Files Report for October-December 2008
Roy Gold sent in a pile of GPS locations from Dade County
that he, Jon Beard and Bob Taylor obtained. These gents also picked up a new
cave not far from Lon O’Dell Cave. And Roy and Charley Young found a new cave
in Barry County which makes 150 there.
Spike Crews sent in a couple of revisions from Ste.
Genevieve and Pulaski Counties. These he obtained from the comfort of his
office. A dedicated person can fix a lot of mistakes out there, especially when
the cave plots out in a different county. Spike also sent a working draft of a
cave in Pulaski County that he and others are mapping.
Jim Sherrell forwarded a report from a man recalling a cave
in Jefferson County that appears to be a new one. Jim came across the fellow
while doing field work in another part of the state. Jim also forwarded email
discussion on Labadie Cave, Franklin County, which gets added to the
correspondence.
Tony Schmitt gave me a pile of data that I am just now going
through. It included a couple of locations, one new, from Oregon County plus
corrections and a new cave from Jefferson County. Tony and Dan Lamping turned
an improved location for a cave on MDC property in Wayne County, which they are
mapping.
Richard Thompson sent in some information on a few caves in
Polk County, fixing some questions there.
Gentleman Jim Cooley sent in an update and photographs of a
Howell County cave.
Bill Elliott sent some correspondence on a private bat cave
in Shannon County . Correspondence gets added into the reports part of the
database.
Rhonda Rimer of MDC sent in information on five new caves
that she and Dan Drees found on MDC land in Shannon County. Rhonda also sent a
much improved location for a cave in Ripley County. Rhonda is the Natural
History biologist for the Ozark region of MDC. She is headquartered at West
Plains but ranges over a good deal of cave country.
A very nice map of 60ft deep Dillard Pit, Ste Gen county
came in, drafted by Joe Sikorski, surveyed by Joe, Tony Schmitt and Dan
Lamping.
Christin Dzurick of MDC sent in a nice report and
photographs of a restoration project at Money Cave in Dent County. MDC folks
were aided by stalwart cavers Joe Nicolussi and Kris Butler.
Brent Gerling sent information and a map on a cave in Morgan
County which may, or may not, already be known. A field trip will likely be
necessary to sort that one out.
LaVern Taylor of MDC’s regional office in Cape Girardeau
sent some information about historic Cashion Cave in Perryville. Long filled
with trash, the account relates that the cave wasn’t just used for beer storage
– it may also have served as an armory during the Civil War.
Kris Hartman sent in a pile more reports, photographs and
beautiful maps of a cave project in southeast Missouri.
Jonathan Beard sent in a new map of Cave Spring Onyx Caverns
in Carter County . This is very nice work. Jon wants to get back in and finish
this up sometime. The nice thing about digital maps is one can submit a nearly
finished map and continue working on additional passages later.
Bill Copeland sent nice maps of Wilkins shelter Cave and
(Upper) Howell Cave in Laclede County along with GPS locations on them and
another nearby cave. The Upper Howell map is very nice, about 1500ft of
passage, and mapped by Bill, Eddie Simmons, Lawrence Ireland and other members
of OHG.
Ben Miller submitted a very nice detailed map of 760ft
Mullen Cave #2 in Crawford County , surveyed by Ben and about eight other folks
from all over the state. Ben also sent a very nice map of a new extension
(300ft+) in Onondaga Cave , an interesting passage that was discovered during
restoration work.
Eric Hertzler sent in four new cave reports from Camden
County (one of them written by J. Beard) and one new cave report from Christian
County . Nice reports! Eric also sent a nice map of one of his new caves from
near Hahatonka SP. Good work! And here comes another map and another location
from Eric, in Camden County and different caves. The map is of Fosters Cave by
Eric and Jon.
Randy Long of the US Forest Service sent several cave
reports with locations, both new and improved, from Texas and Oregon Counties.
In fixing cave descriptions in Perry County, wife Patti and
I have been going through old grotto newsletters. In addition to a bunch of
lost descriptions, which are being typed in, we found a map of Possum Pit. This
93 footer was mapped by Gary Schaecher a long time ago and I guess the map
never got finalized. This one appeared in the LESG Crawlway Courier from spring
1971.
Mick Sutton sent in revised locations from Oregon and Ripley
and Reynolds counties. And he followed that with revised reports (about 40)
from a variety of caves in southern Missouri on Mark Twain National Forest
land.
Acting on a couple leads I found on a couple old advance
proof topo maps, an all-star crew of Roy Gold, Bob Taylor, Jon Beard, Jack
Rosenkoetter, and Eric Hertzler ranged out from Springfield to Douglas County
where they confirmed one cave location (known but poorly located) and located
and surveyed a new one of FS land.
For my part, much of my time was spent on a variety of
things but most particularly working on Barry County data plus refining
locations of caves on Missouri State Parks lands. Barry County alone is enough
to keep someone busy for years with lots of known caves with poor locations and
no maps (I added 15 point locations for caves marked on topo maps).
Finally, at the morning session of the MSS meeting in
January we will endeavor to fix as many cave locations in Laclede County as we
can without actually being there. The process will be to look at each point
location, compare it to the files (including paper files), fix the location as
far as possible, assign the location a quality code, and move on. This process
has worked well in Perry County and elsewhere. If you are interested in the
process of using the database in conjunction with the National Geographic Topo!
program, then you should come take part. Those with specific knowledge of
Laclede county as especially needed. If we get done with Laclede we might take
on part of Pulaski.
Scott House
Missouri Cave Database
1606 Luce St .
Cape Girardeau MO 63701
573-651-3782