Lemasters, completed the map in 2003. 

The passage descends down through the 

squeeze and drops into a horizontal stream 

passage with flowing water. Water also flows in 

from a small side passage across the main stream. 

The upstream direction leads a few hundred 

feet to the Chamber of Horrors, which is a low 

area with breakdown and water. The stream

enters from a too-low passage but a canyon can 

be followed a few hundred feet past the stream. 

The downstream direction becomes a pleasant 

walking stream passage with some breakdown 

and, after walking a quarter of a mile, a large 

breakdown slope can be seen on the left side. 

300 feet past the breakdown slope is a large 

dry upper passage on the right called WREG 

Hall (Wyandotte Ridge Exploration Group), 

which can be followed for a quarter of a mile to 

a large room called the Rotunda, where a snake 

skeleton was discovered. The main passage ends 

300 feet past the Rotunda at an exposed layer 

of Wyandotte Chert. A small canyon leads east 

This short cave is formed in a meander 

loop of the Little Blue River and serves 

as a subterranean cut-off. A mill was built in 

Carnes Mill Cave 


from the Rotunda for about 500 feet to a 6foot-high 

room with three leads that are too 

tight. 

Walking across the WREG Junction and 

continuing along the stream, the downstream 

route can be followed another quarter of a mile 

to a sump pool at the base of a breakdown pile 

called Wildcat Mountain. Climbing over the 

breakdown one can descend into a 23-foothigh 

room called Valley of the Wildcats. Here 

the passage ends at two different breakdown 

slopes leading to impassably tight crawls. 

A map of Breathing Hole is included in the 

map package. 

By Dave Black 

the mid-1800s at the upstream end of the cave 

to utilize the hydro-power of this cut-off. A 

massive inlet structure was built for the mill 

George Brutchen in Carnes Mill Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

299


wheel. This structure is a 15-foot-tall by 15foot-square, 

cut sandstone block structure. The 

massive sandstone blocks are 6 feet long by 4 

feet wide by 3 feet tall and must have been an 

engineering feat to have been moved into place 

using only man and animal power. At the far 

end of the meander loop a dam was built using 

large boulders. This dam is 100 feet long, 30 

feet wide, and 6 feet tall. These structures are 

worth studying when visiting the cave. 

The walk to the cave is 7,000 feet long, along 

an old logging road. This logging road passes 

some impressive sandstone bluffs along the 

Little Blue River. The property around the cave 

is owned by the Hoosier National Forest and the 

Indiana Department 

of Natural Resources, 

Division of Nature 

Preserves. The area 

is a nature preserve 

due to its diversity 

of vegetation and its 

history. 

The cave consists 

of one meandering 

passage with three 

solutional domes. 

The cave is best done 

from the upstream 

direction. Before 

entering the cave, 

inspect the inlet 

structure to make sure 

the upstream entrance 

is open. Also check the 

weather for possible 

thunder storms, since 

the Little Blue River 

is subject to flash 

flooding. A wet-suit 

is not needed because 

the water temperature 

is very warm during 

the summer months. 

The spring entrance 

is 4 feet high by 30 

feet wide. The floor 

300 

slopes down to a pool. At the water, the passage 

narrows to 3 feet wide, by 4 feet high with 3 

feet of water. This foot of air space continues 

throughout the cave except for the three domes, 

where one can look up and see organic matter 

on the walls and ceiling. At the upstream 

entrance, the passage lowers to a 2-foot height. 

The through trip is fun to do on a sunny, hot, 

summer day. 

References: Nature Areas in Indiana, 

1969, A.A. Lindsey, D.V.Schmelz, and 

S.A.Nichols 

Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 

#40, 1931, W.D.Thornberry.

This pit is located on a heavily wooded 

hillside in the state forest. The entrance 

is difficult to find, a 2-foot by 3-foot hole in 

a small sinkhole. A 105-foot rope is needed 

to rig the 103-foot pit. For the first 18 feet 

the pit is very narrow, then it bells out to 

form a free drop 

in the middle of a 

60-foot-high by 25foot-wide 

room. For 

the last 25 feet of the 

drop the pit becomes 

a 10-foot by 15-foot 

shaft. 

No passages 

have been found 

off the large midlevel 

entrance pit. 

At the bottom an 

obscure hole leads 

up to a 30-foot-long 

by 25-foot-wide 

breakdown room. 

Also off the floor 

of the entrance 

room is a hole 

through breakdown 

to a too-tight drain 

hole. This pit has 

become know for 

the December 27, 

1987, death of 

Chris Elder. He was 

inexperienced and 

had explored only 

a couple of caves, 

his group had never 

before seen a cave 

that went straight 

down. The group 

tied a 30-foot rope 

to a tree and Chris 

Copperhead Pit 


By Dave Black 

entered the pit with only a flashlight. He 

stopped 20 feet down, then pushed off 

and ran out of rope. After this accident 

the entrance was covered with some logs 

and is even more difficult to find. 

Bill Baus beginning the descnt into Copperhead Pit. 

Photo by Dave Everton. 

301


This cave is located on the west side of Dry 

Run, a major dry stream bed that enters 

the Ohio River just east of Leavenworth, 

Indiana. Eric Morris discovered the entrance 

to this cave in the spring of 1995. The entrance 

is situated immediately above a large spring. 

Before anyone could enter, numerous rocks 

had to be moved out of the way. Chris Schotter, 

Aaron Green, and Fritz Schultz assisted Eric in 

moving enough rocks to squeeze into the cave. 

302 

Erics River Cave 

By Dave Black, 1999 

A gate is now installed a short distance into the 

entrance crawlway. The passage immediately 

past the gate floods and can stay flooded for a 

long period of time. The first 150 feet of cave 

passage is a breakdown crawl with just one 

breakdown room for relief. About 50 feet 

past the breakdown room the main passage 

is reached. The main passage averages 25 feet 

wide by 12 feet high with a stream meandering 

between mud banks. The main passage

Main Passage in Erics River Cave. Photo by Dave Everton. 


303


continues this wide for over a mile. 

There are very few side leads. The main 

one is Flying Blindfish Passage. This passage 

is interesting since it enters the main passage 

at ceiling level and has waist deep pools with 

blindfish. The other interesting side passage is 

Rumble Alley. It starts out walking but quickly 

lowers to a belly crawl. At the end one can hear 

the sound of vehicles passing overhead on the 

interstate. 

Once pass Rumble Alley the main passage 

lowers to a low, chert-cobbled, wet, belly crawl. 

It has not yet been pushed. At one time a swallow 

hole entrance opened up in the side of Jordan 

Creek. This new cave was pushed for about 

100 feet as a low, chert-cobbled, wet crawlway. 

Hemlock Cliffs are located south of English, 

Indiana, in the Hoosier National Forest. 

This area is noted for its sandstone bluffs 

and shelter caves. In the southern part of this 

section of the national forest is a parking lot and 

picnic area, along with hiking trails leading to 

Hemlock Falls and Hemlock Caverns. Both of 

these features are overhanging sandstone bluffs. 

One of the hiking trails is along a bedrockfloored 

creek through an isolated valley. The 

northern part of this section of the national 

forest has a group of cliffs known locally as 

Mesmore Cliffs. These cliffs are over 100 feet 

tall and have been used in the past by cavers 

for vertical practice. A new policy, starting in 

1992, has made it illegal to climb or rappel 

on several of the cliffs in the Hemlock Cliffs 

area. This is to protect the vegetation along the 

cliffs. The Mesmore Cliff area has several large 

sandstone shelters and couple of limestone 

caves. To reach this area take the loop trail that 

goes by Hemlock Falls and Hemlock Caverns. 

Just north of Hemlock Caverns is a smaller trail 

that goes northeast up the ridge. At the top of 

the ridge and there is a rugged four-wheel-drive 

road. Go right (east) on this road. You can also 

reach this road by going north from the picnic 

304 

Hemlock Cliffs 

When this swallow hole entrance was opened, 

trash and wood debris were washed into Erics 

River Cave. The swallow hole entrance is now 

completed filled with cobbles, trash, and wood 

debris. The former swallow hole entrance is 

located about half a mile to the west of the 

surveyed end of Erics River Cave. It is assumed 

that the two passages will connect and that it 

will be over half a mile of low, chert cobbled, 

wet crawlway. 

To explore Erics River Cave one must 

watch the weather since the entrance passage 

does flood. The main passage requires wading 

in waist deep water so warm polypro bottoms 

are nice to wear. If the cave is not flooded there 

will be a guided trip to the cave. 

By Dave Black 

area for about one-mile and take the first road 

to the right. This road goes about half a mile 

before degenerating into a rugged four-wheel- 

A view at Hemlock Cliffs. 

Photo by Brian Killingbeck.

drive road. There is a pull off on the right for 

parking cars. The hike is a little over 1 mile along 

this four-wheel-drive road with an elevation 

loss of 60 feet. Some of the caves in this area are 

Arrowhead Arch, Indian Cave, Little Indian 

Cave, and Mesmore Spring Cave. 

This cave is located on the south side of the 

ridge at the base of a sandstone bluff. There 

is a trail leading to it. The cave is a 75-foot-long, 

natural tunnel in sandstone. This tunnel is 20 feet 

high and up to 50 feet wide. Halfway through 

the tunnel on the north wall is a crawlway that 

slopes down to a to-tight-to-follow drain. The side 

passage then slopes up to the small third entrance. 

The main feature of the cave is the potholes dug 

by Indian artifact hunters. Along the south side of 

the tunnel in a table-like rock that has two deep 

circular holes. These holes were apparently from 

Indian grain-grinding. Just outside of the eastern 

entrance on the east face of a vertical slab is the 

inscription “A.C. Xmas 1832.” 

Arrowhead Arch. Photo by Dave Black. 


Reference: CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1986 

Natural Areas in Indiana, 1969, 

A.A.Lindsey, D.V.Schmelz, S.A.Nichols 

OVR Karst Encounters Guidebook, 1990, 

D.Black 

Arrowhead Arch (Hemlock Cliffs) 

By Dave Black 

Reference: CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1986 

Natural Areas in Indiana, 1969, 


Hidden Arch Cave (Hemlock Cliffs) 

This small cave is located in the Mesmore 

Cliffs Area, across the valley from Little 

Indian Cave, and 30 feet above a small spring. 

The majority of the cave is the Entrance 

By Jerry Litaker 

Room, which measures 75 feet long by 50 

feet across. The entrance is about 9 feet high 

and 55 feet wide, with a 30-foot overhang 

above it. Above the entrance is a long, arching 

305


306 

Indian Cave (Hemlock Cliffs) 

opening, which is only visible from inside the 

cave. The right or main passage, which is an 

upper crawlway above a canyon, goes about 60 

feet. The canyon is too narrow to enter. Brian 

Leavell and I surveyed the cave with a length 

of 137 feet. 

References: CIG Newsletter, June, 1994, 

Jerry Litaker 

EIG Newsletter, July, 1994, Jerry Litaker 

Hidden Arch Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

By Dave Black 

This cave is located 200 feet west of Little 

Indian Cave. It is a very large sandstone 

shelter. The entrance is 20 feet high by 60 

feet wide. The shelter extends over 125 feet 

before the passage becomes smaller. At this 

point, there is a too-tight-to-follow drain. To 

the right is a 20-foot-tall sand bank at the top 

a short segment of passage. This passage ends 

Chris Schotter in Indian Cave. 

Photo by Dave Black.

in 50 feet. This cave has pits and mounds from 

artifact hunters. 


Reference: Natural Areas in Indiana, 1969, 


Little Indian Cave (Hemlock Cliffs) 

This cave is located about 500 feet west 

of Arrowhead Arch and along the same 

sandstone bluff. The entrance is a 20-foot-high 

by 50-foot-wide sandstone shelter. Walking 

down a slope enters this shelter. At the rear of 

the 80-foot-long sandstone shelter there is a 

crawlway in sandstone. This crawlway is 270 

feet long with a series of tight squeezes. About 

halfway, this passage has down cut enough 

to have the floor developed in the underlying 

limestone. The passage eventually opens up to 

walking size. In 60 feet of walking it ends in 

breakdown. This passage ends about halfway 

through the narrow ridge and seems to be 

Chris Schotter at the entrance to Little Indian Cave. 


This cave is located in the next valley 

south of Treasure Cave. The 4-foot-tall 

by 8-foot-wide entrance is situated in a small 

sandstone bluff. Once inside the entrance it 

opens into a standing-height room formed 

in sandstone. The room is about 75 feet long. 

Pavey Cave (Hemlock Cliffs) 

By Dave Black 

related to a small spring at the base of one of 

the tall bluffs. 

Reference: Natural Areas in Indiana, 1969, 


By Dave Black 

In the rear of the room is a belly crawl, which 

in couple of body lengths ends at a very tight 

climbable pit formed in limestone. The floor of 

the main room has been worked over by Indian 

artifact hunters. The total length of the cave is 

115 feet. 

307


308 

Doug Hanka in Pavey Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

Sentinel Rock Cave (Hemlock Cliffs) 

This small cave is located in the Mesmore 

Cliffs Area, down the ridge from Hidden 

Arch Cave above the stream and a trail. 

Sentinel Rock Cave’s entrance is well 

hidden despite its size of 6 feet high by 50 feet 

wide. Like other caves in the valley, the entrance 

is in sandstone with the passages dipping into 

the limestone. 

Chris Schotter at the entrance to Sentinel Rock Cave 

By Jerry Litaker 

The two passages that lead off the entrance 

room make about a 200-foot circle and connect. 

There is a side passage that goes 100 feet located 

just inside the left-hand passage. There is actual 

walking-size passage, some hands-and-knees

crawling, and very little belly crawling. The 

small stream in the cave can not be followed 

because the passage becomes too small. The 

water should come out from the spring below 

nearby Hidden Arch Cave. 

Brian Leavell and I surveyed the cave at a 

Room Cave is between Pavey Cave and the area 

that contains Indian Cave, Arrowhead Arch, 

Arch Cave, and Sentinel Cave. Caver Eric Morris 

showed me the entrance to Room Cave on March 

23, 1998; locals he knew from Crawford County 

High School had shown him the cave previously. 

There are names and dates in the cave from around 

the early 1900s. The family name “Rhodes” is 

predominant in the cave, and I would have called 

this Rhodes Cave, except there is another one 

already in Indiana. Gary Roberson’s relatives may 

have also left their name here, as ROBERSON, is 

noted at one point, towards the back of the cave. 

(Gary’s dad was from English, Indiana) Although 

this cave has been known about for quite some 

time, it appears that the cave has not had much 

visitation of recent times. The entrance can be 

hard to find. There are fallen and damaged trees 

in the area from a late snowstorm a few years ago. 

Room Cave (Hemlock Cliffs) 

Chris Schotter in Room Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 


length of 342 feet. I believe that brings the total 

number of caves at the end of this valley to six. 

References: CIG Newsletter, July, 1994, 

Jerry Litaker; 

EIG Newsletter, July, 1994, Jerry Litaker 

By John Benton, NSS 10689 

And the entrance is in an actual sink, instead of 

in a bluff or cliff, as are most of the caves in the 

Hemlock Cliff area. 

The cave appears to be all in sandstone. On 

March 11, 2001, Dave Black, biologist Jerry 

Lewis, and I surveyed the cave. After entering 

the narrow, 5-foot-high entrance one can stand 

in a room, about 30 

feet wide by 82 feet 

long. The ceiling is 

about 12 to 15 feet 

high. There is some 

breakdown in the 

center of the room 

and a soft sandy floor 

has some organic 

debris present, 

washed in from 

outside by storms. 

There is a small 

hole along one side 

of the room where 

water sinks when 

it is running. This 

may lead to a lower 

309


level of limestone present in area caves such 

as Pavey and Sentinel Rock caves. The cave 

was known to American Indians as there are 

signs of potholes dug by someone (they do not 

appear to be recent) and at least one complete 

arrowhead has been found in the cave. One 

does not need a lot of extra cave gear for this 

This cave is located roughly halfway 

between Hemlock Falls and Hemlock 

Caverns. It is situated south, across the valley 

from the parking lot on the west side of a series 

of sandstone bluffs. The entrance is hidden by a 

large sandstone boulder. The entrance is 20 feet 

310 

Chris Schotter in Treasure Cave. 


Treasure Cave (Hemlock Cliffs) 

one, but I think it is one of the more interesting 

caves in Indiana. Not merely a shelter, as are a 

lot of sandstone caves, but a true cave room. 

In our survey visit in March we noticed a few 

solitary bats and at least 75 cave crickets. There 

are no formations except for a little flowstone 

at the back of the cave where water seeps in. 

By Dave Black. 

wide by 7 feet high and slopes down to a small 

room. In this room “treasure 30 feet” is written 

on the ceiling. It points to a small, body-size 

crawlway. This crawlway loops around and 

joins back to this room. The cave is formed in 

sandstone. 

Above Slippery Hill in Wyandotte Cave. Photo by George Jackson.

Not to be confused with Harrison County’s 

Jug Hole, (Little) Jug Hole is located a 

few hundred feet away from the entrance of 

Wyandotte Cave. The entrance is a small hole 

on the hillside and may be difficult to find. A 

Dave Stahl descending Little Jug Hole. 

Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

This is an interesting little cave in the 

Harrison Crawford State Forest which 

was developed in the Beech Creek Limestone, 

an upper level limestone strata. The cave is 

located near the top of a spur off Wyandotte 

Ridge. The walk to the cave is 3,000 feet long 

with a 50-foot loss in elevation. The walk is 

(Little) Jug Hole 

Little Wildcat Cave 


By Aaron Atz 

100-foot rope should be enough for rigging. 

From the entrance the rappel is broken up by 

short climbs and slopes to the ledge of the 

pit. From the ledge it is about a 20-foot wall 

drop over a flowstone formation. The cave 

is essentially a 40-foot-tall room with a large 

flowstone drapery hanging from the ceiling. 

The drain in the floor reportably moves air and 

should be rechecked. 

By Dave Black 

cross country and one must walk the top of the 

ridge keeping a large ravine on your left. The five 

entrances are on a steep, wooded hillside. The 

main entrance is directly above a small spring. 

The stream flows through the entire length of 

the cave. The water from the spring sinks in a 

short distance and is assumed to come out at 

311


Sharpe Spring. Immediately inside the 3-foothigh 

by 6-foot-wide entrance is a maze of tight, 

joint-controlled passages. The passages in this 

maze intersect the hillside in several places to 

form many smaller entrances. At the rear of the 

maze section is a 600-foot-long stream passage. 

This passage alternates between a crawlway 

and a walkway. In about 100 feet there are 

some animal wallows, which are assumed to be 

bear. The passage ends in mud and breakdown 

Regular tours of the commercial sections of 

Marengo Cave will be available to convention 

goers bearing convention badges for one-half the 

posted (standard) rate during the convention. 

These trips are guided and regular tourists will 

also be on these trips. Remember that this is 

peak season for tourists at the caves. And please 

remember that you represent the NSS when you 

visit show caves in the area. 

While in the area for convention be sure to 

312 

Marengo Cave 

fill, with the stream entering by way of a tootight-to-follow 

joint. This point is very near 

the surface on the opposite (north) side of the 

narrow, ridge spur. 

References: BIG, 15#1, 8/80, D.Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebooks: 1984, 1986 

MVOR Guidebook, 1987 

BIG, 3#1, 7/60 

Joe Monks in Little Wildcat Cave. 


By Aaron Atz 

visit Marengo Cave. It’s only 3 miles from the 

convention site. If any cave in Indiana has a true 

large borehole passage; it’s Marengo. However, 

Marengo is best known for the beauty of its 

formation areas, for they were beautiful enough 

to inspire Congress to name Marengo Cave a 

National Natural Landmark in 1984. 

See the article “Indiana’s Showcaves” for a 

broader description of Marengo Cave.

The Old Town Spring Entrance to Marengo 

Cave is owned and controlled by Marengo 

Cave. It will be available at no charge for visits 

during normal business hours during the 

Convention. The cave is gated and locked so 

we will make provisions to have a combination 

lock on the gate with the combination available 

to NSS cavers. For more details check with the 

caving kiosk. 

Clean up facilities at Marengo Cave can be 

used after the trip. There is very limited parking 

at the cave and cavers can park in the LOWER 

parking lot at Marengo Cave to go to Old Town 

Spring. Cavers should check in at the Marengo 

Gift Shop when they arrive at the Cave. 

History 

Among the halfdozen 

early names for 

the town of Marengo 

were “Springtown” 

and “Big Spring.” 

Long before the 

railroad came to 

this sleepy Indiana 

town in the 1880s, 

the first settlers were 

attracted by the three 

large springs. We now 

know that the springs 

drain various sections 

of the Marengo Cave 

System. 

The spring farthest 

to the east is known 

as Ross Spring. It was 

named for J. Ed Ross, 

a school teacher who 

lived in the brick 

home in front of the 

spring. The home has 

been restored and still 

guards the old spring 

house. Ross Spring is 

Old Town Spring Cave 


By Gordon Smith 

the smallest of the three springs and it has not 

been physically connected into Marengo Cave 

although it drains the eastern section of the 

cave. 

The middle spring, known as Stewart 

Spring, is the largest of the three and was used 

up until recent years as the water supply for 

the entire town. The spring entrance is part of 

Marengo Cave Park and is easily found at the 

far end of the campground along Whiskey 

Run. Although no one has ever penetrated the 

small constricted openings that the make up 

the mouth of the spring, it almost immediately 

opens into the large passage draining the main 

portion of the cave. 

Figure 1. Marion Fidlar map, 1934 

313


The third spring is called Old Town Spring 

and this spring has a large opening which is 

easily entered. The name “Old Town” comes 

from the original location of the town (around 

the springs) as compared to the “New Town” 

area near the railroad. The cave is owned by 

Marengo Cave and is used for youth group 

educational cave tours. 

The owners of Marengo cave gated the cave 

immediately after they purchased it to eliminate 

spray painting, beer cans, and other vandalism. 

After a good cleaning the cave was restored to 

its “original” condition and presents a pristine 

look for a well-used cave. 

314 

Figure 2. Komisarcik Map, 1980 

Geologically speaking, Old Town Spring 

is the most recent of the three springs. Water 

draining from the north along the Valeene 

Road formerly entered Marengo Cave by what 

is now known as the Bears Tooth passage. 

As the valley deepened, this flow, along with 

surface drainage, was pirated by the cave. In 

1994, Old Town Spring Cave was physically 

connected to Marengo Cave by Chris Schotter, 

Aaron Green, and Frank Lamm. 

The cave was originally surveyed by Marion 

M. Fidlar of Indiana University assisted by 

William P. Von Osinski and the map along 

with a description of the cave was published 

under the title “Some 

Features of a Small 

Cavern at Marengo, 

Crawford County, 

Indiana,” in the 

Indiana Academy of 

Science Proceedings, 

Volume 44, 1935, 

pages 150–160 

(Figure 1). A more 

recent map was made 

of the cave in 1980 by 

G. Conner, J. Forbes, 

K. Komisarcik, and 

M. Wright. 

Cave Description 

The Cave has 

a large, obvious 

entrance just off 

the start of the 

Valeene Road in the 

“Old Town” area of 

Marengo. A small 

stream flows out of the 

entrance at all times 

and during floods the 

entrance fills with 

water and the water 

flows out reaching a 

depth of over 2 feet 

on the road in front 

of the cave. 

The gate was

placed about 150 feet inside the entrance so 

that the aesthetics of the entrance area remain 

as they originally looked. After the gate, a short 

stoopway in water leads to a breakdown room 

on the right-hand side of the passage. This is 

the only breakdown encountered in the front 

section of the cave. There are several crawlways 

off of this room including one that doubles 

back and connects with the entrance passage 

near the gate. The far left crawlway leads to a 

fixed ladder that goes back down into the main 

stream passage. 

Upstream from the ladder the stream 

passage continues 10 to 15 feet wide by 10 to 

20 feet high for approximately 1,600 feet. This 

is a classic Indiana stream passage with some 

Figure 3. Old Town Spring Cave entrance about 1900. From a postcard in the 

National Cave Museum, Diamond Caverns, Park City, Kentucky. 

The entrance to this cave is located on a 

heavily-wooded hillside just downhill 

from a hiking trail. To enter the cave one must 

climb down a body-sized 11-foot pit. This pit 

was originally dug open by Tom Fritsch, John 

Danovich, and Dave Black in 1979. At the base 

of this pit is a small room 7 feet wide and 15 

feet long with a 3-foot-high ceiling. On the far 

side is a 13-foot climbable pit that leads to a 

Paradise Lost Cavern 


small formations high on ledges and smooth, 

clean, white limestone walls. The clear stream 

averages 1 to 2 feet deep in this section. At 

the end of this section is the Frozen Niagara 

formation on the right side of the passage. 

Shortly beyond this point is a small, wet crawl 

at floor level on the right side of the passage. 

A strong wind indicates passage beyond and 

this crawlway eventually leads through several 

semi-sumps and very tight squeezes to the main 

stream passage in Marengo Cave. 

At this point the cave changes dramatically. 

The main passage lowers to 4 to 5 feet with a 

large, long gravel bar damming up the stream. 

Beyond the gravel bar the water gets deeper 

with several spots over 6 feet deep. The deep 

water area extends 

about 1,200 feet and 

a wet suit and/or 

flotation device is 

a good idea, if not 

required. The water 

level eventually drops 

and several small 

crawlways lead off to 

the left. Surface debris 

is evident in the crawls 

and broken glass and 

rusted cans make 

travel particularly 

hazardous. The main 

passage quickly ends 

in breakdown at this 

point. 

By Dave Black 

narrow crack. Squeezing down this crack leads 

to a narrow canyon that quickly turns into a 

belly crawl. This crawlway was originally dug 

open when the cave was discovered. After 10 

feet the crawl opens into the top of a 22-foot 

pit. Do not attempt to free-climb this pit. Rig 

it with at least a 60-foot rope for rappel. 

At the base of this pit is a small room with 

two passages. One is a 16-foot climbable pit; 

315


the other is a 5-foot-wide, 2-foot-high muddy 

crawlway. Both ways lead to the large room. 

Most people do the crawl, which is only 15 feet 

long and opens into the Junction Room. In this 

room there is a 20-foot climbable blind pit. To 

the left is a canyon passage that turns into a duck 

walk after 100 feet. In another 50 feet there is 

a hole along the left wall that drops 5 feet into 

the large room. The passage continues past this 

hole for another 250 feet, most of which is a 

crawlway. It finally ends in a mud fill with some 

small tree roots and earthworms. 

The large room is 300 feet long, 60 feet wide, 

and 15 feet high—big by Indiana standards. 

In the middle of the room there is a large 

breakdown mountain on top of which is a row 

of stalagmites. On the west side of the room 

is a 75-foot-high dome. A small stream exits 

from the top of this dome and sinks into the 

breakdown floor of the room. In the northeast 

corner of the room there is a small, well- 

316 

Al Clemons at the second pit, a 15-foot climb-down. 

Photo by Dave Everton.

decorated grotto. In 

the south end of 

the room there is a 

belly crawl. It was 

dug open in 1981. 

The crawl is about 

20 feet long, ending 

when it intersects a 

large trunk passage. 

This passage is 20 

feet wide by 8 feet 

high. It ends 225 feet 

away in breakdown. 

A breakdown 

crawl continues for 

another 200 feet 

before ending. In the 

southeast corner of the 

main chamber there 

Sean Ellis climbing the second pit. 



Sean Ellis in the Large Room. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

is a passage formed between the breakdown 

mountain and the bedrock wall. This leads 

to a 12-foot climb-up into another passage 

consisting of a 30-foot crawl into a small room. 

Off this room are two leads. The one to the left 

ends in a 10-foot by 20-foot dome. The other is 

a narrow crack that leads, by way of a 23-foot 

climb-up, back to the bottom of the 16-foot 

pit below the 22-foot pit near the entrance. 

In the Junction Room to the right is a 

walking passage that leads past a small dome 

to a flowstone-filled canyon. A person can 

chimney up this canyon for 15 feet to the top 

and crawl 40 feet to a 17-foot rope drop. This 

drop is very sporting. One must rig the rope 

from a mud bridge at the beginning of the crawl 

and drag the rope and vertical gear through the 

body-sized crawl. Then one must try to get on 

rope while going out of the crawlway head first. 

At the bottom of this drop is a small room with 

two leads behind a flowstone curtain. The lead 

to the left ends in a narrow canyon. The other 

passage to the right is a narrow crawl. Along 

the wall in one area are a few pretty heligmites. 

This passage becomes too low in 50 feet. 

Reference: CIG Cave Capers 1986 


317


The entrance to this cave is a small hole 

2 feet in diameter at the base of an oak tree 

in the dry, rock floored gully. This hole is a 

14-foot free climb to a small room. In the 

northeast end of this room a small steam 

enters and flows along the wall a short 

distance before dropping into another room 

31 feet lower. 

In the south end of the room are two 

small holes. In one hole the steam enters 

and the other a caver can enter. To reach 

the floor a rope or cable ladder must be 

used. It is a free drop and after 5 feet the 

two holes merge and the caver on rope must 

get slightly damp. At the bottom is a room 

nearly filled with large breakdown and mud. 

Two passages lead off this chamber. The one 

318 

Bill Baus ascends Red Oak Hole. 


Red Oak Hole 

By Dave Black 

to the right, a narrow crack, leads to a small 

dome and the lowest point in the cave. The 

other passage only doubles back on the room. 

The reason for all the mud in the room is 

that a sinkhole 30 feet south of the entrance 

has recently opened up and debris is being 

washed in. The water in the cave could be 

the same water that is found in Siberts Well 

and should emerge as a spring along Blue 

River a mile away.

Robinson Ladder Cave is an Indiana Karst 

Conservancy property and is also an 

Indiana bat hibernaculum. A liability release 

form must be signed before visiting Robinson 

Ladder Cave. one may be picked up at the 

convention caving kiosk. 

Robinson Ladder Cave is located in the 

bottom of a small sinkhole on a wooded hillside 

between the lower clearing and the upper 

clearing. The entrance is a 13-foot climbable 

pit. A handline is recommended to assist in 

the descent to the entrance room. There are a 

couple of nice stalagmites in this room. The 

passage off the entrance room is reached by 

climbing up a flowstone wall for 15 feet. This 

is the main passage in the cave. It starts out as 

an easy hands-and-knees crawl then enlarges 

Robinson Ladder Cave 


By Dave Black 

shortly to walking size. In 500 feet a pit-dome 

complex can be entered by way of two pits along 

the left wall. The pits can all be free-climbed 

or bypassed except for the 44-foot pit. The 

entrance to this pit is very tight. The bottom is 

reported to have a 20-foot climb-down into a 

canyon that is too tight to follow. 

The main level continues past the dome-pit 

complex by way of a hole in the breakdown. 

The passage continues as walking and crawling 

for 600 feet until a terminal breakdown room 

is reached. In this room is an inscription of the 

first explorers: “S.W. Miller, Feb. 5, 1882, We 

stoped”[sic]. Presently, this is still the end of 

the cave. 

The cave is noted for its history, which is 

evidenced by numerous old signatures and 

319


320 

Dave Stahl near the climb-up in Robinson Ladder Cave just beyond the entrance. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Aaron Atz’ grandfather’s signature in Robinson Ladder Cave.

dates. Also, except for the entrance area and the 

dome-pit complex, the whole cave is dusty dry. 

Dave Stahl in Robinson Ladder Cave. Notice the bats in flight. 


The entrance to this cave is located just 

35 feet north of a gravel road. There is 

a path leading to the entrance. This path is 

from people dumping trash into the entrance 

pit. The entrance is a 3-foot by 11-foot slot. A 

100-foot rope is needed to rig the 50-foot pit. 

There is a ledge 8 feet down, from there it is 

a free rappel into a 10-foot-wide by 22-footlong 

room. A waterfall enters the far side of 

this room and sinks in the breakdown floor. 

This stream is seen again lower in the cave. 

The cave continues by way of a narrow, steep, 

downward sloping passage. In 10 feet it ends at 

a 21-foot climb-down. At the bottom, there is 

a small room and a small adjacent dome. Prior 

to the climb-down there is a hole on the right 

which opens into another small room. At the 

rear of this room there is a 25-foot climb-down 

to a crawlway. At the rear of this 20-foot-long 

crawlway the stream from the entrance pit 

reenters the cave. The stream falls down a 10foot 

pit and exits the cave by way of a too-tight- 

Rothrock Pit 


In places there is a gypsum crust on the walls and 

if conditions are correct there might be some 

seasonal Angel Hair 

growing. Care should 

be taken to ensure that 

one stays in the well 

worn paths, this will 

give the Angel Hair 

a chance to continue 

growing. 

Reference: OVR 

Karst Encounters 

Guidebook, 1990, 

D.Black 

BIG Newsletter 14#4, 

8/79, D.Black 

IUS Caving Club 

Newsletter #4, 7/75, 

P.Crecelius 

By Dave Black 

Dave Stahl ascending Rothrock Pit. 


321


to-follow canyon. A 30-foot rope is needed to 

descend this 10-foot pit. 

322 

Reference: BIG, 14#1, 11/78, D.Black 


MVOR Guidebook, 1987

Saltpeter Cave 


Saltpeter Cave is a short but interesting cave. 

It is suitable for beginners and properly 

equipped children of most ages. The cave is 

a short, 10-minute hike from the Wyandotte 

Cave parking lot. The nearly walk-in entrance 

is found along a usually-dry ravine. 

The cave is essentially one large room with 

maximum dimensions of 80 feet wide, by 200 

feet long, by 25 feet high. Large breakdown 

blocks on the floor add a little challenge to 

navigating the room. Toward the rear of the 

cave on the right is a dome complex which is 

worth exploring. There are a few formations 

in this area. Opposite this dome area, to the 

left or rear of the big room is a lower area 

that was likely mined for saltpeter in the 

late 1800s. There is also a more modern dug 

crawlway which extends for over 100 feet 

in an attempt to find more Wyandotte-like 

borehole passage. 

Beside the impressive room size, this cave 

is important as a hibernacula for the Indiana 

bat, with recent counts approaching 1,000 

bats. The downward sloping entrance profile, 

along with a small 

secondary entrance 

in the top of the dome 

complex, allows the 

cave to cool to 40 to 

45 degrees Fahrenheit 

during the winter, 

ideal for the bats. For 

this reason, the cave is 

posted as being closed 

from September 1 

until May 1st. 

The cave is a nice 

place to spend an 

hour or so during the 

heat of the day if you 

don’t feel like doing 

something more 

Bill Baus in Saltpeter Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

ambitious. 

323


Editor’s note: Be careful with the ferns that 

encircle 

T 

the entrance. 

he entrance is located on the ridge west of 

Dry Run just 150 feet south of Interstate 

64. The cave was discovered In the 1960s by 

Leo Schotter who fully explored it and did 

some digging to enlarge a few passages. 

The first 20 feet of the entrance pit is 

developed in sandstone. This 25-foot pit 

opens into a nice size room 30 feet by 15 feet 

with large blocks of breakdown on the far side. 

Along this breakdown is a 9-foot climbdown 

which leads to a series of small domed pits 

descending to a 10-foot-diameter dome. A 

crawlway in mud leads to a larger dome. A 

Kevin Eve in the entrance room of Schotter Pit Cave. 


324 

Schotter Pit Cave 

waterfall from this dome forms a small stream 

which leaves by way of a walking-size passage. 

This passage is developed In a shale bed. A few 

feet past the dome is a 5-foot waterfall where 

the stream cuts through the shale and into the 

underlying limestone. The passage enlarges 

until another dome is encountered. This is the 

largest dome in the cave. Three leads off this 

room can be found. On the far side is a very 

small passage from which the water leaves the 

cave. It is the best lead in the cave but would 

require a lot of work. Above is a high lead 

which quickly ends.

This cave is located along the base of the 

ridge below Wyandotte Cave within the 

Harrison Crawford State Forest. To reach the 

cave it is a 1,250-foot walk along an old logging 

road. The entrance is situated only a few feet 

east (uphill) from this logging road and can 

easily be seen from the logging road. 

Siberts Well Cave 


The entrance to this cave is a 3-footdiameter, 

6-foot-deep, hand dug well with 

hand placed limestone slabs for walls. The 

well intersects the west side of a stream 

passage. At the turn of the century, the 

water from the cave was used by the Sibert 

family. Blind fish were reported in this cave 

by Blatchley in 1897, 

but none have been 

reported in the cave 

during this century. 

The upstream 

passage is walking 

size for 100 feet. 

At this point the 

stream emerges from 

under the right wall. 

Downstream, one 

can avoid getting wet 

by taking crawlways 

above the stream 

for nearly 200 feet. 

The stream then 

disappears through 

a narrow crack. The 

passage continues 

off the map by way 

of a crawlway on 

the right. In a short 

distance the stream 

is again encountered, 

here the passage is 

8 feet wide with a 

bedrock floor, but is 

too low to continue. 

A rock hammer 

would be helpful for 

further exploration. 

The stream should 

emerge a thousand 

feet away as a spring 

along the Blue 


325


Reference: CIG Cave 

Capers Guidebook, 

1990 

BIG, 15#3, Aug. 

1980, D.Black 

BIG, 3#1, July, 

1960 

Caves of Indiana, 

1967, R.L.Powell 

CIG Cave Capers 

Guidebook, 1986 

326 

Aaron Atz in the entrance of Siberts Well Cave. 

Photo by Todd Webb. 

Texas Creek Cave 

During convention week cavers may access 

Texas Creek Cave and Warm December 

By Aaron Atz 

The entrance is about three quarters of a mile 

north of the house at the dead end driveway. 

Cave by parking on private property near the One can hike along the dry streambed or 

caves. After the convention please contact the opt to take the logging road that passes by the 

owners in advance before entering the area. cave. Texas Creek Cave is located on the east side 

Park beside the 

shed at the end of the 

lane. Do not cross the 

creek and drive into 

the field. 

Sisters Patsy 

Johnson and Stacey 

Johnson oversee the 

private property that 

must be crossed to 

access state land in this 

valley. They want this 

unique property to be 

enjoyed by others as 

Norman and Marcella 

Beals always did before 

Norman passed away. 

Texas Creek Cave 

consists of a small 

walking stream canyon 

about 400 feet long. 

John Benton in Texas Creek Cave. Photo by Dave Black.

of Texas Creek and is 

about half a mile north 

of Warm December 

Cave. 

From the entrance 

one has about 25 feet 

of crawling before 

the canyon achieves 

walking height. This 

nice stream passage 

stays about 6 feet tall 

for about 400 feet 

where it terminates 

at a 12-foot-tall 

waterfall near a 

historic signature area. 

There is a tight canyon 

passage at the top of 

the waterfall that may 

be pushable. 

In the 1980s the 

cave’s upper canyon 

was first entered and 

many bones were 

noted in the area. 

Entry to the upper 

canyon can be made 

midway down the 

walking stream canyon 

via a tight upward 

canyon squeeze. 

A visit to Texas 

Creek Cave and 

nearby Warm 

December Cave 

can make for a very 

enjoyable afternoon 

of easy caving and 

hiking in the woods. 

During convention week cavers may access 

Texas Creek Cave and Warm December 

Cave by parking on private property near the 

caves. After the convention please contact them 

Warm December Cave 


By Aaron Atz 

in advance before entering the area. 

Park beside the shed at the end of the lane. 

Do not cross the creek and drive into the field. 

Sisters Patsy Johnson and Stacey Johnson 

327


oversee the private 

property that must 

be crossed to access 

state land in this 

valley. They want this 

unique property to 

be enjoyed by others 

as Norman and 

Marcella Beals always 

did before Norman 

passed away. 

Warm December 

Cave is located about 

half a mile south of 

Texas Creek Cave. 

From the logging 

road take the faint 

trail uphill passing 

small mossy and 

rocky sinks. The entrance is located in a small 

sink about one third to one half of the way up 

the hill. 

The entrance is a 10-foot free-climbable pit 

but some may find it easier to rig a handline. 

A come-along was needed to remove a rock 

blocking an easy squeeze off the base of the pit. 

Once through this squeeze you are in the main 

part of the cave. To the right the cave quickly 

ends in a wall of cobbles and breakdown. To 

the left is a climb-down to a very short walking 

canyon. At your feet is a small stream passage. 

To proceed downstream you may opt to do the 

tight squeeze to a terminus where one may dig 

to continue. Upstream is too tight to follow. 

This cave is located in the Harrison Crawford 

State Forest on the ridge to the northwest 

of Wyandotte Cave. It is a 7,500-foot walk from 

Wyandotte Lake, past Sharpe Spring, to reach 

the entrance. Most of this walk is along the level 

valley floor. The last 250 feet involves going up 

a steep ridge, gaining 60 feet in elevation. The 

entrance is located in a large collapsed sinkhole. 

A limestone bluff forms the uphill side of this 

328 

Bill Baus crawling in Warm December Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Wildcat Cave 

At the end of the short walking canyon 

one can climb higher up into a short but mazy 

canyon complex. There are two ways to go— 

right and left. Both quickly end but the tighter 

right canyon wasn’t pushed all the way. 

Warm December Cave was discovered by 

Aaron Atz and Eric Morris on a 70-degree 

December day in 1996. The first entry trip 

with done by Aaron Atz and Aaron Green. 

The temperature had dropped by about 50 

degrees and the cave was blowing an impressive 

10-foot-tall steam column. The source of the 

airflow was not determined but it is assumed 

the air may have been circulating from the sinks 

by the trail lower on the hillside.. 

By Dave Black 

sinkhole. The crawlway entrance is located at 

the base of this bluff. The crawlway is 25 feet 

long and ends at a short climb-down through 

breakdown onto the top of a steep talus slope. 

This slope fills the large room. Partway down it 

is some vandalized flowstone. At the bottom of 

the slope is a second room. This room is 60 feet 

long and 20 feet wide with a sandy floor. Along 

the right wall of this room is a rise pool. It is

water is from B-B Hole, a nearby river cave that 

is presently closed by a gate (see page 294). The 

water from B-B Hole was dye-traced to Sharpe 

Spring, which is the spring forming the stream 

that enters Wyandotte Lake. The water leaves 

the cave by sinking into the massive breakdown 

in the first room. There is a dig through this 

breakdown that unsuccessfully attempted to 

follow the stream. 

A sizable number of Myotis sodalis (Indiana 

bats) use this cave as a hibernaculum. The cave 

should be avoided from September 1st to April 

1st because of this. 

Reference: BIG, 15#3, 8/80, D.Black 


BIG Harrison Crawford State Forest Guide, 

1963 

BIG, 3#1, 7/60 

Caves of Indiana, 1967, R.L.Powell 

IKC UPDATE #23, 12/91, K.Dunlap 

Ted Wilson in Wildcat Cave. 



Joe Monks in Wildcat Cave. 


329


Regular tours of 

the commercial 

sections of 


will be available to 

convention attendees 

bearing convention 

badges during the 

convention for 

one-half the posted 

(standard) rate. These 

trips are guided and 

regular tourists will 

also be on these trips. 

Remember that this 

is peak season for 

tourists at the caves. 

And please remember 

that you represent 

the NSS when you 

330 

The Old Route. Photo by George Jackson. 



Sam Frushour at Beautys Bower signature plaque area. 


visit show caves in the area. 

See “Indiana’s Show Caves,” Angelo 

George’s “A Historical Narrative of Wyandotte 

Cave,” and Sam Frushour’s “The Geology of 

Wyandotte Cave” for more information. A 

map of Wyandotte Cave is included in the map 

package. 

George Jackson checks his gear at the Wyandotte 

Gate in the good old days. 


Harrison County Caves 

1915 Cave was discovered in 2000 by 

members of the ISS while ridgewalking in 

the Harrison County State Forest. The entrance 

is a small hole on top of a ridge overlooking Blue 

River. From the entrance there are two climbdowns 

of 5 and 9 feet, respectively. The climb- 

This cave is located in one of the wooded 

fingers of Baker Hollow, a dry, elevated 

valley. The entrance is in the bottom of a valley 

floor sinkhole a few feet west and a few feet 

lower than the nearby stream bed. During 

heavy rainfall, the stream overflows its banks 

and enters the entrance of the cave. During 

1915 Cave 

Baker Hollow Cave 

By Aaron Atz 

downs lead to a narrow 15-foot-tall canyon 

room that ends where the passage narrows and 

becomes choked with formations. There is a 

signature from 1915: “CK April 13th, 1915.” 

Dave Stahl in 1915 Cave. 


By Dave Black 

normal rainfall, the stream will sink in the 

stream bed and enter the cave by way of a side 

passage. Either way, the cave floods with only a 

moderate amount of rainfall. 

The entrance is a narrow canyon that slopes 

down into a junction area. The main way is to 

the left. It is an easy walking passage that ends 

331


To the right of the 

entrance junction is a 

room. This room has 

large flowstone along 

the left wall. A muddy 

upper level continues 

off the room for 100 

feet before becoming 

totally 

mud. 

filled with 

The drain off this 

room leads to a lower 

room and a yearround 

stream. The 

Terry Clark in Baker Hollow Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

stream leaves the cave 

by way of a narrow, 

chert-lined crack that 

is too tight to follow. 

The up stream leads, 

in 500 feet at a flowstone mass. There are two in a short distance, to a small dome. At the top 

small in-feeding passages in this section of the of this 15-foot-high dome the stream passage 

cave that bring in water from the stream bed. continues for over 200 feet upstream as a 

332

meandering, narrow canyon. This passage was 

not mapped. 

Reference: OVR Karst Encounters Guidebook: 

1990,1991 D.Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook: 1984, 1990 

This cave is on public property. The old cave 

is a normal horizontal cave. The new cave 

is very tight and has three pits requiring vertical 

gear and 100-foot, 80-foot, and 60-foot ropes. 

The dig section has loose rocks and is subject 

to cave-ins. 

BBUB, short for “Bats Brought Us Back,” 

was discovered in 1982 as a result of digging in 

a breakdown-choked sinkhole that was blowing 

a plume of steam in the cold winter weather. 

After six digging trips the sink had been cleared 

to a depth of 6 feet with no cave in sight. At 

the point of calling off further digging, a bat 

emerged from the breakdown—the dig was on 

and the cave had found a name! The entrance is 

an enlarged crawlway for about 10 feet followed 

by a 7-foot drop into the cave passage. 

The cave is developed along bedding planes 

with minimal joint control. The passage is 

primarily crawlway, averaging 4 to 8 feet wide 

BBUB 


MVOR Guidebook, 1987 

ISS Newsletter 1#1, 8/77 

BIG Guide to the Caverns of Harrison- 

Crawford., 1963, R.Powell 

OVR Karst Encounters Guidebook, 1989 

By Noel Sloan 

and 2 to 3 feet high. It appears to be developed in 

the Paoli and upper Ste. Genevieve limestones. 

Numerous chert nodules are evident in the 

upper levels. The cave has developed along two 

levels, a dry upper level with a sandy breakdown 

floor and an active, intermittently-wet lower 

level with either a cobblestone or clay floor. An 

active stream can be seen at several points in 

the lower level. 

The lowest point in the cave is at the bottom 

of a dome-pit about 50 feet inside the cave. Past 

this dome, the cave continues as a friendly crawl 

at about 30 feet below the entrance for some 

450 feet until one encounters a small 4-foot 

climb-down. At this junction, one can continue 

in five directions either upper level upstream or 

downstream or lower level upstream or one of 

two downstream passages. A register has been 

placed at this junction. 

The upper level upstream cave continues as a 

333


dry hands-and-knees 

crawl for about 300 

feet at which point 

it abruptly widens 

to 30 feet. However, 

the ceiling drops to 1 

foot or less. One can 

continue by following 

a partially enlarged trail 

over a series of rimstone 

dams. The right side 

of the passage is silted 

to less than 6 inches 

of air space. After an 

additional 100 feet a 

series of rimstone pools 

is encountered. For the 

sake of conservation, 

this should be 

considered as the end of the cave. Past the pools 

is an additional 75 feet of clay-filled, body-sized 

passage narrowing to 4 inches of air space with no 

noticeable air movement. Due to the fragile and 

irreplaceable nature of these rimstone pools only 

one survey–exploration trip by a single individual 

was made over the pools. Fortunately the cave 

ends shortly after, hopefully this will encourage 

their preservation. 

Continuing downstream on the upper 

level, the cave continues for 300 feet until a 

junction is reached. A 4-foot climb-down 

again puts one in the lower level. The lower 

level extends in three directions from here, 

two of which connect back at the previously 

This pit is located in the state forest to the west 

of Indian Creek. The entrance is in a shallow 

sinkhole about 30 feet west of a logging trail. In 

1978 the 88-foot-deep entrance pit was enlarged 

enough to allow entry between the bedrock wall 

and a boulder. The first 8 feet is through a narrow 

canyon. It then enlarges to allow a free rappel 

into a nice-sized dome. When the pit was first 

dug open by Tom Fritsch, Garre Conner, and a 

group from the Windy City Grotto, a complete 

334 

Danny Dible at the top of Right Pit. Photo by Dave Black. 

Bear Plunge 

mentioned 5-way junction. Continuing in 

the third passage one reaches the furthest 

downstream portion of the cave. This ends in 

a stream passage with about 4 to 6 inches of 

air space. Surprisingly, this point lies some 60 

feet east of the dome-pit at the cave entrance, 

and at the same depth. The cave was extended 

downstream by Danny Dible in the fall of 1990. 

The length of the cave was doubled to 2,114 

feet and the vertical extent went over 100 feet. 

All in all, BBUB is a geologically interesting 

cave; and, if you like crawling, it is a fun cave, 

Reference: 1992 NSS Convention Guidebook. 

By Dave Black 

bear skeleton was discovered. The skeleton has 

been excavated and is now on exhibit at the 

Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. There 

are two leads off the entrance pit. The first is a 

15-foot climb-up to an adjacent dome-pit. This 

lead can be free climbed, but a short rope is 

handy for getting back down. The other lead is 

a blind alcove over 50 feet off the floor of the 

pit. This alcove could possibly be is reached by 

using the permanently rigged rope. This rope

was rigged in 1979 by Tom Fritsch and a group 

from Windy City Grotto, who were searching 

for the way the bear had entered the cave. The 

rope is presently incrusted with flowstone, and 

should not be trusted. 

A 120-foot rope is required for the entrance 


pit. Care should be taken at the entrance, 

because it is very tight and rocks can easily be 

knocked down when squeezing through the 

tight spot. Also, a 60-foot rope is needed for 

the adjacent dome-pit. 

Reference: HCG Hog-Fest Guidebook: 

1990, 1991, D.Black 


D.Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook: 1981, 1984, 

1990 

BIG Newsletter, 2/86, G.Conner 

Big Mouth and Little Mouth Caves 

These two caves are located about 1,400 

feet down river (northwest) from Tobacco 

Landing in limestone bluffs along the Ohio 

River. The cave is owned by the Chester Stem 

Company, a verneer manufacturer. Occassionaly, 

the forest above the cave is selectively logged. 

Brian Killingbeck climbing Bear Plunge. 


By Dave Black 

Also, there are natural gas wells that are near 

the cave. These wells are part of the Doe Run 

Gas Storage Field, where natural gas is pumped 

into a deep limestone formation during the 

summer and pumped back out during the winter 

months. 

335


The passage leading 

off the entrance is 

the same size as the 

entrance and in 30 feet 

opens to form a 50foot-diameter 

room 

with a ceiling height 

of 25 feet. Along the 

right wall of the room 

is a breakdown pile 

and at the top of the 

pile is a ledge that 

contains a woodland 

rat (packrat) nest. 

The woodland rat 

is classified as a 

threatened species in 

Holly Cook in Big Mouth Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

Indiana, the northern 

limits of its range. 

Before the turn of the century, when Another name for this cave is Rat Cave. 

Indiana was still a 

western frontier, 

Tobacco Landing was 

a major river port 

for Corydon. An old 

wagon path can still 

be followed from the 

landing along the 

upper river bank to the 

entrance of Big Mouth 

Cave. The sediment 

in the cave was also 

reportedly mined for 

saltpeter. 

The entrance to Big 

Mouth Cave is located 

about 50 feet above 

Big Mouth Spring 

Cave, a wet stream 

cave, and 90 feet above 

the Ohio River. The 

25-foot-high by 30foot-wide 

entrance is 

a picturesque entrance 

overlooking the Ohio 

River and the farm 

fields of Kentucky. 

336

Jamie Winner at Big Mouth Spring Cave. 

Photo by Brandon Stephens 

To reach Little Mouth Cave walk 50 feet 

west from the mouth of Big Mouth Cave and 

then walk up the steep dirt and rock slope. The 

entrance is near the top of the hill and will be on 

the right. The entrance 

is about 125 feet above 

Big Mouth Cave and 

15 feet below the top 

of the hill. A nice 

sitting rock is at the 

entrance along with 

some in-place, openair 

stalagmites. The 

trail continues to the 

right of the entrance to 

the top of the hill and 

can be followed back 

to Tobacco Landing. 

From the entrance 

the floor slopes down 

and there is some 


dried flowstone with packrat dung on the left. 

In about 30 feet one must crawl in a 3-foot-high 

by 2-foot-wide passage. Above this crawl is a 

packrat nest. The passage opens back to walking 

size in about 25 feet. The walkway continues for 

about 150 feet before ending. This section of 

the cave has numerous broken-off formations, 

and would have been a beautiful cave at one 

time. In two places one must crawl a very short 

distance because flowstone has nearly filled the 

passage. At the end of the walking passage there 

is a crawlway off the left-hand wall. It is a belly 

crawl and ends in 30 feet at the top of a 28-foot 

pit. A 60-foot rope is required for descending 

the pit. The rope can be rigged to a couple of 

flowstone columns in the crawlway. The top of 

the pit is tight and awkward. The walls of the pit 

are decorated with dripstone. 

Only normal caving gear or less is needed to 

see either one of these two caves. The entrance to 

Big Mouth Cave can be seen from the far end of 

the cave, hence only a flashlight is needed. Little 

Mouth Cave requires normal gear and knee pads 

would help in the flowstone crawls. If you must 

do the pretty pit a 60-foot rope and vertical gear 

would be needed. The entrance to Big Mouth 

Cave is a great place to cool off and have a picnic. 

Reference: BIG Newsletter 15#3, 5/80, K. 

Komisarcik 

A packrat in Little Mouth Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

337


Chris Schotter and Dave Black discovered 

the entrance to Big Rock Swallow Hole 

in February 2000. The initial push trip was in 

May 2000 with Ted Wilson and Chris Schotter 

finding a way through the tight entrance 

canyon. They explored the first four drops in the 

cave and stopped exploration at the top of the 

fifth drop when they ran out of rope. The tight 

entrance canyon was enlarged the following 

month and the survey was started. The cave was 

surveyed in eight trips, with 105 stations set for 

a length of 1,496 feet 

and a depth of 182 

feet. 

The cave is located 

in the southeastern 

portion of the 

Harrison Crawford 

State Forest. The 

entrance is a wetweather 

swallow hole 

located beneath a big 

sandstone bolder. The 

entrance is a 3-foottall 


crawlway. In a body 

length one reaches 

a narrow canyon. In 

another body length a 

16-foot pit is reached. 

A 20-foot rope is 

required for this drop. 

At the bottom is a 

formation room. Off 

the room is a cobble 

belly crawl that 

gradually enlarges 

until in about 100 feet 

one is walking again. 

In 25 feet of walking 

another small room 

is reached. In the 

floor of this room is a 

small, body-size hole. 

338 

Big Rock Swallow Hole 

By Dave Black 

During floods this hole can not handle all the 

floodwater and the cave can sump at this hole. 

Once through the hole and down a flowstone 

ramp, one reaches a stream crawlway. In about 

100 feet the stream crawl ends at an 11-footdeep 

pit. A 30-foot hand line is needed for 

this pit. At the bottom of the second drop is 

a crawlway that quickly enlarges to become a 

down-cutting stream canyon with numerous 

potholes. In about 100 feet a 10-foot pit is 

reached. A 30-foot rope is needed for this

drop. At the bottom of this drop is a knee-deep 

plunge pool. The cave continues as a canyon way 

for another 100 feet before ending at the fourth 

pit. This pit is 22 feet deep and a 100-foot rope 

is required for rigging. At the bottom of the 

fourth drop the way on is a 12-foot climb-up. 

At the top of the climb-up is a hole leading to 

a nice 40-foot-tall dome. The way on is straight 

on through a body-length belly crawl. On the 

other side of the belly crawl the main route is 

back down to the stream, while an upper-level 

canyon on the right leads to the far side of the 

fifth pit. In about 50 feet of stream canyon way 

the fifth pit is reached. This pit is 78 feet deep 

and a 130-foot rope is required for rigging. At 

times this pit can be wet. In fact the cave can 

flood to a level of about 20 feet above the top 

of the pit. At the bottom of the fifth drop is a 

plunge pool. The water cannot be followed and 

the cave basically ends there. The only way on 

is to go over the pit in the upper level canyon. 

This leads to couple of small canyons and also a 

dry rig point for the fifth drop. At this rig point 

one can descend partway down and swing over 

to a natural bridge and then rappel down a 

little more to a balcony. Off this balcony is a 

narrow canyon that leads to the Bowels of the 

The entrance to Birthday Plunge is a 

medium-sized hole in the bottom of a 

small sinkhole that opens into a 67-foot freefall 

pit. Thirteen feet off the floor is an adjacent 

dome with an 18-foot climb-down on the 

opposite side. Near the bottom of the climb 

a 1½-foot-diameter tube leads to a double pit 

consisting of a 35-foot drop to a ledge followed 

by a 30-foot drop. Both drops can be rigged 

off a muddy boulder that rests on a miniature 

balcony at the top of the first drop. A 100-foot 

rope is required. 

At the bottom of this 30-foot drop is a 

gallery 100 feet long and 15 feet wide. A short 

climb into a formation alcove halfway up the 

talus slope is worth checking out. At the top 

Birthday Plunge 


Yvonne Droms on rope in Big Rock Swallow Hole. 

Photo by Chris Schotter. 

Earth, which is the deepest and muddiest point 

in the cave. 

By Dave Black 

of the slope the cave continues past a squeeze 

into another room. This chamber has a 22foot 

rope drop which drops into a rimstonefloored 

passage with a canyon at the bottom. 

The canyon leads to small and muddy domed 

alcove. 

A joint-controlled crawlway off the higher 

room leads to a 36-foot drop which can be 

rigged with a 60-foot rope from one of the 

numerous boulders. Care should be taken at 

the top of the pit since several loose boulders 

and rocks line the top. At the bottom of the 

pit is some pretty flowstone and some white 

stalagmites with a short climb-down to a nice 

room with an active stream. 

Past the 36-foot pit is a circular-shaped 

33


340

Dave Stahl at the top of the first drop. 


37-foot drop to a mud floor. A huge flowstone 

drapery hangs on the opposite wall. A ledge 

behind this dripstone leads to a low, muddy 

crawl which quickly ends. 

Editor’s note: BRR is a delicate cave. Remember 

to Tcave softly. 

he entrance to Blue River Run Cave was 

discovered by Ron Adams on a ridge walk 

with Danny Dible on December 28, 1986. It is 

in the Harrison Crawford State Forest in an area 

of Wyandotte Ridge isolated by Interstate 64. 

The entrance was a blowing hole that was not 

immediately penetrated. On April 25, 1987, 

the team of Ron Adams, Danny Dible, Greg 

McNamara, Joe Oliphant, and Ted Wilson 

pioneered a route through the entrance. The 

entrance is a funnel-shaped hole leading to a 

slightly exposed climb-down. Near the bottom, 

the floor slopes into a funnel-shaped room 

Blue River Run Cave 


The top of the second drop. Photo by Dave Black. 

By Ron Adams 

heading to the northeast. Across the room is 

a 20-foot belly crawl over a slab that ends on 

a ledge overlooking a walking passage. The 

passage continues northeast for over 600 feet 

as a spacious Wyandotte-like walking passage 

to a breakdown pile with some crawling leads. 

Probing the breakdown in three separate rooms 

they found two small, blind pits and a climbdown 

lead. 

On June 7, 1987, the explorers returned 

with the help of Dave Black and Glenn 

Lemasters to push the breakdown and the pits 

and to map the cave. The first floor lead is a 

downward climb through breakdown blocks 

about 250 feet from the entrance. This leads 

341


to a 31-foot pit and 

is the deepest point, 

measuring 121 feet 

below the entrance. 

A large boulder is 

chocked at the top of 

the pit and if padded 

is a good rig point. 

Past the roomy slot at 

the top, the pit is 25 

feet in diameter and 

very nice with a small 

breakdown pile on 

the floor. The second 

pit is 29 feet deep and 

is 50 feet past the first 

lead on the left wall, 

and lines up over the 

top of the 31-foot pit. 

The two pits are not 

connected. However, 

another 200 feet past 

meanders down to 

a depth of 102 feet 

below the entrance 

and ends in a jumble 

of boulders. Just 

past this lead are the 

two largest rooms 

in the cave with 

ceilings as much as 

35 feet high. On 

the far side of these 

the floor slopes up 

to some breakdown 

crawls that stopped 

exploration on 

the first trip. The 

push team was able 

to penetrate the 

breakdown crawl 

but the walking cave 

continued for only 

150 more feet before 

Dave Stahl in Blue River Run Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

being stopped again by 

breakdown. The cave 

the second pit is the third hole in the floor was surveyed at a traversable length of 1,283 

leading down through the breakdown. This feet. 

342

Nick Smith has arranged access to this cave 

only during convention. Please consider 

Parkers Pit and Bordens Pit closed after 

convention. 

Bordens Pit Cave is owned by Mr Howard 

Saylor. Access the caves only from his residence 

which is located off Feller Road. Always ask 

permission and do not access the caves from 

State Road 462. 

Park in the lower parking area of the 

driveway, not closer to 

the house. Walk from 

the parking spot to 

the right (west) side 

of the house to the 

trail that leads into 

the woods and uphill 

to the cave. 

The following 

is an excerpt from 

the Indiana State 

Geological Survey 

Annual Report: 

1876-1878: 

“The cave contains 

four rooms, each 

differing from the 

rest in the shape 

and number of its 

formations. The first 

room is about 50 feet 

high, and contains 

many stalactites, 

which are slender, 

tolerably clear, and 

from 2 to 5 feet 

long. The stalagmites 

are numerous and 

beautiful also; the 

stalactitic folds on 

the sides of the room 

depend in masses that, 

no doubt, weigh many 

tons. The most noted 

formations in the 

Bordens Pit Cave 


second story are: (1) Very white, clear stalagmites, 

covered with points of calc spar, that give them 

the appearance of being covered with frost; (2) A 

mass of broken stalagmites that have fallen from 

the walls of the room; this mass attracts much 

attention from those who do not understand the 

process of its formation; (3) A large branching 

stalagmite in the left side of the room. 

“A large pile of rocks, resembling Jug 

Rock in Martin County, partly separates the 

343


second and third rooms. Beyond it is a shelving 

rock, 25 feet long, and from one fourth of an 

inch to 2 inches thick, holding some 5,000 

stalactites. Many have broken off, perhaps by 

an earthquake, and as they fell they lodged 

among others, and have been cemented to 

them in many different positions. 

“The fourth room is entered by ascending a 

ladder. It is smaller than the others, and the most 

interesting object it contains is a huge stalagmite, 

8 feet high. One half of it has been removed by a 

small stream of water, so the present specimen is 

only a part of what was formerly there. 

“Mr. Borden has labored industriously 

to improve the cave. He has made and put in 

place a ladder 54 feet long, by which the cave 

344 

Dick Hughes preparing to descend Bordens Pit. 

Photo by George Jackson about 1938. 


is entered, and also put up three smaller ones at 

places inside. He has graded some of the rough 

places, and is at present engaged in opening 

a narrow channel through there in a strong 

current of air. The cave is worth a visit from all 

who enjoy subterranean rambles.” 

The accompanying map, prepared during 

the fall of 1969, tends to shrink some of the 

aforementioned dimensions, but it also shows 

the sole fruit of Mr Borden’s work involving 

the narrow crevice with the air current. He 

began his assault at point A during the early 

1870s and blasted out ledges and floor for 15 

feet, finally reaching the top of the pit (point 

B). This work did not increase the air flow, but 

it did provide an entryway into the 14-foot pit 

and the adjacent 8- by 13-foot room. A few 

blows with a hammer in a squeeze (point C) 

yielded the walkway in which the encouraged 

explorer wrote “Borden Discovery—1878.” 

The right branch of this short walkway led to a 

clay fill and a low ledge (point D) from which 

issued the elusive air current. On a winter day, 

Ted Wilson descending Bordens Pit. 

Photo by Chris Schotter.

he returned to remove this ledge, setting a 

dynamite charge with a long fuse to allow him 

to retire from the cave and avoid the fumes. 

Having climbed out the entrance, which was 

calmly issuing a 7-foot plume of vapor into 

the cold, crisp air, Borden impatiently awaited 

the dull thud of his charge. It came, and to his 

amazement, the steam plume leapt from 7 feet 

to almost 20 feet in height! 

Allowing time for the fumes to clear, 

he quickly relit his lantern and returned to 

Editor’s note: Since the cave is only 30 

feet behind the owners’ house, please be off the 

property before dark. A trip in Bryants Cave to 

the waterfall passage requires traversing some 

long and low crawls before the side passage to 

the waterfall is encountered. Near the waterfall 

dome are pits with muddy and slick ledges that 

can be hazardous. Use caution if you plan to visit 

this part of the cave. And keep in mind that the 

Raglands have a very nice cabin on the property 

that they rent for $100.00 per night. It’s fully 

furnished with one bed and a full kitchen with 

Bryants Cave 


the ledge only to find a larger but impassibly 

narrow crevice beyond. After hours of 

additional blasting and waiting for fumes, 

Borden eventually found himself 20 feet into 

the crevice staring down a deep but too narrow 

canyon, his sweat beaded face bathed in the 

strong but successfully elusive air current, 

whose source is a mystery to this day. 

Reference: BIG Newsletter, Vol 9, No 1 

1992 NSS Convention Guidebook. 

By Dave Black 

full access to a nearly 2-mile-long cave. What else 

Tcould you ask for? 

he entrance to Bryants Cave is located 

about 30 feet south of Patsy Ragland’s 

house. Patsy has done some gardening around 

the entrance to make the entrance scenic. 

The entrance is 4 feet high by 13 feet wide. 

Immediately inside the entrance is stand up 

room. This room at one time served as a fruit 

and vegetable cellar in addition to a storm cellar. 

To the left side of this room is a meandering 

floor canyon. 

345


To the right side 

of the entrance room 

is Cindys Grotto. 

This passage starts 

out has a handsand-knees 

crawlway 

through a formation 

area. In this area there 

are also several tree 

roots. After about 

100 feet the passage 

opens into a low, 

wide room. From 

this room the passage 

continues as a handsand-knees 

crawlway 

for another 100 feet 

to a second room. At 

the end of this room is an 

old signature (1890, J. Cummings) and some 

broken mason jars. The passage continues as 

a 1-foot-high crawlway. After moving some 

breakdown this passage led to the second 

entrance (Patsys Pass-Through). The Cindys 

Grotto section is a pretty part of the cave with 

flowstone masses, rimstone pools, stalagmites, 

stalactites, and soda straws. 

On the left side of the entrance room is 

a 12-foot-deep canyon. By going into the 

beginning of this canyon and taking a short 

belly crawlway at the bottom, the main passage 

can be reached. The short crawlway opens 

onto a ledge of a small dome-pit. The ledge 

is just 6 feet above the floor and is an easy 

crawling traverse. During wet weather a small 

stream enters from the dome and flows down 

the step breakdown slope to exit the cave by a 

too-tight-to-follow canyon. From the domepit 

the passage continues, varying in size from 

a hands-and-knees crawlway to a stoopway, 

with an occasional belly crawl and walking 

passage. The floor is mostly bone dry with 

occasional tacky mud in the formation areas. 

The first part of the passage has gypsum flecks 

in the mud floor and on the walls. The middle 

portion of the passage has several formation 

areas, with flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, 

346 

Holly Cook in virgin passage in Bryants Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

and helictites. This portion also has several old 

signatures including “J.J.B. 1871 Chicago” and 

“J.F.D. Ramsey 1885.” Beyond the formation 

section the passage continues has a belly crawl 

in tacky mad. This belly crawl is 300 feet long 

ending at the Dible-Haun Dig. 

The Dible-Haun Dig is dig done by Danny 

Dible and Dave Haun in the spring of 1986. 

The dig is through sediment fill. It is a very 

tight crawl about 12 feet long ending in a tight 

left-hand bend into a small canyon passage. 

The passage continues as a small, but slowly 

enlarging, canyon passage. In several hundred 

feet the passage enlarges to walking size. At 

this point there is a crawlway on the left. This 

southward trending crawlway is about 300 

feet long. It finally ends in sediment fill. From 

this side passage the main passage continues 

predominately walking size with some 

crawlways. In another 100 feet there is a 12-foothigh 

dome. At the top of this dome is the upper 

level. In another 50 feet is a breakdown area. 

On the left wall, nearly hidden by breakdown, 

is the down-cutting stream passage. Past the 

breakdown the main passage continues for 

several hundred more feet as mostly a handsand-knee 

crawlway. 

The down cutting stream passage is located

on the left side of the main passage. You enter 

it at the top of the 25-foot-high canyon. At 

the top it goes about 50 feet to a 40-foot-high 

waterfall dome. It is a 22-foot rappel to reach 

the bottom of the canyon. This is a down cutting 

canyon with 12-foot, 23-foot, and 6-foot 

climb-downs. Just before the last climb-down 

the passage became very tight and extremely 

slippery. At the base of the last climb-down the 

passage opens up to form a nice walking-size 

passage. This passage ends in less than 100 feet 

at a sump. 

The upper level is best reached by climbing 

up the 12-foot-high dome in the main passage. 

This level is goes both ways. To the east the 

passage is canyon way that alternates between 

walking and crawlway. In about 500 feet it ends 

in a breakdown room. A stream could be heard 

in this room but no way was found to reach it. 

The upper level to the west is a dry passage 

C limbing Fool Cave is located on a 

hillside northeast of Loudens Pit. 

From the entrance there are four free 

climbs to the lower mid-level of the cave 

in the following order: 13 feet, 11 feet, 11 

feet, and 29 feet. One may rig a rope for 

safer climbing on these free climbs. Off the 

base of the last climb are two domes. In the 

farthest dome is a drain that was previously 

noted as a lead but was not pushed until the 

21st century. 

Airflow was followed through the tight 

drain that leads to a short crawl and a 30- 

to 40-foot pit. A 60-foot rope should easily 

rig this pit. Off the floor of the pit is a 

short climb up to a 100-foot-long section 

of breakdown-floored walking canyon. The 

airflow was lost in this canyon and no leads 

were found. The new extension has not 

yet been surveyed, but the new rope drop 

should put Climbing Fool Cave on the over 

100-foot-deep list. 

Climbing Fool Cave 


that alternates from easy crawling to walking. 

There are several breakdown areas. The passage 

has gypsum on the floor and walls. After nearly 

1,000 feet the passage ends in sediment fill. 

Near the end coon tracks were observed. Plus 

the end is very near the Patsys Pass-through 

entrance. 

In summary, the cave is a good cave for a 

short trip to a daylong trip. For shorter trips 

Cindys Grotto is a good trip. It will take about 

an hour to traverse this section of the cave. 

For a slightly longer trip the main passage up 

to the Dible-Haun Dig makes for a good fourhour 

trip. Trips beyond the Dible-Haun Dig 

are usually all day trips. Any trip to this cave 

requires crawling. The cave is mostly dry and 

does not flood. To maintain good landowner 

relations, please contact the landowner in 

advance of your trip. 

By Aaron Atz 

347


This cave is on public property. The 1- by 2foot 

entrance is located just a few feet from 

a side ravine and 100 feet from a major dry run 

near the sandstone-limestone contact. A 100foot 

rope is required for rigging the 57-foot 

348 

Danny Dible at the entrance of Daly Pit. 


This pit was discovered in 1961 by Leroy 

Vanscoy and J. McNutt. They reported it 

to be 80 feet deep. 

In 1969, Ted Wilson did a sketch map of 

the pit and reported it to be 59 feet deep with 

around 100 feet of passage at the bottom. In 

June of 2002, Jerry Litaker and Jamie Winner 

surveyed the pit. The entrance drop ended up 

being 50 feet deep with 126 feet of horizontal 

cave at the bottom. The total depth of the cave 

was measured to be 86 feet deep. Devil Staircase 

Daly Pit 

Devils Staircase Pit 

By Dave Black 

drop. The first 12 feet are in a narrow canyon 

before opening into a nice free fall drop. At one 

end of the room is a large flowstone mass. 

Pit is located in the Harrison County State 

Forest, north of Loudens Pit and 1,200 feet 

from the Crawford County Line. It situated 

almost on top of the ridge near a very large 

sinkhole. It also requires a 200-foot elevation 

climb, a very good hump in hot weather. The 

opening is around 6 feet across. Once in the 

pit, it bells out to about 12 feet. A ledge is 

encountered 28 feet down. At the base of the 

drop is a large decorated room,which slopes 

down breakdown for about 25 feet at a 40

degree angle. At the bottom of the talus pile 

there are two 10-foot pits. The left pit leads a 

short distance to some nice formations. The 

right goes to more short passages, the longest 

of which leads to an old dig. 

This cave is located in the Harrison 

Crawford State Forest. The entrance is a 

small sinkhole on a wooded hillside above a side 

ravine to Potato Run. The entrance is steeply 

sloping to a 3-foot-high by 2-foot-wide, downsloping 

canyon. In 20 feet there is a small dome. 

The passage continues as a body-size rock tube. 

In two body lengths three 90 degree bends are 

encountered. The last bend is a vertical hole 

with a 5-foot climb-down to a ledge. A steam 

passage is reached by climbing down another 

12 feet. Up steam the passage goes 50 feet to a 

second stream which quickly become too low 

to follow. Down steam, the cave has a couple 

Dible Knible Cave 


Danny Dible climbing in Devils Staircase Cave. 


By Dave Black 

of nice climb-downs going down to 162 feet 

below the entrance. A cobble floor occurs at 

this level along with a lot of mud. 

The cave is situated in a small ravine off a 

valley east of Indian Creek. It is developed in 

the upper limestone units of the Blue River 

Group. Several chert beds, possibly the Lost 

River Chert, outcrop in the wall of the cave a 

few feet below the floor of the big room. The 

cave is formed at the top of a collapse, which 

could have collapsed into a lower passage. 

Normal caving gear plus a 30-foot hand line 

is needed to explore the cave. Care should be 

taken to avoid muddying the formation areas 

34


in the cave. Also a plastic garbage bag to carry 

out any trash found in the cave would be useful, 

Note: do not cross private property to reach 

Gary Pit Cave. Park near the bridge but do not 

Gblock the access road to the state forest property. 

ary Pit is located high on a bluff side 

overlooking Blue River on Harrison 

Crawford State Forest property. Take the access 

road or logging trail from the parking spot to 

the cave. The entrance is located on a bluff face 

and can be a little difficult to find. There is a 

very beautiful view of Blue River from the cave 

entrance. 

The entrance is a small horizontal hole that 

quickly leads to a 68-foot, mostly wall-drop 

350 

Gary Pit Cave 

since it has seen increasing traffic in the recent 

past. 

Tom Fritsch in Dible Knible Cave. 

Photo by Bill Baus. 

By Aaron Atz 

pit. Turkey vultures have been known to enter 

the cave and become trapped and die due to 

its reverse funnel shaped entrance. The second 

pit is a nice 31-foot drop into a medium-size 

dome pit with a large flowstone mass at the far 

end. The drain is too small to follow but there 

should be more cave-bearing limestone below 

the known depth of Gary Pit. 

Gary Pit was found by Gary Schotter in the 

late 1960s. Gary is the father of local caver Chris 

Schotter, and also the son of the late caver Leo 

Schotter. Gary Pit was mapped by David Black 

in 1980.

Ryan Moran climbing Gary Pit. 


The entrance to Hanging Rock Drop 

is located on a wooded hillside in the 

Harrison Crawford State Forest. The entrance 

is a mud slope down to a 13-foot climb down. 

Although there are numerous foot holds, a 

handline is helpful. Above this climb-down is 

a large rock that appears to be just “hanging” 

there, hence the name of the cave. A steam 

enters the cave at the top of the climb-down to 

form a waterfall. At the bottom of the climb 

the stream is followed into a body-size rock 

tube. This tube was enlarged in the fall of 1981 

by Tom Fritsch and Noel Sloan. Once through 

the dig, the stream starts to down cut to form 

a 20-foot-deep canyon. The canyon widens in 

50 feet and a handline is needed to get to the 

bottom. The passage at the bottom is a stoop 

Hanging Rock Drop 


By Dave Black 

way on a chert breakdown slope to two parallel 

pits. Traverse over the first pit and free climb 

down the second pit, which is 22 feet deep. The 

drain is the next section of cave to traverse. It 

is a downward sloping body-size stream crawl 

with a couple of sharp bends. In four long, 

tortuous body lengths, relief comes by way of 

a 25-foot-high dome. A register is in the dome 

and it is a good place to turn around because 

the next 50 feet is not any easier to travel. To 

continue, go into the stream canyon at its 

widest spot and continue anywhere your body 

can fit. At last, another dome will be reached, 

but the way on is a chert stream crawl. In two 

body lengths it opens up at the top of a 16-foot 

waterfall with a plunge pool at the bottom. A 

free climb brings one to the trunk passage and 

351


Bill Baus in the Crack of Doom 


the end of the entrance section. The section 

just described is only 250 feet long and drops 

110 feet. This sporting section was named the 

Cat Run because only a cat can run down this 

passage. 

The trunk passage starts out as a nice 10-foothigh 

by 20-foot-wide passage with a cobble floor. 

In 200 feet a breakdown area is reached. The 

passage continues as a tight crawl over several 

large breakdown slabs, before opening back into 

a breakdown-floored walking passage. At the end 

of the breakdown section the passage forks. The 

passage straight ahead starts out as a 6-foot-high 

canyon passage before lowering to a 3-foot-high 

crawl. The other way is at floor level beneath the 

right wall. It starts out as a 2-foot-high muddy 

crawl before opening into walking passage. These 

two passages rejoin in about 200 feet. 

The lower way has a major side passage. 

This side passage is reached by going down 

the Crack of Doom, a very-muddy, body-sized 

8-foot climb to a lower level. This lower level 

goes down couple of short climbs to a canyon 

passage. The muddy walking canyon continues 

250 feet before the ceiling drops and one must 

352 

crawl in a mud and water soup. In 25 feet a 

room is reached. A stream enters this room. 

The down stream section is reached by climbing 

down a hole in this room to a small body-size 

stream crawl. This first section is extremely 

tight. It finally opens into a short section of 

walking passage before a sump is reached. This 

sump is 243 feet below the entrance. The upstream 

passage alternates between walking and 

crawling before it lowers to less than 1 foot 

high within 300 feet. 

Back at the junction above the Crack of 

Doom the upper level continues as mostly 

walking for 750 feet before the passage ends in 

flowstone at the valley floor. At the end, there 

is a blind 35-foot pit. 

This cave is presently the fourth deepest 

cave in Indiana with a vertical extent of 243 

feet. It is also noted for its tight tortuous Cat 

Run passage near the entrance, and the nasty, 

sloppy, sleazy NSS Crawl, which leads to the 

second stream and the deepest point in the 

cave. It is a serious cave, but can be fun for a 

properly equipped and motivated group. 

Reference: HCG Hog-Fest Guidebook: 

1990, 1991, D.Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook: 1984 1986, 

1990

This cave is presently the main cave in the 

Orchard Ridge area. It is a complex cave 

with 2.64 miles surveyed, plus an additional 1 

mile explored. The cave is noted for its degree of 

difficulty. There are numerous long, wet chert 

crawls and only a couple of borehole passages. 

The entrance pit is the most toured section of 

the cave and the most liked by cavers who have 

explored the rest of the cave. 

The 8-foot-diameter entrance is located 

1,000 feet east of King Leo Cave, on a heavily 

wooded hillside, about three quarters of the 

way up the ridge. A 120-foot rope is needed 

to rig the 102-foot entrance pit. The drop is 

almost entirely against a wall, ending at the 

top of a 20-foot-high rubble slope. About 25 

feet above the floor of the pit is a crawlway that 

ends in a short distance at a small dome. At the 

bottom of the talus slope that forms the floor, 

Hells Hole 


By Dave Black 

is a small blowing hole that was enlarged during 

the summer of 1972 by Mike VanNote, Mark 

Koselke, Loren Campbell, and George Cesnik. 

This small hole leads to a stream crawl and the 

major portion of the cave. 

Upstream, is a 1,000-foot-long crawl, named 

Satans Sewer, that reconnects to the eastern half 

of the cave. A better way to get to this half of the 

cave is to go downstream, which is a slightly larger 

crawl, and take the next passage to the left. This 

passage, A.S.S. Hall, is a muddy, wet hands-andknees 

crawl that leads to Whooping Dome in 

about 100 feet. Whooping Dome is 60 feet tall. 

Beyond this dome, the passage is mostly walking 

for several hundred feet with one side passage, 

called Disgusting Crawl, on the right. This crawl 

is 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide with a foot of pooled 

water. Past this side passage is more walking passage 

until the Junction Room is reached. This is a small 

353


room where the Satans 

Sewer rejoins the cave. 

The passage continues 

upstream as the Lower 

East Borehole. It is a 

mostly walking stream 

passage, for over 2,000 

feet. Approximately 

half-way along this 

passage, is a side passage 

on the left named Once 

Is Enough Passage. 

A short distance 

further, the Lower 

East Borehole starts to 

lower to a chert crawl. 

This crawl is named 

C.B. Crawl and has 

never been pushed to 

the end. Just before this 

crawl is a ceiling hole in 

breakdown that leads to 

Upper East Borehole. 

This dry, mostlywalking 

passage goes 

over 2,000 feet before 

ending in breakdown 

at Hat Dome. Hat 

Dome is over 100 feet 

tall and has surface 

debris, including a 

leather farmer’s hat. At 

present, this is the most 

eastern point in the cave. 

The western section of the cave is reached by 

continuing downstream, in Satans Sewer, past 

the A.S.S. Hall. The crawl ends at the Breakdown 

Room. Beyond this room is Hells Hallway, a 

walking passage ending at Termination Room. 

This room is the furthest point that Mike 

VanNote and George Cesnik reached on the 

day of their dig. The passage continues as a 

crawl for several hundred feet. Off this crawl is 

the Corkscrew into an upper level. This point is 

nearly directly under the entrance to King Leo 

Cave. The upper level reconnects to the main 

cave at the Breakdown Room. There are a couple 

of domes off this upper level. The western section 

354 

Jeff Forbes in Hat Dome. Photo by Dave Black. 

of the cave contains unique pools with blindfish. 

These pools are unusual in that they are not in a 

flowing stream. This could indicate the presence 

of a yet-to-be-discovered large stream. (See also 

page 383). 

Reference: OVR Karst Encounters Guidebook: 

1990, 1991, D.Black 

GL Lucifugus Letter, 2 #2, 2/65 

GL Lucifugus Letter, 8 #1, 1/72 

BIG Newsletter, 13 #1, 8/77, D. Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1979 

MVOR Spring Guidebook, 1987 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1990, D. 

Black

You can get to the pit in two different ways. 

By crossing the Blue River from Stage Stop at 

the rope swing and hiking straight up the hill, 

or from the Langdons parking area. This is a 

35-foot-deep pit. 

A caver ascending Issac Pit. 

Photo by Todd Webb. 

This pit is located in the Harrison Crawford 

State Forest near the head of a small valley 

off the Ohio River. It can be reached by way of 

Cold Friday Hollow or by driving to the end 

of Lickford Valley Road and walking along the 

river and up the small valley. Either way it is a 

long, 2-mile walk. 

The difficult-to-find entrance is a small 

2-foot-diameter hole on a wooded hillside, 

between the “Y” in the two small ravines that 

form the valley. The entrance pit is 73 feet deep 

Isaac Pit 

Jays Pit Cave 


The adventure trail also passes within sight 

of the 3-foot by 4-foot entrance. 

A 100-foot rope is needed for rigging the 

entrance drop and a second drop of 16 feet. 

and a 110-foot-long rope is needed for rigging. 

The pit opens up immediately for a nice wall 

drop into a 30-foot-long by 15-foot-wide dome. 

A 6-foot-high, breakdown-floored shale passage 

leads in 50 feet to a second pit. This pit is 40 

feet deep and blind at the bottom. By traversing 

a ledge around this pit a shale crawlway can be 

reached. This crawl is 3 feet tall and in 40 feet a 

second parallel pit is encountered. This pit is 27 

feet deep and 15 feet across. The bottom of the 

pit contains a massive flowstone drapery and a 

355


short formation passage. A narrow ledge, less 

than 2 feet wide, leads past the top of the 27foot 

pit to a series of domes and interconnecting 

canyons and a third parallel pit that is 55 feet 

deep. This pit cave, if found, is a nice cave tour. 

356 

In addition to normal caving gear, vertical gear 

and two ropes (110-foot rope for the entrance 

pit, and a 90-foot rope for any of the three 

parallel pits) are needed.

Willie Hunt at the entrance to Jays Pit. 


Kecks Pit 

Ty Spatta in the entrance to Kecks Pit. Photo by Dave Everton. 


Sigrid Gardner and Tom Duselis in Jays Pit Cave. 


By Dave Black 

The owner, George 

Black, wants all 

who visit Kecks Pit to 

sign a liability release 

form and call him 

before they leave the 

convention site. 812- 

347-2843. The forms 

need not be turned in 

to him directly, they 

can be mailed to him 

after convention 

Kecks Pit (Virgils 

Haunted Hole) is 

located about 1,000 

feet northwest of 

the Mount Zion 

Cemetery and about 

357


358 

Virgil John ascending in Kecks Pit. 


80 feet lower in elevation. The entrance is a 

small pit on the wooded hillside. The pit is 

a 77 feet deep and needs a 120-foot rope for 

rigging. The pit drops free into a nice room 

with an abundant coating of flowstone over 

the rocks and wood. A large flowstone mass 

forms a balcony over looking the floor of the 

entrance pit. The cave off the entrance pit is a 

complex series of dome-pits. The lowest point 

in the cave requires a second rope to rig a 14foot 

pit. The stream drain, at the bottom of the 

cave, is too tight to follow. This cave has a nice 

rope-drop, some fairly pretty flowstone, small 

draperies, and is very enjoyable to explore. 

Reference: OVR Karst Encounters Guidebook, 

1990, D.Black 

BIG Newsletter, 13#1, 8/77, M. VanNote 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1979

T he entrance to 

King Leo Cave 

is a 47-foot pit. The 

entrance area of the 

cave consists of a 

dome-pit complex. A 

narrow canyon off the 

last dome, leads, after 

240 feet of crawling, 

to a large borehole. 

The northern section 

of the borehole 

ends in breakdown 

after 800 feet. The 

southern section of 

the borehole ends 

after 700 feet at a 

large dome-pit, where 

the passage becomes 

filled with flowstone. 

The main passage 

was developed along 

north-south trending 

oblique joints in 

the Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone. These 

joints contributed to 

the huge breakdown 

blocks and the 

corresponding large 

passage. The main 

passage averages 

15 feet high and 

25 feet wide. There 

are numerous mud 

banks along the 

sides of the passage. 

Ron Richards, of 

the Indiana State 

Museum, has 

excavated two muskox 

skeletons from the 

northern section of 

the cave. 

King Leo Cave 


By Dave Black 

35


A 70-foot-long 

rope is needed to rig 

the entrance drop. The 

small crawlway that 

leads to the borehole 

is easily negotiated 

since it is floored with 

dry mud and is devoid 

of sharp projections. 

The impressively 

large borehole is 

enjoyable and has 

some noteworthy 

formations. The cave 

has been popular 

since its discovery, 

and should provide a 

pleasant afternoon of 

caving. 

Reference: OVR 

Karst Encounters: 1990, 1991, D.Black 

BIG Newsletter 10#1, 1971, D.DesMarais 

The entrance to Langdons Cave is located on 

Harrison Crawford State Forest property 

and a permit required. During the convention, 

permits will be available at the caving kiosk. 

The cave is a popular cave for beginners, as 

indicated by the path that leads to the cave’s 

entrance. Located in a small sink just north of a 

state forest road, the entrance is a medium size 

hole at the top of a debris slope. At the bottom 

of the entrance slope, the cave passage is nearly 

blocked by a large flowstone mass. The only way 

on is along the left wall. The cave continues as 

easy walking with numerous flowstone masses 

for 150 feet. At this point there is an 15-foot 

climb-down. Although recommended, a rope 

is not needed, but care should be taken because 

the climb is muddy. The passage continues as 

a large (50-foot-bigh by 15-foot-wide) canyon 

passage. This passage ends about 600 feet from 

360 

Jamie Winner and Brian Welp in King Leo Cave. Photo by Chris Schotter. 

Langdons Cave 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1974, 1979 

MVOR Guidebook 1987 

By Dave Black 

the entrance at a flowstone mass. On high ledges 

along this passage there are numerous pretty 

formations. Just before the end is a breakdown 

area. There are many holes that can be explored 

within the breakdown. One hole on the left, 

leads to a 100-foot-long passage and an 38foot-deep, 

sloping flowstone pit requiring a 

rope. Another lead in the breakdown is on the 

right and leads to the Key Hole. The Key Hole 

is a body-size rock tube developed in dolomite 

that opens into a dome-pit complex. A 100foot-long 

rope is needed to explore the shallow 

pits in this area. The pits consist of a blind 25foot 

drop and a 10-foot drop followed by a 

blind 25-footdrop. 

Langdons Cave has witnessed more traffic 

than any other cave in the area. Evidence of this 

is some vandalism and many signatures, some 

dating back to the early 1800s. The cave has also

The 40-foot-tall canyon. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

seen numerous grotto-led clean-ups. The cave 

is easy to do, and well worth a trip, especially 

if a plastic bag is brought along to carry out 

any trash found in the 

cave. 


Reference: HCG 

Hog-Fest, 1990, 

D. Black 


Guidebook: 1967, 

1974, 1977, 

1981, 1984, 

1986, 1990 

CHUG PreconventionGuidebook, 

1973 


1961, R. L.Powell 

BIG Newsletter, 

V.3 #1, 6/60 

IUSC Spe- 

Dave Stahl in Langdons Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

leoTymes, V.6 #2, 

1/76, C.Metz 

Corydon Democrat, “Cave Clean-up”, 2/8/89, R.West 

361


Limekiln Hollow is a small hollow located 

in the Harrison Crawford State Forest 

between Cold Friday Hollow and Potato Run. 

Two cave entrances are located near the head of 

the hollow at the limestone-sandstone contact. 

The upper entrance is to Limekiln Hollow Pit. 

It is a 3-foot-diameter entrance on a wooded 

hillside. The 9-foot-deep entrance pit is free 

climbable. A stream at the bottom can be 

followed into a belly crawl. In only a few feet 

the stream disappears into a too-tight canyon. 

The entrance to Limekiln Hollow Cave is a 

walk-in entrance about 50 feet from Limekiln 

Hollow Pit and near a ravine. The first 25 feet 

of cave is a narrow down-cutting canyon ending 

at a 9-foot climb-down to a room. A hand-line 

is helpful for this climb. Off this room are two 

passages. The first is a short passage with the 

stream from Limekiln Hollow Pit. The other 

362 

Limekiln Hollow Caves 

By Dave Black 

is a belly crawl along the top of a 12-foot-deep 

canyon. In 15 feet, at the right-hand bend, 

the way on is a squeeze down the canyon to a 

lower level. This point was enlarged by Tom 

Fritsch and John Danovich during the 1979 

Christmas holidays. The lower level intersects 

a 2-foot-high by 10-foot-wide crawlway named 

Paradise Crawl, because it easy and soft on 

the knees. To the left, the crawl ends within 

100 feet at a flowstone mass. This is where the 

passage intersects the hillside. To the right, 

Paradise Crawl continues for nearly half a mile 

before it intersects another hillside and ends at 

a mud plug. Along this long crawl are several 

formation areas. 

Below the first part of Paradise Crawl 

is a lower level canyon complex. This series 

of canyons consists of dry walking canyons, 

crawls, rooms, and climb-downs. Along the

way, flowstone and some gypsum flakes can 

be observed. The easiest way into this canyon 

complex is to climb down into the canyon at 

the last place that you can, which is immediately 

after going through a flowstone crawl in 

Paradise Crawl. There is no need to go farther 

into Paradise Crawl unless you just like to crawl 

for the fun of it. 

Regular caving equipment, plus knee pads 

and a hand-line are needed to explore the cave. 

Care should be taken to follow the tracks that 

the original explorers made, since it is a dry cave 

and foot prints will never go away. 

Reference: CG Hog-Fest Guidebook: 1990, 

1991, D.Black 


D.Black 


CIG Newsletter, 8/67 

BIG Harrison Crawford State Forest Guide, 

1963 

Loudens Pit is located in the Harrison 

Crawford State Forest near the top of a 

forested limestone bluff that overlooks the 

Blue River and State Road 62. It is best to 

park west of the cave, at a pull off (former 

house site), along the highway. From this pull 

off walk north and uphill following a foot 

trail through a clearing with small pine trees. 

In 1,750 feet the trail intersects a larger trail. 

Turn right and walk up the hill. In about 500 

feet the entrance to Blue River Bluff III Hole 

will be seen 10 feet north of the trail. The 10foot-deep 

climbable pit entrance is a 4-foot 

by 6-foot hole that leads to a smaller adjacent 

dome. Continuing up the hill in another 500 

feet a small rock cairn will be seen on the right 

side of the trail. By following this set of cairns 

Loudens Pit 


Jeff Forbes in Limekiln Hollow Cave. 


By Ted Wilson 

Blue River Bluff III Cave can be reached. This 

58-foot-long cave is located about 10 feet 

below the top of the limestone bluffs. The 

entrance is 14 feet high by 7 feet wide and 

slopes down to a 7-foot climb-down. A hole at 

the base of the climb-down leads to a 15-foot 

climb-down into a lower room. Continuing 

up the trail, for another 300 feet, a large rock 

cairn can be seen on the right. At this point 

the trail has gained 180 feet in elevation since 

leaving the highway nearly 3,000 feet earlier 

and is only about 600 feet southwest and 100 

lower lower that the ridge top. The entrance 

to Louden Pit is located about 20 feet below 

the top of the limestone bluff and a faint trail 

leads to it. 

The entrance is a 2-foot by 3-foot slot that 

363


slopes down 12 feet to a small room. From 

this room a 25-foot-long crawlway leads to the 

ledge of the 114-foot-deep pit. The balcony 

is 15 feet wide and of sitting height. A 150foot 

rope is needed if a flowstone column in 

the crawlway is used for rigging. Otherwise a 

180-foot-long rope would be needed if a tree 

at the entrance is used. A couple of rope pads 

are also needed. 

The pit is 114 feet with most of the rappel 

against the muddy wall. It is noted for it 

ledges, mud, and falling rocks. At the top it is 

over 20 feet in diameter. It enlarges some until 

364 

Paul Barker descending Loudens Pit. 


a major ledge about 75 feet down is reached. 

From this point downward the pit is about 

15 feet in diameter. The floor of the pit has 

several small mounds of flowstone. Off the 

bottom, a breakdown slope leads into a alcove. 

This alcove is a good place to stand to be away 

from falling rocks. 

Reference: BIG Newsletter 8#2, 10/1969, 

T. Wilson 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook: 1977, 1981, 

1984, 1986, 1990 

BIG Newsletter 5#2, 8/1963 

CHUG Preconvention Guidebook 1973 

Caves of Indiana, 1967, R.L.Powell

Manhole Cave, Corydon West 7.5-minute 

quadrangle, Harrison County, Indiana, 

was first discovered by bulldozing operations 

during the construction of new State Highway 

135 south of Corydon. The highway construc, 

tion made use of the cave by building drainage 

ditches and culverts which crain directly into 

the cave. The entrance to the cave is a steel 

manhole cover 2.5 inches thick weighing well 

over 200 pounds. Underneath the steel cover is 

a concrete pipe 37 feet deep. Steel rungs have 

been placed on the side of the concrete pipe 

to be able to descend to the bottom. At the 

bottom is a horizontal concrete pipe 2 feet in 

Flowstone on the laddder rungs. 


diameter which leads 

to the actual cave. 

The cave consists 

of a short section of 

passage forming a 

small loop. The cave 

contains a lot of mud 

and debris washed 

in through the 

entrance. Breakdown 

covers the floor in 

some places. A few 

speleothems exist 

near the entrance, 

and some larger 

flowstone deposits 

lie farther within. 

No leads exist due to 

extensive mud fill. 

Manhole Cave 


Nick Smith in the climb-down entrance to Manhole Cave. 


By Greg Spaulding 

365


Maucks Cave is located in the Harison 

Crawford State Forest, across the 

valley and to the west of Langdons Cave. The 

entrance is a 6-foot diameter hole situated on 

a wooded hillside and can be difficult to find. 

The 12-foot-deep entrance pit is easily free 

climable and intersects a walking-size passage. 

To the left the passage ends in 50 feet when it 

intersects the hillside. A hole in the floor near 

the entrance leads to a short segment of lower 

level passage. 

The main part of the cave is to the right of 

the entrance. This passage is easy walking size 

for about 200 feet. Two small floor holes lead 

to more short segments of lower level. The main 

passage contains massive flowstone, stalactites, 

and soda straws. There are also numerous old 

366 

Maucks Cave 

By Dave Black 

dates and signatures in this area. The passage 

nearly ends at a flowstone choke, but a 20-footlong 

belly crawl over the flowstone and through 

the stalactites leads to the continuation of the 

main passage. In about 50 feet the passage ends 

at a small room. A muddy belly crawl off the 

terminal room continues for a little over 100 

feet before it ends at a mud fill with tree roots. 

In addition to the normal caving equipment, 

a trash bag and a camera are nice to have. The 

cave has seen a lot of traffic, but does not have 

the damage and trash that nearby Langdons 

Cave has. Even with the traffic, it is still a very 

photogenic cave 

Reference: HCG Hog-Fest Guidebook, 

1991, D.Black


Guidebook: 1984, 

1986, 1990 

CIG Newsletter, 

2/82, B.Tozer 


V.1 #2, 3/58 


V.3 #1, 7/60 

ISS Newsletter, 

V.1 #3, 8/78 

IUSC SpeleoTymes, 

V.6#2, 

1/76 


1961, R.L.Powell 

Nick Smith has arranged access to this cave 

only during convention. Please consider Parkers 

Pit Pand Bordens Pit closed after convention. 

arkers Pit is owned by Mr Howard Saylor. 

Access the caves only from his residence 

which is located off Feller Road. Always ask 

permission and do not access the caves from 

State Road 462. 

Park in the lower parking area of the 

driveway, not closer to the house. Walk from 

the parking spot to the right (west) side of the 

house to the trail that leads into the woods and 

uphill to the cave. 

The walk to this cave is along a cavers’ foot 

trail through the forest and is 1,500 feet long 

with an elevation loss of over 150 feet. The trail 

heads east from the parking area. 

Parkers Pit is Indiana’s fifth deepest cave with 

a total vertical extent of 206 feet. The entrance 

measures about 4 by 8 feet. About 20 feet below 

the entrance the pit bells out to about 10 by 15 

feet and retains these dimensions the rest of the 

way down. The entrance pit is 105 feet deep. To 

continue on, access must be gained to a dome 

adjacent to the entrance pit. This requires a 


Early caving in Maucks Cave. From the Gordon Smith postcard collection. 

Parkers Pit 

Review of many by Tom Rea 

pendulum across the entrance pit about three 

quarters of the way down. The floor of this 

adjacent dome is 30 feet above the floor of the 

entrance pit. In the floor of the dome is a keyhole 

entrance to a second pit 22 feet deep called the 

Upper Bound. The S-Bend is the entrance to a 

twisting narrow canyon at the end of this room. 

This almost unbearably tight canyon passage 

leads 100 feet to a ledge 20 feet off the floor of 

the e i Room. This drop should be rigged with 

a cable ladder. A dusty crawlway from the e i 

Room, known as the Guano Trail, is very tight 

and goes 125 feet to a moderate-sized walking 

passage. A tight place near the beginning of 

this crawlway, known as the Z-Bend, filters 

out the larger cavers. Going to the right in the 

larger passage, the dimensions average 10 feet 

high and 8 feet wide with numerous shaft drain 

and crawlway leads. After approximately 600 

feet a deep fissure is present in the floor. This 

fissure joins Steves Pit, a drop of 55 feet. From 

this point on, the crevice periodically enlarges 

into small pits. It becomes known as the Rut 

Route because of its remarkable resemblance 

to the ruts in a road. The Rut Route ends at 

367


368

the 56-foot drop known as The Cathedral, a 

25- by 30-foot room containing a 25-foot-tall 

flowstone formation. Bolts have been installed 

about 20 feet back from the drop. A large room, 

50 by 60 feet, adjoining the Cathedral contains 

a passage at the bottom of a large breakdown 

pile that leads to the lowest point in the cave. 

Climbing the rope on the other side of 

the Cathedral Room leads to the rest of the 

cave. After 350 feet this passage becomes filled 

with sediment and then enters a short, narrow 

canyon that gives access to an upper level. Up 

a short breakdown slope is a low, wide, sandfloored 

passage named The Sandbox and several 

other promising leads. The Sandbox terminates 

after 225 feet in breakdown in a low room with 

a canyon crossing the floor. The canyon leads 

to a complex of small passages on several levels 

called The State Street Transfer. 

This cave is very difficult and many cavers 

cannot fit through the S-Bend and tight 

crawlways. The many pits and canyons in the 

back of the cave increase the danger of injury. 

An injured caver would find it quite difficult to 

negotiate the natural exit. 

This cave is located on a wooded hillside 

on the south side of Potato Run. It is on 

Harrison Crawford State Forest land and is 

just below the Adventure Trail. The entrance 

pit is located at the bottom of a small sinkhole. 

To reach the entrance drop, one must descend 

a slope through sandstone boulders. A 100foot-long 

rope is needed to rig the pit. From 

the lip, the pit is a nice 35-foot-deep wall drop. 

Twelve feet off the floor of the pit is a large 

ledge developed in a shale bed. This shale was 

mined for pottery clay. From the floor of the 

pit the cave continues down a breakdown slope 

as a long 20-foot-high dome. At the end of the 

dome there is an upper level walking passage 

and a stream crawl. The upper level only goes 

100 feet to a flowstone dome. The stream crawl 

P.B.R. Plunge 


Bill Baus and Dave Stahl at the entrance. 


By Dave Black 

is a 2-foot-high by 8-foot-wide cobble crawl, 

which lowers within 100 feet to a dig. Past the 

Elliot Stahl at the entrance. 


36


dig the passage opens into a flowstone dome. 

Continuing in the stream crawl the passage 

slowly enlarges to a height of 4 feet. At this 

point the passage ends in breakdown due to 

the passage intersecting the valley wall. On 

the surface the end of the cave can be found 

because there is a sinkhole and a spring that 

blows cool air. A short dig could make this cave 

Elliot Stahl examines formations in P.B.R. Plunge. 


This obscure entrance is located on a small 

bench, high above Indian Creek. Along a 

limestone outcrop is a huge slab of limestone 

which nearly conceals the small entrance. The 

entrance is a squeeze through tree roots into 

a crawlway containing numerous flowstone 

formations. Care should be taken to stay on 

the narrow path through these formations. As 

the passage turns into the hill, the formations 

cease and the passage dimensions increase to 

370 

Rocky Hollow Horror Hole 

into a through trip. The water from the spring 

flows on the surface only a few feet before it 

sinks underground at the edge of Potato Run. 

Reference: HCG Hog-Fest Guidebook, 1990, 

D.Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1990, 

D.Black 

By Dave Black 

backbreaker size. This breakdown-floored, 

dry, backbreaker passage ends in a couple of 

hundred feet at two small pits. The right pit 

is a 19-foot rope drop into a circular well. At 

the top of the left pit is an unstable breakdown 

slope named the Horror Hole which leads to a 

12-foot-deep, free-climbable pit. The two pits 

connect at the bottom by way of a tight, jagged 

stream crawl with two sharp popcorn covered 

natural bridges.

Sharon McConnell in Rocky Hollow Horror Hole. 

Photo by Andrew Peacock. 

Normal caving gear is needed to explore 

the major portion of the cave. A 50-foot rope 

is needed to descend the 19-foot pit located at 

the rear of the cave. Care should be taken when 

traversing the cave to not destroy any formations 

nor to leave any unnecessary footprints. 

Reference: CIG Cave Capers Guidebook, 1990, 

D.Black 

CIG Newsletter, V.25 #5, 5/81, 

G.McNamara 

This cave is located in the Harrison Crawford 

State Forest, below the Adventure Trail, 

on the ridge east of Wyandotte Ridge. The 

Adventure Trail is a 30-mile-long trail that 

circles the major portion of the Harrison 

Crawford State Forest. With this perspective 

the walk to Rolling Rock Cave is just 1 mile. 

Park north of Wyandotte Cave where the 

Adventure Trail crosses the road. Follow the 

trail east along the ridge top, then north into a 

valley with a dry stream bed, then up and over 

a small ridge, and back to a dry stream crossing. 

It is straight up (50-foot elevation gain) the 

second ridge where the trail contours. After 

800 feet of level trail there will be a small rock 

cairn with the cave located about 100 feet to 

the right (downhill). It is a long walk, the trail 

Rolling Rock Cave 


BIG Newsletter, V.17 #2, 2/82, D.Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook 1981 

By Dave Black 

is difficult to follow and the entrance is difficult 

to find. 

The entrance is a small, shelter-type cave 

at the bottom of a 20-foot-diameter sinkhole, 

with a 15-foot-high outcrop of limestone above 

the entrance. This sinkhole is located about 100 

feet east of a very large sinkhole which serves as 

a landmark. At the rear of the shelter is a bodysize 

hole. This hole was dug open on January 

19, 1980, by members of the ISS. They gave 

the cave its name while working on this dig, 

because rocks that fell down this hole seemed 

to roll forever. Their dig ended up being a 7foot 

climb into a lower room. This room slopes 

down to a 15-foot talus climb to an even a 

lower room. A stream enters this room from a 

breakdown pile. The cave continues as a down 

371


372 

stream belly crawl, 

Brandon Stephens at the entrance to Rolling Rock Cave. 


luckily a wet-suit is 

not needed. In 50 feet 

the crawl enlarges to 

hands-and-knee size. 

In another 15 feet 

the passage narrows 

to become a tight 

canyon. The tightness 

lasts for only a body 

length before it opens 

into a series of three, 

20-foot-high domes. 

The stream passage 

below these domes to 

continue as a 3-foothigh 


shale passage. In 50 

feet the stream drops 

down a 47-foot pit. This drop needs a 100-foot 

rope and can be rigged to give a nice wall drop 

in the waterfall. At the base of the waterfall 

there is a short free climb down into a 20-footwide 

by 30-foot-long dome room. The stream 

sinks in the breakdown forming the floor of the 

dome and cannot be followed. 

This cave is 311 feet long, and is noted for 

its difficult, tight canyon crawl and its nice 47foot-deep 

waterfall pit. In addition to normal 

caving gear, a 100-foot rope and vertical gear 

is needed. 

Reference: HCG HogFest Guidebook 1990, 

D.Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook 1990, 

D.Black 

Karst Encounters Guidebook 1991, D.Black

Seitz Pit, also known as Fuzzys Pit, is a 

challenging, short, complex, multi-leveled 

series of domes and pits. Vertical gear and three 

ropes (70 feet, 100 feet, and 40 feet) are needed 

to reach the explored end of the cave. More 

cave is waiting for anyone who is challenged by 

extremely tight passages. 

The entrance is located on the wooded, 

western hillside of Orchard Ridge. It is a 

complex cave that was explored in the early 

1970s in the hopes of reaching the down stream 

continuation of Hells Hole, which is located on 

the same ridge over 3,000 feet to the northeast. 

To reach the cave, 

walk south on a 

logging road from 

the King Leo Cave 

parking area for about 

1,400 feet. Then just 

before reaching an 

open field and a “NO 

T R E S PA S S I N G ,” 

sign walk down the 

wooded hillside, 

staying on the left 

(south) side of a very 

small ravine. The 

entrance is located 

30 feet south of the 

small ravine at an 

elevation of 705 feet 

above sea level, which 

is about 60 feet below 

the logging road. A 

fence surrounds the 

entrance to the pit. 

The entrance is 

an impressive, 9-foot 

diameter opening in 

an area of limestone 

outcrops. A 70-foot 

rope is needed to rig 

the uphill side of the 

pit, which will give a 

Seitz Pit 


By Dave Black 

nice 32-foot free rappel into a 15-foot-wide by 

30-foot-long room. The talus floor of the room 

slopes down from the entrance pit until the far 

wall is reached. At this point the limestone wall, 

due to an enlargement of the shale partings, 

resembles a natural ladder. By climbing 7 

feet up the wall a balcony to a small room is 

reached. Crossing this room, by climbing down 

and back up, a second small room can also be 

reached. Off the back side of the second small 

room is a 42-foot canyon drop. A 100-foot rope 

is needed and can be rigged off the wall that 

separates the two small rooms. Off the floor of 

373


the second pit are two passages. The obvious 

way on is the 13-foot, free-climbable pit in the 

floor. The drain off this free climb was named 

Toad Crawl, a passage which Mike VanNote 

pushed for an estimated 200 feet. He reported 

it as being very tight and wet. It has never been 

mapped. 

The second passage off the second pit is a 

tight canyon 8 feet up the left wall. This canyon 

is about 20 feet long and, because of the tightness 

and the bends, resembles an enlarged Parkers 

Pit’s “S-Bend.” It was first pushed in 1976 by 

Ian Ellis. It leads to a very impressive dome. 

This dome is 50 feet long by up to 30 feet wide 

with a height of over 80 feet. The dome room is 

divided by a 20-foot-high “mountain.” On the 

entrance side, this mountain is bedrock while 

on the far side it is a steep, flowstone and talus 

slope. At the bottom of the slope is a 23-foot 

waterfall pit. A 40-foot rope is needed to rig 

this pit. At the bottom is a very tight and wet 

stream crawl which Greg McNamara pushed in 

the early 1980s. It finally became too tight to 

follow. Above the 23-foot pit is a 20-foot free 

climb into a 70-foot-tall waterfall dome. It was 

named Morton Salt Dome because when it 

rains it pours. A 40-foot free climb up the wall 

of this dome leads to an impressive overlook of 

the large room. 

From the parking spot, hike parallel with 

the road in a southeasterly direction while 

following the woodline. Remain at the same 

elevation for a quarter of a mile until the woods 

becomes so thick one is forced to go uphill to 

stay in the open field. At this point enter the 

woods and traverse slightly downhill in a due 

east direction. The cave entrance is located 

approximately 75 yards from the road and 40 

feet lower in elevation. 

Smiths Blowhole was originally surveyed 

in 1980, having a total length of 98 feet. 

Exploration resumed in early 1991 after a 

374 

Smiths Blowhole 

Ryan Moran in the canyon to Morton Salt Dome. 


Reference: BIG Newsletter, 13#1, 8/77, 

D.Black 

GL Newsletter, 8#2, 1972, S.Frushour 

BIG Newsletter, 5#2, 8/63 

By Joe Oliphant 

crawlway was enlarged, revealing an additional 

1,900 feet of passage. The scenic entrance is 

20 feet wide and 4 feet high. Several large 

trees have fallen across the entrance sinkhole, 

partially hiding it and obscuring some of its 

esthetic beauty. The cave in general is very cold 

compared to most Indiana caves. 

Once inside the small entrance room, 

look for a low crawlway near the ceiling that 

requires a 4-foot climb-up. This passage 

moves a large amount of air and motivated the 

group in the selection of the cave’s name. The 

crawlway begins as a body-size tube and passes


375


through two tight 

constrictions. After 

75 feet the passage 

enlarges to 4 feet high 

while averaging 5 

feet wide. Traversing 

another 70 feet, one 

will arrive at the only 

formations in the cave. 

At this point, two 

bolts have been set 

and are used to rig the 

pit. The abandoned 

bypass route, which 

was originally used 

for accessing the 

remaining passages, 

can be entered 

through a tight canyon 

situated to the right 

of the formations. 

If one wishes to explore only horizontal 

passage, the upstream section can be reached via 

the abandoned bypass or by crawling directly 

over the top of the 72-foot pit, Farley Well. 

Traversing across the pit without some type of 

belay is not recommended. 

The horizontal passage that lies beyond 

the top of the pit immediately joins a small 

stream and is the source of significant air flow. 

This passage averages less than 3 feet high and 

requires crawling in water through most of its 

length. A trip to the Bitter End requires one 

to totally submerge in the stream on several 

occasions. At the present upstream terminus a 

tremendous amount of air flow issues from the 

small 1-foot-diameter hole. Talking with local 

residents together with several surface checks 

have led us to believe the water source is some 

distance away. The potential for this passage 

to continue uninterrupted is not great due to 

the fact that it is heading upstream and is near 

the top of the ridge. The current length of this 

passage is approximately 600 feet. 

Back at Farley Well, a 120-foot rope and 

rope pad are recommended to descend the 

pit and pendulum over to the Oregon Trail 

section of the cave. This pit is certainly one of 

376 

Brian Grubb in the entrance crawl of Smiths Blowhole. 


Indiana’s finest. It is completely free from the 

lip and is not directly in the waterfall. This drop 

was named after Christopher “Farley” Yeager, 

because it was the first pit discovered by his 

caving friends after his death in Mexico. 

Approximately 26 feet below the pit lip one 

can pendulum to a passage named the Oregon 

Trail. A rope pad is mandatory due to the 

extended distance of the pendulum into this 

passage. If it is raining outside, a significant 

waterfall will be present in the pit, making the 

pendulum even more hazardous. Once this 

maneuver is completed, one must take great 

care in traversing around the pit’s edge due to 

loose breakdown slabs leaning into the pit. 

This intermediate level of the cave is very 

friendly. Although it never reaches walking 

height, it surely represents classic Indiana ridge 

passage. Two significant areas in this section are 

the Gypsum Room and a 15-foot climb-down 

which contains a blowing canyon lead. 

The Gypsum Room is only 3 feet high but 

up to 50 feet wide, reminiscent of the Sandbox 

section in Parkers Pit Cave. Please don’t 

venture off the obvious trail in this area, for this 

section has seen only two trips and is in pristine 

condition. The 15-foot climb-down contrasts

with the sandy crawlways and contains the best 

lead in the cave, which will require a major 

effort to continue the exploration. 

At the bottom of Farley Well, follow the 

water downstream. This passage leads to the 

Cascades section and contains a very nice series 

of climb-downs. The Cascades end in a large 

room in which the ceiling height is nearly 50 

feet. The stream terminates below Teds Lost 

Lunch Room, which is currently the deepest 

point in the cave at 121 feet below the entrance. 

A lead through breakdown, which would 

extend the total depth, has been worked over 

on several trips with no success. This lead also 

moves some air and during wet weather one 

can hear noise believed to be a small waterfall 

in the distance. 

From this room a 12-foot climb-up leads 

directly to a tight constriction named McClain’s 

Pant Ripper. This passage has not been fully 

explored or surveyed. It features several domes 

and climb-ups, and one passage which moves a 

good amount of air. This passage becomes very 

small and ends in a dig. 

It is not recommended to explore the wet 

section above the pit in rainy weather due of 

the possibility of flooding. The lower cave, 

below the pit, should be all right during any 

weather condition, although the pit itself can 

Before its show cave era Squire Boone 

Caverns was a popular cave known as 

Boones Mill Cave. It featured a sporting climb 

up into the cave from the natural entrance. All 

this wet pleasure has been circumvented by the 

construction of the tour route. If you take the 

tour, notice the place where the steam drops 

through a hole in the floor about 6 feet in 

diameter. This was the way in in the good old 

days. 

Regular tours of the commercial sections 

of Squire Boone Caverns will be available to 

convention goers bearing convention badges 

Squire Boone Caverns 


Sean Lewis on rope. Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 

be very wet. Even though Smiths Blowhole is 

under 2,000 feet long, it is very involved and 

will probably take from 4 to 6 hours to explore 

in its entirety. 

Reference 1992 Convention Guidebook 

By Aaron Atz 

during the convention as a “buy one get one 

free” discount. These trips are guided and 

regular tourists will also be on these trips. 

Remember that this is peak season for tourists 

at the caves. And please remember that you 

represent the NSS when you visit show caves 

in the area. 

Squire Boone Caverns is a small yet 

impressive show cave. Actively (and rapidly) 

flowing water distinguishes this show cave from 

all other Indiana show caves. Among many 

other large and impressive spelothems, Squire 

Boone Caverns has perhaps the most massive 

377


and impressive rimstone dams of any Indiana 

cave (see page 439). The traversable length of 

the tour is around 2,000 feet. 

Teds Dig is located in a major valley south 

of Cold Friday Hollow in the Harrison 

Crawford State Forest. The entrance to the cave 

is located across a dry stream bed from an old 

logging road (foot trail), in a shallow sinkhole 

with a small limestone outcrop. In the summer 

of 1969, Ted Wilson found a blowing hole in 

378 

Teds Dig 

See the article “Indiana’s Show Caves” for a 

broader description of Squire Boone Caverns. 

By Dave Black 

this sinkhole. He dug on the hole numerous 

times, until, with the help of Tom Fritsch and 

John Danovich in November 1981, the cave 

was opened up. 

The entrance dig is a body-size, downwardsloping 

crawl. This section can have loose rocks 

because of frost fracturing. In less than 100 feet

it opens into Tourist Avenue. The larger passage 

is formed in shale and averages 10 feet tall by 15 

feet wide. It continues at this size for about 300 

feet, with some pretty white formations. The 

passage then lowers to a crawling, up-stream 

canyon, that extends for about 100 feet before 

becoming too tight. 

A small stream formed a narrow canyon in 

the floor of Tourist Avenue. Not far from its 

start, the floor canyon is wide enough to climb 

down to the stream level and to the main part of 

the cave. This is a 25-foot-deep canyon and can 

be difficult to climb back up. If you continue 


down-stream, past 

a couple of small 

waterfalls, you will 

come to a small room. 

From this small room 

one can stay high in 

the stream canyon to a 

formation area. Then 

climb back down to 

a hands-and-knee 

stream crawl. This 50foot-long 

crawl can be 

by passed by a ceiling 

level crawl. Both 

passages intersect the 

main stream passage 

at the Triple Stream 

Junction. 

The middle 

stream passage is the 

largest up-stream 

passage. It consists 

of a multi-level series 

of canyons, named 

The Canyonlands. 

Most people will 

stay in or near the 

stream. The passage 

is generally walking 

size, with a couple 

of short crawls and a 

few small rooms. At 

the Waterfall Room 

the stream forms two 

waterfalls, the first is 

about 15 feet high, and the second, only 10 feet 

away, is about 10 feet high. The main way on is 

to climb the waterfalls. At the top of the second 

waterfall is a 3-foot-high crawl, which in 30 feet 

opens into a 75-foot-long room, which is 30 

feet wide and 15 feet tall. This room is named 

Heaven because of all the formations at the end 

of the room near the waterfalls. It is formed in 

the same shale bed that formed Tourist Avenue. 

The stream passage beyond Heaven becomes 

too tight to follow. 

Back at the Triple Stream Junction, the right 

stream can be followed to the Lake Room. This 

37


stream passage is wet, tight, and nasty. A better 

way of reaching the Lake Room is by going up 

the middle stream passage for about 100 feet 

then climbing up 10 feet to a dry upper level 

that intersects the main stream. The 20-foottall 

by 10-foot-wide passage to the right is the 

obvious and correct way to the Lake Room. At 

the top of a mud slope is a 7-foot climb-up. The 

next 100 feet is a breakdown-floored passage 

that averages 15 feet tall by 25 feet wide. At the 

end of the breakdown section is a short handsand-knee 

crawl that leads to a down-cutting 

canyon. The Lake Room is at the bottom of 

this canyon. It is a 30-foot-tall room formed 

by the intersection of two canyons. Straight 

ahead is the stream canyon. Down stream is the 

wet, tight, and nasty crawl to the Triple Stream 

Junction. Up stream goes for 50 feet before 

flowstone blocks the passage. The right canyon 

off the Lake Room is a large, muddy flowstone 

dam that formed the lake. This lake is 10 feet 

wide and looks very deep. By chimneying 

over the lake at ceiling level, a sandy floored 

crawlway can be reached. This crawl goes for a 

little over 100 feet before ending in breakdown. 

At ceiling level of the Lake Room is the M 

Survey Passage. It can be reached by going part 

way up the flowstone dam, then traversing the 

wall to a webbing ladder. At the top of the 

380 

webbing ladder is the 

M Survey. It starts 

out as a walking-sized 

passage. The M Survey 

Passage continues 

for over 2,100 feet. 

It varies in size from 

walking to crawling 

with the majority 

being a hands-andknees 

crawl. The M 

Survey finally ends at 

a flowstone mass. At 

the floor level of the 

Lake Room, below 

the webbing ladder, is 

a tight passage named 

Ted Wilson on the Stairway to Heaven. Photo by Dave Black. 

the Grim Crawl 

of Death. It was 

discovered by the Harrison Crawford Grotto. 

This passage goes almost underneath the lake 

Aaron Atz in CHUG Hall. 

Photo by Andrew DuBois.

and connects back to the main stream just 

down stream of the Triple Stream Junction. 

Down-stream from the Triple Stream 

Junction, the passage is generally a walkingsize 

canyon, with some flowstone covering the 

walls. In about 250 feet a large waterfall pit is 

reached. This pit is traversed by a ledge along 

the right wall. In 25 feet, a dry, 39-foot pit is 

reached. A 60-foot rope is needed to rig this 

drop. Below this pit the stream continues a 

short distance to a sump. A muddy crawl on 

the left by passes the sump and leads to the 

Sump Room. A small stream can be followed 

up stream to a tall dome. 

By climbing up at the top of the 39-foot pit 

an upper level can be reached. This level consists 

J. Springer rapelling in Valentine Pit 


Valentine Pit 


of two large rooms. The last room, named 

CHUG Hall, has a 40-foot-tall flowstone mass 

at one end. 

Teds Dig is a sporting cave, with numerous 

climbs, chimneys, and crawls, and even some 

walking. It takes several hours to explore this 

cave. Normal caving equipment is all that is 

needed, unless one wants to explore below the 

pit. Care should be taken to stay in the foot 

prints left by the original explorers. 

Reference: HCG Hog-Fest Guidebook 

1991, D.Black 

OVR Karst Encounters 1991, D.Black 


HCG Hog-Fest Guidebook, 1990 

By Dave Black 

381


This pit cave is located on a wooded hillside 

within the Harrison Crawford State 

Forest. It is a three quarter mile hike, mostly 

along old logging roads, to reach the entrance. 

The entrance is a 2-foot by 4-foot slot on a 

hillside in an area of numerous ravines. It was 

discovered by Roger Sperka, a member of the 

Purdue Outing Club, in 1969, when he was 

ridgewalking to the east of Parkers Pit Cave. 

It is best to use at least a 100-foot-long 

rope rigged off a nearby tree. The entrance is a 

10-foot climb-down. A small hole opens into 

a 71-foot-deep pit. Most of the drop is along 

The entrance to Wiseman Pit is located 

near the state forest across the valley from 

Parkers Pit Cave. The best access to the pit is by 

382 

Ted Wilson ascending Wiseman Pit. 


Wiseman Pit 

the wall of a dome that is 8 feet wide by 25 feet 

long. Off this dome room are two flowstone 

alcoves and a drain. The drain was dug on by 

Ted Wilson back in 1970 but he did not get 

through. He remembered the lead and 13 years 

later recruited Danny Dible, Jill Dible, Jeff 

Forbes, David Grieser, and David Black to help 

dig open the lead. The extremely tight drain 

opened into a series of canyons with a couple 

of small domes and rooms. The water finally 

left the cave in a drain that looked impossible 

to dig open. 

By Dave Black 

way of state forest land. The entrance is located 

in a pine forest next to a tall, dead hardwood 

tree. The sinkhole containing the pit it can be 

difficult to find. At one time there was a fence 

surrounding the entrance, though at present 

only a few remnants of this fence can be seen. The 

entrance is 3 feet in diameter and drops 17 feet

to a small room with moss-covered flowstone. 

A hole in the floor of this room drops 20 feet 

to a ledge with a formation alcove. From this 

ledge the pit continues as a free, 43-foot drop 

to the floor of a room. The total depth of the pit 

is 76 feet, a 120-foot rope is needed for rigging. 

The best rig point is a small tree immediately 

behind the large, dead tree trunk, which used 

to serve as the rig point. 

Immediately below the entrance are several 

massive flowstone formations. From the 

bottom of the pit the cave opens into a large 

breakdown-floored room. This room has several 


old signatures dating back to 1950. In April of 

1989, Kenny Carrigan and Tina Shirk extended 

the cave. This was done by digging just above 

the drain near the base of the entrance drop. 

They found about 250 feet of new passage with 

50 feet of additional depth. This new discovery 

consists of a short crawl to a breakdown room. 

Off the breakdown room is a flowstone climbdown 

to a drain. 

Reference: BIG Newsletter Vol 16 No 3, 5/81, 

D.L. Black 

CIG Cave Capers Guidebook 1984, 1990 

Jeff Forbes in Hells Hole in the upper-level passage to Felt Hat Dome when it was virgin. 


383

384 

Lawrence County Caves 

Regular tours of 

the commercial 

sections of 


will be available 

to convention 

goers bearing their 

convention badges 

or NSS membership 

card during the 

convention at the 

following discounted 

rate: $10.00 for 

adults and $6.00 

for children. These 

trips are guided and 

regular tourists will 

also be on these trips. 

Remember that this is 

peak season for tourists at the caves. And please 

remember that you represent the NSS when 

you visit show caves in the area. 


Colglazier Entrance to Blue Spring Cavern in 1964. 

If you’ve never boated through a cave, you 

should check out Bluespring Caverns. See the 

article “Indiana’s Showcaves” for a description 

of Bluespring Caverns. 

Bronson-Donaldson Cave (Shawnee Cave System) 

Caution: do not attempt this cave if there is 

any chance of rain. This cave system has a 

history of flooding in heavy rain and has been 

the site of at least one major flooding rescue 

after a significant thunderstorm. 

Check in at the Spring Mill State Park office 

just inside the park to obtain a cave permit. There 

is an entry fee for entering the park. There must be 

at least three people in each caving group and the 

management may cancel cave access if there is rain 

likely or if it has rained recently. 

The Bronson-Donaldson through-trip 

is an Indiana classic. The trip is usually done 

By Aaron Atz 

from the upstream entrance at Bronson Cave 

to the Donaldson Entrance. One can park up 

the hill from the Donaldson Entrance and 

take a hiking trail overland to the Bronson 

Entrance. This trip courses over a mile of 

walking, crawling, and even has short sections 

of swimming passage. The Big Room is about 

halfway through the cave and makes for a nice 

place to take a moment and look around in 

some drier passage. Several hundred feet from 

the Donaldson Entrance is a 6-foot waterfall 

climb-down. From here you can see daylight. A 

wetsuit is advisable but not required.

The Donaldson Cave entrance in 1938. 



Buddha Cave is the property of the Indiana 

Karst Conservancy. A liability release 

form must be filled out at the convention kiosk 

before leaving for Buddha Cave. Also keep 

in mind that a handline must be used on the 

entrance room climb-up. 

The entrance to Buddha Cave is impressive 

by Indiana standards, the focus of surface 

drainage of a small closed valley. The cave lies 

south of the crossroads of Buddha: a cluster of 

houses, a church, and a service station. 

Park in the parking lot and follow the wide 

foot trail, turning right at every intersection. At 

the bottom of the hill, follow the dry streambed 

to the wide entrance. Just inside, a small stream 

makes a brief appearance before exiting in a 

sump at the far end of the entrance room. Make 

your way to the dry upper level by climbing the 

ledge along the left wall and follow it to the 

start of a fissure dropping vertically back to a 

stream; another stream falls loudly into the 

Buddha Cave 


Mark Adler in Bronson-Donaldson Cave. 


By Tom Miller (edited) 

passage at the fissure’s far end. 

Rig a cable ladder or rope on a convenient 

stalagmite and descend about 25 feet to the 

stream. Alternatively you can chimney across 

the fissure and rig your ladder to a convenient 

hole in the opposite wall. Those with long legs 

can drop down about 6 feet about 10 feet on 

beyond the fissure and then crawl back through 

a crawlway to a ledge where it is possible to step 

down onto the top of a stalagmite on a ledge in 

the lower level. This is much easier going down 

than it is coming up—you better rig the ladder 

first. 

You will be progressively more amazed 

and impressed by the size and beauty of lower 

Buddha, a high canyon unmarred by vandalism 

both up- and down-stream. If the water is low 

you can force your way through two near-sumps 

(the Greater and Lesser of Two Evils) upstream 

to another sump. 

The upper levels, now abandoned and 

385


fossil, are essentially dry, but surprisingly large 

logs and branches, and the like, show that rare 

modern flooding still occurs. For the first 160 

meters, the passage is straightforward, then 

splits. The ceiling, developed under phreatic 

(water-filled) conditions maintains a very gentle 

gradient. At the split, the old passage is plugged 

with silt and clay, and two newer routes have 

pirated its flow: a large surface depression and 

pond lie almost directly over the old passage at 

this point. 

The younger of the two newer routes is 

a tube at the ceiling of the upstream part of 

the active stream canyon: it splits from the 

present stream way directly above the worst 

of the two ducks, wanders over to the old 

upper level, then continues on across the 

25-foot pit to the youngest of the two fossil 

levels. 

This section continues 60 meters to 

a squeeze into a T-junction. This crosspassage 

has a few 1970s signatures, and is 

the continuation of the original Buddha 

passage: left goes to the other side of the 

plug past the surface depression. Right 

386 

goes to a tight hole beyond which can be 

glimpsed larger passage: this lies directly 

over the stream passage, but is sufficiently 

far above it that a reasonable extension to 

the cave could be added by digging into the 

fossil passage beyond. It is unlikely to lead 

to another entrance. 

As could be expected, the stream levels 

are wet, but at low water levels a rapid 

through-trip should be possible from 

Buddha, without a wetsuit, out the cave’s 

lower entrance at Christian Cave. Christian 

Cave, however, is on private property and 

the owner considers it closed. 

This lower level lies almost directly 

beneath the fossil levels in most of the cave, 

but with its steeper gradient it cuts down 

through the geologic bedding to progressively 

greater depths until gentling-out at a depth 

of 60 feet. This lower limit seems set by 

an impermeable rock unit (likely shale), 

and creates the conditions for dangerous 

flooding in the lower levels. Vegetal debris 

in ceilings of these areas shows temporary 

ponding of 12 to 15 feet, sumping numerous

Dave Stahl in the lower level of Buddha Cave. 


Carcass Crypt is an aptly named pit located 

in the Bedford West Quadrangle near 

Bedford, Indiana. The bottom of the 71-foot 

entrance drop was once covered with the rotted 

and rotting remains of various domestic and 

wild animals with a generous amount of trash 

sprinkled in. In 2003 the Ohio Valley Region 

completely cleaned up the cave as their annual 

conservation project. 

An almost complete bear skeleton was 

recovered in 1969 from a small room which 

can be entered via a small hole about 4 feet 

off of the floor of the pit. 

Since very few bear skulls or skeletons 

have been found in Indiana, this find is of 

interest to the student of bones and the 

collector thereof. Carcass Crypt may offer 

other significant treasures to those who are 

inclined to look. 

Carcass Crypt Cave 


areas and isolating others. 

The map profile of the lower level (from a 

135-degree view) shows the bedrock ceiling 

has the same gentle gradient as the upper 

fossil levels. Down cutting in vadose (air 

filled) conditions has created the striking 

canyon of sections of the lower level: this 

canyon was likely continuous throughout 

the stream way, and the low areas at the nearsumps 

are nearly all associated with extreme 

deposition of stalactites and flowstone at 

roof level that nearly fill the passage below. 

The resurgence of the stream is just 

below the large entrance of Christian Cave, 

opening in the wooded escarpment south of 

the large open field that lies above Buddha 

Cave. A group of springs drop a further 30 

or so feet to the valley bottom, then continue 

on to the White River. Several other caves, 

some unknown, all unmapped, have been 

located in the vicinity. 

Brian Leavel and Bambi Dunlap rappelling into 

Carcass Crypt Pit during the Ohio Valley Region 

clean-up project. Photo by Chuck Perkins. 

387


Fuzzy Hole is a large collapse sink about 75 

to 100 feet across (and growing). A cave 

passage collapsed bringing down some 15 feet 

of earth fill to produce a large talus cone in 

the center. The edge of the pit slopes at a steep 

388 

Sigrid Gardner exiting Fuzzy Hole. 


Gory Hole is on the Hoosier National Forest 

and permission is nor required to visit. The 

small entrance opens quickly into a large pit 

about 137 feet deep, 45 feet long, and 30 feet 

wide. Depending on the amount of rain, there 

is a waterfall that either thunders or just barely 

trickles down the walls. The main pit can be 

rigged in several different ways. It is possible 

to tie the rope to the tree near the pit entrance 

and rappel in. With this rigging, the rope and 

the waterfall are in the same place. The best and 

Fuzzy Hole 

Gory Hole 

By Dave Black 

angle across clay to the thin limestone roof. 

The pit drops free for about 25 to 30 feet to 

the talus slope and requires at least 80 feet of 

rope. At the bottom is a large room with no 

apparent outlet. A passage used to exist but has 

been covered by mud and breakdown. The pit 

is quite actively changing in that the entrance 

continues to wash in mud. Its size is quite 

impressive for Indiana. 

By Mike Dowden 

the driest way is to rappel to the ledge about 15 

feet down, unrig, and cross the pit to the crawl 

leading to the right as you face the pit. This crawl 

opens into the pit after 20 feet. There is a bolt 

for rigging and a flowstone column for a backup. 

Past this bolt drop are two more bolt rigging 

points, both of which afford good anchors for 

long, freefall drops. To rig the pit using the bolts, 

a 25-foot rope is needed for the drop to the ledge, 

and another rope 135 feet long is needed for the 

main pit. It must be emphasized that rope pads

Dave Everton beginning the rappel into Gory Hole. 



Bill Baus nearing the top f the 28-foot pre-rigged 

climb in Gory Hole. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

38


are needed for each drop. 

At the bottom of the pit a small crack leads 

to an adjacent room which is about 60 feet high 

and has a large breakdown mountain. The walls 

of this room and some of the breakdown are 

decorated by a covering of flowstone. Thirty 

feet up the breakdown slope on the right is a 

room about 8 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 6 feet 

high. In this room the wall and floor are covered 

with flowstone. In the center of the room the 

flowstone slopes downward to a 20-foot pit. This 

3 0 

pit can be free climbed, but a bolt is provided 

for rigging a rope. At the bottom of the drop is a 

room about 15 feet in diameter which is covered 

with flowstone and draperies. 

At the top of the breakdown in the 60-foothigh 

room is a passage about 28 feet up in the 

wall. A rope is permanently rigged there, and 

the passage leads to a breakdown room which is 

about 35 feet high. 

Reference: 1997 Cave capers Guidebook. 

Hoosier National Forest Swallow Hole 

By Dave Black 

The owner of this 

cave lives near 

the entrance on U.S. 

50. Do not park in 

the half-circle drive 

in front of the house. 

The parking area is 

behind the small barn 

that is alongside the 

house. The Swallow 

Hole is located in the 

owner’s back yard. 

The Hoosier 

Nationa Forest 

Swallow Hole has a 

42-foot, scenic pit 

entrance. Surface 

drainage water has 

cut a trench to the 

limestone entrance. 

The ditch funnels 

water over a stone 

terrace and into the 

pit. There is 1,800 

feet of passage at the 

bottom. The cave 

aparently fills with 

water and heavy rain 

floods the entrance 

pit. 

Ron Russell, Sigrid Gardner climbing out of Hoosier National Forest Swallow Hole. 

Photo by Brian Killingbeck

the owner, is 

quite friendly to 

responsible cavers. 

Howeer be sure 

to ask permission 

before entering 

Hoosier National 

Forest Swallow 

Hole. 

Reference: 1997 

Cave Capers 

Guidebook. 

You must stop at the owner’s house to ask 

permission and fill out a release form. Mr 

Kern is very nice and interesting to talk to. 

From the owner’s house drive north for 

three quarters of a mile. The road turns to 

the west and crosses the White River six 

tenths of a mile further on. Four tenths of 

a mile after the river, and a 90 degree turn 

to the north, the main road takes another 

90 degree turn to the west and a side road 


Bill Baus ascending Hoosier National Forest Swallow Hole. 


Kerns Pit 

continues to the north. Stay on the paved 

road for another three quarters of a mile. 

At this point a gravel road “T”s in from the 

south. Follow the gravel road. After a little 

more than a tenth of a mile the road will 

curve to the east and then back to the south. 

As the road straightens look for a gate on 

the east side. Park beside the gate and enter 

the property by going through the gate on 

the east side of the road. Be sure the gate is 

3 1


3 2 

Bill Baus in the entrance sink of Kerns Pit. 


closed and locked behind you. The entrance 

is about 200 feet northeast of the gate 

directly between the gate and a small pond. 

The entrance is situated in a small ravine. 

The entrance to Kerns Pit is a steeply 

sloped sinkhole with a 3-foot by 8-foot 

opening which leads to a 93-foot pit. The 

first drop starts in a narrow shaft that 

quickly opens up. At the bottom there is a 

sloping ledge that overlooks a room with 

a ceiling height of 60 feet. From this point 

one can also look across the pit and see a 

passage continuing on. This passage consists 

mostly of crawlways intersecting small pits 

and domes. Another 40-foot rappel against 

the wall brings one to the bottom of the 

room. If tied off close to the pit, a 150-foot 

rope is enough for both drops. Rope pads 

are desirable for both the main pit and the 

second drop. 

Reference: 2003 Cave Capers Guidebook

Roberts Cave was opened in 2001 by the 

owner, Willie Roberts, who subsequently 

explored much of the cave. Several years later, 

organized cavers were alerted to the discovery 

when a neighbor named Frank Hodges 

negotiated access to the cave. Members of the 

St. Joseph Valley Grotto and Bloomington 

Indiana Grotto participated in the initial 

exploration. They found a nice, roughly milelong 

cave with long sections of walking canyon 

passage. Signs of previous visitation were not 

found, and it is believed the cave was virgin 

at the time Willie opened it. The survey was 

completed and a map drawn within a relatively 

short time. Other, shorter caves were discovered 

in the vicinity as well. 

The main entrance is in a shallow sinkhole 

and opens directly into a walking passage. This 

can be followed to the right about 1,000 feet 

through mostly walking passage to an area with 

dense soda straws and other speleothems. The 

floor in this branch of the cave is mostly flat 

and dry clay, with a few pools of water. The end 

of this passage is near a large sinkhole on the 

surface. 

Back at the entrance, if one heads left instead, 

Roberts Cave 


By Dave Everton 

several joint-controlled junctions lead to the 

main stream route. All the water in the cave 

travels into a small slot which can be followed 

for a few hundred feet. This downstream 

section is a narrow, clean-washed crawlway for 

much of its length. Towards the end is a short 

waterfall that drops 6 feet. This downstream 

passage eventually terminates by becoming to 

narrow. Afterward, the water most likely travels 

into another nearby cave before emerging in a 

short spring cave to the west. 

Upstream from the main stream junction, 

the longest trunk of the cave goes east for about 

3,000 feet. Much of this passage is walking 

canyon. A shallow stream in the bottom of it 

contains pools of water, but is never very deep. 

This passage begins approximately 15 feet tall 

and gradually becomes wider and lower. 

About halfway through this passage a room 

is reached which contains some flowstone and 

soda straws. One can climb into an upper level 

in this area but it only goes a short distance. An 

infeeder from a sinkhole on the surface brings 

debris into the cave here. 

About halfway down this passage, a room 

is reached which contains some flowstone and 

3 3


soda straws. Shortly afterward, the passage 

profile becomes T-shaped. Eventually, the 

ceiling lowers to a crawlway. A junction is then 

reached. A second entrance was discovered on a 

neighbor’s land during the course of the survey 

in this area. Both routes upstream become too 

low a few hundred feet from the junction and 

entrance. 

Most of Roberts Cave is easy walking 

passage, and is typical of caves in the area. It, 

and other caves formed in the Fishing Creek 

3 4 

Shavon Peacock in the formation room in Roberts Cave. 


Sullivan Cave is an Indiana Karst Conservancy 

property and a liability release form must 

be completed prior to receiving the key for 

Sullivan Cave. Access to the key will be limited, 

so given the distance from the convention site, 

likely only one group per day will be able to 

visit. 

The 40-foot section of Sullivan Cave from 

the entrance to the Waterfall Room, and some 

of the crevice passage in that area, has been 

known to explorers since the 1840s. The major 

discoveries of the Backbreaker Passage (1952), 

Sullivan Cave 

drainage area in which 

it is located, were 

g e o l o g i c a l l y 

controlled by the 

White River, and 

formed as that 

waterway dropped 

in level with the ice 

ages. It is most likely 

developed in the 

Salem and St. Louis 

Limestones, and 

follows the dip of 

the rock as it heads 

west towards Fishing 

Creek. Numerous 

fossil sections of cave 

exist in the area, many 

of which probably 

connected at an 

earlier time. 

Access to Roberts Cave for the 2007 NSS 

National Convention has been arranged for a 

led-only trip. Cavers interested in requesting 

permission for visitation at other times should 

contact owner Willie Roberts, either by emailing 

him at emailtowillie@yahoo.com or 

calling 765-318-4629. While Mr. Roberts 

is friendly to cavers, he does not want cavers 

showing up at his property without prior 

arrangement; please honor that request. 

By Sam Frushour 

the Mountain Room (1956), and Beyond the 

Beyond (1962), spurred interest in the cave. 

In 1962 and 1963, two week-long expeditions 

were conducted in the cave. At that time 44,900 

feet were surveyed but the drafting of the final 

map, which shows nearly 10 miles, had to wait 

until 1972 when Sam Frushour finished the job 

others had started. Sullivan Cave is one of the 

most complex systems of its size, and of interest 

to sport caver and scientist alike. 

The cave is developed in the Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone of middle Mississippian age, within

Mike Kennedy at the South Y in Sullivan Cave. Photo by Glenn Hicks. 

a broad ridge of the Crawford Upland, only a 

few miles west of the Chester Escarpment. The 

local direction of dip of the Ste. Genevieve varies 

from west to south at about 30 feet per mile 

with predominantly down-dip development of 

low-graded passages (approximately 15 feet per 

mile). 

Two streams control base level in the 

locality of Sullivan Cave. Indian Creek, west 

of the cave, is a meandering, low-graded stream 

fed by numerous springs. Spring Creek, along 

which are the past and present spring outlets of 

Sullivan Cave, is east of the cave. 

The total depth of horizontal passages is 

105 feet through three levels, two of which are 

abandoned because of valley down cutting in 

the region. The same valley that dissected the 

upper two levels now contains the outlet of the 

present stream, known as Speed Spring. 

In conjunction with the three levels there are 

connecting canyons that drop steeply from one 

level to another. Since the time water abandoned 

the canyons, small valleys began dissecting the 

ridge over the cave. Consequently, domes and 


vertically enlarged canyons have developed, 

carrying runoff into some of the connecting 

canyons. Rejuvenated streams in the entrance 

area have modified existing canyons, and in 

one instance (the Waterfall-Crevice area) a 

new series of canyons has formed to carry local 

infiltration to the stream level. 

Among the noteworthy features of Sullivan 

Cave are its numerous diversion channels 

that have developed in response to extensive 

collapse in the stream level. These areas of 

collapse have restricted the stream, resulting in 

sedimentation and ultimately the development 

of overflow channels to carry floodwaters. 

The cave is noted for its 15 large rooms, all 

but three of which are tension domes resulting 

from semi-circular ceiling collapse. The Spiral 

Room, which is one of the exceptions, is a large 

circular collapse where progressive breakdown 

around the walls has formed an upward spiraling 

ledge. The Quarry Room and Room Seven are 

the result of ceiling slab collapse along bedding 

planes, leaving wide, unsupported, flat ceilings. 

The highest room is the Colossus, which rises 

3 5


Fred Schumann in one of Sullivan Cave’s crevice 

passages near the entrance. Photo by Dave Everton. 

120 feet above the stream passage that passes 

through one side. 

The main entrance to Sullivan Cave is a 

7-foot pit that drops to a steep, mud covered 

slope. The slope can be quite slippery at times 

so a hand line may facilitate entry and exit. 

Following the entry passage for 40 feet and 

down two 6-foot drop offs, the explorer enters 

the Waterfall Room. Two crevice passages 

lead from the room. The right hand passage 

is followed for 50 feet until an intersecting 

passage is seen above. 

The Backbreaker is a north-south trending, 

dry upper level that is generally low and wide, and 

contains a considerable amount of breakdown. 

The right hand section leads northward to the 

Lost Dome area, a complicated upper level 

with many domes and crawlways. The north 

end of the Backbreaker ends at an excavation, 

approximately 600 feet past the Lost Dome 

area. 

The left hand section of the Backbreaker 

leads to the major sections of the cave including 

the Merry-GoRound, Mountain Room, 

3 6 

Sullivan River, Spiral Room, and Beyond-the- 

Beyond. The Backbreaker ends at a junction 

called the T, where walking passages lead in 

two directions. 

From the T, the right-hand passage leads to 

the Merry-Go-Round. It is a circular canyon 

passage where mud fill has created a seemingly 

unending corridor. Some people have followed 

their own footsteps around the loop several 

times before realizing their predicament. 

About 400 feet from the T along the lefthand 

passage, the Mountain Room can be 

entered at a point where the wall on the right 

is undercut. At the back of this low alcove is a 

narrow, 1-foot-high hole that leads immediately 

to a slope that quickly deepens into a 20-footdeep 

canyon connecting to the Mountain 

Room. 

The Mountain Room is formed where the 

intermediate level has collapsed into a flood 

route of the lower stream level. It is a breakdown 

dome 60 feet high and over 100 feet across that 

provides access to over 20,000 feet of the lowest 

level, the stream passage. 

The passage downstream from the 

Mountain Room joins Sullivan River, the main 

stream of the cave, at the South Y. The main 

stream leads to Armstrongs Folly and the Spiral 

Room. There are several crawlways leading 

from the Spiral Room, one of which leads to 

the Speed Hollow Spring Entrance, about half 

of a mile from the Main Entrance. 

Upstream from the Mountain Room is the 

wettest part of the cave. Points of interest are 

the Crevice Connection, a tortuous route to 

the Main Entrance; the Mud Stalagmites; and 

the Quarry Room. 

North of the Quarry Room is a 3-milelong 

area known as Beyond-the-Beyond. The 

first several hundred yards of this area is a 

breakdown-filled passage that has ponded a 

long section of stream. The water is a chilly 

52 degrees Fahrenheit and in one place is 

approximately 5 feet deep. This in turn leads to 

a 70-foot bathtub that has 6 inches of airspace. 

After penetrating this obstacle, the explorer 

reaches a large room called the Coliseum. 

Leading from this room the passage opens up,


Sullivan Cave borehole passage just north of the South Y in the overflow route. 

appearing much like the Flood Route leading 

to the Quarry Room. This passage leads to the 

Colossus, the largest room in Sullivan Cave. It 

is 120 feet high and at least 200 feet long. 

North of the Colossus is the largest passage 

found in Sullivan. Its cross-section measures 

approximately 30 feet high and 40 feet wide. 

The stream meanders between steep mudbanks 

that nearly reach the ceiling. Next the explorer 

reaches a long, narrow breakdown room on the 

right side of the passage, beyond which is a 200foot 

bathtub which one can negotiate while 

staying dry from the waist up. Nearly a mile 

and several breakdown rooms later, the rise of 

Sullivan River is encountered. It is a pool 60 feet 

long and 40 feet wide that has stopped further 

exploration. The volume of the rise is only 

slightly less than that of the river when it exits 

at Speed Spring, almost 4 miles downstream. 

Undoubtedly, much cave lies north of Beyondthe-Beyond, 

but attempts to find access to 

the theoretical B 3 (Beyond-the-Beyond-the- 

Beyond) area have been unsuccessful. 

This region of the cave offers hazard to even 

the most hardy individuals, and the difficulty of 

a trip here should not be overlooked. A round 

trip from the entrance to the rise of Sullivan 

River and back out requires at least 12 hours 

for those familiar with the route. 

Depending on the areas visited, trips into 

Sullivan vary from moderately rugged to 

extremely difficult. The cave has a wide variety 

of situations to offer the explorer. It offers 

everything from tight canyons and low wet 

crawls to large, walking-size borehole corridors 

and rooms. 

A map of Sullivan Cave is included in the 

map package. 

3 7

Buckner Cave will be open during convention 

week. See the caving kiosk for access rules 

and requests during convention. For access after 

the 2007 NSS National Convention, see Dave 

Everton’s article, “The Richard Blenz Nature 

Conservancy” on page 265. 

Buckner is one of the largest and most 

interesting of the Garrison Chapel caves. It 

offers a wide variety of dry, dusty passages as 

well as an intriguing history. Dates found 

within the cave indicate that people explored 

its passages as early as the late 1700s. More 

recent dates suggest that the cave was visited by 

settlers from neighboring areas in the 1840s. 

3 8 

Monroe County Caves 

Buckner Cave 

Only since the 1960s have cavers fully explored 

Buckner Cave. 

Buckner Cave has a history of being the 

most trashed cave east of the Mississippi River. 

Recent efforts by the Richard Blenz Nature 

Conservancy and the Bloomington Indiana 

Grotto the cave is emerging from it’s bleak 

past. Buckner is an interesting cave with varied 

passages and a long, easily-followed circle 

route. 

The entrance is a big collapse sink where a 

large, old cave passage intersects the hillside. 

The entrance passage is about 15 feet wide and 

15 feet high and opens into a room scattered

with breakdown. 

One passage to the 

northwest soon ends. 

To the southeast, 

through a small 

hole behind a block 

of breakdown, a 

crawlway leads to the 

major portion of the 

cave. The crawlway is 

about 600 feet long 

and ranges from a 

belly crawl to a 3- to 

4-foot-high handsand-knees 

passage. 

At the terminus of 

the crawlway a “T” 

junction is reached. 

To the northeast 

(left) the passage is 15 

feet wide and 20 feet 

high and leads to the Big Room. The Big Room 

itself is about 30 feet high and contains a large 

pile of breakdown in its center. From this room 

a crevice heads northeast to Keens Grotto 

and many former formation rooms, another 

crawlway from the Big Room leads to the Air 

Force Room. From the vicinity of the Air Force 

Room a belly crawl connects again with the 

Keens Grotto passage to the north. A small 

breakdown crawl heading south enters the west 

end of a large segment of passage known as the 

Monument Room. 

The Monument Room is about 300 feet 

long in an approximately east-west line. In some 

places it is 40 feet wide and 25 feet high. Both 

ends are blocked by collapse. A large crevice 

cuts through the floor along most of the length 

of the Monument Room. Near the east end are 

the remains of many massive stalagmites and 

several domes. These domes extend toward the 

surface and are the source of the stream flow 

within this section of the cave. At the east end 

of the Monument Room is a passage heading 

southwest. 

One hundred feet southwest from the 

Monument Room, a large block of breakdown 

almost blocks the passage and 100 feet beyond 


Willie Hunt in Buckner Cave. Photo by Willie Hunt. 

this block a deep trench appears in the floor. 

A small connecting passage there is known as 

the Window. From this point the main passage 

heads west. Two side passages here form a short 

cut to the west end of the Monument Room. 

From the trench, the main stream passage 

averages 15 feet wide and 6 feet high. 

At the Cairn Room several holes drop down 

into a crawlway passage leading to the base of 

the Volcano Room. The Volcano is a collapse 

of the sediment in a large, half-filled upper 

level passage into the stream passage below. At 

the top of the Volcano is the open portion of 

the large upper level. This old passage extends 

north east-southwest for approximately 800 

feet, and averages 30 feet wide and 20 feet 

high, but most of the original cross section is 

now filled. At its southwest end this passage is 

less than 100 feet from Trap Door Cave. 

Downstream in the passage below the 

Volcano is a breakdown section and a low, wet 

crawlway which eventually leads to another 

upper level. This upper level room was known as 

the Signature Room and now is called the L.V. 

Cushing Room since the “signatures” have been 

removed. A short passage at its top leads back 

to the previously mentioned “T” at the end of 

3


the entrance crawlway. Downstream from the 

Signature Room is a 250-foot-long 15-footsquare 

breakdown passage which ends where 

the stream flows into a tight crevice. This very 

tight and sinuous passage leads, after several 

hundred feet, to a 10-foot-high waterfall. At the 

bottom of the waterfall the passage soon ends 

Sean Lewis climbing in Freeman Pit. 


Freeman Pit has a 97-foot, relatively freedrop 

rappel from the lip. The cave is located 

northwest of Bloomington and is about two 

400 

Freeman Pit 

in a sump. At the beginning of the waterfall 

passage are two crawls. The North B.S. Crawl 

is several hundred feet long. The other passage, 

known as South B.S. Crawl, extends south and 

west for approximately 1,500 feet. The end of 

this passage is very close to passages in Brinegar 

Cave of the Blair System. 

By Aaron Atz 

hours from the convention site. Access to 

the pit is unrestricted during Convention 

2007. However, at all other times, all cavers 

are requested to make advance arrangements 

prior to visitation with owners Jerry and Marie 

Abram, by phoning them at 812-876-5705.

Wayne Cave is the property of the Indiana 

Karst Conservancy. A liability release 

form must be completed prior to receiving the 

key for Wayne Cave. 

The key will be limited, so given the distance 

from the convention site, likely only one group 

per day will be able to visit. 

The entrance to Wayne Cave is a small 

vertical hole at the bottom of a small sinkhole 

in a grove of trees. The entrance is covered by a 

steel gate locked with a padlock. The Indiana 

Karst Conservancy has made an intensive effort 

over the last six years to clean up the cave and 

stop the extensive vandalism that was occurring. 

This effort has been mostly successful and the 

cave is in better condition than it has been for 

years. 

Wayne Cave has become famous for its 

1,250-foot-long crawlway, which is probably 

overrated in difficulty. Known as a short 

cave on the edge of the Garrison Chapel 

Karst Valley by local cavers of the 1950s, it 

was extended by a major discovery in 1955 

by a group of Purdue University cavers. At 

that time the crawlway did present a barrier, 

with difficult 

sections such as 

Stalactite Squeeze, a 

10- to 12-inch-high 

belly squeeze lined 

with formations, 

and Why-the-Hell 

Squeeze, 75 feet of 

helmet-high passage. 

Included in the mile 

and a half of known 

cave at that time 

were Main Passage, 

American Bottoms, 

Helictite Holler, and 

the Lake Passage. 

At about the same 

time the cave was 

further extended 

by cavers from the 

Wayne Cave 


IU Spelunking Club who discovered about 

3,000 feet of walking passage known as the 

IU Discovery. 

In 1958, cavers from Rose Polytechnic 

Institute made a two-week underground 

effort to explore and map the cave. During 

this stay, Why-the-Hell Squeeze was 

trenched, a rimstone dam in the Crawlway 

was breached, the cave was partially mapped, 

and a telephone cable was strung from the 

entrance to Camp One at the end of the 

crawlway. The cave was extended again by 

RPI cavers who discovered the Wells and 

the RPI Discovery, a formation passage. 

Once quite attractive, this RPI Discovery 

has suffered quite a lot of vandalism. 

Even though a great deal of effort had been 

expended and several surveys conducted, no 

accurate and complete composite map existed 

as recently as 1970. The present length of 4.25 

miles of surveyed passage makes it Monroe 

County’s second longest cave. Essentially, the 

cave consists of the Old Wayne–Crawlway 

section, the Camp Two area, and the IU 

Discovery section. 

A group of exlorers in Wayne Cave in the 1960s. 

Photo by Don Martin. 

401


Old Wayne—Crawlway to Camp One 

The entrance to the cave is a pair of 

slightly offset pits with a total drop of 22 

feet. A handline makes these drops a little 

easier, though both are climbable. A short 

crawl from the bottom of the pit leads to Old 

Wayne Cave, a 400-foot-long, muddy-floored, 

walking passage with a few formations. About 

300 feet from the entrance, low on the left, is 

the beginning of the 1,250-foot-long crawlway. 

Although this passage is about 15 feet high for 

practically its entire length, only the bottom 

3 feet are traversable, for the upper part is a 

narrow canyon. Near the end of the crawlway a 

canyon which slopes down to the level of Camp 

One is entrenched into the floor. 

Camp One Area 

Camp One, so named by the RPI group in 

402 

1958, is a maze area formed by the convergence 

of passages into a tri-level canyon. The notable 

passages in this area are Clarks Passage, a short 

passage above the stream; T-Crawl, a sandyfloored, 

low-level crawl trending south beneath 

Clarks Passage; the unstable breakdown area 

and the Trundle Hole upstream from Camp 

One; and the RPI Discovery area. Although 

RPI Discovery is heavily traveled, it is sometimes 

difficult to find. 

To reach the Wells and the RPI Discovery, 

go west past the end of the Crawlway about 50 

feet to the beginning of another crawl to the 

right. Follow this crawl to a small waterfall on 

the left and continue beyond to a series of 30foot-high 

domes above and to the right. The RPI 

Formation passage is reached by walking up a 

pile of breakdown. At the top of the breakdown 

and to the left is the formation passage, above

The natural bridge at Camp Two. 

Photo by Willie Hunt. 

and to the right is the Moonmilk Passage. The 

other domes, or Wells, in the immediate area 

are the 60-foot-high Muddy Dome and the 45foot-high 

Moonmilk Dome. 

Main Passage to Camp Two 

The Main Passage downstream from Camp 

One is basically a three-level canyon passage 

about 40 feet high. It is greatly modified by 

breakdown and sedimentation. The main points 

of interest between Camps One and Two are the 

large breakdown rooms, the Deep Gorge, and the 

Lake Passage. The Lake Passage, entered about 

midway to Camp Two through breakdown on 

the left wall, is a long, mud-filled, floodwater 

overflow route. There is a series of shallow lakes 

and water crawls before the breakdown-filled 

end of this passage is reached. The Lake Passage 

is potentially dangerous during rains. The Deep 

Gorge is about 30 feet deep and is the bottom 

part of the tri-level canyon just upstream from 

Camp Two. The only tricky part in the trip to 

Camp Two is about 500 to 600 feet beyond the 

first large breakdown room. To get to Camp 

Two stay to the right hand wall and crawl about 

15 feet over breakdown to another breakdownfilled 

room. By staying to the left and following 

the stream one invariably ends up in the Lake 

Passage. 


Camp Two 

Camp Two is 

recognized by the 

presence of an 8-footwide 

natural bridge. 

Helictite Holler is a 

crawl to the upper 

right above the 

natural bridge which 

connects with another 

passage beyond Camp 

Two. To the lower 

left, behind a large 

breakdown slab, is the 

way to the American 

Bottoms, a passage 

noted for its three 

large breakdown 

rooms. The passage 

straight ahead and up from the natural bridge 

leads to a formation area, a couple of breakdown 

rooms, the 150 Yards Passage, and the other 

end of Helictite Holler. The crawlway to the 

lower right beneath the natural bridge and 

the walking passage in the American Bottoms 

section both lead to the IU Discovery. 

IU Discovery 

The IU Discovery is, by far, the cleanest 

area of the cave and is perhaps one of the 

nicer sections, though it is practically devoid 

of speleothems. The crawlway from the 

natural bridge is the easiest and quickest way 

into the IU Discovery, which continues as a 

stoopway or crawlway as far as a room called 

Buckingham Palace. The Gypsum Passage, a 

1,500-foot gypsum-encrusted canyon, begins 

here and reconnects to the IU Discovery at 

its far end. From Buckingham Palace to Camp 

Three is a dry, wide, stoop way passage. The 

two possible routes past this point, a crawl 

through the breakdown along the lower left, 

or an upstream walk in the canyon passage of 

Keyhole River below, converge in about 75 

feet in the main passage of the IU Discovery. 

This passage is characteristically about 8 feet 

high with an 8-foot-deep canyon meandering 

back and forth along its axis. Not far beyond 

403


Camp Three is the West Passage, a stream crawl 

contributing about half of the water in Keyhole 

River, the major IU Discovery stream. To the 

north the depth of the canyon in the main IU 

Discovery passage decreases until the far end 

of the Gypsum Passage is reached. Beyond this 

point the cave is known as the North Passage, 

a 1,000-foot-long continuation of the Gypsum 

Passage. Several other short side passages bring 

sinkhole debris into the cave. The IU Discovery, 

counting all the side passages, contains a little 

over 1.25 miles of the presently known length 

of Wayne Cave. 

404 

Don Martin entering Wayne Cave in the 1960s. 

Photo by Bob Armstrong. 

Although the cave has had its share of 

visitation, there are still many very attractive 

areas to be discovered. Once the Crawlway 

is traversed, it is very easy to get to the other 

parts of the cave, and there are still several areas 

that ought to be checked much more closely 

for leads. There are several reports of a passage 

continuing past the Camp Two area for several 

thousand feet, but repeated checking has not 

led to its relocation. Any trip in the cave may 

visit several promising areas, and most passages, 

especially beyond Camp Two, are labeled on 

the wall for easy reference.

Dillon Cave is located in the Hoosier 

National Forest, about a mile and a half 

southwest of the Little Africa Cemetery. The 

cave entrance is in a 

large spring alcove 

and is about 7 feet tall 

and 4 feet wide. The 

ceiling immediately 

drops to hands and 

knees height and 

water issues from the 

cave mouth with the 

promise of a fun time. 

Within 50 feet of the 

entrance, breakdown 

is encountered, and a 

wide, flat room is off 

to the left. The main 

stream passage is 

encountered 50 feet 

farther. To the right 

(downstream), the 

stream is diverted 

from its original 

route by a mud bank 

into the breakdown 

filled entrance 

passage. The mudfilled 

main passage 

soon terminates in a 

small room partially 

filled by hillside 

collapse. Several 

large bear wallows 

and numerous claw 

marks can be seen 

in this room. In 

fact, as one retraces 

his steps back into 

Orange County Caves 

Dillon Cave 

By Kevin Komisarcik 

the crawlway and into a short side passage, 

number of other bear wallows can be seen. 

At the junction of the main stream 

405


passage and the 

entrance passages is 

another side passage. 

This passage is rather 

small, but once again 

it contains several 

bear wallows. This 

small tube continues, 

as does a small side 

passage. Although 

the dimensions 

are rather tight, a 

small person could 

continue on. A good 

breeze and water 

issues from these 

passages. 

Upstream, the 

main stream passage 

has an average height 

of 4.5 feet and an 

average width of 20 feet for the first 350 feet. 

The stream has down cut a shallow canyon 

in the center of the floor that varies from 8 

inches to 1 foot deep. Along the walls more 

bear wallows have been scooped out of the 

mud banks. At this point, the ceiling lowers 

to about 3.5 feet and the passage makes a 

sharp bend. The stream rises from a joint in 

the floor and, except for a few small pools, 

the passage is dry. After 200 more feet, the 

stream enters a floor joint and disappears. 

Throughout this section, more bear wallows 

are seen. 

After another 300 feet of stoop walk, 

breakdown nearly fills the passage. At the end 

of this breakdown is a very small hole which 

allows one to squeeze through and drop back 

into the stream. If one’s feet are not wet by 

this point, they are now. Near this hole is a 

low, wide side passage, which loops back to 

the main stream passage. This side passage 

contains numerous bear wallows and, in fact, 

may have been excavated to a large extent by 

the bears. At the end of this crawl is an 8-foot 

climb-down to the stream. Past this point, no 

evidence of bears could be found. The hole 

in the breakdown is too small and the climb- 

406 

A bat in Dillon Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

down too steep for bears to negotiate. 

The cave soon takes a turn for the worst, 

as the ceiling abruptly lowers and one is 

forced to belly crawl along and across the 

stream. Relief comes in 200 feet as the ceiling 

rises and the passage widens to acceptable 

dimensions. For the next 600 feet, the cave 

is once again about 20 feet wide and 5 feet 

high. At this point breakdown is once again 

encountered, this time of the terminal variety. 

No way was found over the top of the fallen 

rocks. At stream level no hole large enough to 

permit human entry could be found. One can 

see another 15 feet to where the breakdown 

seems to drop to stream level. There was a 

fair breeze blowing through the rocks. This 

breakdown seems a bit unstable, so forcing it 

with standard cave expansion techniques will 

be risky. 

While walking over the surface in the 

vicinity of the end of the cave, a number of 

sinkholes were found 200 feet away. A few of 

these had small holes in their bottoms. These 

sinks are probably the source of the water in 

the cave and it is unlikely that the cave would 

extend beyond this area.

Lost River Cave should 

be considered closed 

unless you’re on a led 

trip with the St. Joseph 

Valley Grotto. The cave 

is vast, challenging, and 

99% of the cave floods to 

the ceiling several times 

per year. Consult with 

Mark Deebel for access 

information after the 

NSS Convention. 

There will be at least 

one led trip to Lost River 

Cave during convention. 

See Mark Deebel’s 

article, “The Discovery 

and Exploration of the 

Lost River Cave Syatem,” 

on page 27. A map of 

Lost River Cave is included 

in the map package. 

Dave Stahl in Lost River Cave. 


Lost River Cave 


Mark Kraus in Lost River Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Dave Stahl in a formation area in Lost River Cave. 


407


Call the owner Chad Cook before leaving 

the convention site. He requests that a 

liability release form be filled out and brought 

to him before entry. 

McIntosh Pit is located within the town of 

Paoli and has a very 

unusual entrance. 

A large cistern-like 

concrete structure 

was built over the 

entrance many years 

ago, probably for 

safety reasons. It 

takes some creativity 

to remove the 200to 

300-pound, lipped 

concrete-slab lid for 

entry, but if a “spud 

bar” is handy, leverage 

and a chockstone are 

enough. 

Rigging a 120foot 

rope to the 

closest tree provides 

for a free 76-foot 

rappel to the top of 

the trash mound. 

Rig high on the tree 

to make lip crossing 

easier when ascending 

from the cave, since 

this may be the most 

perfectly undercut lip 

you’ll ever experience. 

Once on bottom 

you can explore the 

mound of 1970s era 

trash, some of which 

is now accumulating 

dripstone. The pit 

is spacious at the 

bottom and there is a 

small side dome with 

formations. Rumor 

408 

McIntosh Pit 

By Aaron Atz 

has it that the pit was closer to 100 feet deep 

or more before the trashing began. This is 

plausible. Watch for broken glass, sharp metal, 

and other hazards.

Janie Atz preparing to cross the lip at the entrance to McIntosh Pit. 


Andrew and Alison DuBois in Odd Fellows Hall in Wyandotte Cave. 



40

Boone Cave is located in Owen County near 

Whitehall and is marked on the Whitehall 

quadrangle map about half way between 

Bloomington and Spencer along State Road 43. 

Over the years of its known existence, the cave 

has gone through periods of heavy visitation to 

near obscurity. The cave is geologically mature 

and can be used as a model to look for other 

caves at different locations. The water goes in 

an upstream swallowhole, flows through the 

ridge, and exits at a giant spring passage in a 

retreating karst valley. It does this at the level of 

the Lost River chert bed. The upstream starts 

at Cannonball Cave at the chert bed that is 

well exposed through the middle sections and 

becomes undercut as the passage goes into the 

historic Boone Cave section. By the time the 

stream exits Boone Cave the chert bed is almost 

40 feet above the stream and not exposed in 

the passage anymore. 

The cave also has a 

landowner history, 

local history, and a 

published history that 

have developed much 

folklore over the years. 

In this article, we will 

look at these aspects 

as well as the new 

policies on accessing 

the cave set by its 

newest owner, The 

Nature Conservancy. 

Land Owner 

History 

Boone Cave has 

been known about 

since the frontier 

days. The cave was 

410 

Owen County Caves 

Boone-Cannonball Cave System 

By Jerry Bailey 

named after its first owner Daniel Boone (not 

the famous frontiersman). He obtained the 

property the cave is on in 1825 as a homestead. 

Mr Boone found a profitable use for the cave 

after acquiring it. He harbored illegal slaves 

in the cave until they were sold in the black 

market trade. It is uncertain how long this went 

on, but ended well before the Civil War. The 

Jefferson Ordinance of 1787 abolished slavery 

in all states north of the Ohio River. 

The homestead was later owned by the 

Franklin family who sold a 120-acre section to 

the Powell family just after World War II. The 

Powell’s at first welcomed cavers, but by the 

early 1960s grew tired of caver traffic and closed 

the cave to visitation. Also during that time Ed 

Powell sold 40 acres to a developer named Byers 

who divided it into lots for houses. One lot has 

a climb down entrance into the Cannonball 

The Boone Cave Entrance, 10 to 12 feet high, 25 feet wide. Photo by Rob Jarboe.

Tom Duselis looking at cannonballs in Cannonball Cave. 


Cave side of the system. The Powells sold 

the rest of the property to Eric and Annette 

Boeck (Beck) around 1995. The Boecks were 

not caver-friendly and often lashed out with 

hostility at cavers near their property. 

During the 1999 Cave Capers, Cannonball 

Cave was not featured in the guidebook but a 

large group of 10 or 15 went there anyway. They 

had permission to use both Cannonball Cave 

entrances; however, the Boone Cave Entrance 

was off limits. Never the less, Annette Boeck 

drove up on them walking down the street in 

muddy cloths and accused them of trespassing 

on their property. Later, when I was there with 

Melissa Thomas and Ron Harlow, I pulled 

up to an empty yellow house at the start of 

the driveway. When I went there to help map 

Cannonball Cave on Kevin Strunk’s effort 

back in the early 1980s we parked at the yellow 

house. So I thought it was on the same property 

as the entrance we were using and, when she 

told us to park up front at the end of the lane, I 

parked at the abandoned house. 

While Ron and I were looking at the Climb- 

Down Entrance Annette drove up to Melissa 

and rudely screamed at her for trespassing. 

Melissa told us about it when we came back to 


the car and wanted 

to leave. So, I moved 

the car into the field 

across the driveway. 

Annette pulled out 

a few minutes later 

calling someone on 

her cell phone, but 

had nothing to say to 

me. A few weeks later 

on a Sunday morning, 

we were in the same 

place with permission 

to park and Eric 

Boeck went to his 

mailbox. I waved and 

said hi, and waited to 

answer any questions 

he had about what 

we were doing. He 

just waived back as he 

went down the lane to his house. It seems more 

than a coincidence, a few weeks later, the house 

and cave went up for sale and soon after, they 

were gone. New residents have moved into the 

house and do not allow access to the cave from 

their property, but will gladly point cavers to 

Green Bluffs. 

Local History 

The cave has been known to settlers since 

the early days as old dates on the walls indicate. 

According to the old dates, the cave was often 

visited and remained open to exploration to 

the early 1960s. Ed Powell restricted access to 

the cave because increased visitation became 

burdensome. After Ed closed the cave he actually 

cleared the Entrance Room of all the big rocks 

and used it as a barn through much of the last 

half of the twentieth century. The Powells had 

a relative, Russell Lester, who was an EMT 

with Will Ott, a Bloomington area caver, in 

the early 1980s. Ott obtained permission from 

Russell for Randy Jackson and Dave Doolin 

to survey Boone Cave. They mapped in the 

historic section before the Boone–Cannonball 

connection was made. They never finished 

their map. Russell also gained access for Kevin 

411


Strunk to map the cave, according to Kent 

Wilson of the Bloomington Indiana Grotto. 

Strunk’s map was never completed either. 

Published History 

The cave has an extensive published 

history. The cave was featured in The News, 

February 1955, Vol. 13 No. 2. The News was 

the name of the National Speleological Society 

newsletter at the time. The front cover of that 

issue featured a picture taken inside the cave 

with a young boy (Robert Bruce) sitting on a 

ledge over the stream. The author, Dick Bruce, 

(his dad) wrote that the cave was a 300-yard 

walking passage to a 4-foot-high passage that 

he said went for a mile to a terminal breakdown 

room. Who knows, maybe he meant 100 feet 

instead of a mile and it was typed in wrong or 

mis-corrected in editing. If that were true his 

estimate wouldn’t be so bad. He also described 

the entrance as being 15 feet wide and 6 feet 

high. The actual dimensions are 600 feet of 

walking passage followed by 100 feet of 4foot-high 

passage to the terminal breakdown. 

The entrance is 25 feet wide and 10 to 12 feet 

high. Bruce also pointed out that Powell was 

originally generous to cavers and built a cabin 

by the entrance and rented it to interested 

people for five dollars a weekend. 

The cave was also featured in Richard 

Powell’s 1961 book, Caves of Indiana, on page 

104. Powell’s book was the first real cave list 

published in Indiana and could be obtained 

at any bookstore. Legal descriptions were 

used for locations in place of road directions 

and the book was not projected at the general 

public, but at cavers and scientists, so it never 

really caught on as a caving manual for the 

inexperienced. Powell gave reference to the 

article being from a CIG Newsletter in 1957. 

If one were to look through the CIG index, 

they won’t find a listing of Boone Cave in 

Owen County. They will find one for Boones 

Mill Cave in Crawford County, though. Keller 

of the Bloomington Indiana Grotto drafted 

both maps and the Boone Cave map actually 

debuted in Powell’s book and is not in any CIG 

Newsletter. 

412 

Other small articles also fill the NSS file, 

some are dated and others are not. Most tend 

to give a brief description of the cave. One 

letter from July 19, 1954, from Ray Streib (NSS 

2128) to someone named Burton outlined a 

virgin discovery. I think the discovery was the 

side passage complex in the Entrance Room. 

The picture provided doesn’t really match 

that area, though. The map in Powell’s book 

is similar to mine and doesn’t have anything 

on it I missed. That map came ten years after 

the alleged discovery. Streib also described the 

terminal breakdown room with more detail 

than Bruce and said it was about 700 yards in 

from the entrance. More than twice as long as 

Bruce’s borehole estimation, but not the almost 

mile and a half total estimation by Bruce. Streib 

and his group went to the cave in hopes of 

penetrating the terminal breakdown. Rushing 

water that could be heard through the rocks and 

strong airflow from beyond motivated them. 

The dig was unsuccessful and the breakdown 

was not penetrated until closer to 1985 when 

Jerry Bailey begins the ascent of the Climb-down 

Entrance. Photo by Rob Jarboe.


413


Kevin Strunk of the Central Indiana Grotto 

and his survey crew successfully dug through 

the connection from both sides in an effort 

to connect Boone Cave to Cannonball Cave. 

Kevin utilized many people in a nearly five-year 

effort to map the Boone–Cannonball System, 

connected the two caves, and dug open the 

Climb-down Entrance to facilitate the survey; 

however, it all became too burdensome and the 

survey slipped away. 

Current Conditions and Future Access 

Now that the hateful landowners are 

gone, access has improved. The Nature 

Conservancy bought the property the cave 

is on in order to preserve it from future local 

development and has sold the house and a 7-acre 

tract of land with the pond included. The new 

owners do not allow access from their driveway. 

The Swallow Hole Entrance is open but is 

mostly low and wet for over 2,000 feet through 

either passage. The owners of the Swallow Hole 

Entrance are very nice and interested in hearing 

about their cave. Although except for a fun 

through trip, that entrance is not used often. 

At the Climb-Down Entrance the owners are 

nice but do not want caver traffic. 

The Nature Conservancy answered questions 

on the phone about the cave’s history and current 

policies on visitation. They said the cave will be 

open to cavers and will not have a gate or fence 

installed in the entrance to keep people out. 

Also, an access trail would go from Greens Bluff 

Nature Preserve to the cave. It will require hiking 

for about a mile and a half and will be opened 

for daytime visitation. They were not concerned 

about cavers coming out after dark so much as 

late night local partiers ruining uncontrolled 

access for everyone else. The Conservancy feels 

that if people are willing to walk that far to see 

the cave they most likely won’t damage it or 

bother the neighbors. Consideration will be 

necessary to not bother the people living in the 

house right above the entrance. 

Conclusions 

At the Central Indiana Grotto field trip 

when the two groups missed each other 

414 

we went up the D survey to the rock at the 

north T and waited for a group that never came 

through. Later with Ty Spatta I finished the E 

survey and tied in at C37 on the original survey 

and on to C32 and then we stopped at C25 to 

connect the two passages. This way I could 

set it on the map with more than one point 

connecting it. Now, the loop was finished. 

If one looks at the topographic map, they 

will see that from the Boone Spring Entrance, 

already marked on the map, the Cannonball 

Cave Entrance is a few degrees west of north. I 

received Kevin Strunk’s map sometime in 2002. 

He had originally provided it to The Nature 

Conservancy. On Kevin’s map the upstream end 

of the D survey went through the bathtub and 

ended in the room just beyond which plotted 

almost half a mile east of Cannonball Cave 

Entrance on his map. If anything, a giant loop 

should have become obvious. Brian, Melissa, 

Kevin Wools, and I surveyed through this part 

of the cave from the Cannonball Entrance and 

came down onto Strunk’s map. Three years 

later, Ty Spatta and I tied the survey from the 

other passage starting at C12. If Strunk’s group 

would have found their way through a deadend-looking 

crawl along the west wall, they 

would have come out ten minutes from the 

Cannonball Entrance or gone back down the 

E survey to C12. 

The connection is tricky to see going south 

from the Cannonball Entrance, but was the 

direction we surveyed through to the rock at 

the north T. Either way through is the same— 

low, wet, and sleazy. Make sure it is nice and 

warm outside for the long hike back to your 

car. Otherwise, the best trip is to go down 

the Climb-Down Entrance, go up the right 

side and come back down the other side and 

then go on through the connection and out 

the Boone Cave Entrance. The cave taped in 

at 11,660 feet, which is the same as 2.2 miles 

long, 45 feet deep from the Climb-Down 

Entrance to Boone Spring and 25 feet down 

grade from the Cannonball Cave Entrance to 

the Boone Cave Spring Entrance.

Washington County Caves 

Cave River Valley 

Cave River Valley is a privately owned picnic 

park north of Campbellsburg and a few 

miles west of Salem. Several caves are accessible 

on or through the property. The Valley is a 

scenic rugged part of the countryside. In the 

early 1800s the fast-flowing stream was used to 

operate a saw mill and distillery. More recently 

in the 1940s, the caves on the property had 

lights added to them and restoration of a log 

cabin began. The trout ponds and cool valley 

air made for an easy Sunday afternoon in the 

Endless cave is located in Cave River Valley. 

The entrance to Endless, or Dry Clifty Cave 

is about 20 feet wide by 18 feet high. A stream 

flows out of the entrance of the cave. About 50 

feet inside the cave is a second opening to the 

surface. This opening is at the ceiling of the cave 

and slopes steeply to the cave stream. 

Endless Cave 

valley. 

Recently the property changed hands 

several times. The owner welcomes visitors to 

the valley for camping, caving, and picnicking. 

Plan to bring a picnic lunch and spend the day 

in the cool valley. Visit the dry walking Endless 

Cave and the extremely wet River Cave, both a 

short walk from the parking lot. 

Admission to the valley is $5.00 per person 

per day on the honor system. 

By Bill Steele (updated by Tom Rea) 

The cave used to be electrically lighted for 

about 1,200 feet, but almost all evidence of the 

lights has been removed from the cave. A side 

passage has been reported on the right hand 

side of the main passage about 650 feet inside 

the cave. This appears to now be completely 

filled. 

415


The main passage remains about 15 to 

20 feet wide and 10 to 15 feet high for about 

1,200 feet. At this point a large side passage is 

about 25 feet wide and 6 feet high for the first 

100 feet. It continues about 5 feet wide and 6 

feet high for about 300 feet. Here a small crawl 

heads north but pinches out very soon. Beyond 

this point the passage can be followed through 

a water crawl with some walking for about 700 

feet. 

The main passage continues for 500 feet 

about 30 feet wide and 10 feet high to where 

416 

water disappears beneath breakdown and a 

chert layer is seen in the ceiling. After 500 

feet more a small, 200-foot crawl leads off to 

the right. The main passage here is 3 feet high 

and has a foot of water for 300 feet, where it 

becomes larger. A breakdown room, 200 feet 

after, contains a 500-foot-long, southerly 

trending side passage with a stream. On the 

other side of the breakdown room the passage 

is big and leads 300 feet to a formation room 

on the left. Beyond this the passage continues 

500 feet to where it becomes too small. 

Shavon Peacock approaches the entrance to Endless Cave. Photo by Andrew Peacock. 

Flowstone Cave is located on the northwest 

side of Cave River Valley, off the property. 

The cave stream flows out of a 25-footwide 

by 8-foot-high entrance. Some 30 feet 

inside the entrance there is a flowstone deposit 

over which the stream cascades. From here to 

Flowstone Cave 

By Carroll Ritter 

the Dome Room the passage is decorated by 

flowstone and averages 7 feet high by 4 to 6 

feet wide. At the Dome Room, 150 feet into 

the cave, large draperies, cascading flowstone, 

and a tiered column can be seen. The passage 

beyond this room becomes narrow and high,

and continues as such 

to the Flowstone 

Room, where 

flowstone runs down 

the 30-foot-high wall 

from a crevice above. 

Beyond this room, 

the passage once again 

becomes narrow and 

about 8 feet high. At 

several places there 

is enough flowstone 

to almost choke the 

passage or reduce it to 

a crawlway. The water 

depth varies from a 

few inches to 3 feet, 

and there are a couple 

of small upper side 

passages containing formations. Near the back 

of the cave, 630 feet from the entrance, the 

stream passage bends to the west and runs for 

some 50 feet to where a flowstone constriction 

leaves a space too small to squeeze through. 

The entrance to this cave is a pit about 20 

feet deep in a small, shallow sinkhole 

on the northwest side of the a ridge in the 

northwest corner of Cave River Valley. 

A rope is recommended in entering the 

pit, but one can climb the walls without a rope 

because of a narrow ledge about halfway down 

the pit. At the bottom of the pit, the explorer 

must descend over broken rock and mud into a 

two-way passage. The passage to the left of the 

entrance is short, not over 150 feet long, and 

consists of two small rooms connected by a very 

tight crawlway. Both rooms contain beautiful 

speleothems, mostly stalactites and stalagmites, 

that have been vandalized. 

The passage extending to the right of the 

entrance pit, downstream, is the longer part 


Shavon Peacock in Flowstone Cave. Photo by Andrew Peacock. 

Frozen Waterfall Cave 

Looking ahead, there is much flowstone and 

some formations in a passage 3 feet high and 

5 feet wide. It is likely that further upstream in 

the cave more impassable constrictions due to 

flowstone would be encountered. 

By Carroll Ritter 

Jim Crail in Frozen Waterfall. Photo by Dave Black. 

417


of the cave. This passage is basically a high 

(as much as 40 feet), narrow (mostly 3 feet) 

passage that contains a sluggish stream in 

its downstream portion during wet weather. 

About 150 feet from the entrance this passage 

is nearly blocked with massive flowstone 

418 

River Cave 

deposits and is decorated with some flowstone 

waterfalls, now inactive. The downstream end 

of the cave is a high narrow passage about 50 

feet long, 2 feet wide, and about 40 feet high. 

A natural bridge spans the passage near the 

ceiling at the entrance to this passage. 

By C. Roy 

River Cave is the 

source of the 

stream that flows 

through Cave River 

Valley. From the 

parking area follow 

the stream upstream 

to the entrance 

behind a dam at the 

head of the valley. Do 

not attempt to swim 

the entrance without 

a flotation device. It 

is over your head for 

over 200 feet. A raft 

or canoe is strongly 

recommended. 

The cave has long Andrew Peacock at the entrance of River Cave. Photo by Shavon Peacock.

een known as the 

Wet Clifty Cave and 

was so named prior 

to the development 

of Cave River Valley 

Park. The entrance 

to the cave is at the 

head of Clifty Creek 

and a few hundred 

feet south of the Dry 

Clifty Cave, now 

called Endless Cave. 

The entrance to 

River Cave is quite 

pretty with a dam built 

across it. This dam is 

a reconstruction of 

a similar one used to 

power a mill which 

once stood at the 

present site of the cabin. The mill, which was 

owned by a Mr Robertson, operated until the 

late 1890s. The actual entrance passage is 4 to 

6 feet high above the water and about 10 feet 

wide. Inside it increases rapidly to 14 feet high 

and at this point a dry side passage may be 

entered by climbing a mud bank on the right. 


Cory Grabczak at the River Cave entrance. Photo by Ty Spatta. 

Sean Lewis on huge breakdown in River Cave. Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 

This passage contains the only formations in 

the cave. Returning to the boat, one continues 

upstream for another 350 to 400 feet to where 

the boat must stop for lack of water. Here the 

passage is about 12 feet high. A series of chert 

lenses hang from the roof of the cave on stalks 

of limestone. Beyond this point the stream runs 

over a chert and gravel 

floor. There used to 

be electric lights to 

this point and a few 

wires and sockets still 

remain. Near this 

point a small waterfall 

sometimes cascades 

down into the middle 

of the passage from a 

hole in the ceiling. 

The only large 

room in the cave is the 

result of a secondary 

collapse, producing 

one especially large 

chunk of breakdown. 

A short, dry crawl 

leads off to the left 

at this point. After 

a short distance, a 

41


passage that shows perfect development along 

a joint is entered. This part of the cave is so 

uniformly formed that a single survey shot of 

well over 600 feet was recorded (see the color 

photo on page 433). At the end of this section 

is another short crawl to more walking passage, 

followed by another short crawl. The passage 

continues in this way until the last 100 feet 

are reached. At this point the stream is cutting 

down through a bed of limestone that yields 

The huge overgrown briar sinkhole entrance 

to Fredericksburg Cave is just west of the 

landowner’s home. The Bodenbenders own 

the cave and know what a caver should and 

shouldn’t do, as well as the delicacy of the cave 

itself. The trip to Fredericksburg Cave during 

the convention will be led only. 

From the entrance room the passage splits 

in two directions. The left hand passage is a 

dry walk-stoopway which comes to a four-way 

420 

Fredericksburg Cave 

large potholes and other solution features. The 

passage narrows here and one is forced to either 

squeeze through some breakdown that is very 

tight or else crawl up through a waterfall that 

insures a 100 percent soaking. The terminal 

room of the cave has an intermittently passable 

entrance at the top of a very gooey mud 

slope. The stream flows out from beneath the 

breakdown at this point but no further passage 

is enterable. 

junction. At this junction, the only passage 

that does not mud up in a few feet is the right 

hand one. This leads to a “Y.” Both ways are 

tight crawls, parts over cobble stones and 

water. It makes for a sporting circle route to 

come back through this way after seeing Echo 

Lake or Lobsterlane. 

The right hand main passage from the 

entrance room passes helictites, an interesting 

siphon, and waterfalls. Continuing in varying

water depth, this 

passage eventually 

splits in two directions. 

The left hand lead is 

a muddy overflow 

route that leads to 

Echo Lake. Give a 

couple of yells here. 

The right hand lead 

lowers to hands and 

knees, intersecting a 

few domes, and finally 

stand-up passage right 

before the stream 

sumps. 

Reference: 1973 

Convention 

Guidebook. 

Henderson Park is a natural area that 

belongs to the City of Salem; The Nature 

Conservancy has a conservation easement. It 

used to be the water source for the town and 

remnants of the water system can still be seen. 

There are several collection basins, and a pump 

house can be seen in the valley downstream 

from the caves. There are three fine caves 

in Henderson Park. There is a road of sorts 

through the park that passes by all three caves. 

You can drive it in a loop if there are no trees 

Traveling the road in the Henderson Park 

valley along the stream from east to west 

you will find a side road to the right after one 

ford and just before the second. Follow this 

road to a parking area at the end. There is a trail 

to the right up and over a small hill that leads to 

the cave entrance. 

The entrance to Middle Cave is located 

under an overhanging ledge. A stream emerges 


Kevin Komisarcik in Freericksburg Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

Henderson Park 

Middle Cave 

down and it is not too wet, but you might 

wish you had four-wheel drive. The property 

is usually locked up and it is necessary to get 

permission from the Mayor’s office and pick 

up a key at the Police Department. Be sure to 

close it behind you so it looks locked to casual 

observers. If you are leery of driving down into 

the valley, there is a parking spot near a large 

tree about 100 yards before the road starts to 

descend sharply which is a reasonable walk 

from all three caves. 

By Jack Hissong 

from the entrance. The narrow passage leads 

to a small, 6-foot waterfall into a small, round 

room. The passage beyond this waterfall is 

about 10 feet wide and 4 feet high with a water 

floor. This passage leads for 300 feet to a 20foot 

waterfall that pours into a pool in the 

center of a good size room. There is a 400-foot 

side passage in this section. 

Access to the remainder of the cave requires 

421


a climb up the 20-foot waterfall. In order to use 

a rigid ladder you must have one that folds to 

no more than 10 feet long in order to negotiate 

the turn in the small room before the 6-foot 

waterfall. It is possible to boost one member of 

the party up to a six-foot-high ledge from which 

he can climb the remainder of the waterfall and 

rig a cable ladder. A 

50-foot rope will be 

required to rig the 

ladder to an obvious 

natural anchor. 

The passage 

beyond the second 

waterfall is larger, 

some 20 by 20 feet, 

containing one 

section with many 

formations. There 

are deep potholes 

in the floor of this 

passage, deep enough 

to break a leg for the 

unwary. Entrance to 

the Mountain Room 

is possible through 

422 

two routes off the main passage. This room is 

100 feet across with a pile of breakdown in the 

middle sitting under a perfectly symmetrical 

dome. Across from the Mountain Room is a 

narrow, twisting passage leading to a fair-size 

dome. The main passage continues on for 400 

to 500 feet to end in breakdown. 

The Middle Cave waterfall. Photo by Brian Killingbeck.

After entering 

the gate at 

Henderson Park, 

turn right at every 

intersection. Soon 

you will find yourself 

descending steeply 

down into the valley. 

When you reach the 

stream at the valley 

floor you will see that 

it comes from the 

mouth of a cave off 

to your right. That is 

Mill Cave. 

The entrance to 

Mill Cave is about 5 

feet high and 8 feet 

wide and requires 

Mill Cave 

The Mill Cave entrance. Photo by Tom Rea. 



423


wading in ankle-deep water. About 120 feet 

inside is a small network of side passages up 

and to the right. The main passage contains 

few formations and terminates at an 8-foot 

waterfall issuing from a choked passage. 

Access to the upper level is possible through 

several openings in the ceiling near the end 

of the lower level passage. The upper level 

backtracks in a nice walking passage some 300 

feet to a crawlway. The crawlway soon opens to 

Traveling the 

Henderson Park 

road along the stream 

from east to west, 

cross three fords. Just 

before the fourth 

ford you will find a 

usually dry tributary 

streambed entering 

from the right. Follow 

this streambed a short 

distance and you will 

find the entrance 

on your right on a 

short tributary to 

the tributary. The 

entrance to Waterfall 

Cave is located at the 

424 

Waterfall Cave 

a stoop-crawl passage that continues to a “Y.” 

The right branch opens into a room 30 by 20 

feet. The left is a small solution tube 2 feet by 1 

foot and 20 feet long. This opens into a walking 

passage containing a second stream. The 

600-foot passage ends in mud fill with water 

seeping under a ledge. The water emerges near 

the entrance to the cave. Although one is only 

75 feet from the entrance, a 3,400-foot trip is 

required to get back out from this point. 


Dave Stahl looks into a small decorated room in Waterfall Cave. 

Photo by Elliot Stahl.

head of a dry ravine. The first 300 feet of passage 

is walking, averaging 8 feet high by 5 feet wide. 

It opens into the waterfall room. Water pours 

out of an upper passage into a crevice in the 

floor to eventually resurge in the valley floor. 

Access to the upper level requires a rigid ladder 

at least 25 feet high. 

The upper passage is typically meandering 

Rumor had it that back in the days of 

Prohibition, a couple of good ole boys 

ran a moonshine still back there in the woods. 

One day as the local law enforcement agency 

approached their small distillery, they quickly 

discarded the workings down a deep shaft 

beneath the surface of the earth. 

Or so the story goes! 

Having heard almost every story imaginable 

to the human mind about caves and their 

local folklore, Keith Dunlap and I looked at 

each other with that same old look, but still 

knew that we had to check it out. Pits in this 

area have not been noted to be of great depth, 

relatively speaking that is. But the old man had 

been pretty accurate in the past in describing 

other good leads to us. Still this one had a story 

attached that made us both more skeptical than 

we had ever been before with him. 

It was a cold, snowy winter day as we began 

our trek with the old man in the lead. He stopped 

for a moment as he began to look around in 

dismay. He couldn’t remember exactly where 

the pit cave was located. His father had shown 

it to him when he was just a boy, probably some 

50 years ago, and he probably had not been 

back since. 

“It’s right in this area here somewhere.” 

A short reconnaissance of the hillside 

soon revealed a small opening about 3 feet in 

diameter. Well, we naturally dropped a rock to 

the depths below. The sound of the falling rock 

was quite impressive as it smashed to the floor 

below. Yes, the old man was right about the 

Old Still Pit 


stream passage some 8 feet high by 5 feet wide 

on the average with several speleothems along 

the way. The cave eventually opens into a fair 

sized passage 10 feet by 15 feet which leads 

to a water crawl. Beyond the crawlway there 

are many unvandalized helictites and soda 

straws. The narrow passage ultimately ends in 

breakdown 

By Glenn Lemasters 

existence of the pit, and it seemed to be a deep 

one at that. We had carried our rope and gear 

in hopes it was there, so the descent quickly 

took place. Keith was the first to rappel to the 

bottom. I could hear him speak as he detached 

from the rope. “Pretty nice” he exclaimed, “and 

I’m looking at what appears to be the trashed 

workings of an old still.” 

I reported this to the old man as his eyes 

began to light up. Quickly, I began to descend 

into the cave. The entrance soon opened into 

an elongated crevice, as the rope became farther 

Keith Dunlap examines the remains of the old still. 

Photo by Glenn Lemasters. 

425


away from the wall. It was a very nice 56-foot 

rappel. And as sure as I was looking at it, there 

lay an old still in front of me at the bottom. 

The copper tubing lying on the floor spiralling 

up into the air, it lay next to the mash box, a 

copper structure approximately 2 feet long by 

1 foot wide by 1½ feet tall. Shaped in an oval 

pattern and flat on the top and bottom, it lay 

blackened with layers of oxide that had coated 

it through the years. This was truly a historical 

find. 

The Sinking Creek Cave System consists 

of Sinking Creek Cave, Trinkle Cave, 

and Mitchell Spring Cave. The Sinking Creek 

System is a large storm sewer type cavern 

which drains a large portion of the uplands 

to the north. Sinking Creek meanders out of 

these hills and disappears a few hundred feet 

from the northern extremity of the cave. The 

water reappears inside near the Sinking Creek 

Entrance. The system has been known for many 

years. Bates originally mapped most of the cave 

in 1932. Since then, only infrequent trips have 

been made to Sinking Creek. This has resulted 

in the cave remaining unscathed by visitors. 

A word of caution must be stated here: when 

entering this cavern be sure the weather is clear 

and has been clear for several days. Sinking 

Creek is a large subterranean sewer that totally 

inundates its passages during a storm. Even 

light rains cause a noticeable increase in the 

stream depth. On one mapping trip we entered 

this system several days after a light rain. The 

Mitchell Spring Entrance was nearly siphoned 

and the stream averaged 18 inches higher than 

normal. The pool depths given on the map 

were measured during normal flow in late 

autumn and winter. Large deviations can occur 

after rainstorms. Park to the left of the airplane 

hangar. Do not block access to hangar. There 

should be a mowed area for parking. 

The northern section of Sinking Creek is 

426 

Sinking Creek Cave System 

Of course we had carried our surveying 

gear and planned to survey our new find, but 

not without first checking for a continuation 

of the crevice, hoping for virgin cave passage. It 

ended abruptly at both ends narrowing to near 

to nothing. 

We christened the cave Old Still Pit and 

felt certain the best thing to do was to leave the 

remains of the still as they were. I hope they are 

still there to this day and the story attached will 

air with that same skepticism as before. 

By Kevin Komisarcik 

entered through the Trinkle Cavern Entrances. 

The Sinking Creek Entrance collapsed and filled 

several years ago and is no longer passable. This 

section of cave is large and relatively dry. About 

800 feet in one encounters the first pool. Just 

beyond is a small grotto filled with some very 

pretty dripstone formations. In approximately 

2,000 feet the ceiling dips down and the only 

enterable side passage in the system is off to the 

right. This crawlway terminates near several 

small domes. The breakdown beneath one’s 

stomach is full of glass and other surface debris. 

Four hundred feet beyond this side passage is 

a massive flowstone formation which cascades 

down from the ceiling. Beyond, the cave 

continues with its dark, muddy passage covered 

wall to wall with water. Finally, 3,700 feet in, 

a well casing has pierced the cave’s interior 

breaking up the monotony of this drab passage. 

A thousand feet farther on a small room comes 

into view. Just beyond, submerged breakdown 

covers the floor and is very capable of tripping 

a caver and giving him a bath. The passage now 

bends sharply several times and heads to the 

north. Finally, the pools become deeper and 

one enters the largest room of the cave. Here 

the water trickles out of a crawlway which soon 

becomes too small to push. The mud bank to 

the right of this crawl is the former Sinking 

Creek entrance. 

The southern section is also best entered

at the Trinkle Cavern Entrance. Although the 

northern and southern sections are connected 

hydrologically, breakdown has filled the 

passage, making it impossible to traverse from 

one section to the other underground. The cave 

starts out dry and the floor breakdown covered. 

Soon the first long pool is encountered. In 

general, the pools are deeper in this part of the 

cave. Approximately 1,500 feet in, a small dome 

is encountered. Just beyond, the cave makes a 

sharp bend to the left. Here the ponded water 

becomes 4 feet deep. 

The water soon lowers 

and the sandy floor 

can be seen. 

Four hundred 

feet from the bend is 

another well casing. 

About 2,500 feet 

from the entrance 

the ceiling rises a bit 

and various dripstone 

formations fill the 

passage. Six hundred 

feet farther on the 

ceiling dips low, then 

gently rises to join 

with a large room. 

Here there are some 

very pretty glittering 

formations. The very 

top of this room may 

not fill during a storm 

but we couldn’t be 

sure. 

At the other end 

of this room the 

passage takes off again 

as a crawlway. More 

formations come 

into view including 

a rimstone dam. Just 

beyond, 4,200 feet 

inside this cavern, the 

passage becomes wall 

to wall water for the 

next 1,600 feet. The 

only thing to break 


the drabness is the underwater breakdown 

which one can trip over 1,400 feet away. At this 

point a large side passage comes into view. This 

leads to the Mitchell Spring Entrance. This 

passage averages 5 feet high and comes close to 

siphoning after a light rain. This is a good short 

cut in order to reach the rear-most parts of the 

cave quickly. Continuing down the main part 

of the cave, the passage is still wall to wall water 

but now stalactites hang from the ceiling. This 

makes the backbreaker even more gruesome. 

427


Four hundred feet 

farther on are some 

small but pretty 

rimstone dams. 

Approximately 

900 feet still farther 

the gradient of the 

passage increases 

noticeably. The water 

cascades into a very 

impressive slot 500 

feet further on. After 

traversing around this 

hole, one can continue 

for another 150 feet 

before coming to a 

large pit. The drop 

is only 12 feet but a 

cable ladder is still 

necessary. Once at the 

bottom one notices 

the large fluted rocks covering the floor. This 

indicates that the stream used to fall into this 

pit creating what must have been a spectacular 

waterfall. Also to the west the water comes 

pouring out of the wall 4 feet up. One who is 

not afraid of water can sometimes follow the 

stream down the slot and emerge into the lower 

level with this cascade. 

Most of the water then turns left and 

cascades into still another slot, this time gone 

for good. The water that is left leaves this 

impressive room via a passageway to the east. 

A hundred feet beyond this stream passage 

intersects an older trunk passage, which muds 

up at either end. The remaining water now falls 

428 

Glenn Lemasters in a formation area in Sinking Creek. Photo by Dave Black. 

into a smaller siphon near the wall of this trunk. 

By squeezing down a small hole in the middle 

of the breakdown and slithering through a 

wet, muddy belly crawl one pops into another 

breakdown area. A narrow canyon off to the 

north quickly ends but several small holes drop 

into a stream passage. The holes at present are 

too small but could be enlarged rather easily 

with a rock hammer. Another passage takes off 

from the breakdown area and also quickly ends. 

Here too is another small hole which drops 

into a stream. Any one of these holes has the 

possibility of adding new cave to the Sinking 

Creek System.

Section IX: Color Photography 

42


430

Bill Baus in the Formation Room in Shaft Cave. Photo by Dave Everton. 

Mark Sparks in Sinking Creek Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

Color Photography 

431


432 

Billy Winters at the top of the entrance crevice in 

Beech Tree Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

Brian Grubb descending the 76-foot pit in Smiths 

Blowhole. Photo by Chris Schotter. 

Formation room below Camp Two in Wayne Cave. 

Photo by Tom Rea, April 1977. 

The Natural Bridge at Camp Two in Wayne Cave. 

Photo by Don Martin, 1965.

A cannonball in the Boone-Cannonball Cave System. Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 

The long borehole in River Cave, Cave River Valley. Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 


433


434 

Jon Sherron, Ron Burns, and Eric Morris in Erics River Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

Todd Webb admiring a waterfall in Clicks Cave. Photo by Chris Schotter.

John Harris in Binkleys Cave’s Helictite Utopia. 

Photo by Ty Spatta. 


Ty Spatta in Devils Graveyard. 

Photo by Mark Sparks. 

Greg McNamara, Joe Oliphant, and Ron Adams in Easter Pit Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

435


436 

Glenn Lemasters discovers selenite swords in an unnamed cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

Sean, Meredith, and Karen Strunk in Marengo 

Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Ron Adams in Dog Hill Cave. 

Photo by Dave Everton.

Aaron Atz in CHUG Hall in Teds Dig. 



Binkleys Cave’s North Formation Room. 


Aaron Atz at the Throne and Canopy in Wyandotte Cave. Photo by Aaron Atz. 

437


438 

Brian Killingbeck in the Exterminator in the canyon in Two Bit Pit. 


Greg McNamara in Rocky Hollow Horror Hole. Photo by Dave Black.

Cavers in the Wayne Cave crawlway. 

Photo by Don Martin, 1965. 


Cavers in walking passage in Clicks Cave. 


Sean Lewis in Squire Boone Caverns. Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 

439


440 

John Danovich in the NSS (Nasty Sleazy Sloppy) Passage of Hanging Rock Drop. 


The waterfall at Shirley Springs. Drawing by Kriste Lindberg.

Willie Hunt in Jewel Box Cave. 


Glenn Lemasters in Donaldson Cave. 



John Danovich in Hamer Cave. 

Photo by Bill Baus. 

Nick Taran in Donnehue Cave. 


441


442 

Dave Everton at the waterfall in the Black Damp Passage in Shiloh Cave during high water. 


George Brutchen standing on the Carnes Mill Cave inlet structure. Photo by Dave Black.

Nate Newkirk in Lower Wild Turkey Cave. Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 

Nate Newkirk on rope in Middle Cave in 

Henderson Park. Photo by Brian Killingbeck. 


Selenite swords in a cave that must remain 

unnamed. Photo by Dave Black. 

443


444 

Odd Fellows Hall in Wyandotte Cave. Photo by Todd Webb. 

Nate Newkirk in Allens Lost Cave. Photo by Brian Killingbeck.

Nate Newkirk in Redmond Cave. 


Glenn Lemasters and Tina Shirk in Bryants Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 


Jeff Forbes climbing the 15-foot pit in Raymond 

Bliss Cave. Photo by Dave Black. 

445


446 

Dave Stahl traversing a ledge in Jays Pit Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Traversing the Crossover Pit in King Leo Cave. 

Photo by Ty Spatta. 

Large crayfish. Photo by Brian Killingbeck.

A 

Abram, Jerry 400 

Abram, Marie 400 

Adams, Benjamin, MD 258 

Adams, Jim 256 

Adams, Ron 7, 24, 254, 286, 298, 341, 435, 

436 

Addington, A.R. 253 

Adler, Mark 385, 455 

Akers, Tony 24, 48, 254, 256 

Allegheny woodrat 181 

Allens Lost Cave 444 

American Bison 132 

American Spelean History Association 241 

amphibians 197 

amphipods 182 

ancient bison 197 

Anderson Pit Cave 203 

Angel Mounds 15 

ant beetles 184 

arctic shrew 198 

Armstrong, Bob 7, 39, 76, 169, 211, 226, 239, 

256, 282, 404 

Arnold, Tom 39, 248 

Arrowhead Arch 305 

Ash, Don 253 

Atz, Aaron 6, 7, 11, 174, 252, 256, 295, 312, 

324, 326, 328, 331, 347, 350, 357, 365, 

377, 380, 384, 385, 400, 408, 409, 437, 

441, 455 

Atz, Janie 409 

Audubon, John James 133 

B 

B-B Hole 290, 294 

Babcock Spring 215 

Bailey, Jerry 410, 412 

Baker Hollow Cave 213, 331 

banded sculpin 181 

Banta, Arthur M. 180 

Barker, Paul 364 

The Barn 242 

Barr’s cave amphipod 182 

Bassett, John 7, 76, 144, 151, 158, 212 

bats 180 

Index 

Battle of Corydon 121 

The Battle of Corydon Memorial Park 13 

Battle of Tippecanoe 118 

Baus, Bill 7, 36, 301, 318, 323, 328, 350, 352, 

369, 389, 391, 392, 431, 441 

BBUB 333 

Beals, Marcella 326, 328 

Beals, Norman 326, 328 

Bear Plunge 7, 334 

beautiful armadillo 203 

Beavers, Dan 58 

Beech Tree Cave 296, 432 

beetles 183 

Bentley, Francis Ignatius 261 

Benton, John 7, 8, 237, 240, 253, 257, 309, 

326, 456 

Berdeaux, Gary 283, 288, 289 

Bice, Don 31 

Bice, Ted 28, 31, 33, 37, 38, 41 

Bickel School Spring 215 

Biema, Charlie 36 

Big Mouth Cave 335 

Big Mouth Spring Cave 336 

Big Rock Swallow Hole 338 

Binkleys Cave 120, 142, 215, 233, 237, 286, 

435, 437 

Bird, Larry 171 

birds 181 

The Birdseye Multi-use Trail 15 

Birthday Plunge 249, 339 

Black, Dave 7, 24, 45, 254, 256, 286, 290, 

296, 298, 299, 302, 304, 305, 306, 307, 

310, 311, 315, 319, 321, 326, 328, 329, 

332, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339, 341, 

345, 346, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, 

357, 359, 362, 363, 364, 366, 369, 370, 

371, 373, 378, 380, 381, 382, 383, 406, 

417, 428, 431, 432, 434, 435, 436, 438, 

440, 442, 443, 445 

Black, George 357 

Blair Springs 244 

Blair System 249 

Blanding’s turtle 197 

Blanton, Paul 29 

Blatchley, W.S. 180, 200, 228, 253 

447


Blenz, Dick 7, 228, 243, 244, 247, 256, 265, 

266 

Bloomington Indiana Grotto 25, 45, 254, 

256, 289, 393 

Blowing Hole Cave 216 

Blue River 114 

The Blue River Café 11 

Blue River Run Cave 341 

Blue River Strath 88 

Blue Spring Cave 142, 150, 244, 281 

Bluespring Caverns 7, 14, 281, 384 

Bluespring Caverns Park 14 

Boeck, Annette 411 

Boeck, Eric 411 

Boiling Spring Cave 27 

Bolivar, C. 180 

Bollman’s cave millipede 182 

Bolton Sink Cave 281 

Boone, Daniel 133, 286, 410 

Boone, Squire 212, 253, 286 

Boone-Cannonball Cave System 410, 433 

Boone Cave 410 

Boones Mill Cave 13, 120, 286 

Bordens Pit Cave 343 

boreal voles 198 

Brashear, Levi 258 

Braybender, Bob 8, 16, 56, 70, 196, 246, 257 

Breathing Hole Cave 298 

Bronson-Donaldson Cave 384 

Bruce, Dick 412 

Bruce, Robert 412 

Brucker, Roger 255 

Brushy Creek Cave System 215 

Brutchen, George 299, 442 

Bryants Cave 345, 445 

Buckner Cave 242, 243, 247, 249, 251, 265, 

267, 398 

Buddha Cave 142, 224, 225, 385 

Buddha Karst Preserve 224 

Buffalo Trace 132, 139, 142 

Bugh, Randy 250 

Burns, Ron 434 

Burrell, William, MD 259 

Bussabarger Cave 216 

C 

Caesars Indiana Casino 13 

Cannonball Cave 410 

448 

Cantello, Craig 28 

Capone, Al 171 

Carcass Crypt Cave 206, 387 

caribou 198 

Carlsbad Caverns 258 

Carnes Mill Cave 299, 442 

Carter Byrnes Spring 215 

Cave Country Canoes 11 

Cave Fauna 180 

Cave Research Foundation 255 

Cave River Valley 14, 150, 243, 415, 433 

Caves: Life Beneath the Forest 222 

cave salamander 181 

Central Barrens 142 

Central Indiana Grotto 45, 237 

Cesnik, George 24, 76, 254 

Chase, Dale 281 

Chase, Dan 256, 281 

Chester Escarpment 73, 104, 144 

Chester Stem Company 335 

Clark, Amanda 250 

Clark, George Rogers 133, 134 

Clark, Terry 332 

Clark, William 133, 134 

Clark cave millipede 182 

Clarks Point 134 

Clark State Forest 14, 15 

Clay, Henry 133 

Clemons, Al 316 

Clicks Cave 434, 439 

Clifton, Willie 255, 284, 285 

Climbing Fool Cave 347 

Colglazier, Eva 281 

Colglazier, George 281 

Colglazier Sink Cave 281 

Collett, John 253 

Colman, Norman Jay 259 

Conard Fissure, Arkansas 202 

Conneleys Cave 200 

Conner, Garre 314, 334 

Conservation 276 

The Constitution Elm 13 

Conway, Fred 256, 286 

Cook, Bill 171 

Cook, Chad 408 

Cook, Holly 24, 290, 336, 346 

Coon, Carleton S. 206 

Coons Cave 238, 247

Cooper, James Fenimore 260 

Cope, E.D. 253 

Copperhead Pit 249, 301 

copper redhorse 198 

Cornell, Vern 58 

Corn Island 133 

Corps of Discovery 133, 134 

Corrie, Sara 244, 255 

Corydon, Indiana 17 

The Corydon Capital State Historic Site 12 

Corydon Crushed Stone Company Quarry 

74, 122, 124 

Couch, Hugh 7, 252 

Cox, E.T. 253 

Crail, Jim 417 

Crane Spring 215 

Crawford, William H. 17 

Crawford County 17 

Crawford Harrison Underground Group 254 

Crawford Upland 90, 92, 106, 144 

Crayden, Terry 254, 284, 286, 290 

crayfish 181, 446 

Crecelius, Pete 255 

Crickets 183 

Critchfield Spring Cave 41, 164 

Culbertson Mansion 14 

Cumberland Cave, Maryland 202 

Cumberland Caverns 237 

Cummings, John Milton 259 

Cummings, Patti 7, 266 

Cunningham, Tony 29, 31, 34, 38 

Curry, Gordon C. 255 

Curry, Gordon L. 255 

D 

Daly Pit 348 

Daniels, Mitch 5 

Danovich, John 315, 440, 441 

Davis, Art 7, 228 

Davis, Roy 228, 237, 254 

Dave Stahl at the rapids at the South Y in Sullivan Cave. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Index 

44


Deam Lake State Recreational Area 14 

Deebel, Mark 7, 27, 31, 33, 38, 39, 41, 163, 

256, 407 

20 Deepest Caves 230 

Delaney Park 15 

Denton, Floyd 284 

Denton, Lucille 284 

DePauw, Wash 173 

DesMarais, Dave 255 

Devils Graveyard 435 

Devils Staircase Pit 348 

Dible, Danny 7, 21, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 254, 

256, 286, 290, 334, 341, 346, 348, 349 

Dible Knible Cave 48, 349 

Dickens, Charles 133 

Dillon, Bud 61, 245, 256 

Dillon Cave 405 

diplurans 183 

dire wolf 202 

Doe Run Gas Storage Field 335 

Dog Hill-Donnehue Cave 142, 249 

Dog Hill-Donnehue System 247 

Dog Hill Cave 207, 247, 436 

Donaldson-Bronson System 248, 249 

Donaldson-Twin Caves 150 

Donaldson Cave 142, 180, 200, 385, 441 

Donaldson Woods Nature Preserve 14 

Donnally, Gordon 58 

Donnehue Cave 247, 441 

Doolin, Dave 411 

Dorsey, Jack 254 

Dowden, Mike 388 

Droms, Yvonne 339 

Dry Clifty Cave 415 

DuBois, Alison 409 

DuBois, Andrew 380, 409 

Dunlap, Keith 7, 169, 221, 256, 425 

Duselis, Tom 357, 411 

Duwelius, Andy 151 

E 

Earth Tech 151, 212 

eastern phoebe 181 

eastern pipistrelle 180 

eastern woodrat 198 

Easter Pit Cave 21, 290, 435 

Eastridge, Issac 17 

Eastridge, Richard 7, 17 

450 

Ehrenzeller, Jeffery 212 

Eigenmann, C.H. 253 

elk 202 

Eller Cave 200 

Ellis, Sean 317 

Elrod Cave 27, 75, 161 

Elrod Gulf 75, 161 

Emmons, Tony 250 

Endless Cave 415 

English, W.H. 17 

Epsom salts 258, 288 

Erickson, Al 290 

Erickson, Neal 290 

Erics River Cave 302, 434 

Eve, Kevin 324 

Everton, Dave 7, 228, 255, 265, 267, 303, 

316, 357, 358, 389, 393, 396, 398, 431, 

436, 437, 442 

F 

Fairground Spring 233 

Falls of the Ohio 74, 126, 131, 134 

Falls of the Ohio State Park 14, 132, 134, 135 

Fee, Scott 225, 255, 256 

Ferdinand State Forest 15 

Fidlar, Marion M. 314 

Fink, Mike 133 

Firetail Cave 238 

fish 181 

Fishback, Jim 252 

Fisher, Larry 254 

Fitzgerald, Doug 41 

Flagel, Dick 243 

flat-headed peccary 203 

flatworms 184 

flies 184 

Flowstone Cave 416 

Floyd, Major Davis 258 

Forbes, Jeff 256, 314, 354, 363, 383, 445 

Formanek, Don 57 

Fort, Charlie 255 

fossil beds 135 

fossils 197 

Fourth Street Live 15 

Frankstown Cave, Pennsylvania 202 

Frazer, Gary 57, 58 

Fredericksburg Cave 420 

Freeman Pit 247, 249, 400

Elliot Stahl with the warning sign at Gory Hole. Photo by Dave Stahl. 

French Lick 171 

Fritsch, Tom 22, 255, 315, 334, 335, 350 

Frozen Waterfall Cave 417 

Frushour, Sam 7, 24, 228, 256, 266, 282, 330, 

394 

Fuzzy Hole 388, 461 

Fuzzys Pit 373 

G 

Gahimer, Art 244, 251, 265 

Gahimer, Dave 244 

Gardner, Sigrid 357, 388, 390 

Garrison Chapel Valley 242, 265 

Garrow, Joseph 173 

Garrow, Milton 173 

Gary Pit Cave 350 

Gas Wells 125 

Gatewood, Fleming 258 

Geo-Lucifugus 281 

Geology Field Trip 104 

George, Angelo I. 7, 254, 258 

giant beaver 197 

giant land tortoise 198 

giant short-faced bear 197 

Gleitz, Roger 24, 261 

Goldstein, Alan 135 

Gomez, Basil 113 

Gorin, Tank 237 

Gory Hole 57, 388 

Grabczak, Cory 419 

Graham, Russell W. 203 

Grandma Davis Cave 213 

Green, Aaron 256, 286, 302, 314, 328 

Greenbriar Knob 116 

Greens Bluff Nature Preserve 414 

Greenwald, Bill 7, 57 

Grissom, Tim 289 

Grosvenor, Horace Chipman 254, 261 

Grotto Cave 247 

Groves, Darwin 245, 284 

Grubb, Brian 376, 432 

Guemple, Chuck 245 

Index 

451


Gurnee, Jeanne 255 

Gurnee, Russell 255 

H 

Hagwald, John Martin 237 

Hains, Ben 254, 256 

hairy-tailed mole 198 

Half Moon Spring 151 

Hall, Robert 158 

Halliday, William R. 241, 255 

Hamer Cave 142, 441 

Hanging Rock Drop 351, 440 

Harlan’s muskoxen 203 

Harlow, Ron 411 

Harris, Arthur B. 173 

Harris, John 435 

Harrison, William Henry 61, 118, 133, 212, 

253, 258, 288 

Harrison Cave Spring 212, 213 

Harrison Crawford Grotto 254 

Harrison Crawford State Forest 11, 13, 74, 

114, 296, 311, 325, 328, 338, 341 

452 

Harrison Spring 61, 118, 212, 252 

Harrodsburg Crevice 197, 202 

Haskins, Nenion 17 

Haun, Dave 7, 221, 346 

Hayswood Nature Preserve 13 

Hazen, Dwight 250 

Heistand, Blanche 283 

Heistand, Orris 283 

Hells Hole 353, 383 

Hemlock Caverns 11 

Hemlock Cliffs 11, 304 

Henderson Park 421, 443 

herald moth 184 

Hermerding, Mark 63, 256 

Hickman Branch 216 

Hicks, Glenn 395 

Hidden Arch Cave 305 

Higgenbottom Cave 237 

Highland Rim 104 

Hissong, Jack 421, 423, 424 

Historic Corydon 12 

Hobbs, Horton 169, 253 

Shavon Peacock in Rocky Hollow Horror Hole. Photo by Andrew Peacock.

Hodges, Frank 393 

Holiday World Theme Park 12 

Hollis, Jack 284 

Hollis, Pat 284 

Hollowell, Henry 17 

Holman, J. Alan 203, 206 

Hoosier National Forest 11, 16, 57, 222, 304, 

388 

Hoosier National Forest Swallow Hole 390 

Hoover, Herbert 133 

Hoover, Kenny 286 

Horseshoe Bend 73, 110 

Horseshoe Bend Vista 108 

Hosley, Bob 282 

Hovey, Horace C. 254, 289 

Howard Steamboat Museum 14 

Hubble, Edwin 233, 256 

Hudelson Cavern 151 

Hughes, Dick 16, 56, 70, 257, 344 

Hunt, Willie 7, 265, 267, 357, 399, 403, 441 

Hunter Spring 213, 215 

Hutchison, Allen 250 

I 

Indiana bat 181, 226, 276, 289, 319 

Indiana cave amphipod 182 

Indiana cave millipede 182 

Indiana cave pseudoscorpion 183 

Indiana Cave Survey 228, 247 

Indiana Geological Survey 228 

Indiana grottos 234 

Indiana Karst Conservancy 16, 169, 221, 251, 

319, 385, 394, 401 

Indiana Speleological Society 254 

Indiana State Museum 197, 334 

Indiana University Spelunking Club 256 

Indian Cave 306 

Indian Creek 13, 144, 215 

Irving, Washington 260 

Isaac Pit 355 

isopod 182 

J 

Jackson, George 3, 7, 8, 16, 26, 56, 70, 194, 

196, 240, 246, 251, 255, 257, 262, 278, 

289, 290, 310, 330, 344, 385 

Jackson, Randy 228, 267, 411 

Jackson-Washington State Forest 15 

Jaegers, George 254, 256, 290 

jaguar 198, 202 

Jarboe, Rob 410, 412 

Jays Pit Cave 355, 446 

Jeannel, R. 180 

Jefferson, Thomas 134 

Jefferson’s ground sloth 197 

Jefferson’s mammoth 197 

Jewel Box Cave 441, 456 

John, Virgil 358 

Johnson, Jim 250 

Johnson, Meredith Hall 7 

Johnson, Patsy 326, 327 

Johnson, Scott 253 

Johnson, Stacey 326, 327 

Jones, George 70 

Jones, Gory 17 

Jordan, Lewis 121 

Index 

K 

Karst Hydrogeology 212 

Kecks Pit 357 

Keeler, Ray 267, 268 

Keith, Jim 151 

Kellems, Issac 17 

Kennedy, Jim 7 

Kennedy, Mike 395 

Kerns Pit 391 

Kevit, Marsh 243 

Killingbeck, Brian 7, 256, 268, 287, 304, 312, 

329, 335, 351, 357, 372, 374, 376, 377, 

388, 390, 400, 411, 419, 422, 433, 437, 

438, 439, 443, 444, 445, 446 

King, Phil 243 

King Blair Cave 247 

King Leo Cave 203, 207, 359, 446 

Knob Rock Cave 203 

Knobstone Escarpment 15, 90, 126 

The Knobstone Trail 15 

Kochel, R. Craig 106 

Komisarcik, Kevin 7, 24, 229, 314, 405, 426 

Kraus, Mark 32, 38, 407 

Krekeler’s cave beetle 184 

Krothe, Noel 146 

453


Kulwicki, Bill 34, 38 

Kulwicki, Kevin 38 

L 

Laconia Gas Field 125 

Lamm, Frank 250, 314 

Lamon, Lewis 228, 237, 238, 255 

Langdons Cave 7, 248, 249, 250, 360 

large black bear 198 

LaSalle, Robert 133 

Lattis, Matt 174 

Lawson, Bill 255 

Lawton, Leigh 243 

Lawton, Warren 243 

Leatherwood Island Spring 212, 213 

Leavenworth, Indiana 17 

Leavenworth, Seth 17 

Leavenworth, Zebulon 17 

Lee, Edmund F. 260, 261 

Leidy’s peccary 198 

Lemasters, Glenn 7, 21, 46, 221, 254, 290, 

341, 425, 428, 436, 441, 445 

leptonetid cave spider 183 

Lester, Russell 411 

Lew Bicking Award 254 

Lewis, Julian 7, 180, 253 

Lewis, Meriwether 133, 134 

Lewis, Salisa L 180 

Lewis, Sean 256, 287, 377, 400, 419, 439 

Lewis and Clark 74, 131 

Lewis cave pseudoscorpion 183 

Lexington-Highland Rim Peneplain 88 

Lexington Peneplain 104 

Limekiln Hollow Cave 362 

Limekiln Hollow Pit 362 

Lincoln, Abraham 133, 212 

Lincoln Springs 212, 215 

Lindberg, Kriste 31, 38, 222, 256, 440 

Link, Harvey, MD 259 

Litaker, Jerry 256, 305, 308, 348 

little brown bat 181 

Little Egypt Grotto 57 

Little Indian Cave 307 

Little Jug Hole 311 

Little Mouth Cave 335 

Little Wildcat Cave 311 

Little Wyandotte Cave 11, 278, 288, 290 

Lockwood, Steve 31, 38 

454 

lodge at Wyandotte 26 

long-snouted peccary 203 

long-tail salamander 181 

20 Longest Caves 230 

Lost River 27, 74, 94, 144, 151 

Lost River Cave 163, 164, 407 

Lost River Cave System 33 

Lost River Conservation Task Force 169 

Lost River II Cave 29 

Louden, Bob 255, 278, 289 

Loudens Cave 238 

Loudens Pit 363 

Louisiana Purchase 133 

The Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum 

15 

Love, Doug 248, 256 

Lower Wild Turkey Cave 443 

LST 325 15 

M 

Maegerlein, Steve 61, 163, 252, 256 

Major, Charles 261 

Malott, Clyde 27, 39, 146, 253 

mammals 197 

mammoth, Jefferson’s 197 

mammoth, woolly 197 

Mammoth Cave 255, 258, 260 

Manhole Cave 216, 365 

Marengo Cave 113, 142, 172, 180, 283, 289, 

312, 313, 436 

Marengo Cave Park 11 

Marengo UndergroundLimestone Quarry 

172 

Marengo Warehouse & Distribution Center 

172, 174 

Marshall, Humphrey 133 

Martel, Ron 243 

Martin, Don 7, 185, 211, 218, 226, 239, 242, 

401, 404, 432, 439 

mastodont 206 

Mather Storm Water Rises 163 

Mauckport Meander 120 

Maucks Cave 366 

Mayfields Cave 180, 200 

McAlpine Lock and Dam 74, 132 

McConnell, Sharon 371 

McCormick, Troy 135 

McDowell, Dan 7, 11

McGowan, Dave 256 

McGrain, Preston 253 

McIntosh Pit 408 

McMurtrie, Henry 288 

McNamara, Greg 7, 24, 45, 254, 256, 286, 

341, 435, 438 

McNamara, Val 254 

McNutt, J. 348 

McQunnie, Bill 58 

Megenity Peccary Cave 197, 198, 203 

Meloy, Harold 255, 256 

Meloy, Loretta 256 

Mercer, H.C. 254 

Mesker Park Zoo and Gardens 15 

Messemore Cliffs 12 

Middle Cave 421, 443 

Miles, Hurst 237 

Miles Cave 156 

Mill Cave 423 

Miller, Jerry R. 106 

Miller, Tom 385 

millipedes 182 

Milltown, Indiana 17 

Mirza, Anmar 7, 247, 250, 266, 268 

Mitchell Plain 73, 88, 92, 105, 144 

Mitchell Plateau 73 

Mitchell Spring Cave 426 

mites 183 

Mixon, Bill 243 

Monks, Joe 312, 329 

Monroe, James 133 

Moore, Tony 281 

Moran, Ryan 351, 374 

Moreland, Ralph 39, 248 

Morgan, John Hunt 13, 121 

Morgan, Richard 121 

Morris, Eric 302, 328, 434 

Morton, Oliver P. 121 

moths 184 

Muhammad Ali Center 15 

Mulzer, Brad 76 

Mumford, R.E. 253 

Munson, Cheryl 253, 254 

Munson, Patrick 253, 254 

Myer, Dean 250 

Mystery Cave, Minnesota 245 

Mark Adler in the Shawnee Cave System. Photo by Aaron Atz. 

Index 

455


N 

National Cave Museum 315 

National Cave Rescue Commission 247, 248 

Neville, Russell T. 240, 254 

New Albany Shale Gas Wells 125 

Newkirk, Nate 443, 444, 445 

Newton, Richard 254, 256, 290 

Nicholas, Brother G. 255 

Nicholson, Rick 250 

1915 Cave 331 

Norman Upland 92, 126 

northern bog lemming 198 

northern cavefish 181 

NSS Conservation Policy 277 

O 

O’Bannon, Frank 116, 254 

O’Bannon Woods State Park 11, 16, 74, 116, 

289 

456 

John Benton in Jewel Box Cave, 1967. Photo by Parker Sams. From the John Benton photo collection. 

Odd Fellows Hall 409 

Ohio River Fringe 73 

Ohio Valley Region 387 

Old Still Pit 425 

Old Town Spring 172, 283 

Old Town Spring Cave 313 

Oliphant, Joe 21, 47, 48, 50, 254, 256, 286, 

290, 341, 374, 435 

Oliphant, Tina 254 

Olmsted, Frederick Law 260 

Olson, Carolyn 158 

ophisaur 198 

Orange County Bluehole 156 

Orangeville Rise 40, 74, 75, 150, 163, 164, 

167, 168, 224 

Ott, Will 411 

Owen, Richard 253 

P

P.B.R. Plunge 369 

Packard’s groundwater amphipod 182 

Packard’s cave pseudoscorpion 183 

packrat 337 

Palmer, Art 76, 88, 256, 281 

Palmer, Peg 76, 88, 92, 256, 281 

Paquette, Don 7, 242, 248, 249, 250 

Paradise Lost Cavern 315 

Parkers Pit 343, 367 

Parks, Jack 237 

Patoka Reservoir 12, 171 

Pavey Cave 307 

Payne, Ernie 227, 256 

Pea, Billy 31, 34, 38 

Peacher Cave 163 

Peacock, Andrew 7, 371, 387, 389, 394, 416, 

417, 418, 441, 442, 452 

Peacock, Shavon 394, 416, 417, 418, 452 

Pea Hole 34 

Pearson, Wm. 253 

Pease, Patrick 113 

Peckinpaugh, John 17 

Pedersen, Marc 295 

Pennington Chapel Ridge 123, 124 

Peppersauce Cave 267 

permits 16 

Peters, Walt 58 

Petronoff, Ted 255 

Pillar of the Constitution 185 

Pilot Knob 13, 73, 106 

Pipe Creek Junior Sinkhole 208 

Pipe Creek Sinkhole 197 

Piper, Burnis 34, 36, 38 

plains pocket gopher 198 

Pleasant, H.H. 173 

Porter, Big Jim 133 

Port Kennedy Cave, Pennsylvania 202 

Potter Creek Cave, California 202 

Powell, Ed 410, 411 

Powell, Richard L. 7, 25, 39, 114, 144, 228, 

253, 261, 289, 412 

Proctor, Neil 255 

The Prophet 118 

Province, Delbert 244 

pseudoscorpions 183 

Purdue Outing Club 45, 228, 256 

Q 

Queen Blair Cave 244, 247 

Quinlan, Jim 253 

Index 

R 

raccoon 203 

Ragland, Patsy 345 

Ragsdale Gulf 40 

Randall, David 250 

Raymond Bliss Cave 445 

Rea, Tom 7, 221, 228, 255, 256, 297, 367, 

415, 423, 432 

Reccius, Jack 255 

Redmond Cave 445 

Red Oak Hole 318 

Reece, Larry 256 

Reeves Cave 249 

Reid, Frank 250, 256 

Reisner, George Andrew 206 

reptiles 197 

rescue 247 

Rhodes Cave 216 

Richard Blenz Nature Conservancy 251, 265 

Richards, Jim 7, 256, 281, 282 

Richards, Ron 7, 197, 254 

Rickenbaugh House 15 

Riely, Samuel L. 261 

Riley, Cindy 221 

Ritter, Carroll 256, 416, 417 

Ritter, Dale F. 106 

River Cave 418, 433 

Roberson, Gary 239, 254, 284, 286, 290 

Roberts, Willie 393 

Roberts Cave 393 

Robinson, Mona 143 

Robinson Ladder Cave 319 

Robinson Ladder Cave Preserve 226 

Rock Cliff Quarry Cave 200, 207 

Rocky Hollow Horror Hole 438, 452 

Rodemaker, Jim 243 

Rogers, Buddy 244 

Rohrsen, Craig 243 

Rolling Rock Cave 371 

Room Cave 309 

Ross, J. Ed 313 

Ross Spring 283, 313 

457


Rothrock, Charlie 3, 255 

Rothrock, F.M. 278 

Rothrock, Henry Andrew 259 

Rothrock, Henry P. 259 

Rothrock, Lotys 255 

Rothrock, Oliver 237 

Rothrock, Peter 113, 255, 288 

Rothrock, Wallace 290 

Rothrock Pit 321 

Rothrocks Mill 12 

Rough, Ray 32, 33, 38 

Roundtree, Cathy 254 

Roy, C. 418 

Roy, Skip 254 

Ruhe, Robert 158 

Russell, Ron 390 

Russell, Sam 29, 33, 38 

Ruth, John 17 

S 

sabertooth 198 

Saddle Lake Recreation Area 15 

Salamander Cave 247, 248 

salamanders 181 

Salisa’s cave millipede 182 

Saltpeter Cave 200, 258, 288, 323 

Salts Cave, Kentucky 240 

Salt Shake Rock 12 

Samms, Herbert E. 261 

Sams, Parker 456 

Sanders, Cindy 76 

Saylor, Howard 343, 367 

Schang, Dave 31, 38 

Schang, Karen 31, 38 

Schenk, Gretchen 250 

Schotter, Chris 7, 255, 256, 286, 302, 307, 

308, 309, 310, 314, 338, 339, 344, 348, 

350, 360, 432, 434, 439, 441 

Schotter, Gary 350 

Schotter, Leo 21, 237, 255, 290, 350 

Schotter Pit Cave 324 

Schultz, Fritz 302 

Schumann, Fred 396 

Scottsburg Lowland 92, 126 

Scout Mountain 116 

Sears, A.K. 255 

Seitz Pit 373 

Sentinel Rock Cave 308 

458 

Sergesketter, Bob 256 

Seven Springs 215 

Seyton, David M. 173 

Shaft Cave 218, 431 

Shaft Pit 247 

Shawnee Cave System 384, 455 

sheet-web spider 183 

Sheldon, Ray 256 

Sherron, Jon 434 

Shiloh Cave 238, 442 

Shirk, Tina 24, 286, 445 

Shirley Springs 440 

The Shoe Tree 12 

Shoftstall, Don 256 

Short, David 250 

show caves 281 

Show Farm Cave 39, 40, 150, 248 

shrew, arctic 198 

shrew, longtail 198 

shrew, smoky 198 

Sibert, Joe 91 

Sibert, Marion 255 

Siberts Cave 288 

Siberts Well Cave 325 

Siebert, Kate 7 

Simler, Frances 237 

Sinking Creek Cave 426, 431 

Sinking Creek Cave System 426 

Sinks of Indian Creek 118, 215 

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom 15 

slimy salamander 181 

Sloan, Noel 61, 250, 256, 333 

Small Dull Cave 247 

Smith, Gordon 7, 8, 76, 113, 254, 283, 284, 

287, 289, 313 

Smith, Judy 284 

Smith, Nick 365, 367 

Smiths Blowhole 374, 432 

Smokes Swallowhole 213 

smoky shrew 198 

smooth green snake 198, 203 

snails 184 

Sollman, Tom 256 

Sollman’s cave millipede 182 

Southern Indiana Speleo Group 254 

Southwest Indiana Spleleological Society 255 

Sparks, Mark 256, 431, 435 

Spatta, Ty 7, 357, 414, 419, 435, 446

Spaulding, Greg 254, 255, 365 

spiders 182 

spiral cave snail 184 

Spires, Dakota 29 

Spires, Lori 29, 38 

Spires, Trae 29, 31, 38, 41 

Splashin’ Safari 12 

spotted skunk 202 

Springer, J. 381 

Spring Mill State Park 14 

springtails 183 

Springville Escarpment 73 

Squire Boone Caverns 120, 286, 377, 439 

Squire Boone Caverns and Village 13 

St. Joseph Valley Grotto 33, 393, 407 

Stage Stop Campground 13 

stag moose 197 

Stahl, Dave 7, 311, 320, 321, 331, 341, 342, 

361, 369, 387, 407, 449, 451, 461, 446 

Stahl, Elliot 7, 8, 256, 311, 317, 318, 320, 

321, 323, 328, 330, 331, 335, 341, 342, 

361, 369, 370, 389, 391, 392, 407, 436, 

449, 451, 461, 446 

star-nosed mole 198 

Steele, Bill 254, 415 

Stein Swallowhole 157 

Stelle, James P. 254 

Stephens, Brandon 337, 372 

Stephens, Pat 284 

Stephenson, Bill 255 

Stephenson’s General Store 11 

Stewart, Samuel 283 

Stewart Spring 283, 313 

Streib, Ray 412 

Strickland, Dave 7, 61, 256 

Stroud, Thomas 17 

Strunk, Karen 436 

Strunk, Kevin 7, 73, 76, 104, 118, 124, 125, 

411, 412 

Strunk, Meredith 436 

Strunk, Sean 436 

Stuller, Bill 31, 33, 38 

Sullivan Cave 202, 221, 223, 247, 394, 449 

Sweeney, Suzie 62 

Sweet Potato Cave 211 

Tadlock, Elias 17 

T 

Tankersly, Ken 254 

Taylor, Dallas 238 

Teds Dig 378, 437 

terra rosa 151, 158 

Texas Creek Cave 326 

The Nature Conservancy 410, 421 

thirteen-lined ground squirrel 198 

Thomas, Melissa 411 

Thundermug Bone Cave 202 

Tibbets, Dave 34, 38 

Tillery Hill 172 

Tipsaw Lake Recreation Area 15 

Tobacco Landing 200, 335 

Toliver Hollow Cave 43, 164 

Tolliver Swallowhole 159, 160 

Tom Rice Hills 157 

Torode, Bill 7, 234 

Tower Quarry 73, 108 

Tozer, Bill 3, 7, 16, 255, 256 

Trapdoor Cave 247 

Treasure Cave 310 

Trinkle Cave 426 

Triple J Cave 247 

Trotter, Bruce 256 

Trousdale, Bill 58 

True Rise of Lost River 150, 164, 169, 170 

Truitts Cave 247 

Tucker, Martin 17 

tundra muskox 198 

Turner Swallowhole 157 

Tuttle, Merlin 7 

Twain, Mark 133 

Twin Caves 262 

Twin Lakes Recreation Area 15 

Two Bit Pit 45, 438 

U 

U.S. Geological Survey 212 

V 

Valentine Pit 381 

Vandeventer, Bob 7 

Vanscoy, Leroy 254, 348 

VanVeld, Reneé 28 

Vernier, Richard 7, 221, 223, 256, 276 

Vernier, Sue 256 

The Virgil I. Grissom Memorial 14 

Virgils Haunted Hole 357 

Index 

45


Von Osinski, William P. 314 

W 

Walker, Jerry 256 

Walter, Bill 255 

Walter, Ralph 66 

Warm December Cave 327 

Warren, Major 258 

Washington, George 17 

Waterfall Cave 424 

Watson, Patty Jo 254 

Wayne Cave 221, 239, 247, 249, 401, 404, 

432, 439 

Wayne Cave Preserve 225 

Webb, Todd 7, 256, 326, 355, 434, 444 

Weingartner’s cave flatworm 184 

Welling, Barry 36 

Welling, Kathy 221 

Wells, Steve 255 

Welp, Brian 360 

Wente, Wendy 250 

Wesley Chapel Gulf 27, 74, 75, 161 

Wesley Chapel Gulf Cave 27, 33 

Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve 15 

white-footed mouse 181 

white-tailed deer 202 

Whitman, Walt 133, 135 

Wildcat Cave 328 

Wilkins, Charles 258 

Wilkins, Wally 255 

Wilson, Bill 221 

Wilson, Kent 7, 11, 412 

Wilson, Ted 21, 45, 254, 255, 256, 286, 290, 

460 

298, 329, 338, 341, 344, 348, 363, 380, 

382 

Windy City Grotto 243, 247, 334, 335 

Winner, Jamie 256, 337, 348, 360 

Winters, Billy 432 

Wiseman family 17 

Wiseman Pit 382 

Woodland Culture 133 

woolly mammoth 197 

Wools, Kevin 414 

Wright, M. 314 

WW Engineering and Science 151 

Wyandotte Cave 3, 7, 8, 11, 16, 21, 25, 56, 

70, 73, 88, 104, 111, 113, 142, 185, 196, 

238, 246, 251, 253, 258, 260, 287, 310, 

330, 409, 437, 444 

Wyandotte Lodge 8 

Wyandotte Ridge 113 

Wyandotte Ridge Exploration Group 24, 

254, 294 

Wyandotte Woods 7 

Wyman, Bob 284, 287 

Y 

Yeager, Chris 46 

York (slave) 134 

Yundt, Claudia 7, 286 

Z 

zigzag salamander 181 

The Zimmerman Glass Factory 13

Dave Stahl ascending Fuzzy Hole. Photo by Elliot Stahl. 

Index 

461


462

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