S.W. Missouri area cavers

[Chads93GT]

You never know till you go. Just don't go it alone! good luck.

[Teresa]

If you get a copy of Missouri the Cave State by Dwight Weaver (1980) you will find a table in the back with caves by county ranked in terms of length by that A B C system. Now, I wasn't caving back then, so I don't know how official a system that was. It strikes me as a way to classify caves on one of the MSS cave report forms, before the list was being kept on computers.

The Missouri Dept of Conservation is a johnny-come-lately to the cave business in Missouri. Their only legal responsibility is insofar as the cave is habitat for creatures-- with money being available only for endangered or federally threatened species. They own some significant caves, but only a couple hundred of the 6300 in the state, and for the rest of them, have to have landowner permission to enter. The MSS probably has an agreement with them, but the MSS' primary affiliation is with the Dept. of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey, which is responsible for rocks, groundwater and land survey.

I'm not any closer to you than Chad -- I'm in Franklin County near St. Louis. But you've got more caves down McDonald County way than you might think.

[basjr]

Thank you, the copy of the book that we have is old worn and in many pieces.

[Chads93GT]

One other thing, surely there is a grotto down in the springfield area you can join who goes caving a lot. I would hope so anyway.