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I moved from SouthWestern Pa to central Illinois from 1982-2002 (job relocation). I lived near Mt. Zion Ill. It was a great place to live except for the weather (very hot and humid, very cold and windy) and torandos. Very nice people out there. Be ready to use all your "flat lander" jokes. They will rib you about being a hillbilly. As for caves, most are in southern Illinois. There are a couple of tiny ones up north. Along the Illinois river, you may find some. I believe there are some in southern Wisconsin. Anyway you look at it, you will make a 2 hour trip to find a decent cave. I was never a grotto member while living out there, but I am sure they are out there. I visited Missouri quite a bit while out there and have many friends in Missouri. Caves are very abundant there. It is worth the trip. If you go to Missouri for caving, check with a St. Louis grotto. They are very good people. By the way. I returned to western Pa in 2002. I am back into active caving again. We are looking for anybody interested in caving in the Bedford County Pa/Allegany County Md area. We need help on some projects (strong backs and weak minds, just like us).

Don

There is the Windy City Grotto in Chicago, and Near Normal Grotto (near Normal, Ill) Little Egypt Grotto at Carbondale (Southern IL, not near you, but also in a coal-mining region).

About 1/4 of both Meramec Valley and Middle Mississippi Valley Grottos in St. Louis are Illinoians. Right now public land caves in both states are closed, but we're pretty welcoming to IL cavers, because we are sympathetic to folks stationed in the corn desert.

Oct 22-24 at Hannibal, MIssouri is the Mississippi Valley Ozark Region (MVOR) semi-annual caver gathering. There will be caves. Considering your location, I suggest you contact Windy City, and tag along with them to MVOR. We'll make you welcome.
The Missouri Ozarks are very like the Appalachians (including the same Scots-Irish forebears--aka "hillbillies" with a bit of sorghum, grits and y'all thrown in) except that we don't have coal,(our nemesis is lead ore) and the hills are older and shorter. But otherwise...I was on a bus trip once to DC, went to sleep, woke up somewhere in the hills of PA and thought we'd turned around and come home.

Hi Gary-

Well, Coal City is near some cool outdoorsy stuff on the Illinois and Kankakee Rivers- well, cool for a Midwesterner ;-)

You're in the same situation as me(I'm 60 mi NW of Chicago)- centrally located, and far away, from a lot of caving. There's a lot of stuff to do in SW MN and NE IA, and the cave temps(46-48F) and conditions(wet and muddy) are probably close to what you had in PA?

So cast far and wide- IL, IN, IA, KY, MN, MO, and WI. The Wisconsin Speleological Society's annual Hodag Hunt is coming up at Crystal Cave, in Spring Valley, WI, on September 9-12:

http://caves.org/grotto/wss/hodag2010.html

The Illinois Speleological Survey will be doing some cave survey on the weekend of October 9-10 in Monroe County, IL. You can contact me directly if you are interested.

The Cave Research Foundation is having its annual meeting in Van Buren, MO, on the Current River, on October 22-24:

http://cave-research.org/crf_am_2010.cfm

And there will be a week-long national expedition there following the meeting.

jl

Move to southern Illinois, there are more caves down there, and across the river in missuruh!

Good luck with the move, Gary.

Near Normal Grotto holds their meetings in Bloomington, which is really just a tad more than equidistant from Chicago and WCG. Not mentioned was Suburban Grotto, which was out in the western suburbs (I think). Don Kerouac, newly minted president of the Karst Conservancy of Illinois (KCI) lives in Kankakee, you may want to touch base with him about some projects going on *right* now. Regarding Coal City -- Mazon Creek, one of the richest fossiliferous sites in Illinois is nearby. Also, some nice rail-trail systems if you're into biking on the I&M path, and a decent trail (and limestone and small 'caves' ) are in/nearby Kankakee State Park.

Welcome! As others have said if you cast a wide net you can be in pretty good shape. Probably put a few miles on your car, though.

I live near the Quad Cities and have had fun caving in NE Iowa and Southern Minnesota.

Haven't been there yet but I just read this monster of a book on just one cave in Indiana-
http://nssbookstore.org/index.php?mode= ... er=01-0642