Missouri Speleological Survey
Files Report for January and February 2004
Material keeps piling in, sometimes faster than I can handle
it. But I get it all done, sooner or later, especially with a little help from
my friends. I've probably missed some contributions
(but not data) somewhere so if you realize I made a mistake please let me know.
Here we go, in no particular order...
Michael Carter brought a compilation of Perry
County to the MSS meeting. Various
folks typed in the reports over time (but mostly Michael and Debbie Quamen) and
Michael did the final edit. Very nice work. Now we can get folks out to fix
locations and add new information. Howard Kalnitz of Cape
is doing just that, working on the Lithium quad. More help is definitely
needed. We need lots of exact locations and photos. This would be a great
weekend project for grottos. I know some people have expressed interest in this
so get in touch...
Mick Sutton sent an entire update for all of Oregon
County. Anyone who has reports or
location improvements should send them directly to Mick. If you are reporting a
new cave from Oregon County
it helps if you let us both know so I can assign a number immediately.
Mick also sent a location for Butler Hollow Mine in Barry
County. This is a proto-cave that
was enlarged by mining some years ago. The thing was already mapped twenty
years ago by Ken Thomson; we decided to go ahead and list it so as to ease
confusion with its bigger brother, Butler
Hollow Mine Cave.
(Now that's all clear, isn't it?)
Randy Long of the US Forest Service sent a report and photo
of Spring Creek Shelter in far southern Shannon
County. Randy has sent us a lot of
information over the last few years.
Pam Sales and Michael Carter turned in a CD of information
gained during their field work for the Speleology class that Ken Thomson
teaches. Pam and Michael wrote a 38 page report, complete with descriptions,
locations, leads, photos, biology, etc. from central Christian
County. Really nice work! This just
shows how folks can take a small area and do a really good job with it. And
what a pile of material to work through! This would take me about forever, but
they made it easy on me. Included was a FileMaker database with complete
reports on eight caves in the area. Now I can import this material straight in.
Dan Lamping turned in a map and report on Spinney
Embrasure Cave
in Shannon County.
The map was by Kim Chiles and the report was by Tim Harrison. Included with the
map was a photocopy of the original survey notes. Now this is a great idea,
preserving the original data in the cave files. These will go to the files in
Rolla.
Lorin O'Daniell turned in a map, photo, and report on Gun
Cave, Cooper
County, by Brent Gerling. This is a
new cave for Cooper County,
which now has 12 caves. Nice work. Cooper
County could sure use more work if
anyone else is interested. Perhaps PEG will continue working there. And again,
Brent sent along a copy of the original notes. Okay, there is a definite trend
here, one well worth pursuing. (Anybody want to volunteer to copy my original
survey books, please? I'll buy you supper...)
Ben Miller sent in a FileMaker data set for Stone
County with lots of descriptions and
directions included. This will also take me a while to incorporate but great work
by Ben and crew.
Joe Light is now working on St.
Louis County. If you
have information or typed reports please get them directly to Joe.
Now this is bad... someone gave me a list of 9 lat/long
locations of springs and caves from Perry
County and I forgot who gave it to
me. Probably it was Stan Sides or Joe Walsh but my poor brain just can't
remember. But, hey, thanks!
Ken Thomson brought a list of fifteen cave locations for the
files. All are additions although a few had already crept into the files.
Leonard Butts sent a nice report and photo on Stuckmeyer
Cave in Crawford
County.
Jon Beard sent a list of name, number, and location fixes
from several counties in his part of the state. I am working through all of
this as I write... And Jon sent more information in the form of data that Carl
Wagner and Brent Russell compiled in the 1990's. Jon sent Topo files with exact
locations, leads, and other goodies marked. This will take some time to go
through and figure out what all else is out there.
Jon also sent a set of revised cave lengths. This enables me
to use the database to create long cave exports.
Three of the caves reported on by Earl and Lannis Hancock
were new caves for Jefferson County.
That brings the number of documented caves in JeffCo to 158.
Bob Lerch sent digital maps of Moonshine
Cave (Onondaga Cave S.P. in Crawford
County) and Sink
Cave, Boone
County. It's good to see Moonshine
finally mapped.
Roxie Campbell of Rock
Bridge State Park
sent new length information on the Devils Icebox. The official length of the
cave is somewhat in doubt since various people have surveyed in it and trying
to figure out what record included what survey is difficult. I will help anyone
who would like to try to figure this out.
Bill Elliott of MDC sent a photo and some new information
plus a question about a cave that MDC has recently purchased for endangered
species protection.
Michael Freeman sent in locations and descriptions of four new
caves he and Spike Crews have located on the Kaintuck Hollow area of Phelps
County. Lots of rugged terrain out
there, with plenty of the correct geology. This is a fascinating area. Good
work!
Stan Sides has been digging a wealth of material out of his
files. Most recently Stan dropped off a copy of his Turner
Cave (Cape
Girardeau County)
file which includes slides, map, and a 6-page report. The best part of this is
that Stan did this work in high school which was back in... well, a long time
ago. Stan and I recently spent part of an afternoon driving around parts of the
Cape County
karst. Lots to do here, with sinks and springs all over the place. All of this
is really shallow karst but it is interesting.
Karen Willmes from Baltimore
MD, and I worked on the FileMaker database
at a CRF expedition at Mammoth Cave.
Karen was able to relate the main database with a reports database and the
DNR/GSRAD cave map database. This is a major improvement as now folks will be
able to use the reports database to write and submit new reports and have them
linked to the main where they will appear in a window for selection. We have
more to do on this to make it a little easier to use but it is already a big
help in cutting and pasting material into report forms.
Quad of the month: Briar. The Current
River runs through it and there's
one recorded cave.
The number of recorded caves in Missouri
is now 5848.
Scott House
Missouri Cave
Database
1606 Luce St.
Cape Girardeau MO
63701
573-651-3782
scott_house@semo.net