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Springfield Plateau Grotto Caving Trips April 2006 |
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| Sequiota Cave Restoration Project April 9 |
Jon Schwinger Charley Rey Lloyd Morrison Bonnie Howard Bill Heim Jason Hardinger Roy Gold |
Our team
completed the restoration project begun three years ago in Sequiota Cave
in Greene County. The group used plastic scrapers, nylon brushes and
portable pressure sprayers to clean rimstone dams up to 5 feet high,
revealing microgours that had been trampled upon the last 100 years by
visitors. Melvin Johnson manned an information booth outside of the cave
to answer questions from inquisitive park visitors Jason Hardinger mans a sprayer while Jon Beard scrubs a rimstone dam. Photos by Roy Gold |
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| Powell Cave at Talking Rocks April 22 |
Jonathon Beard Bob Harvey Diane Kelsay Ron Kittle Jack Rosenkoetter |
Jack Rosenkoetter, Ron Kittle,
Diane Kelsay, Bob Harvey and Jon Beard assisted Chris Gertson and the rest
of the staff at Talking Rocks Cavern
by leading Earthfest (Earth Day) visitors on free guided trips into nearby
Powell Cave in Stone County, teaching the visitors about proper caving
attire and cave conservation while crawling and climbing with their
guests. Later in the afternoon, Jon Beard led a group of five Branson
scouts through the main room of Breakdown Cave in Christian County.
Jack Rosenkoetter at entrance to Powel Cave. Photos by Diane Kelsay. |
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| Doling Park Clean Up April 23 |
Melvin Johnson Bonnie Howard Eric Hertzler Bill Heim Jason Hardinger Charity Gramm Dr. Doug Gouzie Jonathan Beard |
Under the direction of SPG's Melvin Johnson, several park board employees led members of the general public in the cleaning of streambed rocks in Greene County’s Doling City Park Cave. The streambed had been covered by a crusty limy coating several weeks ago, to which the volunteers used vinegar to soften the crust, used brushes to scrub the stuff off, then rinsed the rocks before placing them back in the stream. While that was going on, Bonnie Howard, Eric Hertzler, Bill Heim, Jason Hardinger and Jon Beard of SPG used water sprayers and brushes to remove or color-mask lots of mostly etched in graffiti in the first 100 feet of the cave. Also on hand briefly were Charity Gramm and kids and Dr. Doug Gouzie. |
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| Ceremonial Caves at Sacsayhuaman and Machu Picchu (Peru) | Diane Kelsay Bob Harvey |
Bob Harvey and Diane Kelsay, in the process of visiting and photographing Inca sites in Peru, visited two ceremonial caves in the site of Sacsayhuaman and another two in Machu Picchu. All caves are within protected and managed national cultural preserves. Each of the caves showed significant alteration by the Inca, including construction of altars, refining of wall designs, extending ceilings, and carved pictographs. A Quechua healer was performing a ceremony outside one of the caves. |
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