Cavers discover Perry County Missouri is Hollow

[L Roebuck]

Life Underground
Cavers discover Perry County is hollow

To the casual observer, the Perry County corn field looks like any other located in eastern Missouri. But in one corner of the field the land dips down to the point that it cannot be farmed. Inside the depression is a locked iron gate. Steam escapes past the bars into a day unwarmed by the far-off winter sun.

One by one, a group of people carefully slips through the gate into another world. Sudden warmth inside — 58 degrees compared to the single digit temperature outside — is almost a shock. Sunlight flows into the hole and highlights limestone rock dripping with moisture.

The occasion is a Sunday morning outing by members of the SEMO Grotto, one of several Missouri caving groups. Their mission is to map a section of this cave, adding to the growing database of Missouri cave maps drawn by volunteer cavers.

They’ve come to the right place. Missouri is often called “The Cave State.” Its 6,200-plus caves, a figure that grows by 100 every year as new ones are discovered, competes with Tennessee for tops in the nation. Perry County leads the state in number of caves, with 667, about 100 more than second place Shannon County.

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[Azurerana]

I'm glad I don't have my fingerprints on that one. The Perry County landowners (there is very little publicly owned land in Perry County, and none worth caving) are gonna have a field day at the gas stations, and restaurants with that one. In one fell swoop, a writer trashes years of landowner relations. BTW, the newspaper the article is in is the electric co-op paper for the state--it isn't just a local paper, but it goes EVERYWHERE in outstate Missouri. Perry County folks have always been good to us, but the trade off for cave access has been being discreet about it.

Hold your breath folks...we'll see what impact this one has on the ground.

[Brian Roebuck]

Yea AZ,
I can see why you would be upset over such publicity. There really is no point in telling people where (what county) these caves are for the purpose of the story. They could have just as effectively told everyone it was in rural Missouri and the story would just as much impact etc. Now landowners will think twice about letting cavers on their land for fear of having all sorts of new visitors to their caves. I think that secrecy is a good thing in many ways where private landowners are concerned. They don't need more headaches and cavers don't need to add to their burden in protecting their own land (especially caves on their land). Cavers will find them and get permission to explore. They will do what they can to protect the caves and impact them least in the process. Open them to the public and you are in for a rough time as most people don't give a flip whether they ruin someone elses property.

This is one more reason we do not allow privately owned cave locations be listed here on U.S. Cavers forum. I am sorry that this has happened and I too think it will be a negative influence for caving in that region.

[Azurerana]

I'm not exactly upset. This is Missouri. We have caves. People will report on them. I've been known to write about caves too--not usually casually, but like when Missouri hit 5000 of them.

More like I'm just holding my breath, and wondering what impact this will have on the landowners and cave access.

The article is decently written. Most of the proper rules on writing about caves rules were followed (no names, no specific locations, good proper caving technique). The people featured are mostly well-known, level-headed people.

We will see if it makes a splash or spelunk or vanishes into the water like a lead weight gently dropped from the surface.