Cave Mapping

[L Roebuck]

Cave Mapping
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at 2:54 PM

Hannibal has been abuzz about caves over the last week.

Crews discovered three caves during the construction of the new Stowell Elementary school on the city's south side.

A group of cave mappers and explorers came to town to find out what's inside.

Just below Highway 79 around Lover's Leap are myriad caves. Three of those in particular have piqued interest in the community lately. And soon, everyone will know what's inside what the explorers call Stowell Elementary Cave.

Cave mapper, Jeffrey Crews says, "We're measuring the cave to find out the orientation of the passageways. And measuring the vertical. Some caves are horizontal and others go up and down."

This group will also map the walls, slopes, and other features of the cave. Jeffrey Crews has explored caves all over Missouri, but this is his first one in this area.

Crews adds, "The caves up here are different. They typically form passages and the rest in Missouri, they are shaped like a tree.

The cave mappers will also look to see if this cave is dead or alive. If it's alive, there will be evidence of a flowing stream of water.

Whatever the group finds will become a part of Hannibal history, but after this mapping session, these caves will be history...they'll be closed for good so construction on the school can continue.

There has been a lot of talk of three missing boys in the caves from some 39 years ago.

MODOT says this cave mapping is for environmental and safety reasons.

The cave explorers are not actively looking for clues into the boys' disappearance.


KHQA 7 Online

MoDOT: Stowell School Cave Exploration Complete

MoDOT: Stowell School Cave Photo's

[Azurerana]

Well, some reporter mangled Jeffery Crews quote really good. I know Mr. Crews-- he is actually a quite likeable and intelligent caver from Rolla, Mo.

Just in case anyone is curious: what he was trying to say is many caves in Marion, Ralls and Pike Counties in Missour are maze caves-- these are in the Louisiana (MO) limestone-- and in plan view, form passage patterns similar to taking a piece of individually wrapped American cheese, setting it on a counter top and using a sharp knife, setting the knife down vertically into the cheese at various angles and with parallel cuts, so that you multiple intersecting passages all on the same level. Some of these caves have 3, 4, and 6 way intersections--you can stand at one point, and see passages going off in an asterisk pattern . Some cave galleries run parallel along parallel joints, and are accessible to each other just via cross cutting sets of joint passages. If you've ever read Tom Sawyer, it is actually a fairly good description of these maze caves. The companion cave to Mark Twain Cave just south of Hannibal is Cameron Cave. Cameron has 4 miles of passage swiss-cheesed under 10 acres of ground.

Nearly everything else in the state are stream cut dendritic-pattern caves-- just like above ground rivers and streams.