Lost River - Karst Information Portal

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
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