Lost River - Karst Information Portal

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
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