Lost River - Karst Information Portal

Boone Cave is located in Owen County near
Whitehall and is marked on the Whitehall
quadrangle map about half way between
Bloomington and Spencer along State Road 43.
Over the years of its known existence, the cave
has gone through periods of heavy visitation to
near obscurity. The cave is geologically mature
and can be used as a model to look for other
caves at different locations. The water goes in
an upstream swallowhole, flows through the
ridge, and exits at a giant spring passage in a
retreating karst valley. It does this at the level of
the Lost River chert bed. The upstream starts
at Cannonball Cave at the chert bed that is
well exposed through the middle sections and
becomes undercut as the passage goes into the
historic Boone Cave section. By the time the
stream exits Boone Cave the chert bed is almost
40 feet above the stream and not exposed in
the passage anymore.
The cave also has a
landowner history,
local history, and a
published history that
have developed much
folklore over the years.
In this article, we will
look at these aspects
as well as the new
policies on accessing
the cave set by its
newest owner, The
Nature Conservancy.
Land Owner
History
Boone Cave has
been known about
since the frontier
days. The cave was
410
Owen County Caves
Boone-Cannonball Cave System
By Jerry Bailey
named after its first owner Daniel Boone (not
the famous frontiersman). He obtained the
property the cave is on in 1825 as a homestead.
Mr Boone found a profitable use for the cave
after acquiring it. He harbored illegal slaves
in the cave until they were sold in the black
market trade. It is uncertain how long this went
on, but ended well before the Civil War. The
Jefferson Ordinance of 1787 abolished slavery
in all states north of the Ohio River.
The homestead was later owned by the
Franklin family who sold a 120-acre section to
the Powell family just after World War II. The
Powell’s at first welcomed cavers, but by the
early 1960s grew tired of caver traffic and closed
the cave to visitation. Also during that time Ed
Powell sold 40 acres to a developer named Byers
who divided it into lots for houses. One lot has
a climb down entrance into the Cannonball
The Boone Cave Entrance, 10 to 12 feet high, 25 feet wide. Photo by Rob Jarboe.