Lost River - Karst Information Portal

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.
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