Cave Files Report: January - August 2015

Missouri Speleological Survey              

Files Report for January – August 2015       

Wow, such a vast amount of information has come in this year that it is hard to keep track of who sent what and when. And material is still coming in. Major notes include the creation of qualified point locations for the entire state and an updated maps table with over 4200 records. The other huge advancement is the addition of the fully functional faunal records table, which now enables us to enter our own faunal records in our own database and have each occurrence linked to a point location.

Many, or most, of these records are coming in already in FileMaker format. Expect that we will widen the circle of contributors with run-time versions of the database (NB: training required!)

Here, in alphabetical order (and no doubt incomplete) are the contributors and their contributions.

 

Kirsten Alvey sent:

-Photos of an MDC trip into Coffin Cave.

-A couple of hundred bat records from a variety of counties so we can work on getting those imported into the database. Great work!

 

Jon Beard sent:

-A variety of descriptions of caves in Ozark County.

-An entire data set for Christian County which was integrated into the master file

-A new cave report and a cave map of Bone Holler Cave from McDonald County.

-Ten new cave reports from Barry County and one new cave from Texas County. -New map of Blakemore Pit in Polk by Jon and Bob Taylor.

-New cave in Christian County.

-Map of Devils Slide Cave in Greene County, started by Taylor and finished by Jon.

-Map of Pump Cave, Dade County, also originally started by Bob.

-Sent many faunal records, like 110 or more which are all now part of the faunal records table.

-Map of Kettle Cave, McDonald County.

 

Michael Bradford sent:

-A new cave location and report in Pulaski County, which they have mapped and he is now drawing. Along that stretch of the Gasconade River, there has not been a new cave reported for many decades.

 

Josh Brewer sent:

-A map of Mosby Cave, Clay County. Jim Cooley had obtained a pencil draft of the cave from one of the people who surveyed it in 1971. Josh agreed to put it in digital form and did a nice job.

-Redrafted map of Wolf Den, Pulaski County, originally drawn by James Corsentino.

-A very nice new map of Mossy Falls Cave, Shannon County, redrafted from an original pencil draft by Tom Panian.

 

Shelly Colatskie of MDC sent:

-Photos of the historic Crevice entrance and photos of Coffin Cave, Laclede County.

-She also passed on the location of a short new crawlway cave on MTNF lands that had a couple of bears denning in it.

-Photos of a trip into Round Spring Cave for a couple of Japanese herpetologists.

-A report of a new cave in Franklin County on MDC land found by MDC.

-New cave location in St. Clair County.

 

Jim Cooley sent:

-two new cave reports for new caves on MTNF land in Oregon County.

-New cave report for Benton County.

-Maps of Turtle Altar Cave in ORE and Vic Nickel Cave in St. Clair.

-Map of Sycamore Bliss Cave map in Oregon.

-Corrections on locations in Benton County.

-Location information on Mosby Cave, Clay County.

-Eight new reports on new caves at Lake of the Ozarks State Park.

-Map of Mosquito Cave, Miller County in Lake Ozarks State Park.

-Forty-five faunal records from caves at Lake Ozarks SP and Ozark County.

-Location, photo and report on a new cave in Washington County.

-New faunal records from Camden and Ripley Counties.

-Monitoring reports from Lake of the Ozarks SP.

 

Spike Crews sent:

-New ArcGIS files for the entire state.

-Several new cave reports and monitoring reports.

-New cave report for Pulaski County.

 

Don Dunham turned in

-A report on a new cave in Jefferson County.

 

Tony Elliott of MDC sent

-Info on a cave in Barry County and on one in Crawford County.

-Results of swabbing for WNS for several caves.

 

Susan Farrington of MDC sent

-Information, photos and location on a new cave in Shannon County.

 

Andy Free turned in:

-Two new cave locations from MTNF land in Pulaski County.

-Map of Great Sprite Cave in Pulaski County on Mark Twain NF land.

 

Ken Grush sent:

-Information on and a photo of a cave in Benton County.

-A complete update on locations from Camden County.

-A revised maps table for the database with over 4700 records. This is a huge amount of work.

-Lots more related description records.

 

Paul Hauck sent:

-Maps of Linter Pit and Grasso Cave from Perry County.

-A photo and location information on a cave in Gasconade County.

-A big pile of trip reports from Crevice Cave, which included detailed faunal counts, something we need even more of.

 

Eric Hertzler sent:

-Five new caves in Christian County.

 

Scott House added:

-Several new cave locations from Perryville and revisions on a dozen more.

-New info on a Pioneer Forest cave in Shannon County.

-Revised locations of approximately 4000 caves in the state, qualifying locations, and making sure we had point locations for the entire state.

-Several maps, but I forget which ones.

 

Dan Jackson of the NPS Omaha office sent:

- A note on the history of Welch Spring Cave which he has been writing up.

 

Gary Johnson sent:

-A nice set of maps of Beck Cave, Hickory County.

-A final draft of Blackwell Cave, HKY county and an archival set of the survey data.

-A really nice map of complex Siphon Cave in HKY which was mapped by Mick Sutton, Sue Hagan, and Mike Beeson in 1998. Ken Grush salvaged the notes and Gary drew the map.

 

Mark Jones sent:

-Bunches of reports from survey and inventory trips to a variety of caves in a variety of counties. Mark always includes great detail and faunal counts.

 

Robert Kavaliauskas sent:

-A trip report on a cave in Cape Girardeau County.

 

Dan Lamping sent:

-A description and eleven faunal records from Creech Cave, Cuivre River SP and a faunal report from Sherwood Forest Cave.

-Overlay map of Carroll Cave.

-Ninety-seven reports from CCC trip reports of Carroll Cave neatly put into the descriptions table of the database.

-A number of faunal records from trips to caves in Shannon County.

-Information from Ralphord Cave including a report, revised information and faunal record.

-A map of Quarry Spring Cave Texas County in the Ozark Riverways.

-Faunal reports, overlay map, and description from City Park Cave in Perryville.

-Reports, entrance photos, new locations, and faunal reports from two USFS caves in Washington County.

-New cave report in Crawford County that Korey Hart had found.

-Faunal records from a tour trip into Ozark Caverns. (See you don’t even have to get wet and muddy to contribute to the cave files – just observe and record and send it in!)

-Records for a USFS cave in Washington County.

-Several newspaper articles on Devils Well, which he transcribed, created new related records for and sent in.

-A map of a new cave from Jefferson County that had dogtooth spar crystals in it.

 

Joe Light sent

-A report on a new (old) cave in the City of St. Louis. Joe has been relocating caves using historical references. Most of the caves, like this one, are now destroyed but they did exist at one time and were reported on. Joe sent this report as an export from a FileMaker runtime, which worked perfectly.

-Report on the entrance of Cave of the Falls in St. Louis County.

-A report on a monitoring trip to Running Bull Cave in PRY and new graphics on how to find that cave.

 

Randy Long, formerly of Mark Twain NF, sent:

-A pile of cave leads and other information on caves in various places.

-Anice report and entrance photograph for a new cave in Shannon County.

 

Chad McCain sent in:

-Completed map of a Mark Twain NF cave from Oregon County plus a photo of a bear print inside the entrance.

-Final map of Lloyds Cave, Ste. Genevieve County with 1800 feet of passage and incredible vertical detail.

-As a result of ridgewalking and location checking he sent new locations and reports on seven caves in Shannon County, mostly in the Alley Spring recharge area.

-Map and new updated report of Skylight Pit, SGE.

-Photo and revised location of Tabor Creek collapse, Howell County, which has filled back up.

-Report on trip into Crevice Cave, Echo Pit entrance, which is closed.

-Informational note, draft map and a lengthy report on Gegg Cave, Ste. Genevieve County.

-A revised report on 10 Degree Pit in SGE and Martin Pit in Perry County.

-More trip reports from Blackfathom plus a nice new overlay map of Blackfathom and the main series of maps as seen at the NSS convention.

-Ten locations, most of them new caves, from USFS land in Howell County, plus reports and photos.

-Information on caves along a stretch of the Katy Trail which more than doubled the number of known caves in Howard County.

-Information on some old copper mines in Ste. Genevieve County, parts of which are caves, which may prove to be good bat habitat.

-Thousands of archival photos, maps, trip reports and lots else. Like 11 gig of data which he downloaded to my archival drive.

-Three new cave locations from Boone County.

-New cave report from Christian County on Mark Twain NF land.

 

Ben Miller sent:

-Map of Reeves #2 in Crawford County.

-Map of 100’ long Crawl to Glory in Taney County.

-Map of Daylight Cave, McDonald County.

-Map of the show cave Bluff Dwellers Cave in McDonald County.

-Map of Park Cliff Pit in Barry County.

 

Dennis Novicky sent:

-Draft map of Lawrence Hollow Cave in Shannon County, which I am doing the final draft of. Dennis did a really nice job.

 

Bob Osburn sent:

-A set of shape files for Branson Cave in the Ozark Riverways

-A trip report for a survey trip in Crevice Cave.

 

Ben Perkins of OCDA sent:

-A report and photographs from an authorized MTNF monitoring trip into The Gulf, Wayne County.

 

Rhonda Rimer of MDC sent:

-Revised location and other info on Stockton Cave, Cedar County.

-New information and a better location on a cave in Webster County.

 

Kayla Sapkota sent:

-Four cave maps, plus locations, reports, and photographs of several more caves in the Ozark Riverways, along the upper Jacks Fork River.

 

Tony Schmitt sent:

-A map of Pump Lead Spring Cave in the Ozark Riverways

-A location for a new cave in Shannon County.

 

Blaine Schubert (via Jim Cooley) sent:

-A trip report on Perkins Cave.

 

Stan Sides sent:

-Two cave reports from Perry County plus copies of survey notes.

-An old article he wrote “Caves of Perry County” from 1962.

-Photo of an entrance to Berome plus survey from another nearby cave, and part of Pot of Gold survey.

-Selections of digitized slides from Perryville.

-A historic newspaper article on Devils Icebox from 1926.

-Old photo of Dorothy Taylor Cave in Perry County.

-Information on caves, geology, and dye tracing from Cape Girardeau County.

-Information on a cave in Bollinger County.

 

Joe Sikorski sent

-A map of McCubbin Spring Cave in the Ozark Riverways.

 

Marion O. Smith of TN sent:

-Several reports of Civil War use of caves, including apparently, Cliff Cave in St. Louis County, as well as caves in Maries and Crawford Counties (unsure what cave these might be).

 

Mick Sutton sent:

-new cave species table and numerous revised faunal records.

-Report on Hedley Cave, Crawford County.

-Fifty new faunal records from numerous caves in numerous places.

-Another 40 faunal records including a bunch from Jack Reynolds ~1959.

-Another 117 or so records gleaned from old Missouri Speleology issues, other sources, and his field work.

-Map of Dry Creek Cave, Howell County.

-Revised point location files

 

Angie Trombley of MTNF sent:

-Faunal counts and other information on a Forest Service cave.

 

Dwight Weaver added:

-Tidbits of history to several cave records - always fascinating stuff.

 

Richard Young sent:

-Historical accounts of caves in Perryville.

-A faunal count from a trip in Crevice Cave

-An improved location for a cave in Cape Girardeau County.

-A detailed report on Streiler City Cave in Perryville, for the files.

-Photos of cave entrances near Sereno, Perry County

 

Right now, there are 6972 records for cave entrances in the state. As in the past, this includes disparate entrances to the same cave, such as three entrances to Crevice and three for Onondaga. It also includes, sadly, a few caves that have no locations other than county, which have been in the files for years. And many locations, frankly, are little better than cave leads – such as those which have a section (one square mile or 640 acres) for a location. Little better are those which have one quarter section, which is 160 acres, and no report. As I audited the locations I removed over 20 records which had either no location or were duplicates of another cave in the files. That process is ongoing. However, we have also added over 70 new caves.

 

Scott House

Missouri Cave Database