Lost River - Karst Information Portal

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
Lost River Field Trip
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).
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