Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
Smith soon was enlarging the small crack and
pushing forward. Eventually Smith reached a
spot where the ceiling and floor were bedrock
and there was only about 8 inches of space.
Smith was able to proceed through this spot
wearing only a tee shirt and shorts but was soon
stopped in a very small breakdown chamber
with the air coming up through large blocks in
the floor. No further digging was attempted for
several years.
In 1992 Smith and Roberson realized that
it would take younger, smaller cavers to push
the passage if it was to continue and Roberson
contacted Dave Black to see if any of his group
of cavers would be interested. On Friday, June
12 at about 10:00 p.m., Chris Schotter, Ted
Wilson, Joe Oliphant, Danny Dible, and Greg
McNamara went into Marengo to check out
the end of the crawl. Ironically, Dave Black
was not available that weekend to join them.
They were impressed with what they saw and
decided to attack the end of the crawl on
Sunday evening, June 14. They added Aaron
Green, Ron Adams, Tina Shirk, and a Polish
Squire Boone Caverns is located in
southern Harrison County in the Buck
Creek drainage basin. It’s a beautifully
decorated cave that is developed in the St.
Louis Limestone and was formed by two
active streams that drain the sinkhole plain
west of Laconia.
The entrance to Squire Boone Caverns
was first used by American Indians at least
hundreds of years ago. Many artifacts have
been found around the mouth of the cave.
It’s believed that the Indians used the cave
for its cool water and for storing perishables.
In 1790 the cave was discovered by Daniel
Boone and Squire Boone, Jr. They were on
an expedition when they came across the
stream flowing out of the hillside. Squire
kept the cave in his mind and returned to the
area to live the final years of his life. Squire
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Squire Boone Caverns
caver named Vetek to the team and after some
chemical persuasion they were the first to enter
what has become know as the “New Discovery”
section of Marengo Cave. This section of the
cave is the main stream passage feeding Stewart
Spring and contains several miles of passage
that some consider the largest passage in any
cave in Indiana. Blind fish and blind crawfish
are plentiful in the stream passage.
In 1993 Chris Schotter and Aaron Green
led an effort to connect Old Town Spring Cave
with the newly discovered section of Marengo.
In what many consider the “Mount Everest”
of Indiana caving, they were eventually able to
connect the two caves in 1994 after grueling
trips involving two sumps, multiple digs,
and tight, twisting canyons. Frank Lamb of
Bloomington joined them and the three are the
only ones who made the eventual connection.
It probably will never be attempted again.
Marengo Cave is currently about 6 miles
long but exploration continues and more virgin
passage is just around the next bend.
By Claudia Yundt
used the water from the cave to power the
gristmill he built in 1804. He built his home
on the ridge above the mouth of the cave.
The Boones’ entry was the first documented
exploration of the cave.
Entering the cave prior to commercial
development was not an easy task. You
had to crawl and stoop through a 300-foot
passage that contains a stream, two 8-foot
waterfalls, and a 12-foot waterfall. By the
1960s Boones Mill Cave (as it was known
at the time) was well known by the caving
community.
Fred Conway purchased the cave and
surrounding land in 1971. Three men were
in charge of its development: Gary Roberson,
Terry Crayden, and Kenny Hoover, all ISS
members. At that time the three men were
mapping nearby Binkleys Cave. They were