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Springfield Plateau Grotto Caving Trips August 2006 |
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| Crystal Caverns August 6 |
Alicia Beard Jon Beard Diane Kelsay Bob Harvey |
Alicia and Jon Beard, Bob and Diane Harvey visited Crystal Caverns (Barry County), a cave leased by the Missouri Caves & Karst Conservancy. The four visitors spent the day taking several photographs of the cave’s many aragonite growths and other subjects. The aragonite is the cave’s namesake, needle-like crystals of an alternate form of calcium carbonate. Most of the crystals were off the tour path during the cave’s 60-year history as a show cave. |
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| Kiesewetter Cave Mapping August 12 |
Jon Beard Eric Hertzler Ken Long & son Bill Gee |
Jon Beard and Eric Hertzler were assisted by Ken Long and son of Lake Ozark Grotto and Bill Gee and Pam Rader of Kansas City Area Grotto in continued mapping of Kiesewetter Cave of Pulaski County. The cave is gated and is managed by members of LOG. About 408 feet were mapped on this day. The photos attest to a section of the cave with beautiful speleothem displays. |
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| Nixa Sinkhole August 14 |
Michael Carter Roy Gold Dr. Doug Gouzie |
August 14th—Michael Carter, Roy Gold and Dr. Doug Gouzie were among several who visited the widely publicized Sinkhole that suddenly developed August 13 in downtown Nixa in Christian County. Initially the sink was measured at 60 feet wide and 70 feet deep with vertical walls of regolith (soil, gravel, etc.), but with continued widening of the sink, the depth is about 45 feet currently. Part of a house including a car recently refueled is buried in the sink. It is not known which spring system is fed by this sink. The sink has been filled with rock in an effort to save nearby homes from a similar fate. The plan is to allow the new contents to settle, refill as needed to keep the land surface level and set aside the area as some sort of green space. This phenomenon is not unheard of in karst areas that have been urbanized due to changes urbanization has had on the groundwater below. |
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| Smallin Cave August, September, November |
Bob Taylor Jon Beard Eric Hertzler Roy Gold Judy Gold Charity Gramm Jason Hardinger Diane Kelsay Bob Harvey Bill Heim |
The survey of Smallin Cave (Christian Co) is well underway with several trips conducted through the year. The survey teams led by Bob Taylor concentrated on the entrance area of Smallin Cave while teams led by Jon Beard and Eric Hertzler worked on the interior regions of the main passage. As many as 16 bristly cave crayfish were seen in the many pools along the cave. |
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| McConnell Cave Horeshoe Cave McConnel Buzzard Cave August 20 |
Jon Beard Richard Thompson |
Jon Beard assisted area independent caver Richard Thompson in the survey of McConnell Cave and Horseshoe Cave, both of Polk County. McConnell Cave is 232 feet, all walking with some fairly decent, but dry, speleothems and perhaps no more than 15 feet of overburden throughout. Apparently it is a remnant of a major cave passage. Horseshoe Cave is located on a limestone bluff and consists of 56 feet of mostly crawlway on dry soil with two entrances about 10 feet apart. A third cave, McConnell Buzzard Cave, was visited nearby, but with two nearly grown buzzard chicks about 20 feet inside, Richard and Jon decided a survey should be done when the risk of being puked on is considerably less. |
 Richard Thompson in McConnell Cave. Photo by Jon Beard. |
| Breakdown Cave Fitzpatrick Cave August 28 |
Jon Beard
Wendell Hall |
Jon Beard accompanied Dept. of Natural Resources agent Wendell Hall in obtaining an air sample and readings from Breakdown Cave and Fitzpatrick Cave (Christian Co). The DNR had weeks earlier taken water samples from Fitzpatrick Cave to test for the pollutant that has permeated throughout the cave system. The DNR had determined the pollutant to be tetrachloroethylene (a.k.a. perchloroethylene, “Perc”), a hazardous chemical used in dry cleaning and as a degreaser at other businesses. The source of the pollution has yet to be determined. The chemical has dissipated considerably in the past few weeks with ppm readings ranging between 7 and 48 depending on locations within the cave. |
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