Lost River - Karst Information Portal

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
Geology Field Trip
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
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