Caving grottos and research organizations currently affiliated with the MSS.

Chouteau Grotto (Columbia)
Heart of the Ozarks Grotto (Springfield, MO)
Kansas City Area Grotto (MO-KS)
Lake Ozark Grotto (Osage Beach)
Little Egypt Grotto (Carbondale, IL)
Middle Mississippi Valley Grotto (St. Louis)
MSM Spelunkers (Rolla)
Meramec Valley Grotto (St. Louis)
Ozark Highlands Grotto (Springfield, MO)
Pony Express Grotto (St. Joseph)
Stygian Grotto (St. Louis, MO)
Cave Research Foundation

According to Dwight Weaver, in 1956, there were fewer than 50 active cavers in Missouri, and only three active caving clubs. Since then, at least 29 caving clubs, or grottos, have been formed and how many active cavers there are is anyone's guess. Some of these clubs have fallen by the wayside in the last 40 years. Some grottos grew out of student activity clubs, to wax and wane as members went through college and graduated. Some have been stalwart NSS affiliates, some have been rather exclusive groups of friends, and some had specialties such as cave rescue, or fellowship, with speleology only a secondary concern.

Missouri has been home to the Speleological Society of America, a group which intended to be a competitor for the NSS, and which now exists only in memory and legend. Cave Research Foundation is not a grotto at all, but a national organization of serious (though some are part-time) speleologists and cave mappers, who work primarily with government agencies, but who cooperate by sharing information with the MSS.

Missouri has always been home to independent cavers as well, people who by inclination or their rural location, never join caving groups. These people are welcome also to work with the MSS as "cooperators"; through sharing their information, they obtain access to that of the MSS. This is in keeping with the basic idea behind the MSS--a central repository for all information related to caves, accessible to responsible people involved with or interested in Missouri caves and karst.

This page last updated: Sept. 11, 2003