NSS Convention 2015 Waynesville, Missouri

MSS cavers made a strong presence at the 2015 National Speleological Society Convention in Waynesville, Missouri. This included talks in the U.S. Exploration session by Chad McCain on Black Fathom River Cave, Ben Miller on Deep Pits of the Ozarks, Dan Lamping on Cherokee Cave in St. Louis and Jeff "Spike" Crews on exploration in Pulaski County.  Also, CAIRN's Craig WIlliams gave a talk on cave archaeology in Missouri.

In addition, Cave Research Foundation Ozarks Operation gave a panel presentation on their program of cooperation with state and federal agencies during the Cooperative Projects and State Cave Survey session, followed by a presentation Scott House gave on the Missouri Cave Database.

Jon Beard led a cave restoration workshop.

Early MSS pioneer and historian, Dwight Weaver won the NSS' Peter Hauer Spelean History Award and gave a talk on documenting the history of Missouri caves.

Scott House gave an excellent key note speech on the tradition of documenting Missouri caves.

Several Missouri cartographers had their maps judged and won ribbons in the cartographic salon and several more were present for display.  Awards include Chad McCain and Kris Hartmann with a Merit Award for Black Fathom River Cave System (Chad also won ribbons for two Illinois maps), Jeff Crews with an Honorable Mention for Carlson Caverns, Scott House with a Merit Award for his Main Corridor sheet of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Dan Lamping with a Merit Award for Lawrence Hollow Pit Cave and Ben Miller a Merit Award for his map of Bluff Dwellers Cave.  Also, Rich Raber a Missouri caver from decades ago submitted his map of Rollins #2, which was made in the 1960s.  Given the standards of when the map was made, it's a great map, though unfortunately it had to be judged by today's standards. 

Derik Holtmann had two pictures entered in the photo print salon and won a Blue Ribbon for his image of a bat from a Missouri cave.

A highlight of the Convention for many were the trips into Carroll Cave.  Cavers from across the country were blown away by this Missouri gem.  Many other opportunities were arranged by Kirsten Alvey for access into some of Pulaski County's finest caves.  For those who didn't get their fill of the Missouri underground, SEMO grotto organized a great post Convention trip to southeast Missouri's Perry County.

Lastly, former Missouri Speleology editor Jo Schaper, among others, wrote significant amounts of text for the Convention Guidebook.  Jo also co-edited the Guidebook. 

MSS President Dan Lamping and former MSS President Spike Crews admire progress on the Carroll Cave map on display.

 

Kris Hartmann and Chad McCain's Merit Award winning map of Black Fathom River Cave System.

 

 

Jeff "Spike" Crews' Honorable Mention

 

Ben Miller won a Merit Award for this beauty.

 

The MSS store at Convention.

 

Many thanks to the MCKC for manning the store.  We can't thank you guys enough.

Date: 
Thursday, July 23, 2015

Powered by www.learnthebluedrop.com
Privacy and Cookies Policy